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with Facebook and CBS Sports will mean that fans worldwide can watch the entire competition online for free, with additional televised coverage before, during and after the event. Additionally, the CBS Television Network will air a one-hour live look into the competition on Aug. 5, and a highlight show on Aug. 19, both at 1 p.m. ET.
“The CrossFit Games has gained two powerful and enthusiastic partners in CBS and Facebook,” said Justin Bergh, General Manager of the Games. “Our community has the respect and support of the largest social-media network in the world and the most watched television network in the world. Both understood how important it is that we craft a unique coverage plan that meets the needs of our global community. This begins with the Games in Madison, but they are both committed to raising the bar for fans, athletes and affiliates year-round."
Online
Once the Games begin, fans can tune in to watch the entirety of the individual, team, masters and teen competitions live on the CrossFit Games website and on Facebook. In addition, CBS Sports Digital will stream up to 40 hours of live event coverage of teams and individuals on CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports app for mobile and connected TV devices (OTT). OTT devices with the CBS Sports App include Roku, Apple TV (3rd gen. and 4th gen.), Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One and Windows 10. No authentication or sign-in is required to view this stream on any device.
CrossFit will use Facebook update groups to let people know when events are live, so be sure to join and set your notifications so you don't miss the best action. Known events and times will be scheduled in advance, and the Studio team will be breaking live announcements as they happen on site. For full schedule information, download the CrossFit Games app or visit Games.CrossFit.com.
Please note the Games will take place in Central Standard Time.
Television
New for 2017: Televised coverage will be moving to CBS and CBS Sports Network. The move will mean an unprecedented amount of coverage before, during and after the Games.
Starting Thursday, July 20, CBS Sports Network will air four original preview shows highlighting CrossFit Games history, contenders and past champions in the lead-up to the Games:
“Road to the Fittest: The History” – July 20, 2017, 8 p.m. ET
“Road to the Fittest: Men’s Contenders” – July 20, 2017, 8:30 p.m. ET
“Road to the Fittest: Women’s Contenders” – July 27, 2017, 8 p.m. ET
“Road to the Fittest: The Champions” – July 27, 2017, 8:30 p.m. ET
Once the Games are underway, fans can catch two hours of competition coverage on CBS Sports Network at the end of each day, Aug. 3-6, starting at 10 p.m. ET. And don’t miss the live coverage on Saturday on CBS Television at 1 p.m. ET or digitally on CBS All Access.
CBS Sports Network is widely available through all major cable, satellite and telco distributors. For distributors with national channel lineups please find CBS Sports Network as follows: DirecTV - 221, Dish Network - 158, Verizon FiOS - 94, AT&T U-Verse - 643. For all other providers, use the CBSSN channel finder to find your channel or check your local listings. CBS Sports Network is also available with OTT providers Hulu and YouTube TV, with additional distributors launching soon! CrossFit will also be added under "Watch" on the CBSSports.com homepage once coverage begins.
After the Games, fans can get a fresh retrospective on CBS Sports Network. Six episodes will recap key moments and also premier unseen content, including behind-the-scenes interviews, new event footage and analysis:
Oct. 16, 2017, 7 p.m. ET
Oct. 23, 2017, 7 p.m. ET
Oct. 30, 2017, 7 p.m. ET
Nov. 6, 2017, 7 p.m. ET
Nov. 13, 2017, 7 p.m. ET
Nov. 26, 2017, 8 p.m. ET
Click here for more information on the partnership with CBS.
Fans can also watch live coverage from Facebook on the big screen. Download the Facebook video app for TV, available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Samsung Smart TV.
International Coverage
Start-to-finish coverage of every heat, every division and every event will be available live on the CrossFit Games website and CrossFit Games Facebook page anywhere in the world.
Additionally, top heats of the day, competition highlights, expert analysis and predictions, and athlete interviews will be exclusively broadcast around the world after the close of competition. (ESPN Latin America will carry the digital live feed.) See below to find your location and channel.
Check back later as we’ll update this article with specific channel and schedule details.
Territory Broadcaster/Channel Website Brazil Globo/Sportv3 http://sportv.globo.com/site/ France La Chaîne L’Equipe http://www.lequipe.fr/ Iceland RÚV www.ruv.is Italy Fox Sports Italy http://www.foxsports.it/ Latin America ESPN ESPNPlay.com Lithuania Sport 1 http://www.sport1.lt/ Oceania ESPN www.espn.com.au/ Pan-Regional Asia Fox Sports Asia http://tv.foxsportsasia.com/ Scandinavia (TBD) (TBD) Spain GOL http://tv.goltelevision.com/ Esports 3 Catalonia http://www.ccma.cat/esport3/ South Africa SuperSport https://www.supersport.com/
Tickets
Festival tickets are still available here. The competition schedule will be released at a later date.It’s that time of the month again folks! The list has been released of the titles coming and going on Netflix Instant US in June 2015. I’m sad to report though that the horror titles are pretty slim pickin’.. as in hardly any are being added. Never fear though, Netflix always adds more than what these lists contain so hopefully we’ll be surprised come June 1st!
To make up for the lack of horror being added, I also listed some movies and TV shows that I figured a horror fan would enjoy– such as Sci-Fi and Thrillers. Check back with us next week for a full update of everything that is added!
Advantageous (2015)
Synopsis: “In a near-future city where soaring opulence overshadows economic hardship, Gwen and her daughter Jules do all they can to hold on to their joy together, despite the instability surfacing in their world.”
To be added: June 23rd
Nightcrawler (2014)
Synopsis: “When Lou Bloom, a driven man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.”
To be added: June 10th
R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly (2008)
Synopsis: “Aspiring magician Max Doyle (Sterling Beaumon) discovers two lost ghosts – Nicky (Luke Benward) and Tara (Madison Pettis) – haunting the basement of his family’s home and agrees to help them find eternal rest. In exchange, Max’s newfound friends set out to help him win the heart of Traci (Ali Lohan), the most popular girl at his school. But, when their magical antics make them the targets of an evil apparition, Phears (Brian Stepanek), the trio must stop his maniacal plan for Halloween.”
To be added: June 1st
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It (2007)
Synopsis: “Cassie’s life changes when she moves and attends a high school ruled by the most beautiful girl in school, Priscilla, and her beautiful sidekicks. Priscilla immediately takes a dislike to Cassie, and soon it’s a battle between the two. But when Priscilla goes missing, along with Cassie’s younger brother, Max, Cassie must go on an adventure and search for them before it’s too late…”
To be added: June 1st
Sense8 (2015-) *TV series
Synopsis: “A group of people around the world are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world’s order.”
To be added: June 5th
Titles leaving Netflix June 2015:
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Godzilla (1998)
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Hatchet II (2010)
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Soul Survivors (2001)
Texas Chainsaw (2013)With the Mayweather-McGregor press tour wrapping up and dominating the headlines, a couple of pivotal fights taking place in Glasgow on Sunday are being ignored.
As Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor wrap up their four-day, four-city press tour that peaked on Day Two in Toronto and became a sideshow for all the wrong reasons at the final two stops, members of the combat sports community are slowing starting to remember that there is a UFC Fight Night event this weekend in Glasgow, Scotland.
While the Sunday fight card doesn’t feature any championship bouts or any massive names, there are a couple pivotal bouts on the docket and a handful of athletes who deserve attention that have largely — and understandably — been relegated to the background as the build to this summer’s biggest fight has kicked off.
Understandable as it may be, the intense focus on Mayweather and McGregor — and to a lesser extent, the anticipation surrounding UFC 214 later this month — has buried this weekend’s show in Scotland and next weekend’s return to FOX, a “New York vs. The World” card from Long Island that includes some important matchups and intriguing competitors.
Fight cards getting swept aside while fans and media lock in on more anticipated events is nothing new in the UFC, but in the midst of what has felt like a transitional year for the company, having two events turned into collateral damage from the May-Mac media storm is costly. There is a very good chance that some of the athletes competing on these two cards will be called upon to be contenders and potential title challengers in the not-too-distant future, but there is an equally real possibility that they’ll be deemed unworthy or too anonymous to merit such considerations because the hype surrounding these events has been minimal.
With a win on Sunday, Gunnar Nelson could emerge as the top contender in the welterweight division. At the very least, defeating Santiago Ponzinibbio would put the standout from Iceland in line for a marquee matchup with a Top 5 opponent. That makes this a crucial contest for a division currently in a state of flux, yet it has received significantly less coverage than previous Fight Night main events with fewer divisional ramifications attached.
The penultimate bout on Sunday’s card is a strawweight pairing between hometown favourite Joanne Calderwood and surging Team Alpha Male rep Cynthia Calvillo, who has rattled off five victories in the last 11 months, including two finishes in the UFC. While neither is likely to earn a title shot with a victory in Glasgow, it will vault the winner into the title conversation and set up a more significant bout later this year.
These things matter.
Building interest in potential contenders before they’re called upon to occupy the middle position on a pay-per-view main card, headline FOX show or challenge for championship gold is crucial, and in too many instances of late, the UFC has come up short in that department, resulting in proven and deserving talents being deemed “unknowns” when they’re booked into a prime matchup.
When it doesn’t happen, you end up with Ray Borg fighting Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight title being dismissed as something most fans won’t care about, even though Borg has done enough to earn that opportunity and it’s the correct fight to make in terms of the divisional hierarchy.
But this isn’t a short-term proposition; it needs to start two, three, maybe even four fights before someone like Borg is called up to challenge for the title, so that the foundation for him being a contender has been firmly established.
At the absolute worst, his bout with Jussier Formiga in March should have garnered far more attention and promotion than it did, as it was a critically important bout for the division — one that you had to know going in had the potential to carry the winner into title contention — and therefore needed to be promoted as one of the most important contests on the card.
Failing to do so makes it extremely difficult to turn around and ask fans to get excited about him fighting for a title, the same way stationing Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill as the first main fight on the Super Bowl card in Houston was a miscue, given that the winner made sense as the next title challenge.
Thankfully, Andrade delivered a crackerjack performance and “Overkill” showed her trademark toughness by hanging in and having her moments, and people came away from the event talking about that fight (and The Korean Zombie’s impressive return). But heading into the show, far more attention was being paid to prospect Alexa Grasso, who was nowhere near title contention and ended up suffering her first professional loss in the co-main event.
All these different pieces — card placement, an advanced marketing push, perceived promotional support — send messages to fans about who they should be paying attention to and impact the organization’s ability to sell certain fights or fighters in the future.
You can’t force fans to back certain competitors or be interested in a particular fight, but the power of the UFC marketing machine is undeniable. If the same resources that have been committed to various misidentified potential stars in the past were invested in showcasing crucial matchups and more athletes with legitimate championship upside, there would be fewer instances where fans are unfamiliar with or non-committal about elite contenders and title challengers.
The same applies to fight cards as well.
Imagine if Jones/Cormier 2 got 25% of those the promotional attention the Mayweather/McGregor fight got this week. — Josh Nason (@JoshNason) July 14, 2017
While it’s unreasonable to expect Sunday’s event in Scotland to command the same kind of attention and promotional push as a pay-per-view event, it can’t be little more than an afterthought, even when going head-to-head with the biggest sporting event of the year.
These fights still carry significance and some of these athletes are going to be in the title picture in their respective divisions as soon as Monday morning.
That shouldn’t be the first time fans find out about them as contenders.
E. Spencer Kyte covers MMA for The Sun and The Province. Follow him on social media: @spencerkyte.A timely announcement from the U.S. Education Department yesterday. It says school districts that fail to protect gay students can lose federal dollars.
The letter said schools “must take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent the harassment from recurring.”
I'd hope that the Midland, Ark. School District would conclude that "eliminating any hostile environment" would include an explanation/apology from School Board member, whose Facebook page essentially wished death to gay kids and who vowed to run off any gay kids in "his vicinity." Also called for would be a rejection of such a view by other members of the School Board and an assurance from the school superintendent that such a hostile view isn't tolerated in the Midland schools. I should add that if it develops that McCance's words and feelings are exactly as they seem to have been expressed, of course he should resign from the School Board.
I reached him again at 4 p.m. today after a day in which local school officials bunkered up as worldwide reaction rained down in the tiny rural district near Batesville. He said, "I'm going to remain tight-lipped for now." He hung up as I asked him if he planned to remain on the School Board.
What follows is the episodic development of the story today, starting early in the morning.
I reached McCance on his cell phone this morning about 8:30 a.m.. "I really can't comment right now," he said. He said he planned a meeting with a lawyer this morning and didn't want to say anything further until he'd had that meeting. He did comment that the matter had "been blown out of proportion." He said he'd received several hundred phone calls. Did he regret the comments on the Facebook page? "I can't comment on that right now." He promised an update after the meeting with a lawyer. "I have a family to consider," he said. I've so far been unable to get through to Superintendent Dean Stanley. The district is apparently swamped with calls. Some local activists are talking about taking a protest group to the school Thursday. I'd think a statement — sooner rather than later — would be in order. McCance, who is about 31, has two young children. Owner of a carpet and upholstery cleaning service, he's a fishing enthusiast. He writes on a fishing website (this photo, believed to be McCance, is from that site): "Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter my only interest is god, family, and fishing."
UPDATE II: The Midland School District has removed the names of School Board members from its website. Its e-mail account is not accepting outside e-mail. It has disabled the public comments page. The Board members, in addition to McCance, are Bub Beel, Connie Blevins, Brandon Bowren, Debbie Frazier, Bob Rhew and Bryson Wood.
UPDATE III: A statement from the state Education Department:
The Arkansas Department of Education strongly condemns remarks or attitudes of this kind and are dismayed to see that a school board official would post something of this insensitive nature on a public forum like Facebook. Because Mr. McCance is an elected official, the department has no means of dealing with him directly. However, the department does have staff who investigate matters of bullying in schools and we will monitor and quickly respond to any bullying of students that may occur because of this, as we have with other civil rights issues in the past. The department also has worked with the State’s Office of the Attorney General during the month of October to provide training to counselors across the state regarding cyberbullying, “sexting” and texting, which included a portion on how to watch for and deal with bullying of this kind.
UPDATE IV: A statement from Dan Farley, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association:
Members of the Arkansas School Boards Association Board of Directors and staff were appalled to read the comments purportedly made by the Midland School Board member in which he denounces gay students. Our organization expects school board members to support the education and promote the welfare of all students in their districts. With 1,500-plus school board members in Arkansas, we are saddened that the comments made by one individual will reflect poorly on other board members who work hard on behalf of the children in their communities. ASBA has no tolerance for bullying or attacks on children, and we certainly would not tolerate such actions, either physical or verbal, by adults. When school board members take the oath of office, they swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Arkansas. ASBA expects board members to adhere to state and federal laws, and bullying would certainly fall under those statutes.
The Center for Artistic Revolution, which works in gay rights causes, announces a meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at Christ Episcopal Church to discuss a response to the remarks. It has called for McCance's immediate resignation. It plans a "visibility action" Thursday at Midland School District offices if he does not resign.
Stonewall Democrats commented:
Members of the Stonewall Democratic Caucus are saddened and angered by the inappropriate and dangerous comments made by Clint McCance concerning the recent suicides of gay teens.
Bullying and violence against LGBT teens and those perceived to be LGBT has led to a number of suicides around the country in the last few months. Mr. McCance's incendiary remarks perpetuate the cycle of violence and show an incredible lack of leadership. His remarks should be condemned by other members of the Midland School Board and citizens of the community.
A reminder of what McCance was reported to have said on his Facebook page, now disabled:
"Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE." After being challenged by a commenter, this was Mr. McCance’s reply: "No because being a fag doesn't give you the right to ruin the rest of our lives. If you get easily offended by being called a fag then dont tell anyone you are a fag. Keep that shit to yourself. I dont care how people decide to live their lives. They dont bother me if they keep it to thereselves. It pisses me off though that we make a special purple fag day for them. I like that fags cant procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other aids and die. If you arent against it, you might as well be for it." "I would disown my kids they were gay. They will not be welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off. Of course my kids will know better. My kids will have solid christian beliefs. See it infects everyone."
The news landed me on MSNBC:This is a writeup of the challenge 2048 from the 2014 Pwnium CTF.
I participated in this challenge together with Yoav Ben Shalom, Matan Mates, Itay Yona, and Gal Dor. This was the second CTF we participated in (as 0xAWES0ME) and this time we came in first place!
A few weeks have passed since the competition. Many writeups have been written for the competition, so I will focus my writeups on challenges that have no writeups written for them yet. These won’t necessarilly be the challenges we found hardest but they will be challenges that few other teams solved (at least other teams who post writeups).
The challenge
This challenge was to connect to a socket on a specific ip address on port 2048, and play and win a game of 2048 in less than 3:30 minutes.
When we first connect to the socket we are given instructions followed by the board. We can send back ‘l’, ‘r’, ‘u’, ‘d’ to move left, right, up, or down, and then we get a new board sent over the socket.
While some of our team members are quite skilled at 2048 (it’s part of our intense training regime), winning in 3:30 minutes is not doable even for them.
The solution, of course, is to solve the game using AI. But why write our own AI when we can use just find an open source one?
First AI
The first AI we examined is the first google result for “2048 AI”. This AI uses minimax with alpha-beta pruning to try to find the best move. You can see this AI in practice here
There were a few problems with this AI. First, it was really slow. When running on the example webpage, it did not complete the game within 3:30 minutes. At first we thought that the animations might be to blame but then noticed that the AI was utilizing the animations for processing time. So without the animations the AI will give a worse result.
The second, and more important problem, is that the AI lost. We left it running in a browser window for a few minutes and came back to a losing game that had only gotten to 1024.
The code is written in javascript. We could fix the first issue by reimplementing it in C, but there’s still no guarantee that it will win and rewriting the code is too much work. Especially when there’s a better solution.
Second AI
Discarding the first AI, we continue searching and come upon a better AI.
This AI uses expectimax instead of minimax. Minimax assumes you are playing against an adverserial opponent who will choose the best move for him at any moment. However, in 2048 the placement of new pieces is random and not adverserial. By using expectimax we can make moves that are probabilistically more likely to win faster that if we use the result of minimax.
More importantly, this implementation is written in C with a “highly-efficient bitboard representation to search upwards of 10 million moves per second on recent hardware”. Jibber jabber technobabble, faster is better.
The AI compiles to an.so and comes with an example python program to communicate with it. We just need to rewrite the input system so that it gets input from the socket instead of the browser and we can run it to play.
The code is below. It’s mostly copied from 2048.py in the repository, with the Game class written to communicate with the game over the socket.
Because it was written under time constraints, it’s ugly and ineffecient. We repeatedly convert between different representations of the board and don’t use Multithreading to make our life easier.
But it’s fast enough to beat this challenge, so it’s good enough.
Last important point: we didn’t know what the output would look like once we won, and so we didn’t properly handle it. This caused our code to throw an exception once we won, without printing the solution to the level.
Luckily, we had wireshark open in the background and so were able to see the password that had been sent to the program.
Moral of the story - keep wireshark open when solving challenges that work over sockets.Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Ann Arbor Tuesday evening to protest police violence and injustice following the grand jury decision on the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
"Hands up, don't shoot!" they shouted as they marched down Liberty and Main streets, stopping traffic. "Hey, ho! Racist cops have got to go!"
University of Michigan students and community members gathered at 6 p.m. at the Diag and then walked, chanting, to the Ann Arbor Police Department.
All over the U.S., people gathered to protest Brown's death.
Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Brown in August. A grand jury announced Monday, Nov. 24 it would not indict Wilson. At least 14 people were injured Monday in protests following the decision, according to the Associated Press. Protests were calmer in Ferguson Tuesday night.
The protest in Ann Arbor also was for Aura Rosser, a 40-year-old woman killed by Ann Arbor police on Nov. 9 after police allege she confronted them with a knife.
Ann Arbor police said Tuesday the march did not cause any problems.
About 80 people also gathered at 4:30 p.m. in downtown Ypsilanti for a protest.
Students and community members took turns speaking at both the Diag and the police department.
"White privilege fills the air while black bodies fill the streets," said Simon Rivers, a U-M student speaking at the Diag. "We will have our justice."
Capri Nara Kendall, U-M Black Student Union secretary, said she never thought she'd see images of historic riots become a reality.
The system cannot protect those who it was not intended to protect, she said.
"We have to be the change for the better," Kendall said.
Austin McCoy said the Ferguson situation was an attack on black humanity, and the late announcement of the grand jury decision was a provocation.
"We will answer provocation by... further mobilizing support for humanity of all people of color," he said.
While the crowd marched through Ann Arbor, people and vehicles stopped where they were. People held up their phones through restaurant windows to take photos of the protesters.
Outside of the police department, Chavonna Bigham, 21, of Ann Arbor, spoke about spending time with Rosser in Washtenaw County jail.
"She was a soul that couldn't be replaced," Bigham said. "It doesn't matter if you're a good person... they don't care."
She encouraged the protesters to continue fighting for justice beyond Tuesday's march and mobilize to affect change. But, she warned, that has consequences.
"If you fight for this change, you have a target on your back," Bigham said.
The protests in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti were among several in Michigan and the country a day after the grand jury returned its decision not to charge Wilson. In Detroit, five people were arrested Tuesday and protesters in Kalamazoo broke a police car window.
In Ann Arbor, Anthony Morgan, who also appeared at the Ypsilanti protest, said America witnessed the death of justice on Monday.
It's not a cop issue or a lawyer issue, the Ann Arbor resident said, but a human issue.
"I just saw beautiful people shut this city down," he said to cheers. "This does not end here."
An entire family came out to the protest because the Ferguson shooting was a travesty, said Susan Ayer of Ann Arbor. She came with her son and daughters.
"It's outrageous," she said of police violence. "Police have a gun and they think they need to use it."
"That's business as usual," replied her son, Benjamin Ayer of Kalamazoo.
Lindsay Knake is the K-12 education reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Follow her on twitter or contact her at 989-372-2498 or lknake@mlive.com.BOSTON -- A Massachusetts man killed his girlfriend's young daughter, dumped the child's body and threatened to kill the woman if she told anyone about the death, prosecutors alleged during opening statements in his murder trial Tuesday.
Attorney says man didn't kill girlfriend's daughter, once known as "Baby Doe"
"If you tell anyone, I will kill you … She just died. It was her time. She was a demon," prosecutors say Michael McCarthy told Rachelle Bond.
McCarthy is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Bond's daughter, 2-year-old Bella Bond, whose body was found washed up on a Boston Harbor island inside a trash bag in 2015. The girl was known only as Baby Doe for months as authorities struggled to identify her, and a composite image of the girl was shared millions of times on social media in a massive publicity campaign.
McCarthy was living with Rachelle Bond at the time of the girl's death. Prosecutors said Rachelle Bond was "fascinated by his interest in the supernatural" and that McCarthy sensed "evil spirits" in the apartment. The relationship, prosecutors said, quickly spiraled into a "cycle of increasing heroin abuse."
Bella Bond, left, and a composite sketch released of the child before she was identified CBS Boston/Massachusetts State Police
Prosecutor David Deakin told jurors that Rachelle Bond told authorities she saw McCarthy in June 2015 beating her daughter in the stomach, after which the child wasn't moving or breathing. Some time later, Deakin said, McCarthy told Rachelle Bond to get in the car, and drove to South Boston, where he threw a duffel bag containing Bella's body into the water.
Prosecutors say divers later found a weighted bag in the water.
Authorities only identified the girl when Rachelle Bond texted a friend of McCarthy's three months later, telling him what had happened. She didn't initially report the death because she was afraid of McCarthy, Deakin said. The friend, who went to police, is expected to testify. Rachelle Bond has agreed to testify for the prosecution and has pleaded guilty to helping dispose of the child's body.
Deakin said McCarthy lied to state police when he was interviewed, saying he didn't know the girl was dead, and didn't show concern for the child.
"He knew the truth – that he had killed Bella Bond and dumped her body – would not set him free," Deakin said.
Photos released by the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office on Sept. 18, 2015 show Rachelle Bond (left), mother of 2-1/2-year-old Bella Bond, and Michael Patrick McCarthy. Reuters/Suffolk County District Attorney's Office
Defense attorneys argue that McCarthy was shocked by news of the girl's death and placed the blame on the girl's mother, who they portrayed as a drug addict who was "paranoid, delusional and not living in the real world." Rachelle Bond had two older children who were removed from her custody over neglect, defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro said.
It was in fact Rachelle Bond who was obsessed with demonology, and believed a "demon was trying to get into Bella, as a ploy to get into Rachelle," Shapiro said.
"She was projecting her own delusions onto Michael McCarthy," Shapiro said. "She blamed him for what she in fact did."
Shapiro called the prosecution's alleged motive "absurd" and said there's "nothing that will support the claim that Michael was obsessed with demons. He lived in the real world."
McCarthy has denied killing the girl.
Bella Bond's biological father, Joe Amoroso, was present in the courtroom Tuesday morning, reports CBS Boston. According to prosecutors, Amoroso and Rachelle Bond met at the Occupy Boston camp in 2011.
Amoroso claims to have never seen his daughter while she was alive. Prosecutors said that when he came to Boston expecting to see his daughter, Rachelle told him she wasn't there, and that he assumed the state had taken her.Silk (Cindy Moon) and Spider-Gwen. Two new heroines that swung their way into the world of comics through Spider-Verse portals. Both were critically welcomed by comic readers around the world, despite what people may think about Silk, with Spider-Gwen instantly gaining a fan following. And following the events of the battle with the Inheritors, both of these strong women find themselves in similar situations: trying to find their place in the world as heroes, whilst lacking a fallback net or strong relationships. I’d like to take a closer look at these two and see what qualities they share, and how they differ.
As with most beginnings, let’s start with their origin stories. Gwen Stacy’s origin begins as most Spider-Totems’ stories begin, with the bite of a radioactive spider. She donned her awesomely designed spider-costume and seem to become a pop culture phenomenon, that is until Peter Parker died. In her universe, Peter Parker -inspired by Spider-Gwen to stand up against bullies and be special, injected himself with a serum that turned him into the Lizard. In the end, he died in Gwen’s arms and Spider-Woman was declared a menace by Jameson and declared a criminal.
Her criminal status makes life complicated; between balancing hero work, playing drums for her rock band The Mary Janes, and dodging the police, Gwen has to deal with her soon to be strained relationship with her father Captain George Stacy. Obviously Captain Stacy isn’t too happy to find out his daughter is the notorious Spider-Gwen.
Silk’s origin begins in a method even more similar to Peter-616’s origin. The radioactive spider that bit Cindy Moon, is the exact same spider that bit Peter Parker. She underwent the same process as Peter albeit gaining a different power set. Unfortunately, the rest of her origin consists of only one setting -Sims Tower. After her powers spiraled out of control, Silk’s family was approached by a man named Ezekiel. He took Silk to Sims Tower, trained her in the use of her powers, and sealed her inside to protect her (and all the Spider-Totems) from Morlun. This was to be her final fate, until Peter Parker discovered her existence.
Obviously living alone in a tower for years sets her apart from Gwen, but there’s similarities to be found in their lives both before and after she was locked up. For one, Silk also had an estranged relationship with a parent (her mother) before she was locked away, and each fight with their parents over their desires and choices in life. Both Cindy’s mother and Gwen’s father think their children should focus on school rather than the things they enjoy, which causes friction between them.
This extends to relationships in general, though their struggles have separate causes. Silk no longer knows where her family is, and after being out of the world for so long feels a disconnect to everything and everyone but Peter -whom she actively avoids. On the other hand, Gwen has to actively deal with her father who was very recently intent on taking Spider-Woman down, and also feels a disconnect with the masses who either demonize her or idolize her. No one knows Silk, but everyone knows Spider-Gwen.
Now we’ll take a look at their fighting strength and power sets. Spider-Gwen seems to have the traditional Spider-Man 616 ability tree. The proportional strength and agility of a spider is a given, as well as the ability to shoot webs and swings. It has yet to be explicitly stated whether she has organic webbing or uses web shooters in the comics -and where she gets her tech if she uses the latter isn’t mentioned either. In addition to this, she has a predictive spider-sense that predict’s danger, you might have seen something similar before.
As we’ve seen from the Spider-Verse and her solo Spider-Gwen series, Gwen’s no pushover when it comes to hand to hand combat. She takes down a Green Goblin 1v1 on the Loomworld, and expertly incapacitates Aleksei in Spider-Gwen #1: just look at the accuracy of her strikes, those are no random punches! She’s also shown spider-savvy with classic spidey moves such as weaving web wings so as to glide.
This is where the two Spider-Women differ the most. Silk was given an alternate set of abilities from her spider bite. She maintains a higher spider-speed than her cohorts, able to move swiftly and nimbly. Whereas Peter, and presumably Gwen, have the edge in spider-strength, Silk has an extremely heightened spider-sense. This is shown on numerous occasions where she senses dangers an ample time earlier than her Spider-Friends do, much to their awe. As Peter says, it’s Matrix/Bullet-Time good.
What really defines her powers and sets her apart is the fact that she produces organic webbing from her fingertips, and rapidly. She has yet to run out, able to emit copious amounts of webbing which she can control so finely it almost seems alive. This versatility and control is exhibited in an incredibly cool thing she can do with her powers: weave her costume and other clothing out of her fingertips. Inexplicably, she can even change the color! (She creates a black/red outfit for both her costume and work clothes). With these webs she can swing, subdue |
target American forces there, Ritter asserted.
“Now we have a major conflict. We’re caught in a spiral of events out of our control. After 30 days, the military will be putting Marines in Hormuz, soldiers in Iran. Israel, especially, stands to lose.”
In 2002, Ritter similarly talked about the likelihood of America launching a war against Iraq, despite the fact that UN inspectors repeatedly said Saddam Hussein no longer had weapons of mass destruction. At the Cleveland Peace Action event, Peck and Ritter talked about the quagmire in Iraq and the lessons we failed to learn there and apply to Iran. Much of what Ahmadenijad is accused of saying he has never said, Ritter insisted. Furthermore, Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wields the only power to wage war and build nuclear weapons, not Ahmadenijad.
Sanctions against Iran are “a holding pattern, while revving up for war,” claimed Peck. “They are a guarantee of armed conflict.” He advocated diplomatic negotiation instead.
When Congress appropriates $77 million to finance dissident groups to overthrow the Iranian regime, “that’s an act of war,” Peck continued. People in the Middle East “are afraid of us. They do not see us as bringers of truth, justice and harmony.”
Forcing democracy on Middle Eastern countries is not possible, Peck warned. “Democracy is experiential. Iraqis know nothing about it. It’s something you grow up with.” The West pushes democracy and then hypocritically punishes the Palestinians for choosing Hamas in democratic elections, added Peck, who observed the balloting in the West Bank. He criticized Israel for occupying the West Bank and for “doing terrible things” there. “One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter,” he said, alluding to suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians.
Most of those audience members who took the microphone to ask questions bashed Israel for its occupation and brutalization of the Palestinian people. Several blamed Israel for all conflict in the Middle East.
Pursuing its inhumane policy toward the Palestinian people will not bring Israel peace, Peck said. “Israel’s security will be derived from good relations with its neighbors. The future of Israel is at stake.”
mkarfeld@cjn.org Copyright 2006 Cleveland Jewish News
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These are the moments when you say “Really?”
The problem here is that Rep. Lee lied to the American People inside the People’s House. Good thing for her that when you make speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives you are not under oath or under the threat of perjury. Perhaps that should change, but that’s another debate for another day.
Lied? Well back in 2008, Rep. Lee co-sponsored House Resolution 1258 entitled “Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors. “
Today I called her Washington office to see if perhaps I was confused, and the representative from Houston was telling the truth. When reaching her D.C. congressional office, I asked the nice lady who answered the phone if she knew of the contradiction and could help my confusion. After clearly saying she was not speaking for the congresswoman, when asked about the fact there was a contradiction, she said “We are aware that the congresswoman has made contradicting statements in her remarks on the floor.”
When I pressed, and asked “Not as a representative but just as someone I am talking to, isn’t the fact that she said one thing in 2008 that is totally opposite of what she said yesterday – isn’t that really a lie?” The answer, honest but shocking, was “Yes I think that is a lie.” (Note the quotes are from memory, I didn’t anticipate that I would need to get them on record but I sure wish I had.)
That was startling. I asked to speak to someone in the office to register my thoughts on a congresswoman lying on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. From there, it got crazy but not as crazy, and then a little crazier.
I was transferred to a gentleman on Lee's staff. When I again asked him about the contradiction and stated that perhaps I was confused, the man said “Oh look it here, we have one of those right wing, tea-bagger nut jobs on the phone taking his cues from FOX News.”
He then accused me of being un-American, raising his voice at me while asking me to calm down, and telling me that I am just on some mission to destroy our country. When I calmly asked for his name, he said “I don’t have to give it to you because I don’t want to show up on some right wing blog and be on your Twitter account.” Keep in mind, I never said who I was – he just made assumptions and attacked me. When I reminded him that he gets paid by our tax dollars, he said “I doubt you even pay taxes and the IRS will find you soon enough,” and hung up on me.He’s more Mellencamp then Merle. His lyrics champion the ‘Blue Collar Hero’ in a manner that resonates of Springsteen and other roots rock legends, but it is in the country music format that Charlie Major finds his home. Born and raised right here in Aylmer, QC he rose to the forefront of the Canadian Music scene in the early to mid-nineties, becoming the first Canadian artist in history to score six BDS #1 hits off of his debut album. Nine more chart topping hits would follow, and Charlie would crisscross the world headlining tours and connecting with his fans at fairs and festivals.
O ver a decade later Charlie is as successful as ever—he headlines his own tours and pairs up with the likes of ZZ Top to rock arenas full of fans from coast to coast. He has sold nearly half a million records in Canada alone and won 3 Juno Awards and 7 CCMAs, but you wouldn’t know it to meet him, and he wouldn’t tell you. He wears the cloak of humility, just like the hardworking folks that he represents in his music.Across the country, kids are returning to school. Though many undoubtedly arrive with mixed emotions about the end of summer, for too many kids summer months are marked in part by food insecurity.
The school year at least offers the promise of food thanks to the school lunch program. Though 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 once described the National School Lunch Program as offering kids a full stomach and an empty soul, the program remains in place. At least for the moment poor kids returning to school do not need to worry that they might not be able to afford lunch.
It is not as if Republicans do not recognize the connection between hunger and academic success. As Paul Ryan’s 2016 “Poverty, Opportunity, and Upward Mobility” Report notes, “[a] high-quality education is one of the best paths to a brighter future, but students cannot learn and succeed in class if they are hungry or lack proper nutrition.”
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But such rhetoric aside, if Republicans in Congress have their way, the guarantees of the National program are in grave risk. The same report argues for replacing school lunch program — and many other social programs — with block grants to states.
Under the banner of flexibility and greater authority to states, Republicans in 2016 sought to cap spending on the school lunch program in three states. Doing so would have amounted to a dangerous gamble that the number of poor kids needing food assistance during the block grant period would not rise.
Perhaps the biggest danger of block granting the school lunch program is not that the states would not have funding to respond should more of their students need help, but that, by providing “flexibility” to states, block grants almost guarantee that states will divert funds away from poor, hungry kids.
As Professor Daniel Hatcher’s recent book, The Poverty Industry, demonstrates, states are all too eager to divert federal block grants originally meant to help the poor into their general state budget.
To some extent this issue seems dated — politics these days are dominated by questions of whether President Trump is a Nazi sympathizer and whether there might be a nuclear war with North Korea. But as the school year starts, it is worth celebrating the fact that Republicans have not yet succeeded in undermining a program originally signed into law by President Truman more than sixty years ago.
There are changes that should be made in the way schools feed children. It is almost unbelievable that schools still publicly shame kids for owing or not having enough money in their meal accounts. And American school lunches could be much healthier, as they are in some other countries. Michelle Obama Michelle LeVaughn Robinson ObamaFive political moments to watch for at the Oscars Former patients accuse ex-Fox News medical pundit of sexual exploitation Obama attends UNC-Duke basketball game MORE tried to improve things, but in May the Trump administration reversed course on some of her efforts to improve school lunch nutrition.
More fundamentally, the willingness of Republicans to attack a long-standing program to feed hungry kids and related effort to pass food stamp reform modeled on welfare reform suggests that nothing is off limits. In July, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) argued that cuts to food stamps could help pay for Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico.
Republican members of Congress are not all as heartless as Rep. Steve King, but they share a collective hope that by weathering the Trump twitter and press conference-driven roller-coaster they will be able to radically reform the political landscape.
Their attack on the Affordable Care Act failed, but unfortunately the school lunch and food stamp programs are arguably more vulnerable. The Republican budget clearly shows the party’s priorities, but most school kids cannot vote and can hardly be expected to lobby against bills that on their face merely favor state over federal administration of school lunch programs.
It is up to adults to push back against efforts to undermine this crucial part of the social safety-net. There are lots of moving parts in the Trump era, each of which seems to demand our full attention and to evoke new outrage, but it is important to that little things — like ensuring kids do not go hungry — do not get lost in the madness. Only by paying attention can we make sure that poor students going to school next year can also expect to be able to eat.
Ezra Rosser is a law professor at American University Washington College of Law. You can follow him on Twitter @EzraRosser.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.DURHAM, N.C. -- T.J. Yates threw for 264 yards and a touchdown, and North Carolina continued its dominance of Duke by holding off the Blue Devils 24-19 on Saturday.
Anthony Elzy rushed for a career-high 116 yards, and he and Shaun Draughn each had short scoring runs for the Tar Heels (7-5, 4-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), who led 24-10 late before Duke (3-9, 1-7) made things interesting in the final 5 minutes.
They stuffed Draughn in the end zone for a safety, pulled within five on Brandon Connette's 2-yard touchdown run with 3:20 left, and forced a punt to get the ball back with 43 seconds left at the Duke 24. But they couldn't come up with a miracle finish.
Austin Kelly caught Sean Renfree's last pass near midfield, but he was wrapped up as time expired before he could find someone to take a lateral. That sealed North Carolina's 20th win in 21 meetings with Duke.
Renfree was 24 of 39 for 242 yards with two interceptions and a 9-yard touchdown pass to Kelly for Duke, which ended its season with a three-game losing streak.
Yates was 28 of 35, reached the 9,000-yard passing mark for his career and threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Adams for the Tar Heels, who had four scoring drives of at least 80 yards and converted 65 percent of their third downs. They snapped a two-game losing streak and locked up their third straight winning season.
Elzy scored on a 5-yard run and surpassed the previous high of 95 yards he set three years ago against Miami. He helped North Carolina keep hold of the Victory Bell traveling trophy that goes to the winner of this game.
The Tar Heels have won seven straight in the rivalry between schools located 8 miles apart, and they rolled up 519 total yards against the ACC's worst defense. Duke entered ranked last in the league by allowing averages of 204 yards rushing, 240 yards passing and 444 total yards, and only Wake Forest (38) is giving up more points per game than the Blue Devils (36.5).
Yates became the first North Carolina quarterback to reach 9,000 yards passing for his career with a 14-yard toss to a diving Adams early in the second quarter.
He later put the Tar Heels up 17-7 on their first possession after halftime, completing five consecutive passes during the 12-play, 80-yard drive that ended with his touchdown toss about 5 minutes into the half.
Will Snyderwine's 21-yard field goal pulled the Blue Devils to 17-10 before Yates led the Tar Heels 81 yards in 12 plays. His 35-yard strike to Dwight Jones on a third-and-8 set up Draughn's 3-yard TD run that made it 24-10 with 11 1/2 minutes left and prematurely sent some fans to the exits.
Jones finished with 11 catches for 121 yards for North Carolina, while Yates was nearly perfect in the first half, completing 14 of 16 passes for 158 yards and leading a pair of long scoring drives. The Tar Heels scored on drives of 10 plays and 94 yards, and 16 plays and 87 yards.
Duke's only points of the first half came Renfree's short scoring pass to Kelly that put the Blue Devils up 7-0 with 6:19 left in the first quarter.My Santa rocked this one. I received two packages each with a nice handwritten note.
The first package arrived and inside were two books that I've never heard of before. I love when this happens! I love surprises and I love reading new things. I mentioned that I really like the dystopian genre so my santa bought me: Amped by Daniel Wilson and Fatherless by James Dobson.
The second package arrived the next day and inside were more surprises!!! I also mentioned how much I adore children's books and supplied my santa with my amazon wishlist so in the second package I received: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick and The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I have never actually read the Tale of Peter Rabbit so I'm glad to add this to my collection!!
You nailed it, Santa. Thank you so much!!There are more than 4,000 craft breweries operating in America, more than at any other time in our gloriously tipsy history. And it can be conservatively estimated that if we have 4,000-plus breweries, then there are upwards of 40,000 distinct beers on the market at any given time. Among its portfolio of at least five dozen beers, Samuel Adams sells 10 different winter seasonals, plus five IPAs with “Rebel” in the name; Stone offers eight Arrogant Bastard variants. There’s a lot of beer out there!
This can make a trip to your friendly neighborhood 100-draft beer bar as confusing as it is delicious. Even if the menu is meticulously updated (and it’s not), who’s got the discipline to read for 15 minutes before her first sip of beer? Sure, you could just ask for “Whichever Bastard you got, they’re all the same to me,” but a safer strategy is to quickly scan the tap handles for a brewery you like and then ask your bartender which specific beer’s in the barrel.
This, of course, requires breweries to design, manufacture, and distribute distinctive tap handles. Some who embrace the aesthetic side of the game may relish these tasks, but it can be a chore for those who don’t enjoy adding “arts and” to the craft beer life. But even if some breweries don’t think tap-handle design is fun, they all know it beats buying advertising. Boston Beer Company has television ads, and Lagunitas sponsors “This American Life,” but for the most part craft brewers try to get by without spending money on media.
So tap handles it is. Now, how to make one that stands apart from the crowd? The simplest, lamest, craft-beer-needs-more-women-in-decision-making-capacities-provingest route to making your brewery’s handle rise above the rest is to make it rise above the rest. Yup, just go with the longest, strongest beer-dong you can muster in hopes of appealing to the red Mustang gang, plus all the customers who choose a beer by first staring at the ceiling and then steadily lowering their eyes until a beer tap comes into view.
Or maybe go in a more interesting and tasteful direction. Mid-Atlantic weird beer pioneers Dogfish Head of Milton, Delaware, were at the forefront of the “Wait, it doesn’t just have to be a stick with your name on it?” tap handle movement when they introduced their now-iconic shark-topped model in 1998. Harpoon Brewing went a similar direction by tacking their namesake stabbing-stick atop their tap handles, though it’s less noticeable than the Dogfish Head rendition on account of the fact that harpoons aren’t as wide as sharks. Which is more than fair when it comes to man-versus-sea-beast showdowns, but an impediment in the ferocious land-based battle for craft beer market share.
SingleCut BeerSmiths in Astoria, Queens, are also taking the on-the-nose approach. The brewery’s name refers to a style of guitar, and most of the beers pay homage to their rock-and-roll heroes (try the exemplary Billy Full-Stack, named for Cult guitarist Billy Duffy). So, what’s on the tap handles? Guitars of the bitchin’est order, of course.
But small breweries need to be careful when selecting distinctive tap handles, lest they get anchored to a design that can’t be scaled up as they grow into medium-sized breweries. Jack’s Abby, of Framingham, Massachusetts, recently moved into a bigger brewery following four years of rapid growth. Which is great! But what’s it mean for their beloved tap handles, which currently feature three spinning copper-plated rings surrounding a nameplate. It means they’re being retired.
According to Jack’s Abby sales manager Ben Warner, the first generation of the handles he affectionately refers to as “spinners” was manufactured in China, which required a three-month lead time on orders. This became untenable for a growing brewery, so the job was in-sourced to a manufacturer in Vermont, raising costs to about $30 to $35 per handle.
Warner estimates that 95 percent of bars carrying his beer require tap handles, and 75 percent of those need more than one. “Sometimes a bar will do a tap takeover, go from one draft line to seven, which is great, no problem, we happily provide another six handles.” But then the next week, when that bar goes back down to one Jack’s Abby draft, the handles don’t always find their way back home. As the brewery grew, the quirky tap handle racket became untenable.
The brewery’s post-expansion rebranding includes switching from the copper-plated spinning handles to more traditional poly-resin ones. “I’ll always love the spinners, but they’re just not practical at a certain scale,” Warner says, adding that the new design is partially inspired by the utilitarian elegance of Allagash Brewing’s wooden handles.
Kent Falls Brewing is in their second year of production on a former dairy farm in Kent, Connecticut. Kent Falls is thriving, having recently broken into the Boston and New York markets, but they have no plans to abandon their bespoke tap handles. Each hook-shaped metal handle is handmade out of conveyor-belt chain salvaged from the on-site barn. There are currently about 300 handles in service, with enough chain left to forge another 50 or so, thanks in part to a recent donation from their friends at the nearby, soon-to-open Fox Farm Brewery. When asked what he intends to do when they run out of chain, Kent Falls owner Barry Labendz said, “Unfortunately, there are a lot of defunct farms in this area. We’ll find more chain, and we’ll make more tap handles.”Last week, Democrats could hardly hide their neurosis about tightening poll numbers and the pressure on Hillary Clinton to regain her footing in the first debate against Donald J. Trump on Monday. On Tuesday, they breathed a sigh of relief.
Mrs. Clinton did not deliver a fatal blow or reconnect to voters in a way that will drastically alter the contours of an unpredictable election year, but she avoided the land mines that Mr. Trump had so effectively planted against his Republican primary opponents.
“He just ran out of gas,” said Steve Elmendorf, a veteran Democratic strategist and lobbyist, who pointed to Mr. Trump not aggressively attacking Mrs. Clinton on her email practices or the Clinton Foundation. “If we had a person who lacked stamina last night, it was Donald Trump.”
After a couple of rocky weeks, Mrs. Clinton greeted reporters on Tuesday morning with a fresh dose of confidence. “We had a great, great time last night,” she said, and then quoted the baseball legend Ernie Banks, “Let’s play two.”(Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty)
According to polls, the No. 1 thing Donald Trump’s fans like about him is that he “tells it like it is.” I think his fans are wrong about this. But that’s a column — actually a lot of columns — for another time.
It is true, however, that there is something refreshing about the way Trump talks. It’s not actually candor, though lots of people mistake it for that. Rather, he’s unfiltered. The one thing you can be sure of is that he hasn’t consulted with a political consultant about how to talk. He doesn’t worry what the liberal editors at the New York Times or the Washington Post — or, for that matter, the conservative editors at National Review — think of him.
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I’d be willing to bet that if there’s a single newspaper in the country that Trump cares about, it’s the New York Post. The Big Apple narcissus has spent his entire career looking for his reflection on Page Six of New York’s true paper of record.
And that’s because the Post actually cares about not only informing its readers but entertaining them as well. Its no-holds-barred, New York tabloid style comes closest to Trump’s own way of talking. His recent rant about former representative Anthony Weiner’s being a “sleazeball” and a “perv” was not only accurate, but it reflects the way normal people talk. That’s refreshing.
RELATED: What Makes Donald Run?
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I wish more Republicans would take the hint. Every couple of years I write a column on the infuriating habit Republican politicians have of reading their own stage direction. I don’t revisit the topic for lack of other issues to write about; I keep coming back to it because Republicans just can’t help themselves.
The worst offender was George H.W. Bush, a thoroughly decent and committed public servant who was always uncomfortable with the demands of the TV age. He was better suited to the 19th-century style of politics, where you didn’t have to connect emotionally with millions of people in their living rooms. Out of frustration, he’d often cut to the chase and tell people how he wanted to be perceived.
RELATED: An Establishment Man Confesses His Secret Admiration of Trump
When he ran against Bill Clinton — a man capable of crying on cue if you just told him which camera to look at — Bush was hopelessly outmatched. So he simply proclaimed, “Message: I care.”
#share#Bob Dole, another old-school politician, had the same problem. He once said at a meeting of the Republican National Committee, “If that’s what you want, I’ll be another Ronald Reagan.” His aides told the press that his strategy was to “act presidential.”
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Jeb Bush has the same tendency. In 2014, he told people he would only run for president if he could do so “joyfully.” The problem is that he’s good at telling but pretty bad at showing. To date, he’s displayed all the joy of a man waiting to get called for his colonoscopy.
But all of the professional politicians have this problem to one extent or another. Chris Christie talks about how he “tells it like it is” as often as he actually tells it like it is.
RELATED: The GOP Field that Failed
Christie recently told Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon about his plans for the next GOP debate: “Stay tuned on September 16th. We may be changing tactics.” If the moderators ask 15 questions in a row without asking Christie any, the New Jersey governor explained, “you’re going to go, ‘Uh oh, he’s going to go nuclear now.’”
If you have to tell people that “going nuclear” is just a tactic, it makes going nuclear seem a hell of a lot less authentic.
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#related#John Kasich has a policy of not attacking Hillary Clinton. That’s weird enough. But he also feels compelled to explain that his refusal is a tactic. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker et al. can’t resist telling audiences about the importance of being optimistic. Why not just try being optimistic? Voters will notice. I promise.
There are many reasons the non-politicians — Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina — are doing so well, but near the top is the fact that they haven’t internalized the language of political consultants and pundits. They understand something the politicians have forgotten: Politics is about sales. Good salesmen don’t say, “I need to sell you this car today because I need to make my quota.” They also don’t say, “I need to convince you that you need this car even though it’s more than you think you can afford.” That may be their motivation, but they concentrate on the actual convincing.The head of Louisiana's state police has announced that two law enforcement officers have been arrested over the fatal shooting of a six-year-old boy and the wounding of his father earlier this week.
Colonel Mike Edmonson said in a news conference on Friday that the two officers were being booked on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder over Tuesday's shooting in Marksville.
Edmonson identified the two officers as Norris Greenhouse Jr and Derrick Stafford.
State police have been investigating the death of Jeremy Mardis, who was in a vehicle with his father when pursuing officers opened fire.
Edmonson gave few details of what happened but said the investigation was ongoing. Two other officers were involved in the incident.
"He didn't deserve to die like that, and that's what's important," Edmonson said at a news conference.
Citing camera footage of the incident, he said: "I can tell you, it is the most disturbing thing I've seen, and I'll leave it like that."Genius! A San Francisco Co-Working Space Has Installed Suicide Nets
Gawken News Algorithm Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 18, 2016
Well this should brighten any freelancer’s day. It turns out that HotHaus, a self-described “hot-desking, idea-incubating, co-working space” in downtown San Francisco just installed safety nets designed to catch people who throw themselves from the building.
Owner Heather Reynolds said the company decided to install the nets after a freelancer working in the space landed on the roof of a HotHaus investor’s car.
“One major complaint that freelancers and self-employed people have these days is that there’s no security in their line of work,” said Reynolds. “Well here at HotHaus, freelancers finally have their own safety net.”
Reynolds said the plan initially met resistance from some board members who argued that the nets would obstruct the building’s beautiful views of the city.
“We ended up installing them fairly close to the ground. That way if someone does try to jump, they’ll have to think really, really carefully about it.”
Twitter is a cesspool of journalism and name-calling. Please follow us on Facebook instead.Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The federal regulators who intend to place restrictions on how Internet providers manage their Web traffic plan to vote on new guidelines in February, the Federal Communications Commission said Friday.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler intends to introduce the proposed regulations in February for a vote the same month, a spokeswoman for the commission confirmed, following an initial report from The Washington Post. The agency's monthly meeting is scheduled for February 26.
The proposal is at the center of a debate around the concept of Net neutrality. That notion holds that all online traffic should be treated the same by Internet-access providers, with no sites or services being given preferential treatment.
The government agency's work to establish new guidelines has placed it in a tough position. The FCC has to weigh the interests of providers against those of Web companies and users.
Net-access providers have argued, among other things, that high-bandwidth services like video-streaming sites should pay proportionately for the chunk of the network they're using, and that without the ability to charge fees for faster connection speeds, the providers will have no incentive to invest in quicker networks. Internet infrastructure companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, IBM and Cisco have argued that more severe restrictions on access providers would hinder current broadband efforts and result in the loss of up to $45.4 billion in investments over the next five years.
Arguments in favor of Net neutrality include the concern that the charging of fees, and control over connection speeds, would give the access providers too much power over content distribution. Net neutrality supporters have also said that startups and other smaller companies wouldn't be able to compete with deep-pocketed websites and services -- and that innovation and alternative services would suffer as a result.
Earlier reports indicated that Wheeler wanted to vote on the regulations before the end of 2014 but that the draft was delayed to make sure the regulations could hold up in court.Nazi-themed graffiti was found in the upstate New York town of Wellsville on November 9, 2016.
The New York Police Department said it has seen a dramatic rise in hate crimes following the election of Donald Trump, with the majority of incidents directed at Jews.
There has been a 115 percent increase in bias crimes in New York City following Election Day, with Jews being targeted in 24 of the 43 incidents during that nearly month-long period. The anti-Semitic incidents represented a threefold increase from November 2015, The New York Observer reported.
In total, hate crimes have increased 35 percent from 2015, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, Robert Boyce, said Monday morning.
“We had a huge spike right after Election Day, it’s somewhat slowed a little bit,” Boyce said. “We’re seeing across the board an increase right now.”
Besides Jews, other targeted groups included Muslims, whites and the LGBTQ community, according to Boyce.
JTA has reported on anti-Semitic incidents following the election, including acts of vandalism featuring swastikas and Trump-related themes left in public areas as well as on the homes of Jewish individuals.
Last week, the watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center said it had received reports of 100 anti-Semitic incidents occurring in the 10 days following the presidential election, representing about 12 percent of hate incidents reported to the group in the United States.
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The head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, said recently that anti-Jewish public and political discourse in America is worse than at any point since the 1930s.
The election season saw the rise of the “alt-right,” a loose far-right movement whose followers traffic variously in white nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment, anti-Semitism and a disdain for “political correctness.”
Many alt-right members, including prominent white nationalists, have been vocal in their support of Trump, who has called for a ban on Muslim immigration to the U.S. and likened Mexican immigrants to rapists.
The president-elect said recently that he did not want to “energize” white supremacists and denounced an alt-right conference in Washington, D.C., where speakers railed against Jews and several audience members did Hitler salutes.Tomorrow, Samsung will unveil something it heavily hypes up. As Samsung Russia's Twitter announcement reads: "Such a thing hasn't happened before! Tomorrow #Samsung will present its new high-class device to the world. Curious to know what it'd be?". You bet we're curious, Samsung, so how about we throw in a bit of speculation?
On the promotional photo, we see this beautiful young lady taking a turquoise something out of her purse. It looks rectangular, and it's probably a smartphone. We also see five different colored circles above the date, which could mean that whatever Samsung is going to announce tomorrow, it might come dressed in turquoise, pink, white, brown, and black. Alas, these are all the clues Sammy is giving us. And it's strange that such an illustrious advert is coming a mere day before the announcement. This suggests that the eventual product isn't of high priority for the company, but the text contradicts this notion.
Looking at the ad's fashion direction, we're likely talking about a new La Fleur device or series. We'll see more what Samsung has in store tomorrow anyway, but feel free to place your bets.
UPDATE: Apparently, all the fuss was about the new Samsung NX Mini Camera with unmatched selfie-taking capabilities.
source: Samsung Russia via hi-tech.mail.ruHivert triumphs overall as Roux wins final TT
Returning again to the team with which he spent four years of his career, Samuel Dumoulin has wasted no time in clocking up his and Ag2r La Mondiale’s first victory of the year.
The 32 year old Frenchman proved quickest in this mass gallop to the line in Ales, beating Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar), Mathieu Drujon (Big Mat - Auber 93) plus the rest of the peloton to win stage 5a of the Etoile de Bessèges.
“Obviously, I’m happy with this victory,” he said afterwards. “This morning, our strategy was to be aggressive to avoid being trapped in splits caused by the wind. I hadn't got good sensations at the start and was caught in the rear of the split. I was not in an ideal physical condition,” he said.
Assisted by his team and other riders who had also been caught out, he gradually made his way back to the front of the race. Dumoulin is a strong sprinter and was clearly one to watch, but admitted to not feeling very confident as the line approached. However he was helped out and everything went perfectly.
“Romain [Bardet] and Maxime [Bouet] helped me in last kilometres when the Europcar’s riders was leading the pack to prepare the sprint for Bryan Coquard,” he continued. “This morning at the briefing, we watched and studied the final part of the race, in particular the last roundabout. It was there, at 500 meters from the finish, that I made my move and I was able to make a difference and to go to win.”
Dumoulin had already shown his strong form with second place in the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise, a race he won last year.
Europcar’s Jérôme Cousin retained his overnight lead at the end of the stage.
The race continued this afternoon with a team time trial over 9.7 kilometres. There, Anthony Roux (FDJ) beat his team-mate Jeremy Roy by three seconds, while Cousin could only place twelfth. It meant that ninth-placed Jonathan Hivert (Sojasun) – who had started the stage as Cousin’s closest rival, just three seconds back, was able to overtake his rival and win overall.
Cousin finished four seconds back with Roux a further second behind.
Etoile de Bessèges (2.1)
Stage 5a: Ales 69km
1, Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) 69 kilometres in 1 hours 31 mins 3 secs
2, Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar)
3, Mathieu Drujon (Big Mat - Auber) 93
4, Cyrille Patoux (Roubaix Lille Métropole)
5, Jure Kocjan (Euskaltel Euskadi)
6, Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale)
7, Anthony Roux (FDJ)
8, Gijs Van Hoecke (Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise)
9, Tim De Clercq (Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise)
10, Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling) all same time
Stage 5b, Ales time trial:
1, Anthony Roux (FDJ) 9.7 km in 14 mins 45.82 secs
2, Jeremy Roy (FDJ) at 3 secs
3, Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil DCM) at 23 secs
4, Arthur Vichot (FDJ) at 28 secs
5, Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ) at 30 secs
6, Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos Shimano) |
– the New South Wales regional seat of Charlton – with the seat of Hunter now shifted to cover the Charlton boundaries.
It has created a new seat in Western Australia – the seat of Burt – which is notionally Liberal on 6.1 per cent but which the Labor Party hopes it might take with its candidate Matt Keogh, who stood unsuccessfully against the Liberals’ Andrew Hastie in the Canning byelection.
Burt covers Perth’s south-eastern suburbs, taking in the southern parts of the old Liberal seats of Hasluck and Tangney. The Liberal candidate is Matt O’Sullivan, a fourth-generation resident who has been leading businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Indigenous employment scheme, GenerationOne.
The redistribution has made the inner-Western Sydney seat of Barton notionally Labor. And Labor’s deputy state leader, Linda Burney, has quit state politics to contest it – the boundaries overlap her state seat of Canterbury – against incumbent Nickolas Varvaris, who took the previously Labor-held seat for the Liberals in 2013.
The notional margin based on old voting patterns is now 6 per cent in Labor’s favour. If Burney wins in a current field of six candidates, including the Greens, the Christian Democrats and a couple of independents, she will become the first Indigenous woman in the house of representatives.
Two other Liberal seats – the NSW regional seats of Dobell and Paterson – are also notionally Labor under the redistribution, on estimated margins of 0.2 and 0.4 per cent respectively.
Dobell is the NSW Central Coast seat formerly held by controversial Labor MP Craig Thomson, convicted of stealing from the Health Services Union before he entered parliament. The Liberals’ Karen McNamara won it in 2013 and is standing again, facing a challenge from Labor’s Emma McBride.
In Paterson, in the lower Hunter Valley around Maitland, longstanding Liberal MP Bob Baldwin is retiring.
The most consistent bellwether seat, the NSW seat of Eden-Monaro, is also at risk of falling to Labor. Since 1972, whichever party has won Eden-Monaro has also won government but the redistribution has changed its demographic and may put an end to its bellwether status. The electorate wraps around Canberra, from the town of Queanbeyan down to the southernmost part of the NSW coast, back through Cooma below the Snowy Mountains to Yass. Labor’s Mike Kelly lost the seat in 2013 to the Liberals’ Peter Hendy, who holds it with a margin of 2.9 per cent, and is now trying to win it back.
The Liberal-held seat of Macarthur, around Camden in Sydney’s south-west, is also in play. A Liberal Party preselection brawl in the seat earlier this year received some negative attention, and Labor considers it winnable. It is held by Russell Matheson on 3.3 per cent.
In Darwin, the seat of Solomon, currently held by the Country Liberal Party’s Natasha Griggs, is in Labor’s sights, on a margin of 1.4 per cent. Challenger Luke Gosling also ran against her in 2013. Both federal leaders swung through the seat early in the campaign, and Malcolm Turnbull has been there twice.
Tasmania’s biggest electorate, Lyons, could change hands, too. Won by Liberal Eric Hutchinson in 2013 on a margin of 1.2 per cent, it’s the Coalition’s third-most marginal seat nationally. Lyons is a regional mix, taking in the agricultural districts from outer Launceston to near Devonport, the outer edge of Hobart, and the tourist and fishing towns on Tasmania’s east coast. Labor is running Brian Mitchell, a public relations consultant who is a former journalist and political adviser.
Victoria is arguably Labor’s strongest state. In the outer Melbourne seat of La Trobe, around the Dandenong Ranges, Liberal MP Jason Wood, who holds the seat on a 4 per cent margin, faces a challenge from Labor’s Simon Curtis. Transport infrastructure and the local tourism industry are both significant issues there, and the prime minister recently paid the perennial campaign visit to ride the Puffing Billy steam train, promising funding to upgrade the rail line and rolling stock.
Labor has a more audacious eye on the outer-Melbourne suburban seat of Dunkley, around Frankston, where long-time Liberal MP and dumped former minister Bruce Billson is retiring.
The retirement of incumbent MPs is causing problems for both major parties. In Western Australia, Labor has new candidates in all three of the seats it holds, after the retirement of former minister Gary Gray in Brand, former state minister Alannah MacTiernan in Perth, and former frontbencher Melissa Parke in Fremantle. Regardless, it insists it is likely to retain all of them.
But the Labor-held seats of Chisholm and Bruce in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs are now viewed as possibly vulnerable to the Liberals, with Labor losing the recognition of former speaker Anna Burke and former minister Alan Griffin, both of whom are retiring.
Labor is eyeing the Liberal-held seat of Brisbane, where incumbent Liberal Teresa Gambaro is retiring. Previously a Labor seat, the Liberals hold it on a margin of 4.3 per cent. But with a high Greens vote helping with preferences, polls suggest a swing back.
Also in Queensland, Labor is hopeful of taking the Liberals’ two most marginal seats – Petrie, north of Brisbane, which is on a margin of 0.5 per cent, and Capricornia, around Rockhampton, on 0.8 per cent.
Surprisingly, Labor is also quietly talking up its chances in the seat of Herbert, around Townsville. Despite the Liberals’ margin of 6.2 per cent, Labor insists anger over the failure to construct a local stadium is seeing sentiment drift its way.
But even if Labor wins all of these seats, that still does not add up to enough to win government.
There is increasing speculation that this election could see a repeat of the 1998 result, in which Labor secured a majority of the national vote but not enough in Coalition seats for it to win government.
Party strategists caution against putting too much store in the published polls, including those indicating sizeable state-by-state swings against the Coalition.
Both sides concede the Coalition will lose seats. But they also point out that those polls measure voting inclination across a whole state, not within a single seat.
The problem there for Labor is that its improving support could end up largely in safe Labor seats in its existing heartland, not in the marginal seats it needs to win. In other words, it could find itself preaching to the choir.
Superannuation policy fight
Similarly, on the Coalition side they are confident that, at this stage, the anger over the Coalition’s superannuation changes is largely confined to its existing support base.
It is not showing up as a significant issue of concern in its research.
Despite backbench rumblings demanding post-election changes to the policy, the prime minister has ruled them out.
“There is always consultation about the details of the drafting … the administrative implementation,” Turnbull said on Thursday. “The policy the substance of it, the economic substance of it – that is all settled. That’s in the budget and that is our policy.”
So while that issue is attracting considerable media attention and prompting some supporters to threaten to withdraw their donations in retaliation, the Coalition doesn’t believe it is costing potential votes where it counts.
Labor holds a different view.
It is detecting concern about the new proposed tax on the “transition to retirement” program, the element of the superannuation system that tripped up both Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young in radio interviews during the week.
Upon reaching the age of 56, that program allows employed people approaching retirement age to scale back to part-time work, keep contributing to their superannuation, and draw a tax-free supplement from their super accounts as a top-up.
But some people have been using the system to maximise their super gains and minimise their tax, continuing to work full time, pouring almost their entire incomes into super, and drawing out an effective full-time salary, tax free.
The government has announced it will now tax those withdrawals at 15 per cent.
Labor is convinced that the concern over superannuation resonates beyond just the budget measures themselves.
It is detecting unease among voters. It says even voters not directly affected by the changes are seeing them as a sign that more changes could come. Labor hopes to exploit that sentiment, using the superannuation issue to sow seeds of doubt about what else the Coalition might do – and not only in superannuation.
Its research is suggesting there is also lingering community concern about a 15 per cent goods and services tax.
It has now begun linking all this in television advertisements seeking to harvest these concerns, encouraging voters to conclude that Turnbull can’t be trusted.
Contrasting campaigns
Turnbull’s is a narrative campaign. He is telling the story of “jobs and growth” and the Coalition’s credentials as an economic manager, boosted this week by good growth figures, albeit with some underlying concerns about national income and living standards. Turnbull is using his national message to reinforce strong local campaigns on the ground.
In contrast, Shorten’s campaign is disruptive – interrupting that Coalition narrative whenever he can, trying to cast doubt on Turnbull’s promises. This week he has emphasised job creation in the renewable energy sector.
Those campaigns will ramp-up further over the next fortnight, with pre-poll voting available from June 14.
Australians are taking the same approach to voting as they do to grocery shopping and TV watching. They want to be able to do it when it suits them, not necessarily on election day.
At the previous election, a record 3.2 million votes were cast before election – somewhere between a quarter and a third of all eligible voters. That means a lot of minds being made up well before July 2.
For the first time since 1987, this election is in winter. It’s also being held in the school holidays in almost every state.
That virtually guarantees high levels of pre-poll and postal voting, as voters plan trips away. For candidates and their supporters, it also means a lot more doorknocking, rain, hail or shine, before they go.My Reactions to Last Night's "How I Met Your Mother" in GIF Form
By Courtney Enlow | TV | December 18, 2012 |
The episode started, and I was like this:
Because this show has burned me all season long, you see. But then, my two favorite things: College Ted...
...And Peter Gallagher's eyebrows.
Then I saw Seth Green and I was all "yay!" for obvious reasons.
Then I saw Alexis Denisof and I was all "yay!" for obvious reasons.
My two favorite Sandys--Cohen and Rivers--in one episode?
Yeah, bitch, you heard me.
And then Patrice showed up, and I was all:
Because I've seen the press release for the episode. I know they want me to think Barney's going to propose to Patrice. Would the show do that to me? And I just don't know. I DON'T KNOW.
However, I could watch a whole show of just Robin yelling at Patrice.
Then Ted sings a song about Peter Gallagher and I'm all...
Because I think the show might love me again.
But, then, at the end of the first thirty minutes, I'm like this:
Because, yeah, in hindsight, where this was going should have been obvious. But that is the level of uncertainty this show has caused in me. So instead of being all:
I was all:
Then they seem to be pulling the Ted and Robin thing again, and I'm all:
But then, it's all okay. Ted does the right thing.
So, here's the thing. I don't hate Ted. Sometimes I hate Ted. But, mostly, I don't hate Ted. He just has a lot of feelings. Tell 'em, Ted.
Nothing wrong with a little Teddy Westside.
Then Robin says the top of the WWN building is her favorite place and I'm all:
Because I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING. I KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
AND THEN IT HAPPENS.
*ahem* Maybe not that last one. But definitely a little bit of this:
Think I'm kidding?
Shut up.
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Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood →Last March, a few artists got inspired by a design exercise. They turned the concept into a social art project, and invited their Instagram followers to do one action every day for 100 days. They encouraged people to share what they made through the Instagram hashtag, #the100dayproject.
I was thrilled to participate. This initial excitement was immediately followed by anxiety about how my action should probably be something “serious” and show off my artistic “talent”. This is a common emotion I experience preceding new projects. The only thing I’ve ever known to combat this kind of anxiety is to dance around and do something so silly it doesn’t matter. So I traded my fancy pens and paint brushes for sharpies and printer paper, and drew the most ridiculous portrait of Nicolas Cage*.
I started small, and did what I could. Commitment doesn’t come easy for me, so I told myself I’d try it out for a few days to see what might happen. I drew them at work, while I was waiting… for my code to run, a page to load, or a meeting to start. I hung each of them on the wall behind me with Scotch tape.
After a few days, something funny started happening. People walking by started asking what these man portraits were doing on the wall. A few well-cultured individuals recognized that beautiful expressive face from a mile away. Questions started coming in, and the only answer I had was that I was doing an art project for 100 days. Every day, my co-workers wanted to know: ‘What is the face today?’ The social commitment was seemingly written in stone.
Admittedly, I’m pretty terrible at keeping routines. During the course of the project, I fell off, I got back on track, and I even had a co-worker fill in for me while I was on vacation. Towards the end of the project, my good friend and fellow troublemaker, Michelle, informed me I was to have a gallery show in July*. Whether I had 100 Cages or not, I was going to hang what I had on a wall. That little kick in the pants helped me get through the last leg of the project. I couldn’t believe it. A gallery show! For me! For all of the silly Cages.
The day of the show came, and I could not have been more stoked to see all of my work up in a gallery. I had never had a gallery show before. This experience blew me out of the water. There were memes and sub-memes made during the show. People playfully fought over who got the bees. I learned more about Nicolas Cage movies than I could ever have dreamed. We made shirts. I finished a project and shared it with the world. I never expected my first gallery show to be of Nicolas Cage, but oh how perfect it turned out to be. It was hilarious. It was ludacris. It was hugely rewarding. Seeing people wear my shirts months later with the Cage faces is still so surreal.Dallas Green: “I’ve always loved [Jazzmasters]. I used to try and play them in Alexisonfire. Growing up, Dinosaur Jr was one of my favourite bands, but I could never figure out how to get a Jazzmaster to sound like J Mascis did. But when I started City And Colour full-time, that was the window.
This guy I’ve had for about five or six years and is probably my favourite guitar
“This guy I’ve had for about five or six years and is probably my favourite guitar. Jazzmaster pickups can be so gnarly and bright but this one can sound however I want it to - nice and bright and clean almost like an acoustic, but then I can run a crazy distortion pedal through it and it turns into a monster. I recorded the clean parts and the heavy parts on Woman with this. I use the neck pickup almost exclusively.
“Tonight, I’ll only use it on probably three songs. I can’t seem to not write songs in weird tunings so that’s why we have so many guitars. I play it in drop D, standard and then we also have this tuning where it’s in standard but then I tune the A up to a B and I use that on Northern Blues.”Scandals are plentiful in South Korea of late. Earlier in the year, it was Korean Airlines, Hyundai, and Samsung. Last month, Hanjin and Lotte. Now, President Park Geun-hye herself. For foreign observers, it can sometimes be hard to understand the underlying causes. Why so many? Why all of a sudden? As a Korean-American professor living in Busan, I am often asked if there is a unifying element to help explain them all. There is: the Korean preference for loyalty, something that undermines the very fabric of Korean executive culture.
For most people in the West, there is an understood separation between family or friendship ties and business. Although Americans and most Europeans are no less likely to recommend a friend for a job, there are certain things they wouldn’t do. If elected mayor, for example, they wouldn’t suddenly replace all senior staff with friends and family. In Korea, this is exactly what has happened for decades, if not centuries. Even UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was roundly criticized at the start of his tenure for replacing an inordinate number of UN staffers with hand-picked Koreans. One of the new hires was his former boss.
The Korean corporations recently suffering scandals – Hanjin, Lotte, Korean Airlines – are built as tight oligarchies, with virtually all key positions held by the friends, relatives, or classmates of a single family. In Korea, this is an “open secret,” something everyone knows but no one really talks about. American companies, of course, are not immune to such structures but Korean ones are unique for the frequency and depth of such connections.
Even today, a typical Korean company has its top executive positions filled with friends and relatives. This is the rule, not the exception. These executives, in turn, hire friends, acquaintances, and classmates to fill the managerial positions below them. These managers hire their own friends, acquaintances, and alma mater alumni, creating a tight network of loyalties. And yes, this happens in government too, frequently. Koreans call these relationships “ropes,” the equivalent of American coattails.
A variety of foreign pundits have, at various times, labeled Korean loyalty networks “fiefdoms” or corporate “monarchies.” What gets missed is these networks are forged by a powerful cultural expectation running in both directions.
Loyalty is, of course, expected from subordinates. The late vice-chair of Lotte is a good example of a loyal subordinate, apparently committing suicide to cover up his boss’s illegal activities, a surprisingly common occurrence in Korea. Such loyalty is expected to be rewarded in Korean culture with superiors sharing earned fortunes with loyalists.
Being the owner of a successful company therefore means you are expected to share your influence and power with friends and relatives, through gifts, benefits, or a job. If you refuse or don’t try, you are placing these ties in jeopardy. For Koreans, the management and protection of family/friend loyalties is a top cultural priority. It is amoral to do otherwise.
The main problem with prioritizing loyalties is they get in the way of competence, especially in areas requiring expertise. We now know a lot of the poor decisions made by Hanjin were prompted by ineptitude at various executive levels, including the very top. These people were placed there through loyalty, not merit, and really had no idea what they were doing.
Sadly, this plot line is not exclusive to Hanjin. Virtually every company in Korea has stories of good ideas squashed or mistakes hidden because someone close to the top of the hierarchy felt their agenda was being threatened. If you believe anonymous whistleblowers, Samsung’s exploding battery may have been caused in this way too.
Recent revelations about the Korean president pin her as being guilty of this same kind of favoritism. At the request of her friend, Choi Soon-sil, Park appears to have removed a significant number of government employees, replacing them with loyalists. One of the new hires was a Choi in-law who was later caught smuggling surveillance devices into the Blue House.
Park’s scandal illustrates just how common it is for a personal relationship to take priority over other, established protocols. In Park’s case, the example is extreme because her friend, an apparent cult leader, was allowed to influence virtually every aspect of the president’s work.
So why are we seeing these scandals now? The answer is because the tide is finally turning. In the last two decades, a series of laws have made business and government structures less susceptible to loyalty networks, particularly at the lower levels. Many scandals involving bribery and favoritism have been dragged into the open, demanding public discourse. Young adults and the media have been especially engaged, voicing outrage and popularizing stern implements like the Kim Young-ran Act. The road ahead will surely contain more headlines as other loyalty networks, corporate and otherwise, are exposed and uprooted. Only when Korea’s executive culture relinquishes its reliance on loyalty and begins to embrace merit will the recovery finally begin.
Justin Fendos is a professor at Dongseo University in South Korea and the associate director of the Tan School at Fudan University in Shanghai. He conducts research on a wide range of topics, including East Asian culture and maritime trade, and is a regular contributor for the Korea Times.Churches, schools and hospitals could be held criminally liable for child sexual abuse perpetrated by people linked to them, according to a report before a royal commission.
The president of the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan, flagged on Wednesday that the commission was considering a report which discusses whether an institution should be held criminally liable "for the sexual abuse committed by a person associated with that institution."
A protest installation outside the Royal Commission into child abuse in Ballarat Court this past May. Credit:Eddie Jim
It is a crime in Victoria for certain responsible people to negligently fail to reduce or remove the risk children will be abused by others in an organisation.
"One of the key aims of the... offence was the promotion of cultural change in the way in which organisations who care for and supervise children deal with the risk of child sexual abuse," Justice McClellan said."It was not a particularly good number, that's for sure, but I think one of the things we have to do in fairness is take out the retail number," said JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade. "Let's face it, retail stores are trying to figure out what is the proper balance between brick-and-mortar and online sales. If you do take that number out, it's not quite as bad a jobs report."
The jobs numbers are "skewed by the weather-related effects of the big storm that hit the Northeast," said Tony Bedikian, head of global markets for Citizens Bank. "My view is that it's going to be likely dismissed by the markets. There are some positives within the report."
Weather-related absences amounted to 164,000, which actually was lower than the 187,000 for the same month in 2016.
The headline unemployment rate decline came as the ranks of the unemployed fell by 326,000, according to the BLS household survey. The civilian labor force expanded by 145,000, though those not in the labor force rose slightly to 94.2 million. The ranks of the employed surged by 472,000.
Wage growth kept pace, with average hourly earnings up by 2.7 percent on an annualized basis.
The stunning drop came amid what had been a strong year for jobs, with both January and February easily topping Wall Street's expectations, though both months were revised lower in Friday's release. January's growth was reduced from 238,000 to 216,000, while February fell from 235,000 to 219,000, equating to a total decline of 38,000. Government jobs rose by 9,000.
A report earlier in the week from ADP showed that private payrolls expanded by 263,000, further spiking hopes that the momentum would continue.
However, the report in total was a blow to expectations that President Donald Trump's pro-growth agenda would fuel an economic boom this year.
Hopes from business leaders, investors and consumers have been running high for economic growth this year, though the hard data have been mixed. While hiring has been moving at a solid clip, sales growth has been modest across the spectrum.
Federal Reserve officials also are keeping a close eye on the monthly payrolls report, especially watching for signs of wage pressures. The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate target a quarter point in both December and March, and is widely believed to be primed for another increase in June.
The biggest job gains came in professional and business services at 56,000, while mining added 11,000. Wall Street also got a boost, with financial activities gaining 9,000 as part of a 178,000-position expansion over the past 12 months.The Cricket All-Stars series is giving USA players a chance to learn from some of the best in the game and is also boosting their own profile among cricket followers in the country
Jasdeep Singh talks to Matthew Hayden during a practice session © Peter Della Penna
Amid the fanfare of the Cricket All-Stars tour, virtually all of the attention has been placed on the legends taking the field on game-day, but the series has also given several USA players the opportunity to be a part of the festivities as net bowlers, while a select few have been chosen as "12th man".
Former USA captain Steve Massiah, current USA captain Muhammad Ghous and team-mates Alex Amsterdam, Adil Bhatti and Akeem Dodson were all in the dugout for Saturday's first game, and got a chance to mingle with the All-Stars.
While Shane Warne said prior to landing in New York that he was hoping this tour would inspire the first American cricketer to learn the game, the All-Stars have discovered that plenty already exist. During an indoor net session in New Jersey on November 3, USA Under-19 player Vivek Narayan, born in Connecticut and raised in New Jersey, caught Warne's eye. As Sachin Tendulkar was batting, Narayan bowled a controlled series of balls to the Little Master while Warne enthusiastically shouted from the opposite end, "That's an American, an American leggie!"
A mostly new crop of players came to Minute Maid Park in Houston to bowl to the legends on Tuesday. Many are local to Texas but a few traveled quite a distance to make it, like USA allrounder Japen Patel who made a journey of 800 miles [1200kms] from Atlanta.
A rare few have had the chance to bowl throughout the last week at the stars. Fast bowler Jasdeep Singh, who made his USA debut in May, was one of the first to interact with the All-Stars on tour. Jasdeep, 22, bowled at the indoor session in New Jersey before serving as a net bowler on the eve of the first match at Citi Field.
Jasdeep's sessions were so positive that he didn't want New York to be the last one. He flew to Houston to continue training alongside the All-Stars, calling it "a lifetime experience", which has given him a rare opportunity to not just bowl at but talk with the stars and pick their brains.
"I had a good 10-15 minute talk with Sachin in New Jersey," Jasdeep said. "I got great feedback and some valuable tips from him. As I was bowling to him, he was noticing what I was doing every single ball. Every time I did something different, he would point it out. I've never heard any other batsman tell me they saw that I was trying something different. So that was a valuable tip - whenever you change something, try not to give signals to the batsman that it's going to be a different delivery.
"I had a good 10-15 minute talk with Curtly Ambrose. I got to ask him questions on fitness. Courtney Walsh, obviously he's looking after me because I had a good session with him in Indianapolis [at the ICC Combine in September]. Today he was checking me out to see if I had worked on the things that he taught me. It's been pretty good."
The interactions have also served to show some of the All-Stars the vast talent toiling away in the USA, waiting to be noticed. Matthew Hayden, who was part of the Australia team that walloped an ageing USA team at the Champions Trophy in 2004 says the players he's come across on this tour, like Jasdeep, have caught his eye.
"Jessy would walk into a first-grade side in our domestic competition," Hayden said. "I'm in Brisbane and he'd walk into a first-grade team there for sure. So that's the sort of caliber of player you're dealing with, the athletic ability that he has. It's just a matter of spending those years as I did, spending years of playing and playing to get to understand the game.
"Jessy, I spent a bit of time with in the nets over the last little bit. He's a fine player. He bowls a pretty heavy ball. It's just experience and it's experience having someone like Courtney Walsh or Curtly Ambrose talking to him about, 'Your length is this' or as an opening batsman saying 'Jess, the higher up you get, you know that if you bowl short you're going to get murdered or if you bowl on the pads, that's easy pickings for us. So get your line to fourth stump.' Those are simple coaching things but it's good for those guys to hear it."
Jasdeep has also started to get noticed by autograph hunters, who have run up to him with pen and pad just like the touring stars. A note posted on Facebook last week told the story of a young boy who attended the All-Stars clinic at Citi Field in New York. When asked by his mother who is favourite player during the interaction was, he responded by saying "Jessy Singh."
Jasdeep says he has been humbled by his newfound support and is grateful for the opportunities that he and his team-mates have had over the last week to showcase their skills.
"It's definitely something I never expected," Jasdeep said. "When I saw that post on social media I was quite surprised by that but it's motivational for me to work hard and get better. I can see kids are looking up to me, to follow me so it motivates me to work harder.
"What the legends are doing to bring cricket to the USA, we can do nothing but appreciate it. It's a great step to promote cricket in the USA. I think they are noticing the youngsters and watching closely. Hopefully most of us young players in the future will gain some better opportunities after bowling to these legends."
Peter Della Penna is ESPNcricinfo's USA correspondent. @PeterDellaPenna
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.I’m sure you can figure it out from the title but I was recently sucked into the recent dating craze … Tinder! If you’re living under a rock, Tinder is a mobile app that presents you with women (or men) based on your specified mileage radius and age range. You land on someone’s profile (for lack of a better term) and you’re presented with a handful of pictures and a paragraph or two they may have entered about themselves. What next, you ask. Well, you then swipe them left or right, swipe them right and you have a chance to be matched up with them, swipe them left and you never see their profile again. The fun in all this is that you’re only allowed to chat with other users that also swiped right to your profile. This is where things get exciting (or dreadful)!
Let me preface this post by saying I’m a man in my mid/late 20’s, I’m single, I’m gainfully employed, and I’m in very good shape and make a point to take care of myself. I stand about 6’2 and weigh 215 lbs, I played football in college and continue to workout quite often. I’ve had pretty solid success with women throughout my teenage years and throughout my 20’s; I’ve had a handful of long term relationships that fizzled out for whatever reasons and this eventually led to a few friends and I all deciding to give Tinder a try. I’ve now been using Tinder for about a month, allow me to tell you about this month.
I noticed a common theme when viewing women’s profiles on Tinder that can be summed up in the following way: I never realized how superficial women really are. This obviously doesn’t apply to every profile I looked at but I couldn’t believe some of the stuff I was reading. Many of the women make note of their height (there’s also a lot of tall women on Tinder) which in their brains is a very sly way of saying you must be this tall to ride this ride. Men, don’t forget to add 3-4 inches for when they want to wear heels. Ladies, just come out and say, ‘hey I enjoy wearing heels, if you’re not at least ‘this tall’ then I don’t see it working out’. To you tall guys, don’t go thinking you’ve just hit the Tinder jackpot, most of the profiles I viewed stated this particular girl was ‘athletic’ (wearing yoga pants to Starbucks is apparently athletic now) and wouldn’t settle for anything less than a healthy, fit, athletic guy. I tried giving the ladies the benefit of the doubt on this one but apparently they’re only interested in men that hit the genetic jackpot.
I soon noticed a common trend while swiping through pictures: group pic, group pic, group pic, group pic, etc. Really? Remember ladies, we automatically assume you’re the ugliest one in the group which is what I refer to as the MUF (Mandatory Ugly Friend), every group has one. These same girls who need an athletic and fit man are kind enough to let us play the ol’ guessing game. Group pics, that’s not so bad you’re saying … well it gets worse. I then noticed too many profiles that were nothing but headshots. You can’t see anything below the neck. PSA to you females: when we see this we automatically assume you’re pushing 2 bills! Yes, we’re men, we’re visual creatures, but we’re not dumbasses.
Next, there’s the career woman on Tinder! It must be my lucky day, I just got matched with a lawyer on Tinder! Wrong … any of you ever dated a ‘career-woman’? These women are always ‘SO SUPER-BUSY’ and MIGHT be able to make time for you if you play your cards right. I had a 2 year relationship with a ‘career woman’ yet she was the perfect definition of DRAMA. This woman was catty as can be, god forbid anyone else other than her received a promotion in her department. The career-woman will peak in her early-mid 30’s so if you’re patient you’ll have no problem reeling this one in once the years have taken their toll. Guys, do yourselves a favor and skip this one!
Gentlemen, don’t all women claim they don’t want your typical ‘bro’, douche bag, meathead, etc? Well, women are full of shit. I have some pics of myself posted with my shirt off and I lost count of how many women commented on my physique then asked for my number … women are liars. They’re just as visual as us guys. Gentlemen, moving forward, wear clothes that properly fit your body. If you haven’t done so already, read up on proper fit for pants, suits, etc.
In brief, women are just like us guys. You get their attention with what’s on the surface; you hold their interest with your money and character. Remember, above all else, you’re in control.
AdvertisementsScreencaps from 'Dream Corp LLC'/courtesy of Adult Swim
Dream Corp LLC is the latest in what has become a very distinct brand of comedy midwifed into the world by Adult Swim. The show is a strange and pleasing trip, equal parts live-action and animated dream sequences, centered on a wild-haired dream therapist named Dr. Roberts (Jon Gries) and the staffers at his semi-futuristic warehouse medical facility.
The structure of each 15-minute episode is ostensibly straightforward—Dr. Roberts sees a patient and, with the help of a team of technicians (including a robot voiced by Dream Corp executive producer Steven Merchant), goes inside the patient's dreams and cures them. This being Adult Swim, things usually go off the rails pretty quickly, and it often doesn't really make any sense, even when we feel like we're in familiar territory. To play up the psychedelic effect, the show makes use of rotoscoping, a technique in which live-action footage is traced over, frame by frame, by animators.
The pilot, which aired Sunday, begins when a young man comes to the center for help with impotence. In a rotoscoped sequence of the patient's dreams, Dr. Roberts, the patient, a woman in a frog costume eating spaghetti (the patient's girlfriend), and Dave Coulier sit around a restaurant table before Coulier turns into a Legolas-like elf after having sex with the patient's spaghetti-eating girlfriend/frog. The good doctor's prescription? A job at Dream Corp LLC.
Showrunner Daniel Stessen is an accomplished music video and short film director who won Best Short Animated Film at the 2014 Berlin Independent Film Festival for a project called The Gold Sparrow. He is also a former roommate of John Krasinski (another Dream Corp executive producer). I recently chatted by phone with Stessen about his new show, highbrow dick jokes, and the singularity.
VICE: How do you explain Dream Corp to people?
Daniel Stessen: It's dream therapy. How I normally pitch it is that traditional therapy can take months or even years to get to the root of an issue. In this case, Dr. Roberts puts you under, and then he drops into your subconscious with you and guides you to the root of your issue. So he can, in real time, wire the issue that you're having. In the pilot, it's impotence. In one episode, the Academy Award–nominated June Squibb comes in to quit smoking. Another is couples therapy, another OCD. But it's not always so straightforward.
Where did the idea for the show come from?
For a bit, I got really into singularity and the concept of living forever inside of a hard drive. Our idea of the future is always so clean and beautiful. No one's ever touched on how we got to that place. There's the Zach Morris phone [an early brick-like |
level, to be successful and make a difference. Further, we have to also realize our student's have their own lives and background. Just like the King, each student has their own world they bring into the classroom. Teacher's must know their students - administrators have to give teachers more time to develop relationships and less time for paperwork and lesson drafting.
4. A Teacher's Belief is what counts.
Passion makes the "great teacher". Passion for their subject but also passion for their students. Lionel truly believed in his student, the king. Truly, 150%. He told him, he kept with him along the struggle to succeed and learn. Never discount the power of a teacher's faith in their student to transform the world. We all remember our homerun teachers. And what made them have such an impact on us, was the faith in us that we felt they had. Research too shows this is more than just emotional snake oil. In blind studies, a teacher's belief in their student's ability (thinking they were teaching a class of high achievers when they were not) increased the student's own scores. Yes, faith can move a marking sheet!
5. Childhood development is crucial in long term success.
"Bertie" experienced a lot of trauma in his development. His "inability" both in stuttering but also (and they are sides of the same coin) emotionally was because of a lack of a proper environment when growing up. We have to continually fight for all students to get the support and nurturing that is required at an early age so they may succeed at school.
A lot of what we see at school - what we call failure and non-achievement is not because of a student's own laziness or inability. It is societal. We don't value the young until it is too late, despite our pronouncements and platitudes. If we put as much money into universal early education and child development as we did Trident subs - we'd have a much different world in our high schools and universities. I kid you not. Look at the damage Bertie suffered. Many will tell you it is just "physical" etc... Don't believe the buggers - it is all about how the child is raised in 95% of cases. We need to follow more, the principles of re-education.
Let's too, also remember how determining environment is for language and literacy development.
If you haven't seen the movie - here's a nice interview to wet your appetite. Enjoy!
This page - has some nice exercises about language using this film.
If you enjoyed this - you might enjoy, "What makes a great teacher?"UPDATED: Executive producers Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman tell THR that "creatively we know what season 5 would be."
Could Fringe live beyond a fourth season?
"There are conversations with both the studio and the network [about possibly going to a season 5]," executive producer Jeff Pinkner tells The Hollywood Reporter. "It is certainly our hope that we have a season 5 and beyond and creatively we know what season 5 would be."
In recent weeks, the heavily mythologized drama has hovered around 3.1 million viewers with a 1.1 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demo, the latter a series low, on Friday evenings. Fox entertainment chief Kevin Reilly even admitted last month that the network was losing money with Fringe. "At that rating, on that night [Fridays], it’s impossible to make money … and we’re not in the business of losing money," Reilly said at the time.
PHOTOS: 17 New Shows Premiering in 2012
Even so, Pinker and fellow executive producer Joel Wyman are forging ahead. "Definitely we feel very confident that we know where we would go, should we be lucky enough," Wyman tells THR. (When asked by THR in early January if a truncated fifth effort or a TV movie presented itself, series star Joshua Jackson was open to the notion.)
It was brought up that Fringe would end its current season having broadcast 88 hours, including the two-hour pilot in September 2008, and if reaching 100 was a significant point.
"I think for all shows that is. I mean 88 is good, but 100 is better," Wyman says. "To Jeff and I, we don't really think about those things. That's for someone else to think about. We just do our show and write our episodes and love our show."
He continued: "We would never want to continue unless we felt that we had something incredibly creative to say and to do. We do and if the powers that be deem it a plausible solution to go forward, then we're thrilled."
On a conference call with reporters late Thursday morning, Wyman said that they "will find out like everybody else" with Pinkner likening the show to The Little Engine That Could.
Fringe airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on Fox.The social ecology of permaculture is well suited to an environment where, rather than being barely tolerated, neurodiversity is actively sought out.
One of the great strengths of Permaculture is its emphasis on diversity. A simple patch of intercropped annuals may have several species with multiple functions. A well-planned forest garden may have a plant species diversity to rival that of a tropical rainforest. It can be made to work everywhere from an urban back garden to a reclaimed industrial plot involving an individual to a couple halfway to the back of beyond to an intentional community of dozens of people. One thing that is too often poorly thought about is how to include, and mutually benefit from, the diversity of human needs and potential contributions.
Here I want to conduct what amounts to a niche analysis, one not dissimilar to a niche analysis for myself, for one broad category of variant neurotype, Asperger syndrome, and describe how such a person’s differences can be of mutual benefit in a permaculture habitat. The specifics won’t be generalizable, but the methods should, I hope, be applicable to the inclusion of other variant neurotypes, from classic Autism to ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and hopefully many others.
On the grounds that I expect my readers do not need to be reminded that I’m a person, I’m going to use identity-first terminology throughout. I identify (and have been formally diagnosed) as an Aspie.
Much existing work on Permaculture, while recognizing that diversity is key in habitat mimicry, still tends to assume that humans are interchangeable. This may be a hangover from modes of thought in existing social monocultures, where an Autie may be judged on how “high-functioning” they are, which is generally code for how well they “pass” as being “normal”. In a Permaculture environment, I propose this is neither necessary nor desirable.
In mainstream society someone whose mode of communication differs from a restrictive “norm”, whose executive function, the processes that regulate planning and action, may be dependent on a less stimulating environment, and whose mode of thinking means that they won’t fit in equally restrictive social boxes, is not only at a disadvantage but may be a disruptive influence. On the other hand these are the same people who disproportionately rule the technology industries, and whose ancestors were working on how to make fire or knap a better arrowhead while their cousins were sitting around nattering.
These are precisely the people needed to work on out-of-the-box solutions in the face of climate disruption and a degrading environment. The same executive function problems that make it difficult to switch from one task to another are an asset when something needs to be finished. The intense focus and ability to understand complex systems is an asset when working out function stacking a forest garden with hundreds of plant species, not to mention running it, and breeding new plant varieties (a job that requires patience and attention to detail) to fit in to a changing environment, while your friends and cousins get on with jobs that require you to not be completely ham-fisted.
Permaculture remains one of those fields where there is a great deal of research to be done – there is a lot of theoretical work on how forest gardens, for example, might work, but very little good research on how they actually function. This is precisely where the Aspie neurotype is its greatest asset.
At the same time, the relatively low-stimulus environment is an asset to the Aspie – and probably even the classic Autistic – for whom the bright, noisy, stinking allistic-oriented world makes us want to shut. it. all. away! Others may do well working with nonhuman animals, who they may understand better than they do other humans (there are those that think as well as you do, but differently).
The extent to which bringing up a child in such an environment is a good idea is more nuanced. In the short term it might work well even, or especially, for a classic Kanner-syndrome Autie. It’s increasingly thought that many classic Autistics simply do badly in an overstimulating environment, but growing up in a forest garden may make it more difficult for them to then adapt to a mainstream environment later. On the other hand, a place with lower cause for anxiety (linked to the entire Autism spectrum) and need to consciously process social information may leave more energy for learning. Meanwhile, such children are often unencumbered not only by prior social assumptions but by the need to keep quiet about insights that don’t fit the mould. Working out that balance is, perhaps, something that needs to be investigated.
Many permies, or at least many smallholders, tend to be a solitary lot, even tending to be reclusive, and many Aspies become reclusive after a lifetime of social rejection. It’s a route I’ve had to make massive efforts not to go down, and I did consider (and rule out) the idea of a permaculture smallholding on my own. Others, more often experimenting with urban systems, are more sociable: the type to do an afternoon’s planting followed by an evening in the pub. Neither are particularly compatible with Mollison’s idealized social model. Some intentional communities come closer but, writing as an Aspie, the required social interaction may be too much for many autistics, and autistic modes of interaction many be equally confusing, even off-putting, to many allistics. This is something it might benefit all sides to overcome. Social polycultures would benefit anything from a partnership to an intentional community.
In my experience the single biggest barrier is going to be communication. Variation in neurotype seems to lend itself to different communication styles. I’m good – apparently – in writing, can be competent face-to-face provided I’m aware of my limitations (and, preferably, others are aware of them too) and am a dismal failure in group situations, for a whole host of reasons. Communities would need to learn to make allowances for this, and this is the kind of skill that could be shared between them, not in the sense of “how do you deal with your Aspie”, which is what often happens, but how to translate communication styles.
It may be valuable to conduct similar exercises for other variant neurotypes. Rather than drugging someone with ADHD up to the eyeballs in order to make them look neurotypical, some might be able to be more themselves where they can feedtheducks-pickfruit-makejam-pickthesalad-makelunch-checkonthebees…, especially where they can have lots of conversations. It’s not going to work for everybody. Not all Aspies are the same, and the same solution won’t fit all of us, any more than there is a single size for all neurotypicals, but that’s what niche analysis is all about. It’s not about diversity for the sake of it, but about greater diversity providing greater stability provided the right niches are found. The system will be more likely to be disrupted if everyone is not in a suitable niche, for many reasons too long to go into here, and that goes for the more neurologically typical as well. In that sense it’s not even about a diagnosis, but valuing difference. “Fair share” and “people care” has to mean everybody, not everybody in a monoculture. The social ecology of permaculture is well suited to an environment where, rather than being barely tolerated, neurodiversity is actively sought out.As Politico’s Laura Rozen points out, there is a remarkable moment of black comedy in the Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari’s personal account of his recent captivity and interrogation in Tehran’s Evin prison. Mr. Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian filmmaker and writer whose detention we discussed last month on The Lede, writes that during his confinement, at one point his interrogator asked him to explain his appearance in a fake news report (embedded above) that was filmed by Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in the run-up to June’s disputed presidential election.
Mr. Bahari’s account of his 118 days in captivity offers a fascinating insight into the government’s attempts to understand and stifle the dissent that followed the election. It is often a harrowing read, but his description of being pressed about the meaning of his appearance on “The Daily Show,” in addition to being absurd, points to the apparent difficulty his interrogators had in distinguishing between the work of spies and the work of journalists. Mr. Bahari, who calls his main interrogator “Mr. Rosewater” because of the cologne he wore, recalls:
I saw the flicker of a laptop monitor under my blindfold. Then I heard someone speaking. It was a recording of another prisoner’s confession. “It’s not that one,” said the second interrogator. “It’s the one marked ‘Spy in coffee shop.’ ” Mr. Rosewater fumbled with the computer. The other man stepped in to change the DVD. And then I heard the voice of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Only a few weeks earlier, hundreds of foreign reporters had been allowed into the country in the run-up to the election. Among them was Jason Jones, a “correspondent” for Stewart’s satirical news program. Jason interviewed me in a Tehran coffee shop, pretending to be a thick-skulled American. He dressed like some character out of a B movie about mercenaries in the Middle East—with a checkered Palestinian kaffiyeh around his neck and dark sunglasses. The “interview” was very short. Jason asked me why Iran was evil. I answered that Iran was not evil. I added that, as a matter of fact, Iran and America shared many enemies and interests in common. But the interrogators weren’t interested in what I was saying. They were fixated on Jason. “Why is this American dressed like a spy, Mr. Bahari?” asked the new man. “He is pretending to be a spy. It’s part of a comedy show,” I answered. “Tell the truth!” Mr. Rosewater shouted. “What is so funny about sitting in a coffee shop with a kaffiyeh and sunglasses?” “It’s just a joke. Nothing serious. It’s stupid.” I was getting worried. “I hope you are not suggesting that he is a real spy.” “Can you tell us why an American journalist pretending to be a spy has chosen you to interview?” asked the man with the creases. …
That same satirical “Daily Show” report also included an interview with Muhammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice president, who was sentenced last week to six years in prison “for crimes against internal national security, propaganda against the Islamic republic, insulting the president and creating public disorder by his presence at illegal protests,” according to a Web site on Iran monitored by my colleague Michael Slackman.
Another of the comedy program’s reports from Iran this summer included an interview with a young man in Tehran who said he was familiar with it, so “The Daily Show” is not unknown in Iran, even if the regime members who interrogated Mr. Bahari failed to see its humor.
In addition to telling his story in Newsweek, Mr. Bahari discussed his interrogation in an interview with Bob Simon on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.” That interview, which was broadcast on Sunday, is embedded below.
During the interview, Mr. Bahari screened some of the video he shot of the post-election demonstrations. His recordings include images of protesters being shot and killed during a confrontation with members of Iran’s Basij militia on June 15, after the first huge post-election protest rally in Tehran.
Mr. Bahari also told CBS that his fears for his personal safety were made worse by the fact that his interrogator was so completely ignorant of his work that he described Newsweek as an intelligence service and had a strange fixation with one American state, New Jersey:
He was fascinated with New Jersey. I think the words New Jersey sounded to him like the most American place that you can be in your life. Because he thought of New Jersey as kind of like paradise. To him, he had to suffer on this world in order to go to paradise — in order to drink wine and have sex with at least 72 virgins and then others if he wanted to… He hated me and he was jealous of me at the same time, because I had been to New Jersey. And then, I thought to myself, ‘Maziar, you are screwed, because these guys are in charge of your life and they are stupid, they are ignorant.’
After 118 days, Mr. Bahari was finally released after he made a forced confession, which is also shown in the “60 Minutes” interview. Having left Iran, he told CBS that he firmly believes something fundamental has changed there. “Since the election,” he told Mr. Simon, “we can say that Iran is not a clerical regime anymore, it’s a military regime — because instead of clerics, it’s the military, the Revolutionary Guards, who are in power.”DENVER (Reuters) - Cold-case detectives seeking to solve the 1984 killing of three family members inside their Colorado home released on Thursday a computer-generated image of a suspect based on DNA left behind by the killer at the scene of the crime.
A sketch of a murder suspect as he might look today based on DNA left behind by the killer at the crime scene in 1984 is seen in an image released by the Aurora, Colorado, Police Department. Aurora Police Department/Handout via Reuters
Police in the Denver suburb of Aurora have been stymied for 32 years in their efforts to find the person responsible for the stabbing and beating deaths of Bruce Bennett, 27, his wife, Debra, 26, their 7-year-old daughter, Melissa, and the beating of their 3-year-old daughter, Vanessa, who survived.
Employing DNA phenotyping, a technology company crafted a rendering of the suspect as he likely would have appeared at about age 25. The company also developed an age-enhanced image of how he might look today, police said in a statement.
The traits derived from the DNA can predict a person’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling and face shape, police said.
“This is the first time we have had some idea of who we’re looking for,” Aurora Police Department Detective Steve Conner said. “He is no longer invisible.”
Sometime between 9 p.m. on Jan. 15, 1984, and 10 a.m. the next day, the killer entered the Bennett home and bludgeoned the family with a hammer and knife.
The couple died of “blunt force trauma” from the hammer attack, and Bruce and Melissa Bennett also suffered multiple stab wounds, police said. The intruder sexually assaulted Melissa Bennett.
The assailant left DNA at the crime scene and Conner said samples had been submitted to national and international national databases. But no match that could identify a suspect has turned up.
The same person has been linked through DNA to the killing of a woman in the Denver suburb of Lakewood five days before the Aurora slayings, Conner said.
Conner said several other U.S. law enforcement agencies had used the technology developed by companies such as Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, which created the images for Aurora, to aid in identifying criminal suspects.
While the renderings can provide an approximation of a person’s appearance, it cannot take into account things that could alter someone’s looks, such as smoking and scarring.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced plans that will speed up the development and market adoption of core autonomous vehicle technologies. Recent talk has surrounded the abilities of Tesla, Uber and Google to put a fully autonomous vehicle on the road before 2020, but a larger questions remains. When will the average consumer, who can't afford a Tesla, get an autonomous car? Well, NHTSA's strategy may be the catalyst that puts an autonomous car in your garage sooner than originally anticipated. Insights into market adoption, roadway safety and more ahead.
On Tuesday, Dec. 8th, NHTSA announced plans to update their New Car Assessment Program (NCAP, 5-star safety rating) that according to Sec. Anthony Foxx will, "... provide more and better information to new-vehicle shoppers that will help accelerate the technology innovations that saves lives." Essentially, NHTSA plans to directly incorporate new crash avoidance technologies, such as automatic emergency braking, into a vehicle's 5-star safety rating that consumers see on the vehicle's window sticker. For example, if a car does not have automatic emergency braking then it may receive a 4-star safety rating instead of a 5-star safety rating.
This strategy from NHTSA comes after both research and insurance data shows that new technologies have legitimate safety benefits. Just recently, ten auto-manufacturers stated that they intend to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature on all of their vehicles in the US.
While automatic emergency braking may be the crash avoidance technology in the limelight today, NHTSA's strategy opens up the playing field for other technologies, everything from blindspot detection to V2V communication technologies, to be developed further and faster, fueled by consumer demand for a safer car. This is because NHTSA's strategy directly links the technology's effectiveness to the consumer's perceived safety (5-star rating) of the vehicle.
Consumers should care about vehicle safety. More than 30,000 vehicle fatalities occur in the US each year. Vehicles deaths are the leading cause of death for teenagers and 20 year olds (#1 killer of our future generation). Between 1998 ans 2007, US roadways were more deadly than the battlefield in WWII (>420,000 deaths). Vehicle crashes also cause 200+ billion dollars worth of direct economic damage each year (this number approaches 900 billion dollars worth of damage if you include quality of life and other factors). Roadway safety is a complex issue that is not easily solved, but consumer demand for smarter and safer vehicles could lead to greatly improved roadway safety.
In the past, consumer demand coupled with NHTSA's safety ratings and recommendations have led to luxury/expensive/optional safety features becoming standard safety features. Examples are airbags, ABS, ESC, and back up cameras. If history is any indication of the future, then crash avoidance features will follow a similar trend (dependent on the technology's effectiveness).
But how do autonomous vehicles play into this?
Consumer demand for safer vehicles will only increase the pace of development for autonomous vehicles. Core technologies being developed for crash avoidance technology is essentially the same technology used in autonomous vehicles. In fact, it is widely known that autonomous vehicles have very few issues driving in most conditions (i.e. Google car, Delphi Audi, Telsa Autopilot). It is the complex city streets and changing environmental conditions that are hardest for autonomous vehicles to navigate (and prevent collisions). This is where better and faster development of crash avoidance technologies will accelerate the development of autonomous vehicles. Crash avoidance technology face many of the same challenges that autonomous vehicle face (i.e. being able to work in crowded city streets). Advancement in crash avoidance tech will lead to advancement in autonomous tech.
NHTSA's potential ruling may be focused on increasing safety, but is also allows consumer demand to determine the pace of autonomous vehicle development. If consumer demand safer cars that actively prevent crashes, then autonomous vehicles may not be as far away as some think.
Larger Context of Safety Ratings and Crash Avoidance Tech:
The IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) in the US already includes crash avoidance tech in their safety recommendations. Other countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Australia, and Japan already include crash avoidance tech in their own version of the 5-star safety rating. Results of this strategy in other countries have been positive. The recent proposal by NHTSA will contribute positively to the global development of safer vehicles and better technologies.
Background on the Author:
Garrett Dowd was sponsored by ASME to develop federal policy recommendations for crash avoidance tech and autonomous vehicles through the W.I.S.E program. These recommendations included the direct integration of crash avoidance tech into NHTSA's NCAP 5-star safety rating. His policy recommendation paper can be viewed here. Garrett has also previously worked for multinational companies in the area of next-gen transportation. This includes working on a personal electric vehicle prototype in Seoul, Korea and motion planning for an autonomous vehicle in Bangalore, India.
Follow him on Twitter @iamgarrettdowdThe entire set of Dragons of Tarkir is officially spoiled now so what better time for a cube review. This cube review will be a bit different than my last one because I personally don’t see ten cards worth pointing out and I am not an expert on “pauper” or “peasant” cubes. This review is for small to large powered lists, so lets begin!
Elder Dragon/Dragonlord Command Cycle:
I personally do not plan on running any of the commands due to the size of my cube. I predict that larger cubes are going to test some of them out but I’m not going to claim that any of the commands will be staples by any means.
Recommended deck(s)/Archetype(s):
Mostly Control
2 CMC Megamorph Cycle:
Several people have been talking about the cycle of the two-drop Megamorph creatures in Dragons of Tarkir, but to be honest, I’m unsure why anyone would consider them unless they (and their playgroup) are really into morph period. I personally am not a fan, I don’t even know any other players who like morph… So why are people talking about adding them to their cube? Some of the critters have some neat effects and all but it isn’t worth all the trouble of paying three mana to place them face down as a 2/2 and then playing one to three extra mana to turn them face up just to get their narrow effects… No thank you! Some could argue that the cards are decent as two-drops but, without their “Megamorph” mechanic (which isn’t that great), they are no better than most commons and un-commons… and they sure aren’t any better than any card already in most of our cube lists.
Recommended deck(s)/archetype(s):
Morph based decks
Control
Aggro
Or no deck is good if you catch what I’m saying
Myth Realized:
Here is a card that I could see myself testing out. I’m a fan of control and prowess and this card seems decent enough to test out. Myth Realized is kind of like the Shrine cycle in New Phyrezia (which were fun) when it comes to gaining counters and from time to time, Shrine of Burning Rage still finds its way into my cube. I will be testing Myth Realized out.
Recommended deck(s)/archetype(s):
Control
Spells Matter
Dragon Hunter:
Another 2/1 for one (Man, WotC have seriously been pushing 2/*’s for one mana). At this point, we have been getting way too many 2/1’s and 2/2’s for one so it’s time to start replacing old for new, that is, if they are better. Yeah, a protection from dragons is meh but it has more uses than an Elite Vanguard if you catch my drift. Dragon Hunter does have some dragons to face off with in some cubes like Sarkhan and Thundermaw. Stormbreath, however, still gets past little Baneslayer.
Recommended deck(s)/arechetype(s):
White Weenie
Aggro
Anti Dragons! (wasn’t a thing until now since Baneslayer and this guy exist in cube)
Zurgo Bellstriker:
Most of us will be adding little Zurgo for obvious reasons. I have discussed this card in former posts but for those of you who haven’t read those posts, here is what’s been said:
“Oh, little Zurgo. Yeah, his fate is a sad one (a bell ringer) but for most of us, Zurgo will be an auto include. I don’t have to go into much detail as to why. He is one (R) for a 2/2 and he can block 1/1 creatures. What excites me about him is the dash ability which gives him a better chance to be played late game after a board-wipe or added damage in combat. Over all, a great one drop.”
Recommended deck(s)/archetype(s):
Aggro
This concludes my powered cube review of Dragons of Tarkir. Hope you found some of it useful while making decisions. Click follow at the top of the page if you are interested in future posts on cube and other MTG related posts.
Thanks for your time and have fun at the prelease of Dragons of Tarkir! –Hanzelgravey
AdvertisementsIf you thought chronic lateness was a wacky diagnosis, wait till you hear about a condition dubbed Foreign Accent Syndrome.
This rare disorder boils down to the fact that, for some reason, people lose their native accent and acquire a foreign one instead. What's more, they are unable to shake it off.
According to Daily Mail, this is precisely what happened to 38-year-old Sarah Colwill from Plymouth.
In March 2010, the woman reportedly went to sleep only to wake up and find that she had somehow acquired a Chinese accent overnight.
The same source tells us that this condition is incredibly rare. More precisely, only 61 cases were confirmed between the years 1941 and 2012.
Researchers are still unable to say what causes it. In Sarah Colwill's case, it is possible that her regular migraines (i.e. about 10 per month) had a say in the matter.
The 38-year-old woman's story will be detailed in a BBC documentary scheduled to air this Tuesday at 10:35 local time. The documentary is titled “The Woman Who Woke Up Chinese.”The Opposites Attract survey has confirmed people living with HIV with undetectable viral loads cannot transmit the virus.
The world’s largest study on HIV transmission has proved HIV+ men with undetectable viral loads cannot transmit HIV to their sexual partners.
The results from the Opposites Attract study were presented today at the IAS Conference on HIV Science in Paris.
Couples who participated in the study had different HIV statues – one of the men was living with HIV, while the other was HIV negative.
During the study, the men participated 17,000 acts of anal sex without a condom. None of those acts resulted in HIV transmission.
The University of New South Wales’ The Kirby Institute carried out the Opposites Attract study.
‘Undetectable virus level effectively prevents HIV transmission among gay couples,’ said the Kirby Institute’s Professor Andrew Grulich.
‘Opposites Attract is the first study to show that these results apply in both high and middle income countries.
‘Our research adds to the evidence from a small number of other international studies of heterosexual and homosexual couples and means that we can say, with confidence, that effectively treated HIV blocks transmission in couples of differing HIV status.’
HIV treatment works by suppressing the level of virus in a person living with HIV’s body. The treatment works so the immune system damage is halted and even reversed.
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A life changing result
The results show when an undetectable viral load is maintained, the risk of HIV transmission is negligible.
‘This is life-changing news for couples of differing HIV status,’ said Grulich.
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Opposites Attract involved 358 gay couples from Thailand, Brazil and Australia over four years from 2012–2016.
Stakeholders in the study included HIV/AIDS organizations in the countries where the couples lived. They argued this conclusive evidence will help end stigma for people living with HIV.
‘The results of the Opposites Attract study have important implications for serodiscordant couples in Brazil, and all around the world,’ said Dr Beatriz Grinsztejn from Brazil’s Evandro Chagas Clinical Research Institute.
‘Opposites Attract has shown us… an important finding that will help to break down stigma associated with living with HIV.
‘These results strengthen the argument for treatment as prevention and provide couples with options when it comes to negotiating safe sex.’First two design types of the eagle coin with Turban Head obverse (Liberty's hair wrapped around a Phrygian cap) and both small eagle (top) and heraldic eagle (bottom) reverses.
The eagle was a United States $10 gold coin issued by the United States Mint from 1792 to 1933.
The eagle was the largest of the five main decimal base-units of denomination used for circulating coinage in the United States prior to 1933, the year when gold was withdrawn from circulation. These five main base-units of denomination were the mill, the cent, the dime, the dollar, and the eagle, where a dime is 10 cents, a dollar is 10 dimes, and an eagle is 10 dollars. The eagle base-unit of denomination served as the basis of the gold quarter-eagle (US$ 2.50), the gold half-eagle (US $5), the eagle (US $10), and the double-eagle coins (US $20).
With the exceptions of the gold dollar coin, the gold three-dollar coin, the three-cent nickel, and the five-cent nickel, the unit of denomination of coinage prior to 1933 was conceptually linked to the precious or semi-precious metal that constituted a majority of the alloy used in that coin. In this regard the United States followed long-standing European practice of different base-unit denominations for different precious and semi-precious metals. In the United States, the cent was the base-unit of denomination in copper. The dime and dollar were the base-units of denomination in silver. The eagle was the base-unit of denomination in gold although, unlike "cent", "dime" (or "disme"), and "dollar", gold coins never specified their denomination in units of "eagles". Thus, a double eagle showed its value as "twenty dollars" rather than "two eagles".
The United States' circulating eagle denomination from the late 18th century to first third of the 20th century should not be confused with the American Eagle bullion coins which are manufactured from silver or gold (since 1986), or platinum (since 1997).
Years of production, and composition [ edit ]
Each of the five remaining design types: (1) 1839 Liberty Head (old), (2) 1865 Liberty Head (new), (3) 1866 Liberty Head (new, motto), (4) 1907 Indian Head (no motto), and (5) 1908 Indian Head (motto)
22 karat "standard" gold [ edit ]
Gold eagles were issued for circulation by the United States Mint from 1795–1933, half eagles from 1795–1929, quarter eagles from 1796–1929, and double eagles from 1850–1933, with occasional production gaps for each type. The diameter of eagles was 27 mm, half eagles 21 mm, quarter eagles 17 mm, and double eagles 34 mm.
Originally the purity of all circulating gold coins in the United States was eleven twelfths pure gold (the same 22 karats level as English crown gold) and one twelfth alloy. Under U.S. law, the alloy was composed only of silver and copper, with silver limited to no more than half of the alloy by weight. Thus, U.S. gold coins had 22/24 (22 kt or 91.667%) pure gold, at most 1/24 (0–4.167%) silver, with the remaining one–two 24ths (4.167–8.333%) copper.[1]
The weight of circulating, standard gold, eagles was set at 270 grains (17.5 g), half eagles at 135 grains (8.75 g), quarter eagles at 67.5 grains (4.37 g). This resulted in the eagle containing 0.5156 troy ounces (16.04 g) of pure gold.
Gold content lowered to 89.92% (1834) [ edit ]
In 1834, the mint's 15:1 legal valuation of gold to silver (i.e. 15 weight units of silver and 1 weight unit of gold have the same legal monetary value) was changed to 16:1, and the metal weight-content standards for both gold and silver coins were changed, because at the old value ratio and weight content, it was profitable to export and melt U.S gold coins. As a result, the specification for standard gold was lowered from 22 karat (.9167 fine) to.8992 fine (21.58 kt).
Gold content raised to 90.0% (1837) [ edit ]
In 1837 a small change in the fineness of the gold (increased to exactly.900 fine) was made, and the alloy (now 10% of the coin's weight) was again legally defined as silver and copper, with silver capped at no more than half.[2] (i.e. 5% of total coin weight) The new 1837 standard for the eagle was 258 grains (16.7 g) of.900 fine gold, with other coins proportionately sized.
Between 1838 and 1840, the silver content was reduced to zero—the eagle in 1838, half eagle in 1839, and quarter eagle in 1840,[3]—resulting in U.S. gold coins being 90% gold and 10% copper. Using only copper as the alloy in gold coins matched longstanding English practice (see crown gold).[4] The 1837 standard resulted in a gold content of only 0.9675 troy ounces of gold per double eagle and 0.48375 troy ounces for the eagle. It would be used for all circulating gold coins until U.S. gold coin circulation was halted in 1933.
Post-1982 eagle modern commemorative coins [ edit ]
As part of its Modern United States commemorative coins program the United States mint has issued several commemorative eagle coins |
very well could have developed into one or two more goals. Pareja’s style is clearly about attacking evident by his late game substitution of an attacker rather than holding the lead with a defender. I understand it was the first match and the teams played like it. But the Rapids did get 3 points of a possible 102 in the season (hey one can hope you go undefeated-can’t they?) and look to build off their opening day win with a trip to PPL Park.
Hopefully the journey to the east brings back another three points so the club can continue to focus on adjusting to the 4-3-3 lineup, with Hunter Freeman now practicing at 100% and Pablo being cleared from a knock to the head the Rapids look as strong as any Western Conference powerhouse right now. But its still early in the season and some teams can flutter into the summer months. Lets hope the boys stay at full health and continue to develop and adjust to Pareja and his style.Hullabaloo
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Rolling The Dice
by digby
From what I can gather, this climate change pseudo-scandal is going to be with us for a while so if you haven't delved into it in any detail, it's probably a good idea to do so. The number of Inhoffian cretins bellowing on TV about hoaxes is growing by the hour. This article by Brad Plumer seems to be a good place to start.
Meanwhile, here's an example of how the issue is being handled by talking heads on television:
SUZANNE MALVEAUX: What can the president do on this issue, James?
JAMES CARVILLE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, unfortunately, I hope I'm wrong, but not very much. And I hope that talk radio and the pollution lobby are right that global warming is not a problem, and 940 peer reviewed scientific articles are wrong. That's about all we can hope for, because right now, I have to tell you that the pollution lobby and talk radio is winning this battle. And the will in the United States to do something about this is not what I think it should be, but that's the reality of the political situation, as I see it right now.
MALVEAUX: Ben, does -- is James right? Does the president have any power to move the ball forward here if he goes to this summit?
BEN STEIN, COLUMNIST, "FORTUNE" Well, calling the people who want to keep Americans free to use the kind of energy they want to use the "pollution lobby" is a wild smear, and I'm very surprised to hear someone as good natured and kindly as James say it. But it's not the pollution lobby, it's a lobby for the truth.
The truth is that the global temperature peaked around 1998. It has not gotten any hotter. Instead, it's gotten cooler.
The truth is that there have been periods in the past a thousand years ago, 2,500 years ago, when it's been warmer than it is now, when there was no manmade burning of carbon. The truth is that we do not know the exact interaction between all these events and effects and what they do to weather.
The truth is we cannot predict the weather three days from now. To say we can predict it in 2030 or 2080 begs (ph) the imagination. It's just unbelievable.
The truth is we've now got a lot of data coming out that the scientific community around the side of anthropogenic global warming were cooking the data and were suppressing data to those who are questioning their data. So I think the whole thing of fighting global warming may be based on a false premise. Maybe it isn't, but the fact is we just don't know at this point.
MALVEAUX: What the truth, is too, is that Americans are divided politically over this issue. If you look at the poll, "Washington Post"/ABC News here, among Republicans, 54 percent believe that global warming is really happening, but Democrats, 86 percent believe that it is really -- it is taking place here.
CARVILLE: Look, again, I hope that talk radio and the pollution lobby is right, because I -- but I'm afraid that 950-something peer reviewed scientific articles and almost the entirety of the non-paid-for by people that study this think that climate change is real.
I hope they are wrong for the sake of my children. And it seems as though that they've spent a lot of money and have been very successful here.
MALVEAUX: Well, what do you make of that, Ben? Do you think it's just a lobbying effort?
STEIN: Actually, no, there are huge number of scientists who are questioning that. I mean, you say 950 peer reviewed articles. We now learn that the peers are in a kind of cabal -- not all of them, but some of them are in a kind of cabal to suppress any information that challenges the consensus on global warming and the manmade effects on the climate.
There are many, many scientists not paid for by the energy companies. In fact, the energy companies pretty much have backed off and washed their hands of this. They find they just don't want to question the conventional wisdom on this. This is being done, this questioning about the effects of manmade activity on the climate, is being done just by brave independent souls, and it's just not proved.
MALVEAUX: Well, we could debate whether or not this is real or not, but I covered Bush for eight years, and he said that global warming did not exist, that science didn't back it up. But here's a poll that shows that a lot more people are actually agreeing with the former president.
Three and a half years ago, 76 percent of Republicans believed it was happening. Well, now it's down to 54 percent.
Take a look at the Independents. Eighty-six percent thought it was happening. Now it's down to 71 percent.
Democrats, 92 percent. Now it is down to 86 percent.
Is that not going to make it even harder for the president to convince the rest of the world that we need some sort of global initiative here?
CARVILLE: Yes.
MALVEAUX: Climate change?
CARVILLE: The answer is yes.
MALVEAUX: What does he do?
CARVILLE: The pollution lobby is winning. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and they are winning.
MALVEAUX: So what does he do? What does the president do, James?
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: If you could give him some sort of advice, could you advise the president? What does he need to do if he's going to change this and is going to turn it around, or is it hopeless?
CARVILLE: Well, I don't know if it's hopeless. Still, you've got a good majority of the people believing that.
And in the end, scientific truth is going to win out. But right now, you've got to say ExxonMobil was paying tens of thousands of dollars for any "scientist" that would dispute these facts. And over a period of time, this is building up and they are winning.
I don't know why you're not happy about it, Ben.
STEIN: Well, you know, James, with all due respect, I hate to say this because I respect you very much and always love it when I'm on with you, but you just made that up about ExxonMobil. They are not paying tens of thousands of dollars to any scientists...
CARVILLE: Sure they did. They did.
STEIN:... who will dispute global warming. This is a cabal of global warming -- anthropogenic global scientists who are suppressing anyone questioning them.
It's not the pollution lobby versus the clean air lobby. It's the truth lobby versus those who want to suppress the truth lobby. Look, I don't like pollution either. I don't like those little microparticles that go up in the air and they get in my lungs and they cause cancer. But whether or not -- and I'm all for cleansing the air of as much as possible. But whether or not manmade activity is changing the climate of the Earth, that is very much in dispute, and whether or not we should have giant global policies based on suppressing something which may be a hoax, that's very much up in the air.
CARVILLE: It's very much not very up in the air by the scientific community. But, again, nobody is suppressing it. You're right here saying this, and you all are winning.
The scientific community and the evidence is losing, and that happens. You know? It happens.
He's right. The "skeptics" didn't want to hear Galileo either. Of course, Galileo didn't observe a massive man made phenomenon that would fundamentally alter the way humans live on the planet (if they can live at all.)
For the sake of future generations I hope they're right too. But I can't for the life of me understand why they are so hellbent on taking the risk that they're not. The only thing I can conclude is that they love their gashogs and fighting wars more than they love their own children.
* And notice the tack Malveaux takes. If Americans don't believe it, does that mean it isn't true?
.
digby 11/29/2009 05:00:00 PMWWE News
WWE NEWS: Where is Santino? And when is he returning?
Aug 28, 2013 - 2:13:22 PM
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO BOOKMARK US & VISIT US DAILY
By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor
WWE wrestler Santino Marella says he should be returning to WWE TV either next week on Raw or the week after on September 9 in his home-area of Toronto.
"Whether it’s the 2nd or the 9th, I don’t know," Santino said on the Live Audio Wrestling Show last weekend. "I’m hoping it’s the 9th, because it’ll be a homecoming for me, born and raised in Mississauga (Ont., Canada). I would love to hear my music start, and just see the faces of these Torontonians going berzerk. One, because they appreciate the comedy. Two, because there are actually a lot of Italians in Toronto. Plus, I’ll have family and friends in the audience, and that will be a real special moment for me."
Santino said he has been off TV rehabbing his entire body after his neck was in "bad" condition in March, plus he re-negotiated his contract last year to take time off to spend with his family and build his new Battle Arts Academy in Mississauga.
"I basically had several things wrong with my neck; bulging discs, herniated discs, stenosis, degenerating discs, but the one thing that was bugging me at the time was arthritis," Santino told LAW hosts Dan Lovranski and John Pollock.
"When I renegotiated my contract a year ago, I wanted a little bit of time off just to heal my entire body, spend a little time with my family and live a little bit of life. When you’re successful and you’re doing well, you’re really five days a week, six days a week. Sometimes you won’t be home for two or three weeks."
[ LINK: Santino's full interview can be heard HERE at FightNetwork.com ]
[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]
CLICK HERE FOR EVEN MORE PW.NET HEADLINESGUWAHATI: What’s seen as endorsing the UPA government’s proposed Indo-Bangladesh land swap deal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that his government will go ahead with the Indo-Bangladesh land deal to put an end to infiltration from Bangladesh Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Assam, said while the deal may result in short-term loss, the country will gain in the long term and Assam’s interest will be protected. Interestingly, BJP had earlier opposed the deal.“I assure you that there will be no compromise on Assam’s security. I am aware of the sentiment of the people of Assam regarding the land swap deal, and assure you that it will be done for a permanent solution.”He added that infiltrators from Bangladesh cannot enter India. “I will use the deal to Assam’s interest.” UPA government had introduced Constitution Amendment Bill to facilitate swapping of land enclaves with Bangladesh in the Rajya Sabha last year. However, there was stout opposition to the bill from some political parties and NGOs in the northeast.Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had, prior to the Lok Sabha polls, defended the transfer of land between India and Bangladesh on the ground that the state stands to gain from it despite the fact that the map of Assam will be redrawn.Gogoi said around 698.85 acres of Assam’s land are under the possession of Bangladesh. “Bangladesh will get around 268 acres, and the rest will remain with Assam. Assam will gain 397.5 acres of land from the neighbouring country.”Modi, who is on a maiden visit to Assam after assuming power, said everything will be done for the development and job generation in the North-East. “PSU banks are working hard now. Every week, one crore bank accounts are being opened. Earlier, one crore accounts were opened not even in a month, but in a year.”The PM had pitched for the creation of a “SMART” police force which would be strict yet sensitive; modern and mobile; alert and accountable; reliable and responsive; techno-savvy and trained.Alexandre Pato sits forward in his seat and stares intently at the big screen. Anthony Martial has just opened the scoring for Manchester United in Wolfsburg and the Brazilian striker is suddenly full of questions. He wants to know when Martial arrived at Old Trafford, how many goals he has scored, how good he really is, whether he is worth the money.
Pato talks about Wayne Rooney, too. He is sorry Rooney is not playing. He is a big admirer of the United forward. He doesn’t understand the criticism of him. He says it is up to others to get the ball to him. He says the England captain is a number nine, not a number ten. Form may be temporary but class is permanent – that is his message.
Pato’s attention never drifts away from the screen. After three years of playing in Brazil and restoring his reputation as one of the best talents in football, the Champions League represents everything he yearns for. It symbolises the career he left behind when he moved from AC Milan to Corinthians three years ago and the career he now wants to recapture.
Alexandre Pato expressed his desire to play in England and return to the Champions League
‘One day I will come here again and hear the Champions League music,’ Pato says as he watches the game. ‘I remember my first time in the Champions League. I was 18 and it was Arsenal against Milan at The Emirates.
‘The night before, I remember I put my music on my iPod. I was lying in bed and I listened to the Champions League music. That was my Champions League debut, my first time. It was beautiful. When I went out onto the pitch it was just “wow”.’
Pato scored 26 goals in 59 matches last season while on loan to Sao Paulo, firing them into next season’s Libertadores Cup and reviving memories of the time when he was regarded as one of the most exciting young players in the world before injuries halted his progress at the San Siro.
He was heavily linked with a move to Manchester United last summer and his return to form has led to speculation that top English teams could move for him in January. With the Premier League title race wide open, it is possible leading clubs might consider the likely £15m asking price for the Brazilian a risk worth taking.
Pato watches Manchester United take on Wolfsburg while being interviewed in London this week
Mail on Sunday chief sports writer Oliver Holt interviewed the Brazil international striker
BRAZILIANS IN ENGLAND Mirandinha was the first Brazilian to find his way to England when he joined Newcastle in 1987 — he wasn’t a roaring success on Tyneside and few of his compatriots who followed him have found Premier League life easy. For every hit — Juninho at Middlesbrough, the Arsenal pair of Edu and Gilberto Silva and Manchester United’s Rafael — there have been many more misses, notably Roque Junior at Leeds, Kleberson at United and Jo at City. There are currently 12 Brazilians playing in the Premier League with Chelsea boasting four of them, Oscar, Willian, Ramires and Kenedy.
Pato is open to the idea of a move to England. This is the first interview he has ever given in English, which is a heavy enough hint about where he wants to play. He has one year left on his contract at Corinthians but it is thought the Brazilian champions would be open to the idea of selling him if they can find a buyer.
‘Before I came to Italy to play for Milan in 2007, I saw in the papers that my name was mentioned in connection with some English clubs. I was told Chelsea were interested then but my dream was to play with Ronaldo. When Milan called my manager, I wanted to go there to make my dreams of playing with Ronaldo and Maldini come true. But one day I knew I would like to come to England because I think the championship is the number one in the world. It is very competitive.
‘I like the emotion in the English league. You look at the TV and you see the stadium and the fans. I remember that when we played Arsenal, they were very strong and very fast. My special thing is my speed. I’m fast. I think that’s good because the football here is very quick.
‘I don’t think the physical part of English football would be a problem. When you get the ball, you need to be ready. The defenders here are very tough but I like that. I have spoken to Willian, Firmino, Coutinho and David Luiz before. I think Brazilian players can play here. You mix talent and intelligence and Brazilian players can play here.
Pato has returned back to South America and Sao Paulo after his spell in Europe with AC Milan
Pato, pictured playing with David Beckham, came to Europe with a big reputation and high expectations
Pato says he wants to play in England in the future
‘When I see my friends like Willian here, I am happy. It is difficult to play here because there is much contact. It would be a new challenge but it’s soccer, no? There is a ball. It is the same all over the world. Talent is a feeling that you want to play.’
Pato is still only 26. There is a boyish charm about him that has survived his struggles to get back to the point where he was being mentioned in the same breath as the world’s great stars. His enthusiasm for the game is undiminished. His confidence has been rebooted.
The youngest of three children, he grew up in a poor neighbourhood of Pato Branco, 500 miles south west of Sao Paulo. Pato Branco translates as White Duck and Pato takes his nickname from the city of his birth. His father, Geraldo, earned £170 a month working for the city council as a topographer, measuring the roads for the construction department. Pato and the rest of his family slept in one small room.
When he was 11, Pato was offered the chance to join the youth system at SC Internacional in Porto Alegre. Even then, he knew he had to take the opportunity for the sake of his family. ‘We were poor,’ he says. ‘My father worked all the time for my family. So I told my father and my mother that I needed to go. I had my chance to be a football player.
‘My father and mother both cried. My mother said: “No, stay”. But I said I had to go. It was a choice I had to make to change everything. It was a chance to create a new life for my family and I did it for the love of my family. When I was 16 and I signed my first contract, I was able to buy their first apartment, their first home. It was very tough before that.
‘Now things are perfect. I was able to pay for my brother, Alexsandro, and my sister, Gisele, to finish school and go to university and my mum went to university in Pato Branco, too, to study finance.’
The Brazilian celebrates after scoring a goal against Belarus during the London 2012 Olympic Games
Pato does not need money any more but he has rediscovered his taste for success. If he can be the player he once was at Milan, then he would be another exciting addition to the Premier League. Milan signed him as a 17-year-old from Internacional, of Porto Alegre, for £20m in 2007 and Pato exploded into Serie A with frightening pace and brilliant close control.
In his first season, he played as one of a glorious triumvirate of attacking Brazilians alongside Ronaldo and Kaka, with Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo behind them in midfield. Later, when Robinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived at the club, Pato won the Serie A title in 2010-11. Then, as the strains of the game started to tell on Pato’s young body, the injuries began to take their toll.
He still enjoyed his time in Milan. He smiles when he thinks of playing with David Beckham when the former England captain was on loan at the San Siro. ‘Before his first game,’ Pato says, ‘I looked for Beckham and said “when you have the ball, look up and look for me”.’ Pato makes a gesture to suggest he would be running fast to get on to a pass. ‘Every game, I said the same thing to Beckham and Ronaldinho.’
The Brazilian domestic season ended last weekend and Pato is spending time in London and Italy on holiday. He tried to look up his old Milan teammate Mathieu Flamini but he was away with Arsenal in Greece. He is going to visit Milan and spend some time in St Moritz. ‘When I am in Brazil, I miss Europe,’ he says. Now he is ready for his second coming.
‘When I came to Milan,’ Pato says, ‘I was very young. I was playing with Ronaldo, Kaka, Seedorf, Alberto Gilardino, and Pippo Inzaghi. But I played. But I felt after two years, my body needed special work. After my first injuries, I wasn’t doing good work. When I went on to the pitch for the game, after two games, I was injured again. I kept getting injured. I needed to go back to Brazil.
Pato remembers listening to the Champions League theme music on his iPod and being inspired
Pato scores for AC Milan in a Champions League clash with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in 2009
‘When I was getting injured so much, I spoke to my family and my manager and said I needed my body to recover. The first thing I thought was that I needed to stay upright. When I went back to Brazil to play, after a few months, my body was perfect. Now, after three years playing there, my dreams have come back and one day I think I will be coming back to Europe to write my new story.
‘Brazil is a good country, Sao Paulo is a big, big city but for your security it is difficult. There are bullet-proof cars, security. It can be dangerous if you go out sometimes. It’s okay if people want pictures. That’s part of my job, my work. But to go out is difficult.
‘For me it’s ok. I have my house. I have my car. I go to training. It’s my life. My life is playing football, training, preparing for football. Okay there is my family, my friends, my girlfriend but it is special for me to go training.
‘After three years there, I feel my body is very strong. I can come back to Europe and I think I can do better than when I was at AC Milan. I know my body now, I know the work I need to do before the game and after the game. I will be much better than in the past.
‘I have had a good season at Sao Paulo. I played 59 games and scored 26 goals. That is the best season of my career. Now I feel that my body and my mental strength are both good. My confidence is back. I had a couple of years of having injuries at AC Milan and it started to affect my mentality and my confidence.
‘I have a contract for one more year with Corinthians. I just finished my contract on loan with Sao Paulo and they now go to the Copa Libertadores. This year was a difficult one because the president changed, the directors changed. There was a lot of confusion. I don’t know – maybe I go back to Corinthians. Corinthians come back on January 6 for training. I don’t know what will happen then. But my dream is to come back to Europe.The Adani coal mine has created more posturing than you'd see in a busy ballet class - but none of it's as crippling to the hopes of a struggling north Queensland economy as the Labor Left's effective veto on development.
Don't be mistaken about its impact: the prospect of thousands of jobs hangs on whether the Left accepts a royalties deal that can guarantee a start on the biggest job generator outside of Brisbane.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, right, and her deputy Jackie Trad. Credit:Robert Shakespeare
While their posturing is making the music stop, the Left is not alone in its stance.
Adani, itself, is trying it on in the way big miners do by delaying its investment decision until the deal can be reached. At the same time, it is talking up the need for the coal to fuel the power needs of India where more damage is done to environment by burning dirty fuel than is likely to be done by the comparatively clean Queensland coals.Marcel Fassler and Mike Rockenfeller will return to Corvette Racing for the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup races next year, the team has confirmed.
The pair of Audi factory drivers are again set to take part in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Motul Petit Le Mans alongside the Pratt & Miller-run squad’s four returning full-season drivers.
Rockenfeller will rejoin newly crowned GT Le Mans class champions Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R, with Fassler back in the No. 4 entry alongside Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin.
“Mike and Marcel have been valued members of Corvette Racing for the past two seasons, and have played key roles in our success,” said Chevrolet Motorsports Director Mark Kent.
Fassler added: “The motivation is always there to do well, especially on these big stages – Daytona, Sebring and Road Atlanta.”
“To do it as part of Corvette Racing’s 20th season is even better. I hope we can all make it one that we all will remember.”
“I have enjoyed my time with Corvette Racing the last two years,” Rockenfeller said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to compete in the most important events on the North American endurance racing calendar.”
No word has been given on the team’s third drivers for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which had seen Fassler and Jordan Taylor at the helm this year.I hesitated to write this out, considering it's just the first week of the preseason, but I think the secondary's performance was bad enough to take a closer look. And it's been a while since I've done one of these, so it's a good a time as any to shake the dust off. Let's jump right in.
Above you see the Cardinals knocking on the Texans' end zone. The Cardinals are in their 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) and the Texans are countering with their dime package. It's similar to what Wade Phillips liked to do, in that it features three cornerbacks and three safeties. D.J. Swearinger (36, covered up by the post) is lined up next to Mike Mohamed (54) as a safety/linebacker hybrid. Chris Clemons (20) is in man coverage over the tight end, while Kareem Jackson (25) and A.J. Bouye are off to the right.
To the left (your left), you see perennial star Larry Fitzgerald lined up across Brandon Harris (26). The cushion between them is big enough to indicate that there will be absolutely no press coverage, which is probably smart given the size (and skill) difference between the two players. Because of this, Harris is expected to perfectly mirror whatever Fitzgerald does.
The ball is snapped, Fitzgerald cuts inside, and Carson Palmer is already looking in his direction. Harris? He's leaning toward the sideline like he doesn't want to be there. I watched the replay several times, and I couldn't detect any trickery in Fitzgerald's route at all. No juke. No jab step. Harris just guesses wrong and puts himself completely out of position to defend the slant route. He's three yards behind by the time the throw comes in. Too easy.
For comparison's sake, you can clearly see Clemons and Jackson mirroring their receivers' routes.
Let's switch focus to the safety who was in the area. Since the running back stayed in to pass block, Swearinger and Mohamed are free to patrol the center of the field. Above you can see Swearinger with his eyes locked on Palmer, who has his eyes locked on Fitzgerald. Thus, he starts drifting to his left, towards Fitzgerald's route. So far so good.
BUT WAIT! Now Palmer is looking towards the tight end! It took me forever to pause on the right frame, because it happened so quickly. It's still hard to see it clearly, but if you still have the game on your DVR, you can verify this for yourself. It was just a glance over; Swearinger buys it and darts back towards the tight end.
Palmer looks back over to his intended target and fires. Swearinger is completely off balance and feebly sticks his arm out, but he got completely taken out of the play by wily, ol' veteran Carson Palmer.
Of course there was no game-planning for this game, and even the best safeties get caught looking too closely at a QB's eyes, but you would hope that Swearinger had the instincts to perhaps focus a bit of extra coverage on Larry Freaking Fitzgerald.
Swagg's mistake and Harris' poor coverage led to this embarrassing screenshot via Twitter.
Get healthy soon, Johnathan Joseph.
Tim said I'm on a limited snap count, so that's where I'll leave it. Curious to hear your thoughts as always, dear readers. Got a play you want me to look over? Feel free to send me an email (click on my name) or hit me up on Twitter.Because it is the football offseason, we should really all talk about other things. Let's all agree not to do that though, and instead continue to talk about football, most importantly about a question that has bothered mankind for centuries: if you were drafting a football team from a roster of dinosaurs, which dinosaurs would you take at each position?
We asked Joe Sertich, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, this important question. He answered, and did so in detail.
Offense
Quarterback, Gigantoraptor. He has all of the tools to be a multi-tool weapon. Huge arm, fast feet, turn and cut on a dime, plus the size and long neck to see over the immense line. Plus, has a built-in helmet to prevent concussions. As a close relative of the big-brained dromaeosaurids, or "raptors," Gigantoraptor also probably has the intelligence to handle the position.
Wide Receiver: Ornithomimus, Struthiomimus. These fleet-footed ostrich-mimics have the straight-line speed, cutting ability, and importantly, the reach to be the ideal WRs. Long arms and a runner's body, huge eyes for great vision. The ideal receivers.
Fullback: Triceratops. Elephant-sized, speed, and a head covered with horns and a shield make him the ultimate lead blocker able to plow a path for RBs.
Artist's depiction. Not actual photo. Promise.
Running back: Utahraptor. Largest of the "raptor" dinosaurs has the speed and cutting ability, paired with bulk. Huge claw-tipped hands help him hold onto the ball to prevent fumbles.
Tight End: Therizinosaurus. Huge bulk to block when necessary but also huge hands (claws more than three feet long), perfect for catching a football. Would be the perfect receiver if it had speed.
Guards: Ankylosaurus, Euoplocephalus. Low center of gravity, heavily armored. Able to plow forward to bulldoze a path or move a pile. Tail clubs to protect the QB
Right Tackle: Diplodocus. Huge size but a little leaner than the left tackle. Long body to protect the edge at nearly 100 feet long.
Left Tackle: Apatosaurus ("Brontosaurus"). Immense size to protect the edge at about 60,000 pounds.
Center: Stegosaurus. Large size but with low center of gravity, and ability to quickly pivot to protect the QB or pull on runs. Can stand up into tripodal stance to gain leverage and has spiked tail for extra protection against inside rushes and blitzes.
Defense
Free Safety: Pachycephalosaurus. This large dome-headed dinosaur would be a hard hitter able to cover ground quickly and lay a hit but also cover speedy receivers. Unfortunately, lots of penalties for using the crown of his head.
Strong Safety: Lambeosaurus. This crested duck-billed dinosaur has the bulk to play the run, but the speed to cover tight ends.
Cornerbacks: Velociraptor, Deinonychus. Both of these "raptors" have superior speed and jumping ability, in addition to long arms and hands. Able to intimidate the larger wide receivers.
Inside LB: Tyrannosaurus Rex. Speed and bulk make him the ultimate defensive weapon. Hard-hitting, head first style. Would have been a QB if he had an arm.
Note: not a T-Rex head, but you try fitting it in the frame with Ray Lewis' upper body.
Outside LBs: Allosaurus, Carnotaurus. Perfect combination of size and speed. Strong hands and arms for allosaurus, powerful legs and horned head for carnotaurus. Both with nasty attitudes. Able to fight off blocks, drop into coverage or rush the QB with vicious claws, teeth and powerful legs
Defensive End: Spinosaurus, Giganotosaurus. Two of the largest meat-eating theropods with incredibly powerful arms and hands tipped with huge claws. Size and speed combination is unparalleled.
Defensive Tackle/Nose: Brachiosaurus, Argentinasaurus. Both are huge. 70,000 pounds of run-clogging bulk, long neck to bat balls down for Brachiosaurus. Largest dinosaur to ever live in Argentinasaurus at up to 140,000 pounds.
Special Teams
Kicker: Parasaurolophus. Duck bill dinosaur with powerful legs plus the benefit of a trumpet-like crest to announce kick-offs.
Punter: Iguanodon. Huge hind limbs for booming kicks, but also has thumb spikes and a mean streak for emergency tackles.
Kick returner: Microraptor. Four-winged feathered dinosaur with great vision and superb speed. Could glide through coverage. Amazing change of direction, abilities to make ankle-breaking cuts.
Wedge buster: Pachyrhinosaurus. Hard charging, with the surprising speed and the bulk to get around blocks. Huge head dome for absorbing impacts and plowing through blocks.Sherif Marakby, vice president of global vehicle programs at Uber, left his post at the ride-hailing company on Monday.
Marakby, 51, who joined Uber in April 2016 after a 25-year career at Ford Motor Co., helped the tech company launch its self-driving ride-hailing pilot program in Pittsburgh. A source close the matter said Marakby will be taking a break before deciding what comes next.
“Self-driving is one of the most interesting challenges I’ve worked on in my career, and I’m grateful to have contributed to what will soon be a safer future for everyone," Marakby said in a statement.
Marakby’s move to Uber after serving as Ford’s director of global electronics and engineering was viewed as a merger between legacy automakers and the Silicon Valley upstarts looking to transform the industry.
In the past three months, Uber has experienced an exodus of executives -- including former president Jeff Jones and former head of communications Rachel Whetstone -- as it deals with internal issues as well as a lawsuit from self-driving competitor Waymo, the Google affiliate.
In March, Gary Marcus stepped down from his post as head of Uber’s AI Labs, four months after the unit was created.
Marakby’s departure was not related to the Waymo lawsuit, an Uber spokesperson said.Filial cannibalism occurs when an adult individual of a species consumes all or part of the young of its own species or immediate offspring. Filial cannibalism occurs in many animal species ranging from mammals to insects, and is especially prevalent in various species of fish. Although not much is known regarding the exact purposes of filial cannibalism, it is understood that it may have important evolutionary and ecological implications for some species, and is an important source of mortality for various species.
Types [ edit ]
Total [ edit ]
Total or whole clutch cannibalism occurs when a parent consumes its entire brood. This usually occurs when a brood is smaller or of lesser quality. The most obvious purpose of total or whole clutch cannibalism is the termination of care for the parents. The main benefit of this action can only be an investment in the future reproduction of potentially larger or healthier broods.[1]
Partial [ edit ]
Partial clutch cannibalism occurs when a parent consumes a part of its offspring. "Parental manipulation of brood size may allow the parent the maximize lifetime reproductive output by adjusting current reproductive costs in favour of future survival and subsequent opportunities for reproduction."[2] Unlike total or whole clutch cannibalism, partial clutch cannibalism invests in both current and future reproduction.[1] Male parents, particularly male fish, may eat some of their offspring in order to "complete his current parental cycle, and remain in sufficiently good condition to engage in further breeding cycles."[3]
Benefits [ edit ]
Satisfies current energy or nutrition |
six-month extension for each commissioner and that this would be the third time each had been granted such an extension.
“By renewing their terms every six months, Trudeau has created a situation where government watchdogs currently investigating him are reliant on him for a renewal of their paycheques every six months. We think it’s clearly illegal under the act and also undermines their ability to independently investigate the prime minister,” said Conacher.
Shepherd did not directly answer a series of questions regarding how far along she was in her investigations into the lobbying activities of Apotex and Clearwater. In an emailed statement, she would only say: “I take all allegations seriously. The Lobbying Act requires me to conduct all investigations and reviews in private. I have no further comment.”
• Email: zschwartz@postmedia.com | Twitter: zaneschwartzOrganizing 5,000 people to make a collaborative piece of art using half a million cubes of sugar sounds like a recipe for disaster, but Irish sculptor Brendan Jamison pulled it off for Sugar Metropolis, a model city crafted using ordinary sugar by a swarm of volunteers. Think of it as one of the few pieces of art that can expand your mind and give you type 2 diabetes at the same time.
Jamison got the idea of using maltose as a muse in 2003 when he was working on a stop-motion animation that called for candy. He experimented with different kinds of sweets and eventually realized that sugar cubes, with their regular dimensions, pristine color, and brick-like structure, made them the perfect choice to build with. "Once I started working with sugar, all of sudden the possibilities seemed endless," he says.
What started as a lark has become Jamison's trademark. He's created sugar installations for galleries across the world and was recently commissioned to create a tooth-rotting replica of the famous door at 10 Downing Street, which is currently on display at the English Prime Minister's residence. Americans, imagine a replica White House composed of apple pie displayed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and you've got a sense of how widely Jamison's art has spread.
>In total, 5,000 patrons participated, turning 5 million calories into art.
A specially formulated adhesive is used to keep the cubes connected, though Jamison limits its use to non-visible faces so that the individual cubes remain visible in his confectionery castles. "I deliberately do not apply any adhesive on the outer surface of the sugar bricks so they can continue to glisten with a magical fairytale quality." Finished pieces are displayed behind glass to protect them from sticky fingers and insects.
After mastering the esoteric art of sugar craft, Jamison wanted to share the fun with others. Jamison was asked to create a scale model of the Tate Modern art museum for an arts festival, but instead of displaying a finished piece under glass, he decided to put on a show. "I demonstrated to the general public how to build free-standing sugar cube sculptures and even though it was only on a very small scale, this was effectively the genesis for what would later become Sugar Metropolis."
The positive response emboldened him to scale up the project. The first Sugar Metropolis was a sprawling, room-sized construction made from 500,000 sugar cubes at the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts in Northern Ireland. 50,000 people watched everything from tiny arcades to miniature ziggurats emerge from mountains of sugar piled on the museum's fine parquet floor over a period of four weeks. In total, 5,000 patrons participated, turning 5 million calories into art.
This is a substantial achievement, both in aesthetic and tonnage. Half a million sugar cubes weighs approximately 2,756 pounds. That's 1,451 bags of sugar, or put another way, those empty calories weigh more than a fully loaded Mini Cooper. In more castle-friendly terms, Sugar Metropolis is equivalent to 1,148 swords, 68 suits of plate armor, and weighs more than all of Henry VIII's wives combined.
Jamison works with a group of collaborators led by Mark Revels (pictured), Mary McCaffrey, Lydia Holmes, and David Turner.
"The beauty of a project like Sugar Metropolis is that it attracts people of all ages, from young toddlers to teenagers, adults and pensioners," says Jamison. "The democratic approach means it becomes an artwork that belongs to everyone."
Jamison hired a team of sculptors to staff the gallery throughout the entire run of the exhibit and assist budding artists. The sculpting team instructed the participants on how to stack the bricks most effectively, directed them to areas in the room that required attention, and ensured that there was always an overall direction and rhythm to the installation while preserving the unique ideas visitors brought.
"Some members of the public built new designs on their own, other collaborated with friends and family, and others built on top of existing buildings," says Jamison. "This was particularly exciting as it created wonderful hybrid architectural styles."
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Jamison is fielding requests to replicate the experience at galleries around the globe and for the participants. "It is such a therapeutic material to work with," says Jamison. "The multi-sensory aspect of it means that people don't just see the sculptures, but can also imagine the taste of the sugar crystals dissolving on their tongue."
Want to take part in the next phase of Sugar Metropolis? Jamison is raising funds on Kickstarter to help bring the Sugar Metropolis to New York City—Harlem's Sugar Hill district to be specific.We've got some good news and some bad news. Good news? We have this awesome Portal design. Bad news? If you've already been part of the experiment, this isn't going to fit you properly. Of course, if you've all been turned into mantis men, you probably have bigger problems. We'll leave you to them.
Officially-licensed Portal gear!
Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely. The good news is we've got a much better test for you: fighting an army of Mantis Men. Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. You'll know when the test starts.
- Cave Johnson
We think of every day as an adventure here at Aperture Laboratories, and you're about to embark on a great big adventure -- for science! And $60 cash. That's more than you can make giving blood, and after our testing you won't have to ever give blood again! And by "have to" we mean "be able to." All sorts of complications with the gasoline and peanut water thing that we don't want to get into right now. But hey. Did we mention $60 cash?
Commemorate your time spent as a Aperture Science test subject with this lovely shirt featuring your fellow test subjects, the mantis men army. This blue dusk, 100% cotton shirt exhorts onlookers to "Do your part... for science!" and features the 1940s style Aperture Science Innovators logo small on the back.The New York Yankees have signed left-handed reliever Hideki Okajima to a minor league contract, general manager Brian Cashman told ESPNNewYork.com on Wednesday morning. The terms were not disclosed but Okajima will be in spring training as a non-roster invite.
The 36-year-old Okajima, a member of the 2007 Boston Red Sox championship team who spent most of 2011 in Triple-A, is expected to compete with Cesar Cabral, acquired by the Yankees in this year's Rule 5 draft, for a spot as a second lefty out of the bullpen with Boone Logan.
Okajima was 17-8 with a 3.11 ERA in five seasons for the Red Sox. He was a regular part of the Red Sox bullpen from 2007-10 and made 66 appearances for the team that won the 2007 World Series. He did not make the Boston roster in 2011, although he was called up briefly in April before being designated for assignment in May. Okajima is far more effective against lefties than righties; left-handed batters have hit just.218 against him in the major leagues.
"He'll compete for the job, but don't count out this kid from the Rule 5 draft," said Cashman, referring to Cabral. "He's kicking (butt) in winter ball."
The Yankees acquired Cabral, 23, for cash from the Kansas City Royals, who had drafted him from the Red Sox. In 36 appearances in the Dominican Winter League this season, Cabral went 3-4 with a 2.95 ERA and struck out 70 in 55 innings.
Wallace Matthews covers the Yankees for ESPNNewYork.com.‘Hillary’s America’ Topped the WORST FILM ‘Razzie’ List of 2016
It’s only fitting that Hillary Clinton would be the star of a film that topped the worst film list. The film received a Razzie.
Along with Oscars, Hollyweird also gives out awards to films they don’t like. And what better to not like than the film by Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza.
As Reuters reports,
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Even the Razzie Awards are getting political. take our poll - story continues below Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story?
Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? * Yes, they've gotten so much wrong recently that they're bound to be on their best behavior. No, they suffer from a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Jussie who?
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Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Completing this poll grants you access to The Black Sphere updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Trending: SCOTUS Justice Send Warning to FAKE NEWS Journalists A documentary criticizing U.S. Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton tied on Saturday with superhero ensemble “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” on a list of the year’s worst achievements in film, winning four Razzies apiece. The annual tongue-in-cheek Razzie awards, which serve as an antidote to Hollywood’s Oscars ceremony, named Dinesh D’Souza’s “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” as the worst film of 2016. D’Souza, a conservative commentator and best-selling author, was named worst actor for narrating his documentary and worst director alongside Bruce Schooley. Worst actress went to the person who portrayed Clinton in the film. “Hillary’s America” took in a modest $13 million at the North American box office last year.
Don’t feel bad for Dinesh
The movie was a good movie. Think of the award as Hollywood’s attempt to show back-handed support for Hillary Clinton by dissing D’Souza. After all, in some small way, D’Souza’s film played a part in keeping Clinton out of the oval office.
Keep in mind that D’Souza’s small budget documentary was in big box office company, when it comes to “failure”. The article continues,
“Batman v Superman” also won four Razzies, including worst screen combo for “Ben Affleck & His BFF (Baddest Foe Forever) Henry Cavill” and worst “remake, rip-off or sequel.”
That’s right, uber Leftist Ben Affleck gets another Razzie! I believe his first was for Gigli?
From where I sit, Dinesh is a winner, as he did his part in the Clinton loss.The Nokia Lumia 820 is fresh on everyone's minds, and rumors of a 5-inch Android device from HTC are floating around, so why not add a couple more pieces of kindling to the fire? We've been handed images of Verizon's device management system (DMD, for short) showing off a couple new devices: the Nokia Lumia 822 (in Gray and White) and the HTC 6435, which we've seen leaked as the potential Galaxy Note competitor. While this doesn't guarantee a surefire launch in any way, phones typically pop up in the DMD a few weeks prior to launch -- and it's good news for two groups of people: Windows Phone fans anxiously awaiting something fresh on the LTE carrier, and phablet fans looking for a device not called the Intuition.
[Thanks, Anonymous!]Games Workshop, the creator of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, prevented Behaviour Interactive from using Kickstarter to fund the upcoming game Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. Behaviour's executive producer Miguel Caron told Polygon that the option was discussed briefly, but Games Workshop felt crowdfunding could damage the image of the franchise.
Behaviour Interactive wasn't just handed the chance to make a game in the Warhammer 40K universe, they had to fight for the privilege. After they earned the right Caron says that he brought several funding models to the table. The crowdfunding option was quickly brushed aside however because Games Workshop was concerned about the potential for failure.
The alternative model that Behaviour and Games Workshop settled on is the current, pre-order structure blended with a free-to-play faction, the Orks.
Caron agrees that Kickstarter shouldn't be used for long standing franchises.
Must Read Here is everything you need to know about Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade so far
"[Crowdfunding] is something that Games Workshop is not comfortable with," Caron said. "They have the perception that it could potentially devalue the perception of the franchise. It's something they had in mind a year and a half, perhaps two years ago when I was last discussing it with them. But now it's too late to change.
"I understood what they were saying, because even after a few notable successes there was [at that time] a lot of failure on Kickstarter."
Since then many high profile Kickstarters have continued to have trouble, while others have failed outright. Several, like the most recent campaign from Uber Entertainment, have even been pulled down early. It's as much a way for a company to save face as it is an opportunity to re-position a product with consumers.
The pre-order model that Behaviour has used instead has been successful, Caron said. Additionally, he and the team feel that the pre-order model protects their players in ways that crowdfunding cannot.
"The world-wide regulation of pre-orders," Caron said, "is that most countries have — as a law — that I’m forced to reimburse them if I don’t deliver what they want. They have up to 24 hours in most countries after the game is released, based on the different rules in different countries.
"This is not our policy. I’m just saying this is the law in the world; pre-order is handled differently than crowdfunding. So, we really need to show that we’re taking very good care of the founder’s money and that our monetization model is fair and is true."
"We really need to show that we're taking very good care of the founder's money and that our monetization model is fair and is true."
Caron went on to explain how each pre-order earns buyers access to the development forums, where features and changes to the game are discussed. They also earn a certain amount of in-game currency, called Rogue Trader Points. These points can be used to purchase in-game items with cosmetic enhancements, items that function similarly to equipment that can be earned in the game but look different. He said this gives Behaviour's customers a better value for their money than crowdfunding otherwise could.
"At the end of the day, my message to the fan is different," Caron said. "If it’s crowdfunding, I'm saying 'give me money or your dream game won’t happen. It won’t happen at all.' With a pre-order, I’m saying, 'the game will happen. Give me money in advance so you can participate in the development cycle of that game, and you can have a lot of bonuses for your money.' So you get double, triple your $40 in value versus if you wait until the game is going to launch, where for $40 you get the game key and that’s all."
Edit: This article was corrected for minor spelling errors, and to reflect that Caron agrees with Games Workshop's decision not to use crowdfunding for long standing franchises.Seven women participated in the National Organization for Women’s day of protest against Rush Limbaugh in front of Limbaugh’s D.C. affiliate WMAL, Friday.
NOW’s national protest day had been in the works since April 19, when the women’s advocacy group launched their “Enough Rush” campaign.
Pairing with media watchdog Media Matters for America NOW is targeting local affiliates and local advertisers, Friday’s demonstration was touted as the group’s big demonstration of opposition to Limbaugh with affiliates across the country participating in protests.
NOW has had Limbaugh in their crosshairs for nearly two decades, and they renewed their effort to get Limbaugh off the air as a response to the radio host’slate February insult of contraception activist Sandra Fluke.
Standing on a street corner in front of WMAL the seven women bearing signs such as “Enough Rush” and “Stop hate speech” received some honks and smiles.
Erin Matson, NOW action vice president explained to The Daily Caller that Limbaugh crossed the line with his comments about Fluke and that he needs to go.
“Rush captured a new generation of women’s attention when he went on a long sexist tirade against Sandra Fluke for daring to speak up for birth control access,” Matson explained, recalling Limbaugh’s characterization of Fluke as a “slut” and a prostitute.
According to Matson, the community is on NOW’s side, adding that “it is a smart business decision” for affiliates and advertisers to leave Rush.
“Women are the majority of consumers in this country and we influence or make over 80 percent of the consumer decisions,” she said, adding that Limbaugh has already lost a number of advertisers over his Fluke comments.
Still TheDC overheard pedestrian conversations scoffing at the fact NOW is still on Limbaugh’s case, over two months after his Fluke comments.
Last week Limbaugh launched a response to NOW’s campaign against him in the form of a Facebook group for his female listeners, “Rush Babes for America aka the National Organization for Rush Babes,” to show not all women adhere the NOW agenda. His Facebook group surpassed NOW’s Facebook “likes” in under 24 hours.
Matson shrugged off the women who have joined the “Rush Babe” Facebook group explaining that it is just an attempt by Rush to feed his ego.
Limbaugh ranked 19th in Forbes ranking of the 100 world’s most powerful celebrities released this week, just behind Simon Cowell, at 18th.
According to NOW, chapters in New York City, West Palm Beach, Fla., and Phoenix, Ariz., also held protests against Limbaugh today.
Follow Caroline on TwitterSome would have said it was foolhardy of Grazia Italian Kitchen to enter the recent Rodeo Uncorked! Best Bites Competition with a smoked beef dish. After all, the owner and the chef of the Pearland restaurant were barbecue novices, having only acquired their smoker from Home Depot two months before.
But their new toy - coupled with the skill they brought to their new smoking passion - proved to be just the right vehicle for the food and wine extravaganza that kicked off rodeo season at NRG Center on Feb. 21.
Not only did Grazia score with the 5,500 attendees at the event, winning Reserve Grand Champion in the People's Choice division, the restaurant was a hit with the professional judges: Grazia's smoked beef short rib served over pancetta risotto and topped with a cilantro/molasses glaze took the Grand Champion prize for the best entrée at Best Bites.
"We went out there just to get a piece of the cake," says chef Steve Haug. "We came back with the whole cake."
More Information Grazia Italian Kitchen 9415 W. Broadway, Pearland, 832-230-8873 graziaitaliankitchen.com
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Indeed, the Best Bites win has thrust Grazia into a sizzling culinary moment. Now people outside Pearland are venturing to the restaurant intent not only on eating that prize-winning dish, but they're discovering more about the place that took the top award.
"I had no idea it was going to be that big," says owner Adrian Hembree. But apparently so: Normal weekend waits of one to two hours for a dinner table stretched to three the first Friday after Best Bites. "They just kept coming and coming," general manager Larry Bates says.
For the restaurant's principals, the notoriety is golden. The restaurant, opened in September 2014, is now officially on the foodie map.
Grazia's merger of Italian cuisine and steakhouse classicism is a good marriage for Hembree and Haug. Hembree knows Italian food while Haug, who joined the restaurant in October, brings considerable steakhouse knowledge to the table - for eight years he was executive chef of Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse at the Galleria.
The Grazia menu is a merger of their strengths. Starters include crawfish ravioli, goat cheese bruschetta, shrimp scampi and Cajun-dusted sea scallops with black truffle/lobster risotto. Pasta dishes are many, including penne with house-made Italian sausage, spinach and romano cream sauce. From the grill: rib-eye with black truffle butter, Veal Tomahawk chop with roasted garlic, grilled bone-in pork chops with bourbon cherry glaze, Texas redfish with crawfish cream sauce and pecan-crusted halibut with lemon caper beurre blanc.
Chef specialties include Chicken Marsala, Veal Milanese, Chicken Saltimbocca and Shrimp Vienna. And there's a dizzying list of pizza, too, emerging charred and bubbling from the wood-fire brick oven.
"What I love about the restaurant is the variety we offer," says Haug.
For his part, Hembree is proud Grazia is now getting the recognition it deserves.
"We're giving it all we can every day," Hembree says.
The team must be doing something right: The Grazia brand is ready to grow with a new store slated to open at 1001 Pineloch in the former Perry's Italian Grille spot in May.An ever-increasing demand that they do shift work, especially at weekends, was crimping their hobby of fishing. ''They were actually strong environmentalists, in their own way,'' says Huntley, ''worried about water pollution and corporate interests but also worried about political greenies trying to stop them.
''They might have really hated the current refugee policy but, ultimately, they didn't care.''
What Huntley, the director of the Ipsos Mackay Report, discovered in her research was that the participants in her focus
groups - selected to represent all demographic groups and voting habits - wanted to care about everything but asylum seekers. Only the politicians don't get it. ''If you are not giving Australians anything else [to discuss], they will blame problems on immigration and asylum seekers.''
The 2011 Ipsos Mackay Report, Being Australian, released this week, is based on in-depth fieldwork conducted in March, involving more than 100 men and women, from lower-middle to upper-middle socio-economic groups, participating in 15 group discussions in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle and Ballarat. It reveals both a constancy in Australian values - suspicion of, if not downright hostility to, corporate power; a lack of pretension; and a not especially reverential attitude towards authority - and a remarkable shift in views since 1988, when the last Being Australian report was completed.
In short, Australians are far more concerned about overwork than dole-bludging, and the days of hero-worshipping sportsmen and revelling in a beer-soaked recreational culture are over. ''If you were to ask me what really stood out about the change in attitudes,'' Huntley says, ''it would be those three things - work, sport and booze.''
If there is a political lesson to be gleaned from the report, it is that, despite the results of recent opinion polls showing the Labor Party's primary vote wallowing at 27 per cent, Australians in 2011 generally embrace a social democratic world view, at least on the economy, the workplace and public services. ''Big business undermines our way of life,'' says the report, reflecting the feedback of the discussion groups.
''Corporate greed and big business practices were a source of concern for some consumers who feared that with longer working hours and stricter work conditions, they were missing out on the perks of the Australian lifestyle.''
The response of insurance companies and banks to the widespread floods this year unleashed a deep-seated hostility to prerogatives of corporate Australia, which people saw as at odds with the average wage earner. ''What's un-Australian at the moment seems to be big business cheating the people,'' one respondent said.
''Insurance companies up north right now are saying, 'Well, your policy said this, therefore we can't pay up on the policy, even though you were flooded.' That's un-Australian - you should give them the money, anyway, because they're doing it hard.''
While union membership has plummeted to 15 per cent in the private sector, the report suggests a continuing attachment to the idea of workplace solidarity, especially on rights that most Australians believed were cemented into the culture long ago. ''Being Australian, we want to do our eight hours a day and expect to go home to spend time with the family, our kids and that,'' another focus group participant said.
''Big business has made shops open longer and even though we might be part-time, our week is stretched out a lot more because they can make the hours any time they like and we have to fit our lifestyle around it. So your whole weekend is wrecked.''
Such sentiments resound throughout the pages of the report, with respondents saying such things as, ''Your weekend isn't your weekend, any more. They get to decide when your weekend is and your time with your family.''
That resentment of the might of the corporation - of the life-shaping power of the boss - is palpable, and the report concludes attitudes to work have shifted 180 degrees in the past 20 years. ''Instead of the dole-bludgers and slackers image that participants in the 1988 study feared would increase, participants in 2011 wondered whether Australia had gone to the other extreme and transformed into a nation of workaholics and alcoholics.''
The findings also reflect the results of recent polls by Essential Research in which most people either opposed, or were ambivalent towards, proposals by Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to crack down even more on welfare recipients. There seems to be less political advantage nowadays in the anti-welfare populism that characterised debate in the 1980s and 1990s. This angst about overwork manifests itself not just in the ever-present debate about work-life balance - what John Howard famously called the ''barbecue stopper'' - but in the immigration debate.
Where Australians once complained that migrants came to Australia to take advantage of pensions and the dole, Huntley says they now fret about industrious and ambitious new Australians all too willing to work overtime and on weekends. One respondent summed up the feeling: ''Companies want workers to work long hours and they go to these foreign workers who will do those hours.''
But Huntley says the focus groups convinced her that political parties, and most obviously Labor, could neutralise immigration and refugee resettlement as an issue if they could convince Australians not to squander their vote on a protest because more valuable programs or reforms could be at risk. ''Parties can win despite the immigration issue but they have to offering something more.''
Being Australian also confirms the research of the Macquarie University academic Shaun Wilson and the polling analyst Tony Mitchelmore, who found, for example, that a Labor Party playing to its traditional strengths - public investment in health, education and infrastructure and committed to a progressive tax system - could overcome an unpopular immigration policy.
''If you lined up the thinking of working class Australians, using that term broadly, you would find it is generally social democratic,'' Wilson says. ''It's just that Labor in government has been too scared to say they are not going to let the rich run the country.''
At first glance, it is one of the unchanging passions of Australians: sport and its practitioners. In 2011, as in 1988, the participants nominated sportsmen and sportswomen as ''heroes''. But the difference is that these days they know they are exaggerating when they use the term.
''We don't have a lot of national heroes nowadays, so to speak,'' one participant said.
''Well, you have your sporting heroes,'' another said, albeit with little enthusiasm.
The litany of sporting scandals - such as group sex involving rugby league teams, AFL players using drugs, and cricketers ''sexting'' their fans - has sapped whatever admiration existed for athletes. ''There was concern that some contemporary sport stars abused their position,'' Being Australian says. ''Participants expressed disgust that bad behaviour by sports stars was overlooked or even celebrated in Australia simply because of their sporting achievements and hero status.''
Australians may recognise the cricketing talent of a Shane Warne or the football prowess of a Brendan Fevola or Ben Cousins, but they are unwilling to invest them with any respect, let alone hold them up as role models, as this exchange between two men illustrates: ''Look at Ben Cousins.''
''Fevola as well. So much talent and just throwing it away because he's made a fool of himself.''
''How does he look to the rest of the world when they see him the way he behaves?''
''He's going to make his millions.''
''Well, he shouldn't. He should be robbed of all his millions and discouraged to do that.''
And it is not simply the immorality, self-indulgence or bad taste of high-profile athletes that repulsed many participants. It is that their egos - fed by high salaries and the often flirty attention of hard-core fans - jar with what the Ipsos Mackay report finds is a loathing of pretension and conceit. As one participant put it: ''Something that's probably un-Australian is big-noting yourself and saying how awesome you are. 'Look at me, I've done so well.' You just get absolutely hammered.
''Even if you have done amazingly well, if you come out and say it, you just get slaughtered … people immediately have an aversion to those people.
''We also recognise that whilst you might be good, you're not that good.''
High-profile medicos - such as the eye surgeon Fred Hollows (who died in 1993), the cancer surgeon Chris O'Brien (who died in 2009), the brain surgeon Charlie Teo and the burns specialist Fiona Wood - drew almost universal acclaim as ''ordinary heroes''. As one woman said: ''They're passionate. They're courageous. They're not frightened to speak out for what they believe in. They're hard-working, but not for monetary gain.''
If people are willing to give sportsmen an occasional pass for their obnoxious exploits, it is because, Huntley says, that over the past 20 years they have come to recognise the ''dark side'' of Australia's recreational culture. Australians are increasingly worried about the impact of booze.
While the barbecue and beer remain the quintessential, and cherished, expression of the Australian lifestyle, and while beer continues to have an egalitarian image, participants in the study understood the damage binge drinking was inflicting on society. ''Drinking is certainly part of the Australian identity. The minute you turn 18, it's partying for months, which involves drinking all night. There's so much bingeing now,'' one man said.
''There's nothing wrong with a drink, don't get me wrong,'' another said. ''There's nothing wrong with a gun, either, until you shoot it.''
Another man went even further: ''It's the big evil in the Australian way of life. The alcohol, if they don't do something soon, it's just going to get worse and get out of hand.''
While there are remarkable similarities in the Being Australian studies of 1988 and 2011, Huntley says it is also clear that Australian attitudes have matured. In 1988 her predecessor, Hugh Mackay, characterised Australia, as it celebrated the bicentenary of European settlement, as having a ''teenage'' mentality. But in the decades since, Australians have become more economically literate and more conflicted in their patriotism.
The participants were acutely aware that the mining boom, which has kept the national income high, would not last forever. They gave it another 20, maybe 30, years. And it did not take a Harvard fellowship for them to recognise the rise of China and India as economic players was likely to have a big role in determining Australia's destiny.
On the one hand, participants believed the boisterous ''oi, oi, oi'' patriotism was increasing (even if the sporting war cry is unoriginal, derived from English soccer fans). Since the 2000 Olympics, Australians more readily drape themselves in the flag, tattoo it on their bodies or paint it on their faces. ''The Australia Day celebrations … for the first time in my life, for the past couple of years, I've seen people actually hang flags over their cars and in their houses, which is great to see,'' one woman said. ''I'm telling you, it's great to see.''
Yet, paradoxically, Being Australian reflected an underlying concern about the excesses of nationalism. Some participants recoiled at the development of American-style patriotism in Australia; others accepted that for many indigenous Australians, Australia Day was ''invasion day''; others questioned political manipulation of the Anzac story. As one respondent put it: ''Why do you think we see Anzac as a moment in time that made Australia, when it was a disastrous campaign? Twenty thousand casualties. We never got off the beach for a start. How do you reconcile that with how we see it now?''
Huntley says that while the abstract concept of multiculturalism often confuses, and sometimes annoys, Australians, in practice it is largely accepted. ''People's [hostile] views on immigration and multiculturalism may seem remarkably intransigent,'' she says. ''But there is a lot in this that is comforting in that these views rarely go beyond fear and anxiety. They are rarely acted out in racist behaviour.''
Where opposition to multiculturalism exists, it is less the result of racial or ethnic animus, and more a suspicion of particular cultural practices (usually associated with the tradition among some Muslim women of veiling themselves).
The report also offers little encouragement to the advocates of constitutional change, finding ''not much momentum for a republic or a new flag''. Participants were largely apathetic or uninterested in such a campaign.
As Huntley and her colleagues were doing the fieldwork for the report in March, in the aftermath of the floods and of cyclone Yasi in Queensland, they also found attitudes to the Australian identity and character were more complex than they initially appeared.
While respondents liked to claim ''resilience'', ''mateship'' and generosity as Australian attributes, Huntley says that, on reflection, many also conceded these were universal values.
Indeed, the report suggests that two decades on, Australians are still struggling to define a uniquely Australian identity in a polyglot country. It is struggle summed up by one participant, in what one might mischievously suggest is a uniquely Australian way.
''In essence, everyone's values are the same … How are we different? What values have we got that makes us different to anybody else? We keep saying 'Australian'. What's different? That we like sports? So does every other country, too … and drinking? Are Australians big drinkers? Are we good friends at pubs? Shit, that happens everywhere.''
Follow Andrew West on Twitter @andrewwestSMHAll Aboard Florida train could start construction next year, open in late 2015
Owned by Florida East Coast Industries of Coral Gables, All Aboard Florida is planning stops at Orlando International Airport, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The trains would run on a 230-mile route.
People who now drive from Central to South Florida could within two years hop on a train for a three-hour trip instead, thanks to deals being reached this week.
Its customers are expected to be business travelers and tourists and a one-way ticket could cost about $100.
Construction could start late this year, or early next, on the privately financed, $1.5 billion project because the agreements provide a place for the train at OIA, as well as right of way along the BeachLine Expressway for tracks to the airport.
A sister company of All Aboard Florida, Florida East Coast Railway, already owns about 200 miles of track from Miami to Cocoa.
The pact approved Wednesday calls for the Orlando airport to seek a $200 million grant from the state to pay for a station about a mile south of the main terminal.
"We are embarking on a new business frontier, making us the true hub of Central Florida and the true hub of the state,'' said Frank Kruppenbacher, airport board chairman.
The depot initially would serve All Aboard Florida but also would have space for a potential future spur of the SunRail commuter train scheduled to start operating in May and for one other train, possibly the proposed magnetically levitated system from the airport to the Orange County Convention Center.
All Aboard Florida would pay the airport $2.8 million annually for rent, plus up to $1.50 per train passenger who leaves from Orlando. The train company also would spend $50 million to build a maintenance facility at the airport and pay more than $580,000 a year to lease the land for it.
As many as eight trains – each comprised of two locomotives, six passenger cars and a café car – would be kept overnight at OIA. Up to 80 jobs could be created to maintain the trains, an All Aboard Florida spokeswoman said.
Dick Kane, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation, said his agency would review the airport's $200 million grant application, but he made no promises. "We've got to do our financial due diligence," he said.
The agreement with the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority is scheduled to come up for a vote during a board meeting Thursday.@SEGA_OFFICIAL celebrates it’s over 200k followers on Twitter with the release of a lot of goodies today.
If you head over to their page here, you’ll find them all.
200 Sega Twitter Icons
They’ve put up 200 different Twitter icons at this location. With so many spanning Sega’s entire history, there’s sure to be something you’ll like. We adopted the Skies of Arcade group avatar for the time being, ourselves.
5 Mobile Wallpapers
Over on the wallpaper page, you’ll find five new wallpapers in mobile-friendly sizes. Below are the Android versions, if you’re one of those |
One person cuts the cake into two pieces, and the other person gets to choose which piece to take. Abraham and Lot used this method to split up the land in which they would settle: Abraham divided the land, and Lot chose Jordan, leaving Canaan for Abraham.
“I cut, you choose” has one very appealing property: It is envy-free, meaning that neither participant would willingly trade her share for the other share. The person who cuts the cake—or tract of land, or other divisible good—has an incentive to make the two shares as equal as possible from her perspective, since she doesn’t know which she’ll end up with. If she does a good cutting job, she will be content with either piece. The other participant gets to choose her favorite piece, so neither person will wish to trade.
But when the good being divided is not homogenous—when the cake has an assortment of different frostings, or the land has a mix of fertile valleys, mineral-rich mountains, and arid deserts—the “I cut, you choose” method falls short on other important measures of fairness and desirability.
In some division problems, mathematicians have shown that no ideal split exists.
In these settings, the chooser has a distinct advantage over the cutter. The cutter, to be safe, must divide the cake into two pieces that, to him, have equal value. But the chooser may have very different preferences from the cutter. Maybe from the chooser’s vantage point, one of the pieces is worth 60 percent and the other is worth 40 percent If so, he will happily walk away with considerably more than what he considers half of the cake. In mathematical language, the “I cut, you choose” method is not equitable.
Not only is the method not equitable, it can also fail to give each person the share that will be most useful to him. For instance, suppose John and Jane are sharing a cake that is half vanilla and half chocolate. John likes vanilla best, while Jane prefers chocolate. The ideal split is obviously for John to get the vanilla half and Jane the chocolate half. But if John is the cutter, then unless he knows Jane’s preferences, that ideal split will appear too risky to him: He could lose the entire vanilla half. So he will divide the cake into two identical pieces, with an equal amount of each flavor. This division is not “efficient”: There are other divisions that can improve some or all participants’ shares without making anyone worse off.
Mathematicians have proven that when two people are dividing a cake, there is always some division that is simultaneously envy-free, equitable, and efficient (to get a sense of why this is true, see Sidebar: Cakes Are Fair Game). But there’s no simple algorithm for identifying this ideal split. And, in some other division problems, mathematicians have shown that no ideal split even exists. In its stead, mathematicians have, over the past 20 years, developed a rigorous framework for exploring the trade-offs required by different kinds of divisions, helping to bring clarity to the fallout from divorce, death, and divestment.
When two people are sharing a cake, whatever their preferences are, there is always some division that is simultaneously envy-free, equitable, and efficient. To get a rough sense of why this is true, consider a simplified version in which Jane and Sally are dividing a cake whose flavors and frosting vary only along vertical stripes, and assume that Jane and Sally are only allowed to make one vertical cut to divide the cake. There’s some knife position that Jane would view as a 50-50 split, and another position that Sally would view as a 50-50 split. If those two positions are the same, just cut the cake there. Otherwise, imagine slowly moving Jane and Sally’s knives towards each other, so that each person’s value for her piece increases at the same speed. The spot where the two knives meet is a perfect division: It is envy-free, since each person likes her piece better than the other piece, and it is equitable, since Jane and Sally have the same value for their pieces. And it is efficient, at least compared to other single-cut divisions, since if you were to slide the knife to a different position, one of the players would be worse off. If you were to allow more than one cut, this simple division might not be the most efficient—for example, if one of the players loves the two stripes on the edges of the cake, a division that makes two cuts would probably do a better job. In the broader setting where more than one cut is allowed, there is still a guaranteed envy-free, equitable, and efficient solution, but this is harder to prove. In a forthcoming paper in The Mathematical Intelligencer, Steven Brams, a professor of politics at New York University, and Julius Barbanel of Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. show a way to figure out how many cuts are needed, given the players’ preferences.
One straightforward approach that Ayers and Socha might have taken is called “the shotgun clause,” a close analogue to “I cut, you choose” that is common in business contracts. This clause stipulates that if, for example, two owners of a business want to part ways, one of them will propose a buyout price, and the other will choose either to buy or be bought out at that price. Like “I cut, you choose,” this method is envy-free but not equitable: It’s better to be the chooser than the proposer. As a result, arguments about who should propose and who should choose sometimes lead to years of litigation, says James Ring, lawyer and CEO of Fair Outcomes, a Boston company that provides division algorithms.
Instead, Ayers and Socha committed that in the event of a break-up, they would use a relatively new algorithm called Fair Buy-Sell to determine which of them would buy out the other’s share, and at what price. Fair Buy-Sell was devised in 2007 by Ring and Steven Brams, a professor of politics at New York University, and requires each partner to simultaneously propose a buyout price. If John proposes $110,000 and Jane proposes $100,000 then John, the higher bidder, will buy out Jane for $105,000. Unlike the shotgun clause, this method is equitable: Each participant ends up with something—either money or the business—at a price that is better than his or her offer. “Both participants always get a solution that’s better than what they proposed,” Ring says. And the business always goes to the partner who values it more.
This algorithm joins a long list of others, with names like Adjusted Winner and Balanced Alternation. Just as important as prescriptions for fair division, though, is understanding when perfect fairness is impossible, or comes at the cost of social welfare (which measures the extent to which items are going to the people who value them most.). In the January 2013 issue of The American Mathematical Monthly, Brams—together with Christian Klamler of the University of Graz and Michael Jones of Montclair State University—showed that when three people are dividing a cake, it is sometimes impossible to find a division that is simultaneously envy-free, equitable, and efficient. Similarly, when three people have to divide a collection of indivisible items, it is sometimes necessary to choose between an envy-free solution and an efficient solution (for a simple example in which this happens, see Sidebar: Envy vs. Efficiency).
“Mathematics sets limits on what is achievable,” Brams says. “Then the question is, if you can’t get everything, what properties do you want to give up on?”
Maybe I’ll say that I will buy you out for $100,000, but if you want to buy me out, you have to pay me $200,000. It’s human nature.
Here too, services are popping up to help. A new, free online service called Spliddit will allow users to decide for themselves just how much they want to relax the notion of fairness. Its division algorithms ask participants to choose a particular fairness criterion—either envy-freeness or one of two weaker criteria. The algorithm then looks for the division at the chosen fairness level that produces the highest social welfare, which in this case is measured by the sum of all the participants’ values for their winnings. The higher the fairness constraint the participants set, the lower the social welfare is likely to be, and vice versa.
The inner workings of the Spliddit algorithms are not as transparent as those of the Fair Buy-Sell algorithm. But Ariel Procaccia, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg whose research team created Spliddit, nevertheless believes that even math-phobic individuals will be able to use the site: The divisions the algorithms generate should speak for themselves, he says.
“People should be able to look at a proposal and see that it makes sense—that they like their share and don’t want to switch with anyone,” he says.
Sometimes it’s necessary to choose between the fairest and the most socially useful division of a collection of items. For example, suppose John, Jane, and Sally are dividing their grandmother’s furniture and effects, and they each list the items in order of preference: There’s only one way to divide these items that is guaranteed to produce no envy: John: Sofa and TV Jane: Loveseat and photo album Sally: Antique bookcase and piano With this division, each person likes his or her share better than anyone else’s. But this division is not efficient. John and Jane will both be happier if they trade the TV and the loveseat, producing the division: John: Sofa and loveseat Jane: TV and photo album Sally: Antique bookcase and piano This new division is efficient—there’s no way to make further improvements without making at least one person worse off. And John and Jane’s trade seems harmless enough, since it doesn’t make Sally’s share any worse. But it may make Sally envious: The sofa and loveseat are high up on her preference list, and if she thinks they make a great pair, she might covet John’s share over her own bookcase and piano. There is no division that is simultaneously envy-free and efficient. Which division makes the most sense for John, Jane, and Sally depends on their particular relationships and values.
While fair division algorithms have come a long way, their real-world use can be complex. For one thing, human beings can entertain equally compelling but mutually exclusive notions of fairness. When siblings are dividing their parents’ estate, for example, should each sibling get an equal share, or should the sibling who nursed their father through his last illness get more? A fair division algorithm cannot make this determination for a family.
“Depending on how the algorithm plays out, it could offend either set of moral sensibilities,” says Peter Ditto, a social psychologist at the University of California, Irvine. “It’s hard to satisfy all our intuitions about fairness and justice, because they tend to mutually conflict.” Our satisfaction is further complicated, says Ditto, because evolution has honed us to be injustice detectors, so that “we often feel we are being screwed even when we aren’t.” Throw in the intricacy of emotional responses to a settlement, and it becomes clear that our relationship with division algorithms will not always be a simple one.
At the same time, the impartial nature of mathematical algorithms can help people tease out their own subconscious motivations and tame their hypersensitive unfairness radars. That’s what happened when Fair Buy-Sell was used to resolve an ugly feud that had dragged on for years between siblings who had inherited a family business empire and couldn’t agree about who would buy out whom.
“Each side claimed the other side was offering too little,” Ring says. “That’s how people behave in a conflict if they don’t trust each other—maybe I’ll say that I will buy you out for $100,000, but if you want to buy me out, you have to pay me $200,000. It’s human nature.”
When one sibling’s lawyer challenged him to use the Fair Buy-Sell algorithm, the process of choosing a price to plug into the system led the sibling to an epiphany: He didn’t actually want the business. His previous intransigence, he realized, had been an attempt to unfairly profit at his sibling’s expense. The fair division algorithms offer “a very powerful and positive thing,” Ring says. “To get what I want, I don’t have to lie to you and brutalize you and pretend I care about things for years.”
Division services like Fair Outcomes and Spliddit offer a mathematical lens through which users can view their own motivations. Will they choose to emphasize envy-freeness or social welfare? If even an envy-free division feels unacceptable to them, are they motivated by vindictiveness? As Marc Kilgour, professor and Chair of Mathematics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, puts it, the mathematical approach to fair division “throws a light on all kinds of behavior that has been around for a long time.”
As for Ayers and Socha, they never did end up invoking the Fair Buy-Sell algorithm. Instead, Maegan Ayers became Maegan Socha, and the married couple eventually sold their condo and moved to Rhode Island, where they are expecting their first child in July. Looking back, Maegan sees their condo purchase and fairness contract as the young couple’s leap into adulthood. “At the time I thought that part of being adult was being old enough to make those kinds of decisions, and I’m pleased by how we handled it,” she recalls. “It was a sign of faith and confidence in each other to know that if things didn’t work out, we wouldn’t be unfair or hurtful to each other. We’d preserve something, even if the relationship didn’t work.”
Erica Klarreich is a mathematics and science writer based in Berkeley, Calif. Her work has appeared in the 2010 and 2011 volumes of The Best Writing on Mathematics.The legend of Atlantis
Many fantastic stories from the past must have built up around natural phenomena that were beyond the power of people at the time to explain in rational terms. Dramatic reports from individuals who narrowly escaped a violent catastrophe of nature or who witnessed its effects from afar would have been eagerly seized upon by others and quickly exaggerated beyond all recognition. It seems at least possible that one the most fabulous legends of the western world may have come about in this way.
So much has been written and surmised about the "lost continent" of Atlantis in recent decades that it's easy to forget that the whole tale rests upon just one source of highly uncertain provenance: a description by Plato in his Timaeus and Critias. Plato claims, in these writings, that the story came to him by way of various intermediaries from his ancestor Solon who learned it, in turn, from Egyptian priests in 590 BC.
Some 9,000 years earlier, according to the legend, there was an island metropolis, roughly 32,000 square miles in area, lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the modern-day Straits of Gibraltar). It was dominated by hills and surrounded by two concentric rings of land, linked by bridges and roads. The water separating the rings formed extensive harbors connected by canals 150 feet deep and 500 yards wide. The vegetation was luxuriant, the land fertile and self-sufficient, and there were both hot and cold freshwater springs. Black, white, and red stones were quarried from beneath the central hill, leaving a natural roof for the inner harbor. The Atlanteans lived securely and comfortably in their island paradise – until, suddenly, disaster struck. According to Plato: "Through violent earthquakes and floods, in a single day and night of misfortune... [the whole race]... was swallowed up by the Earth and the island of Atlantis... disappeared into the depths of the sea."
Aristotle, who, as a protege of Plato, was in a slightly better position than ourselves to judge, maintained that the whole story was a fabrication from beginning to end. It was dreamed up, he maintained, simply to provide a setting for some of Plato's social ideas. Certainly, the purported size of Atlantis, its location (west of Spain) and the extreme age of its civilization are completely at odds with modern geological and archeological evidence. Even so, there's at least some justification for suspecting that Plato may have based his tale on a core of fact – and a very interesting core at that.
On their island home of Crete, it seems that the advanced race of the Minoans lived an almost idyllic lifestyle. Then, in the 16th century BC, something brought it to an abrupt and mysterious end. The collapse of Minoan power was cataclysmic – a fact testified to by the apparently simultaneous destruction and burning of many of the major Minoan settlements, both on Crete itself and on the much smaller, volcanic island of Santorini (known to the Greeks as "Thera"), 80 miles to the north. The Minoans had been overwhelmed, seemingly without warning – but by what?
In 1939, the Greek archeologist Spyridon Marinatos pointed the finger of suspicion at Santorini Three and a half millennia ago, the little island's volcano erupted spectacularly in an event estimated to have been at least four times as violent as the tremendous explosion of Krakatoa in 1883, and to have thrown out between three and four cubic miles of material. Traces of ash from this titanic blast have been found on Egypt's northern coast, in peat-bogs in Ireland, and in ice core samples taken from as far away as Greenland.
Dust thrown up by Santorini's eruption would have spread all around the northern hemisphere and remained in the atmosphere for many months, partially blocking the heat from the Sun. As a consequence, average surface temperatures would have dropped over a wide area. Evidence of this global cooling has been found in the growth rings of bristle-cone pines in California. Only one instance of significant frost damage has been identified in the trees from the middle of the second millennium BC. In 1984, Valmore Lamarche and Katherine Hirschboeck of the University of Arizona put the precise date of the damage at 1627 BC – around the same time that Minoan culture is known to have collapsed.
Detailed investigations of the archeological sites on Santorini and Crete have enabled a picture to be built up of what might have happened. It seems that Santorini went through two bursts of activity within a short period of time. In the first, huge quantities of ash were thrown out. A layer two inches deep has been found on eastern Crete and much deeper deposits on Santorini. However, the archeological evidence shows clearly that Minoan culture at the eastern end of Crete (there were few major population centers in the west) survived this initial explosion, whereas towns and cities of central Crete, where very little ash fell, were effectively wiped out. A strong possibility is that earthquakes, triggered by the movement of molten rocks beneath the surface, devastated settlements in central Crete immediately prior to the eruption. The extensive fire damage evident in the remains could have happened because oil lamps, dislodged by the powerful tremors, set building debris alight. Olive oil leaking from broken storage vessels in the large basements of the palaces and country houses would perhaps have further fueled the inferno.
Away from the center of destruction, Minoan life appears to have continued more or less unaffected, possibly for another 15 or 20 years. But then came the final hammer blow. In a second outburst, even more violent than the first, Santorini's volcano blew itself apart, virtually destroying the little island and leaving a deep caldera into which the blue waters of the Aegean flowed. More earthquakes almost certainly accompanied this event and these could have further damaged buildings in Crete already weakened by the earlier seismic activity. More ash and volcanic bombs would have rained down on the terrified Minoans, while dust in the atmosphere would have led to a temporary chill and a probable failure of crops. The most destructive force spawned by Santorini's death paroxysm, however, may well have been huge tidal waves, or tsunamis. Several unusual, thick sedimentary deposits on the seabed reveal that a devastating tsunami from Santorini was directed just to the west of Crete. Part of this would have slammed into the northern coastline, wrecking any ships in harbor together with the harbors themselves, thereby undermining what remained of the Minoans' once-powerful economy.
Was Plato's description of Atlantis based loosely on the real events which surrounded the Minoans and the ill-fated island of Santorini. We don't know. But the common theme of a surprisingly advanced culture and its termination by "violent earthquakes and floods" is suggestive. And it isn't difficult to be persuaded that the rapid, almost complete disappearance of Santorini – and the simultaneous ending of Minoan influence may have been the key event upon which the legend of Atlantis was built.Celebrities Miss Millennium: Beyoncé This is the hottest woman of the past thirteen years.
Beyoncé is ready to receive you now. From the chair where she’s sitting, in the conference room of her sleek office suite in midtown Manhattan, at a round table elegantly laden with fine china, crisp cloth napkins, and take-out sushi from Nobu, she could toss some edamame over her shoulder and hit her sixteen Grammys, each wall-mounted in its own Plexiglas box. She is luminous, with that perfect smile and smooth coffee skin that shines under a blondish topknot and bangs. Today she’s showing none of the bodaciously thick, hush-your-mouth body that’s on display onstage, in her videos, and on these pages. This is Business Beyoncé, hypercomposed Beyoncé—fashionable, elegant, in charge. She’s wearing the handiwork of no fewer than seven designers, among them Givenchy (the golden pin at her neck), Day Birger et Mikkelsen (her dainty gray-pink petal-collar blouse), Christian Louboutin (her pink five-inch studded heels), and Isabel Marant (her floral pants). She does not get up—a video camera has already been aimed at her face and turned on—so you greet her as you sit down. You have an agreed-upon window of time. Maybe a little more, if she finds you amusing.
You’re here to talk about her big post-baby comeback (Blue Ivy, her daughter with Jay-Z, is a year old), which Beyoncé is marking in classic Beyoncé fashion: with a Hydra-headed pop-cultural blitzkrieg. This month, two weeks after she headlines the halftime show at Super Bowl XLVII, she will premiere an HBO "documentary"—more like a visual autobiography—about herself and her family that she financed, directed, produced, narrated, and stars in. This is a woman, after all, who’s sold 75 million albums, just signed a $50 million endorsement deal with Pepsi (her flawless visage will festoon actual cans of soda), and will soon embark on a world tour to promote her fifth solo album, as yet untitled, due out as early as April. Who wouldn’t want to know how she gets the job done?
"I worked so hard during my childhood to meet this goal: By the time I was 30 years old, I could do what I want," she says. "I’ve reached that. I feel very fortunate to be in that position. But I’ve sacrificed a lot of things, and I’ve worked harder than probably anyone I know, at least in the music industry. So I just have to remind myself that I deserve it."
Anytime she wants to remind herself of all that work—or almost anything else that’s ever happened in her life—all she has to do is walk down the hall. There, across from the narrow conference room in which you are interviewing her, is another long, narrow room that contains the official Beyoncé archive, a temperature-controlled digital-storage facility that contains virtually every existing photograph of her, starting with the very first frames taken of Destiny’s Child, the ’90s girl group she once fronted; every interview she’s ever done; every video of every show she’s ever performed; every diary entry she’s ever recorded while looking into the unblinking eye of her laptop.
"Stop pretending that I have it all together," she tells herself in a particularly revealing video clip, looking straight into the camera. "If I’m scared, be scared, allow it, release it, move on. I think I need to go listen to ’Make Love to Me’ and make love to my husband."
Beyoncé’s inner sanctum also contains thousands of hours of private footage, compiled by a "visual director" Beyoncé employs who has shot practically her every waking moment, up to sixteen hours a day, since 2005. In this footage, Beyoncé wears her hair up, down, with bangs, and without. In full makeup and makeup-free, she can be found shaking her famous ass onstage, lounging in her dressing room, singing Coldplay’s "Yellow" to Jay-Z over an intimate dinner, and rolling over sleepy-eyed in bed. This digital database, modeled loosely on NBC’s library, is a work in progress—the labeling, date-stamping, and cross-referencing has been under way for two years, and it’ll be several months before that process is complete. But already, blinking lights signal that the product that is Beyoncé is safe and sound and ready to be summoned— and monetized—at the push of a button.
And this room—she calls it her "crazy archive"—is a key part of that, she will explain, so, "you know, I can always say, ’I want that interview I did for GQ,’ and we can find it." And indeed, she will be able to find it, because the room in which you are sitting is rigged with a camera and microphone that is capturing not just her every utterance but yours as well. These are the ground rules: Before you get to see Beyoncé, you must first agree to live forever in her archive, too.
It stands to reason that when a girl owns her every likeness, as Beyoncé does, it can make her even more determined to be perfect. (Beyoncé isn’t just selling Beyoncé’s music, of course; she’s selling her iconic stature: a careful melding of the aspirational and the unattainable.) So when she’s on tour, every night she heads back to her hotel room with a DVD of the show she’s just performed. Before going to sleep, she watches that show, critiquing herself, her dancers, her cameramen. The next morning, everyone receives pages of notes.
But Wait, What About Her Music?
A few words from Beyoncé on her upcoming album, for which she’s already recorded about fifty songs.—A.W
On her collaborators: "I’ve been working with Pharrell and Timbaland and Justin Timberlake and Dream. We all started in the ’90s, when RB was the most important genre, and we all kind of want that back: the feeling that music gave us."
On songwriting: "I used to start with lyrics and then I’d find tracks—often it was something I had in my head, and it just so happened to go with the melody. Now I write with other writers. It starts with the title or the concept of what I’m trying to say, and then I’ll go into the booth and sing my idea. Then we work together to layer on."
On the album’s influences: "Mostly RB. I always have my Prince and rock/soul influences. There’s a bit of D’Angelo, some ’60s doo-wop. And Aretha and Diana Ross."
On her inspirations: "Even the silliest little thing that you hear on the radio, it comes from something deeper. ’Bootylicious’ was funny, but it came from people saying that I had gained weight and me being like, ’I’m a southern woman, and this is how southern women are.’ My motivation is always to express something or to heal from something or to laugh and rejoice about something."
"One of the reasons I connect to the Super Bowl is that I approach my shows like an athlete," she says now. "You know how they sit down and watch whoever they’re going to play and study themselves? That’s how I treat this. I watch my performances, and I wish I could just enjoy them, but I see the light that was late. I see, ’Oh God, that hair did not work.’ Or ’I should never do that again.’ I try to perfect myself. I want to grow, and I’m always eager for new information."
She loves being onstage, she says, because it is the one time her inner critic goes silent. "I love my job, but it’s more than that: I need it," she says. "Because before I gave birth, it was the only time in my life, all throughout my life, that I was lost." She means this in a good way: When her brain turns off, it is, frankly, a relief. After drilling herself, repeating every move so many times, locking them in, she can then afford not to think. "It’s like a blackout. When I’m onstage, I don’t know what the crap happens. I am gone."
Solange, Beyoncé’s little sister (and an increasingly famous singer in her own right), says it has always been this way: "I have very, very early-on memories of her rehearsing on her own in her room. I specifically remember her taking a line out of a song or a routine and just doing it over and over and over again until it was perfect and it was strong. At age 10, when everybody else was ready to say, ’Okay, I’m tired, let’s take a break,’ she wanted to continue—to ace it and overcome it."
It’s hard to believe it, given what Beyoncé grew up to be, but as a girl she was shy. These days, she says that Sasha Fierce, the lusty alter ego—part smolder, part fury—that she invented in her first solo video (2003’s "Crazy in Love") to coax herself out of her own shell, has been fully integrated into her personality. Part girl next door, part mistress of the universe, Beyoncé now exudes a hip-thrusting sensuality that can be a little...intimidating. She’s hot, no doubt, but her eminence, her independence, and her ambition make some label her cool to the touch. Her allure lies in the crux of that tension—on the meridian between wanting her unabashedly curvaceous body and knowing that she’s probably right when she says, to borrow from her song "Bootylicious," that you really aren’t ready for all that jelly.
Back in the day, the thing that made her fiercest was protecting her younger sibling. Solange recalls how Beyoncé defended her when they were teens. "I can’t tell you how many times in junior high school, how many boys and girls can say Beyoncé came and threatened to put some hands on them if they bothered me," Solange says with a laugh. Beyoncé says she harnessed that same temper to bolster her nerve and fuel her work. "I used to like when people made me mad," she says in the HBO documentary, remembering her suburban Texas childhood, which was shaped (some would say cut short) by her determination to be a star. "I’m like, ’Please piss me off before the performance.’ I used to use everything." As Jay-Z rapped of Beyoncé at the beginning of her 2006 hit "Déjà Vu," "She about to steam. Stand back."
"You know, equality is a myth, and for some reason, everyone accepts the fact that women don’t make as much money as men do. I don’t understand that. Why do we have to take a backseat?" she says in her film, which begins with her 2011 decision to sever her business relationship with her father. "I truly believe that women should be financially independent from their men. And let’s face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what’s sexy. And men define what’s feminine. It’s ridiculous."
Now she says, "You know, when I was writing the Destiny’s Child songs, it was a big thing to be that young and taking control. And the label at the time didn’t know that we were going to be that successful, so they gave us all control. And I got used to it. It is my goal in life to be that example. And I think it will, hopefully, trickle down, and more artists will see that. Because it only makes sense. It’s only fair."
There ain’t no use being hot as fish grease, she seems to understand, if someone else wields the spatula and holds the keys to the cash register. But if you can harness your own power and put it to your own use? Well, then there are no limits. That’s what the video camera is all about: owning your own brand, your own face, your own body. Only then, to borrow another Beyoncé lyric, can girls rule the world. And make no mistake, fellas: Queen Bey is comfortable on her throne.
"I now know that, yes, I am powerful," she says. "I’m more powerful than my mind can even digest and understand."Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ben Wright reports: ''Politicians here agree this is a budget debacle of their own making''
US President Barack Obama has signed into effect a wave of steep spending cuts which he has warned could damage the US economy.
The cuts - known as the sequester and drawn up two years ago - will take $85bn (£56bn) from the US federal budget this year.
Last-ditch talks at the White House to avert the reductions before Friday's deadline broke up without agreement.
The IMF has warned the cuts could slow global economic growth.
The BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says the cuts were designed to be so brutally painful that politicians would be forced to agree on a better way of balancing the books.
However, as the midnight deadline loomed on Friday, Mr Obama and Republican congressional leaders still failed to agree on a way to avoid them.
The two sides are at odds over the president's insistence on raising taxes as part of any plan for tackling the country's $16.6 trillion (£11tn) debt.
Mr Obama was as insistent today as he has been ever since 6 November - his election victory gives him a moral mandate and deprives the Republicans of theirs
After the White House talks broke up, Mr Obama blamed Republicans for the impasse.
"They've allowed these cuts to happen because they refuse to budge on closing a single wasteful loophole to help reduce the deficit," he said.
He warned the cuts - if fully realised - would slow US economic growth by half of 1% and cost 750,000 jobs.
"We shouldn't be making a series of dumb, arbitrary cuts to things that businesses depend on and workers depend on," he said.
Unpaid leave
The sequester was drawn up in mid-2011 as Congress and the White House feuded over raising the debt ceiling and how to slash the huge US deficit.
Republicans wanted deep cuts in spending while Democrats insisted on raising taxes.
At the end of 2012 Congress and the White House struck a dramatic deal to avoid what was dubbed the "fiscal cliff", that included expiring tax breaks and the sequester.
Republicans agreed to Mr Obama's demand to raise taxes for the rich and Congress postponed the deadline for the budget cuts until 1 March.
About half the cuts will come from the defence budget. Incoming defence secretary Chuck Hagel has warned of "significant impacts" on the military.
He said the cuts "will cause pain, particularly among our civilian workforce and their families".
"Let me make it clear that this uncertainty puts at risk our ability to effectively fulfil all of our missions," Mr Hagel said.
"Later this month, we intend to issue preliminary notifications to thousands of civilian employees who will be furloughed [put on unpaid leave]."
Defence officials say 800,000 civilian employees will have their working week reduced. They say they will also have to scale back flight hours for warplanes and postpone some equipment maintenance.
The deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf has also been cancelled.
On Friday, Republican House Speaker John Boehner reiterated his party's refusal to allow taxes to rise and challenged the gridlocked US Senate to pass a bill first before the House acted on a plan.
"Let's make it clear that the president got his tax hikes on 1 January," he said as he left the White House. "The discussion about revenue, in my view, is over. It's about taking on the spending problem."
Correspondents say attention will now turn to the next congressional challenge - a possible shutdown of the US government if no funding bill is passed in the next month.
On 27 March a temporary federal budget that has kept the federal government running since 2012 is due to expire.
House Republicans have said they will vote on a bill next week to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, on 30 September, but keep in place some automatic cuts taking effect on Friday.A 31-year-old inmate in Orleans Parish Prison was rebooked on a charge of obscenity for allegedly flashing a guard last week. Morris Green, who is serving a four-year sentence for a theft conviction, was being escorted from the doctor's office to his cell around 5:20 a.m. on Dec. 29, according to an Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office report.
Morris Green, 31
Sgt. Lester Burns wrote in the report that Green asked him, "You want to see my d---?" At that point, the report says, another deputy removed Green's handcuffs. Green then "pulled out his penis and waved it at Sgt. Burns," the report says.
Burns told Green he was going to be rebooked for obscenity. After Green was put back in his cell, he "pulled out his penis and showed it through the food slot and again waved it at Sgt. Burns," the report says.Canada’s woes continued on Saturday as Romania came away 25-9 winners at Ellerslie Park. It stretches Canada’s losing streak to five games ahead of the World Cup Qualifiers against the USA. Adding to their misery was that Canada spent nearly half the match with a one-man advantage after Romanian hooker Otar Turashvili was sent off in the 23rd minute for a blatant punch on Tyler Ardron. Despite this Canada managed to score only three points while conceding 13.
Gordon McRorie opened the game’s scoring with a penalty goal in the 11th minute but Romania broke free for a try soon after. Turashvili barged ahead with his offloading hitting Johan van Heerden in full flight. The big second row had Viorel Lucaci alongside to finish off the textbook two-on-one.
With the score 7-3 for Romania the game paused for several minutes as |
modules to fit on that ship. And then needing to have a landing bay.
JH: Yeah.
JM: And so it got tricky. But that’s what we do right?
JH: Yes. Yes. Ben … Chris let Ben off the leash with the Endeavour. Ben plays a big part in the design of many of our ships. At least the top level, meta design whatnot. So he started … I remember Ben and I had this meeting where we were sat there, just he and I with a whiteboard, and started coming up with science modules and whatnot. So … he didn’t use any of mine … no he used one … one or two of mine.
JM: What did you have?
JH: I’m trying to remember what they were. I think the landing module may have been mine. But honestly I can’t remember at this point. Every day just blurs here. I don’t know what your day is like but my day … there’s so much Star Citizen just [space crabs attacking his head] … it compacts. So that was … that’s seven …
JM: Right.
JH: I haven’t been counting as we go along. And that brings you to the Buccaneer.
JM: The Buccaneer.
JH: Now … before this airs actually there will be a part … we’re recording it after we’re recording this but you’ll see it first … you’ll sit down with Ben Lesnick and you’re going to talk all about the Buccaneer so I won’t take up too much of your time on the Buccaneer. So we’ll let Ben talk about the Buccaneer.
JM: You bet.
JH: And these people will already have seen it before this airs. So that’s basically a top level view of your stuff for Star Citizen.
JM: Great.
JH: Do you know what you’re working on next? Have they said “Hey Jim after the Buccaneer we want you for the … “
JM: I never know until I get that email that says “Hey we’ve got another ship. Would you like to take a pass?” And I always say yes.
JH: Yeah.
JM: Because you just can’t beat this job.
JH: Yeah.
JM: You know what I mean. It is a dream job.
JH: I do know what you mean.
JM: Yeah. And do eight ships for one project is pretty great. But let’s not talk about me, let’s talk about you.
[Off camera Tom Hennessy laughs uncontrollably]
JM: Enough about me Jared.
JH: Alright. So Jim before we let you go any final message you want to give to Star Citizen community?
JM: Star Citizen community. Thanks for looking in on our discussion. And it really is great being able to do all these ships and it’s a dream job. And I hope you like ‘em. And thanks for having me come in Jared. Appreciate it.
JH: Thank you for coming in man. So Jim Martin, concept artist extraordinaire, maker of Drake ships and MISC ships and one Vanduul ship. Jared Huckaby, Community Manager for Star Citizen, Squadron 42. Back to you guys.
ATV Ship Shape: Drake Dragonfly
JH: Welcome everybody to another edition of Ship Shape. I’m your host Community Manager Jared Huckaby and with me today is special guest, Technical Designer Mr. Matt Sherman. Matt, how are you doing man?
MS: Doing good.
JH: Good. Now tomorrow we are putting the Drake Dragonfly on sale, and so we thought we’d take a few minutes to talk about the Drake Dragonfly …
MS: Yep.
JH: It’s origins and what our initial plans for it are.
MS: Yeah.
JH: Now the Drake Dragonfly was originally a voting option for our wave three or four ships. It would have helped to look that up ahead of time.
MS: Yeah
JH: It was the wave three ships.
MS: It was the three starters, so it was in the same vote. So in the end that’s the vote where the Reliant won out and became the new starter ship, but then also I want to say that the Terrapin, the Hurricane, the Dragonfly were all some of the other options and so, there was just enough drive between both internally where it’s like, “Oh yeah, space motorcycle. This would be pretty damn badass,” and then just from you guys in the community saying, “Hey, we want, we want a badass space motorcycle.” So we decided to try our hand at making a badass space motorcycle.
JH: Got you. Now in that original vote the Dragonfly was to be considered as a starter vehicle, …
MS: Yeah.
JH: … but it’s no longer what we consider a starter vehicle.
MS: True.
JH: It’s more along the lines of a snub craft like a Merlin or an Archimedes.
MS: Yep.
JH: Why don’t you tell us what we can expect from the Dragonfly tomorrow.
MS: Yeah, so one of the biggest things that we wanted to have with the Dragonfly is a rapid entry/exit onto the ship, so one of the first things you guys will see with that is there is no canopy around this ship at all. The riders are fully exposed to the elements.
JH: So bring your helmet.
MS: Yeah. Bring your helmet. You need to make sure your suit has life support built into it. You’re not going to have a lot of the accommodations that a life support system or a gravity generator to help you out, but the nice thing is that’s only going to be while you’re riding the Dragonfly in space. And one of the big things that we want to make sure the Dragonfly has is also a full ground vehicle operation.
JH: So this is a multi-mode vehicle here.
MS: Correct.
JH: So we have the diagram on your screen right now. You are looking at three modes. We have compact mode, …
MS: Yep.
JH: space mode …
MS: Yep.
JH: and ground modes.
MS: Correct.
JH: Why don’t you take us through the three modes.
MS: Yeah, so compact mode. That’s where the ship is going to be starting out. So it’s really small. A lot smaller actually than we initially envisioned, so your Freelancer, Constellation, a lot of the ships that people like, “Will it fit?” Odds are there’s a chance it’s going to fit, and it’s going to start off rolling out of that ship in the compact mode. So that’s really going to be just until you’ve cleared the line of the ship and then Dragonfly can start picking out it’s like, “Okay am I in space or am I on the ground?” And then it’s going to convert to the appropriate mode for that.
JH: Gotcha. So because we may have buried the lead here a little bit, this is a ship that can actually function in space and on the ground of a planet.
MS: Yeah.
JH: So in its ground mode, I take it, it flies a bit above the ground?
MS: Yeah, it’s going to hover a little bit off the ground. When we’re even sorting out the tech and what’s going to drive this, we actually wanted to make sure that we’re justifying it with the same conventions that we’re already planning into the other systems for our game. It’s going to be using these gravity levitate… err grav-lev plates, very similar to what we’re planning for how you’ll move cargo around because. You know, there’s some mechanical apparatus helping you move cargo, when we get all that in, so we want it to have that same rationale for, “And this is why 2 tonnes of metal is hovering over the ground.”
JH: Gotcha. Another feature folks may not have been expecting, there’s a second rider on here.
MS: Yep.
JH: So tell us about the second rider on the back.
MS: Yeah. Because we want this to help with boarding, raiding, with just fast actions from point-to-point. We didn’t want you to have to just completely leave this ship alone because, as you can see from the size, it’s not the most durable beast out there. We wanted to, from the ground up, to have a second rider on it, that they’re going to have a full rear firing arc, because they’re going to be sitting back-to-back with the pilot of the dragonfly.
They’ll be able to pull out any of their FPS weapons that they have got available to them, and just be firing off behind them. That’s going to really play out a bit more once we’ve got the procedural planets and surfaces in place, because now… Before we were just going to have a grey cat role, now we’ve got something with a little bit of teeth that can dart around, that can just fly about the surface, and hopefully not have as much trouble with handrails as the grey cat.
JH: And in space it has all the same components and stuff like you would expect on a Merlin, in an Archimedes, it’s got a shield generator, radar, stuff like that.
MS: Yep.
JH: That shield generator extends to the pilot?
MS: It will encapsulate the whole ship, so the pilot and the rider would technically be guarded by it. It is not the most potent shield out there. This is a very small, we actually made a new scale of components that we’re considering vehicle-class components. These are separate from normal ship components, but it would be the things you would find in the grey cat, in the dragonfly, in our rovers. That’s what’s giving that much more compact space, but still delivering the power and the functionality that each component demands.
JH: Gotcha. Since this has a space and a ground mode, can it transition from space to ground and vice versa?
MS: Not of its own power. It cannot do safe, for pilot or passenger, atmospheric takeoff or reentry. You will burn to a crisp.
JH: Alright, well I think that about covers it. The Drake Dragonfly goes on sale tomorrow for 35 USD. There may be a bonus pack or something to look forward to, so keep an eye out for that. Matt, thanks for taking the time to talk to us about the Drake Dragonfly.
MS: Yep. It was a pleasure.
JH: And of course, we’ll be doing the standard Q&A posts. We’ll do two next week. Look for that thread that opens tomorrow and put your questions for Mr. Matt Sherman. Thanks! Back to you guys.
MVP w/Tyler Witkin
Tyler Witkin (TW): Hey there, Tyler Witkin, Community Manager in the Austin, Texas studio here to bring you this week’s’ MVP
A huge congratulations to Aeon Moon for creating the stunning image, “Sunset Buccaneers”. As I was browsing through the community hub on the RSI website it immediately caught my eye. I’m confident that it has inspired many of our artists and we’re all really excited to see what you created next.
So congratulations to you, you’re this week’s MVP, back to you guys.
ATV Fast Forward
AI Subsumption Test
Outro
BL: Thank you to Jim Martin and Matt Sherman for coming on the show to talk, Drake for life!
SG: Yay! Drake for life! Thank to all of our subscribers for making this show possible.
BL: Be sure to tune into Reverse the ‘Verse, tomorrow at 11am Pacific on Twitch. We’ll be talking about the Drake Dragonfly of course and 2.4 and all sorts of other Star Citizen news, so check it out.
SG: And check out the Comm-Link tomorrow for the new Jump Point. Thank you to all of our subscribers for making this show possible. As always we will see you next week on Around the ‘VerseSir Ian McKellen, more famous for sporting Gandalf's wizards hat or Magneto's X-Men helmet, arrived on stage at Park Theatre last night clad top to toe in Arsenal kit.
His sartorial statement was not only a nod to the Gunner's win but also a ruse to raise funds at the venue's first birthday gala and he cheekily stripped off the kit (revealing more formal attire underneath) as it was auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Sir Ian McKellen with Melli Bond (All photos by Mark Douet)
Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch had foregone the BAFTA's' to be there and showed his true colours by winning the red and white scarf, saying he would be wearing it at every game next season. He also agreed to join Sir Ian in sponsoring a seat at the theatre, on which both their names will appear, fitting as Sir Ian is to soon appear as Sherlock Holmes in a new film exploring his twilight years.
Cumberbatch is friends with the theatre's artistic director Jez Bond and said he has been a supporter from the start, coming to see the opening show and Adult Supervision, starring his ex-girlfriend Olivia Poulet and Stroke of Luck starring Tim Piggott-Smith.
"They have had some wonderful performers here already and the theatres only quite young so bring it on," he said.
"When Jez told me he was opening a theatre I said 'get out of here' but then he showed me the site and I thought 'that could work', there isn't an intimate space like this in the area."
He added: "This is as local as it gets for me as I'm just near the heath and I'm just thrilled for Jez and his success and that all his hard work has paid off and I hope the audience numbers continue to grow.
"I think to open a local theatre when you are still in the middle of a recession is a really involved thing to do and his tickets price policy, hats off to that, because there's proper access and people can come here and be inspired and moved and I think it's a great addition to the local community."
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jez Bond
The Finsbury Park theatre opened its doors 12 months ago and Jez and creative director Melli Bond paid tribute to the hard work of the staff and the 57 volunteers who help run the theatre.
In that time it has shown 25 productions, the current shows being Desdemona and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and worked with 901 creatives and they announced on the night that Daytona, which starred Maureen Lipman, would be transferring to the West End.
Lipman was among the glittering line-up of stars who took to the stage for a special, one-off, old fashioned revue for the gala, which was also attended by celebrity supporters including Tamzin Outhwaite, Alan Rickman and Leslie Ash.
Lipman was hilarious, playing three very different actresses receiving very special 'awards', Clarke Peters charmed the audience with a silky smooth rendition of Nat King Cole's Nature Boy and Celia Imrie had perfect comic timing and facial expressions as she performed Alan Melville's skit extolling the horrors of catching frolicking couples on Wimbledon Common.
Will Young seemed to have taken inspiration from Beyonce's Met Gala outfit with his attire, donning a black face veil to sing an evocative version of Don't Smoke in Bed.
There were also turns from Lesley Manville, Michael Maloney and David Fynn before Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse reduced the audience to tears of laughter with their 40-45 sketch, performed on stage for the first time.
Maureen Lipman, Lesley Granville and Celia Imrie
Sir Ian said: "I have a great enthusiasm for local theatre and here young people in the area can come and see a show for as cheaply as £12 or some Tuesdays can pay what they can.
"There is no money for subsidised theatre, eventually this may become so popular that the Arts Council may relent and say they will support it but until then it's up to the people to support it."
Harry Enfield, Jez Bond and Alan Rickman
Benedict Cumberbatch and Clarke Peters
Charity Wakefield, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Honeysuckle Weeks
Jez Bond tells Benedict Cumberbatch he's never watched Sherlock! (not true)
David Fynn, Will Young and Michael Maloney2006 is a massive year for David Beckham. He has the chance, as captain, to lead England to World Cup glory in Germany. In the build up to the tournament that could mark the pinnacle of his career, Beckham talks to Tim Lovejoy in an exclusive documentary for ITV1 on his extraordinary journey to the top.
Beckham looks back on his life, explaining how the skinny boy from Leytonstone grew up to become one of the world’s most idolised footballers, and discusses how it feels to be perceived as one of the true greats of football. He picks out the games, goals, events and characters that shaped his career and transformed him into the international football superstar he is today.
ITV’s cameras follow David as he prepares for the biggest summer of his career, training with Real Madrid, practising his legendry free kicks, playing against Arsenal in the Champions League and facing the media at England football team’s press conferences.
Beckham looks ahead, revealing some of his ambitions for the future. One already in motion is his new pride and joy: the David Beckham Academy. A key part of his football legacy, David gives a personal tour of these state of the art coaching facilities in London which he hopes will give something back to the game which has given so much to him.Lotus team principal Eric Boullier criticised the drive-through penalty given to Romain Grosjean for his overtaking move on Felipe Massa on the outside of turn four during the race.
“I feel this penalty was a little bit too much,” said Boullier after the race. “He had nowhere to go, he was a little bit four wheels on the track, just for a couple of centimetres and obviously it’s very harsh, when you get such a penalty, to recover when you’re fighting for the podium.”
“The Ferrari is just next to him so he would have crashed or lose obviously most of the time,” Boullier added. “There is a clear rule, of course. Obviously it’s in our favour if there’s no penalty but I think the penalty itself is a bit harsh for that.”
The stewards ruled that: “In order to overtake car four [Massa], car eight [Grosjean] left the track. This overtaking move would not otherwise have been possible.”
Boullier appreciated the difficulty of the decision the stewards faced and said: “I have to pay tribute to them, to be honest, it’s difficult to draw the line, obviously.”
“It’s a harsh penalty for what we could say a brilliant move. In other situations it could be a normal penalty and understandable. But I will have a word with them when I’ve cooled down a little.”
Grosjean said he thought he had “at least two wheels on the white line on the track” when he made the move.
Boullier praised Grosjean’s performance in the race: “He obviously had high ambitions at the beginning of the race but this is a race and I was just telling him he did a super weekend again. Nothing wrong, no foot wrong, and two in a row now.”
“It means he understood what he built up since the beginning of the season and building up over last year as well. And clearly now I think he has the baseline to build a strong weekend like this and fight wit the kids like Kimi and Alonso and Vettel so that’s pretty good.”
Grosjean has also been summoned to see the stewards along with Jenson Button following contact between the two during the race.
2013 Hungarian Grand Prix
Image?�?� Lotus/LATGoogle’s efforts with its various Chromebook partners this year haven’t been going all that well. The Samsung Chromebook Pro and ASUS C302CA give you a lot on paper, but after using them, I find myself unimpressed. Back in the day, the Chromebook Pixel was the top-of-the-line machine everyone looked to as the golden standard, but it’s been gone for some time, and its effective replacements haven’t quite matched it.
Now, we have the Pixelbook, another top-tier laptop in both price and quality. It’s running on Chrome OS, and its claim to fame is the same as the original Chromebook Pixels: amazing hardware and specs. Has Google finally made a Chrome OS machine worthy of a massive price tag?
The best gifts for Android users
HARDWARE |
Despite anything marketing might tell you about the Pixelbook, the selling point here is hardware —nothing else. You can get Android apps, powerful specs, and even a stylus on much cheaper machines, but what you won’t find anywhere else in the Chrome OS ecosystem is hardware that is this good.
The Pixelbook’s hardware is incredible. This compact laptop/tablet hybrid is absolutely gorgeous with its silver aluminum unibody and white accents. The glass “third” on the back gives it that signature look that makes it a part of the Pixel family, and the overall design just screams Google.
There’s clearly a lot of the original Chromebook Pixel in this design, but it’s been refined a lot. This new machine is thin, lightweight, and still manages to pack everything you’d expect from a laptop in 2017. For one, there are two USB-C ports for charging, data, and display output, a high-resolution 2400×1600 touch-screen display, 2-in-1 hinge, and a solid keyboard. I’ll get to those a bit more in-depth later on, but the long story short with the hardware here is that it’s amazing.
The Pixelbook feels well thought out, not rushed out the door. One of the best examples of this is how Google handled the accents you’ll probably never think of. For one, there’s the empty space your wrists will rest on when typing. Unlike most laptops which just leave this portion metal, the Pixelbook has a silicone layer here that is very comfortable.
Further, the underbody of this machine has that same white silicone. While some might think this would take away from a premium feel, it actually gives the machine extra grip when in use on your lap, and it protects the glass panel on the lid when you have the machine in tablet mode.
The Pixelbook’s hardware is, simply put, wonderful. It feels like a product that would come from the brains at Google more than anything else I’ve used from the company, and that’s great given how good it has been getting at design.
DISPLAY |
As you’d expect with an expensive laptop, the Pixelbook ships with a pretty killer display. The 12.3-inch LCD screen is high-resolution at 2400×1600, and it’s great. The 3:2 aspect ratio is a little off-putting, but if you primarily use this machine for writing or reading, it’s great. The display is sharp for those tasks as well, and the colors and brightness are great for any work with photos or even watching a movie.
The touchscreen on the Pixelbook is also great. It’s very responsive when using your finger and feels just like using a tablet when you take advantage of Android apps in tablet mode.
My sole complaint about this display, however, are the bezels surrounding it. The size of this laptop is nearly perfect, but Google could and probably should have thinned out the bezels to make room for a bigger display.
SOFTWARE |
Chrome OS
The story on the Pixelbook when it comes to software is a straightforward one we’ve known for years — it’s Chrome OS. Google’s lightweight internet-first operating system is blazing fast on the Pixelbook, and it’s been getting better and better over the years.
If you’ve used pretty much any Chromebook in the past few years, you’ll be familiar overall with the experience here, but things have definitely been upgraded. For one, there’s a new app launcher, lots of Material redesigns, an upgraded notifications center, and a bunch of other new features.
One of those new features Google wanted to show off with the Pixelbook and its new Pixel phones is Instant Tethering. Just like on Android tablets, this feature allows your Pixelbook and nearby Pixel (or Nexus) smartphone talk to each other and set up a hotspot if you want to do so. It’s a neat and useful feature that really shows that Google is creating an ecosystem based on hardware and software.
Android Apps
The biggest story in the world of Chrome OS, however, has been the arrival of Android apps. It’s been in testing for a long time, but on the Pixelbook this functionality finally sees what feels like its final form, and it works really well.
The Play Store is enabled out of the box on the Pixelbook, and you’ll immediately be able to download your favorite Android apps on the machine. While simple use cases for this include communication tools like Slack or music apps such as Spotify, Android apps are really the answer to a lot of Chrome OS’ shortcomings.
Apps on Google Play make the Pixelbook more useful offline and can give it a more familiar experience with things such as Microsoft’s Office suite. Further, you can enhance the machine’s capability by downloading Adobe’s versions of Lightroom or Photoshop which are actually being enhanced for hardware like this.
Obviously, this still isn’t a “real” laptop with proper, full apps and programs, but Google’s efforts in this area are obvious, and they make the Pixelbook a much more viable daily computer.
Google Assistant
Google Assistant continues to expand to new platforms, and the latest is Chrome OS, or at least, the Pixelbook. For now, the Pixelbook is the only laptop on the market with Assistant built-in as a native app, and it’s a pretty excellent addition.
Simply tap the dedicated button on the keyboard or long-press the “home” button and Assistant will launch in a small window on the left side of the display. The Assistant can immediately help you with any question your fingers can type, and it can also analyze what’s on screen to give you more information.
It’s a handy feature that I hope extends to other platforms in the future, but I wouldn’t say it’s a key selling point for this machine. Really, it’s just an added bonus which will certainly make its way to other Chromebooks in the future.
Performance
Another aspect that really sets the Pixelbook apart from every other Chromebook is performance. Most Chromebooks out there today run on Celeron processors with some of the higher-end ones adopting Core m3 processors, but nothing has had a Core i5 or i7 since the Chromebook Pixels.
Under the hood of the Pixelbook, you’ve got an i5 or i7 (7th gen. Kaby Lake) with 8GB or 16GB of RAM, and that combined with the 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB SSDs give you the fastest laptop experience you’ll find anywhere.
Chrome OS flies on this hardware. I’ve spent nearly two weeks using the Pixelbook as much as possible in my daily workflow, and in that time it’s only had one instance where it lagged or had trouble processing anything I’ve thrown its way. The cause was unclear, but it required a reboot.
The lack of issues makes sense given how lightweight Chrome OS is, but it’s still something you can’t say about any other laptop.
It’s also interesting to note that, no matter which model you buy, the Pixelbook has no fans. To my surprise, this didn’t affect the machine heating up at all. By some wizardry, the Pixelbook just doesn’t get hot, even if you’re using it over extended periods of time. So on top of being the fastest laptop, it’s also the quietest.
KEYBOARD AND TRACKPAD |
As I mentioned earlier, Google really thought through the hardware on the Pixelbook, and the keyboard and trackpad are proof of that. Starting with the trackpad, we’re looking at an actual piece of glass with a “soft” matte coating that is just fantastic. Your finger glides over this surface and it’s a true pleasure to use. It even still clicks like a proper trackpad should — no vibration trickery here.
Further, the keyboard is awesome. The keys are well-spaced and are all a comfortable size. I was easily able to transition from my HP-made Windows laptop to the Pixelbook and get up to full speed in a matter of minutes (although I’m having trouble saying the same about doing the opposite).
There are also some nice touches with this keyboard. The backlighting isn’t too bright, nor too dim, and you can easily adjust it based on your environment. I also really appreciate the amount of key travel on this keyboard. Google has struck a balance here between having a thin machine without a lot of key travel and a keyboard that’s actually usable.
The keys move 0.8mm and have a relatively tactile feeling, but what I really appreciated was the silicone coating on them. This gives you a little bit of extra “grip” that you probably never realized you wanted/needed. It’s comfortable to type on for long periods, even around 1500 words into writing a review.
BATTERY LIFE |
Another big perk for Chromebooks is battery life, and that extends to the Pixelbook. Google quotes 10 hours of mixed usage on this machine, and my usage lines up with that quite closely. You’ll very likely be able to make it through a full day of use on this machine, and if not, charging is simple over USB-C. There’s a 45W charger in the box that works well, but you can even power this device with a portable battery bank.
AUDIO |
Another point worth talking about on the Pixelbook is audio quality. There’s a headphone jack, thankfully, and that’s as good as it is on any other laptop. However, I do want to focus in on the speakers for a moment.
If you look at this machine up close, you won’t see any speakers, anywhere. There’s nothing along the top of the keyboard, nothing on the bottom, just nothing, anywhere. That’s because, like on the Chromebook Pixel, the speakers are hidden under the keyboard.
I won’t spend too much time talking about this, but the speakers here are great. They get very loud with minimal distortion, have plenty of depth to their sound despite a slight lack of bass, and sound great regardless of how you’re using the machine. It’s a great design.
PIXELBOOK PEN |
Lastly, there’s the Pixelbook Pen. Google’s new $99 stylus is, well, a stylus. Look, there’s really not much to talk about here. This is a Wacom-based stylus that works very well. You can draw with it with pressure and angle sensitivity, and it works great for controlling Android apps or just general web navigation. It’s also comfortable to hold and the white & silver design matches up well with the Pixelbook itself.
The Pen also has a neat trick to summon the Assistant when you press its button. Simply hold that down, draw a circle around something on screen, and the Assistant will use that to give you relevant results.
I’ve got to be honest, the Pen is the least exciting part of this machine to me. It does what it’s designed to do and it does it well, but personally, I wouldn’t buy it for $99. To me, it feels more like a “Look! We have a stylus too!” move than anything revolutionary.
FINAL THOUGHTS |
The Pixelbook is amazing. It’s a great laptop and an even better Chromebook, but the question you have to ask about this product is if it is actually worth $1,000 to you. In short, I still can’t see myself ever shelling out that much cash for a limited machine.
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who should buy the Pixelbook. If you’re a college student who spends 90% of your time writing papers and taking notes, this is a great machine. If you write for a living and rarely use things like Photoshop, this is a great machine.
For most people, though, the Pixelbook just isn’t worth it because of its price. You can easily buy a capable Windows machine for $999, and for a few hundred more, you can even buy a Macbook Pro (or an even better Windows machine).
There’s a lot that’s good about the Pixelbook and Google knocked it out of the park, but even as capable as Chrome OS has become, it’s still hard to sell anyone on a super expensive machine that functionally can’t do half of what others in its price range can.
WHERE TO BUY |In 2010 the UFC hired Mark Fischer to head the expansion of their product into Asia. This weekend sees the conclusion of yet another step in that process, as we have an Ultimate Fight Night live from Macau, China.
The card is headlined by #11 ranked Welterweight Dong Hyun Kim taking on John Hathaway. It is also the finale of The Ultimate Fighter China, and Wang Sai will take on Zhang Lipeng for the Welterweight contract, while Yang Jianping will take on Ning Guangyou for the featherweight contract. The night also features UFC heavyweight action as Matt Mitrione takes on Shawn Jordan.
LWOS’ very own Akhilesh Gannavarapu was able to interview the man who helped put it all together, Mark Fischer, about the UFC’s activities in Asia to date; the successes and challenges they have had, and the plans for the future. Get ready for the fights on Saturday by listening to this quick interview now.
Note: You can also see my interview with Alberto Mina Here
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @LilTooObvious. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page<.
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For more great MMA interviews with the biggest fight stars on the planet, remember to check out Hammer MMA Radio on 93.3 CFMU or find their latest episodes on our main page’s sidebar. Hammer Radio features interviews from some of the industry’s biggest stars. You can find the latest on the Hammer @SteveJeffery.Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Thursday that the Supreme Court’s decision on Obamacare was effectively turning “both the rule of law and common sense on its head.”
Paul’s statement said President Obama’s health care program “is the wrong fix” for America.
“This decision turns both the rule of law and common sense on its head,” Paul reportedly said. “Obamacare raises taxes, harms patients and doctors, and is the wrong fix for America’s health care system.”
Paul also discussed what he would do differently as President and noted his perspective as a doctor.
“As President, I would make it my mission to repeal it, and propose real solutions for our healthcare system,” Paul said. “As a physician, I know Americans need a healthcare system that reconnects patients, families, and doctors, rather than growing government bureaucracy.”
Time magazine reporter Zeke Miller posted the full statement:LONDON – A group of British Muslims paid a special visit to the government headquarters in 10 Downing Street on Saturday, December 17, to promote peace and dispel stereotypes about Islam, delivering roses to the Prime Minister as part of an international campaign for integration.
“Unfortunately in the current climate of fear, the true message of Islam has been lost,” Abdur Rehman Tobin, a coordinator for As-Siraat, an Islamic organization in the UK promoting peace and unity, told Al-Jazeera.
“We give out roses and cards offering messages of peace. It gives an opportunity for people to talk to Muslims and ask questions and find out more to remove any misconceptions.”
The visit, organized by As-Siraat, is part of Engagement2030 campaign created by the group to promote peace and unity.
The worldwide campaign saw Muslims from all over the world holding similar events during the initiative that started on December 5, giving out roses and chocolates in their local communities and spreading the meaning of peace in Islam.
Participants from more than 125 locations around the world were also involved.
On Saturday, the campaign culminated with the visit to 10 Downing Street where the delegation presented roses and a card for the prime minister.
British Muslims also handed out roses as a gesture of peace to the public.
The initiative was praised by Councilor of the London Borough of Newham Obaid Khan, who was at Downing Street, calling it a “fantastic initiative” that drew and an overwhelmingly positive response.
“A rose is a symbol of peace and love. Let’s hope in this festive period that we can spread peace through giving,” said Khan.
David Bowers, an American tourist who visited Downing Street with his family on Saturday, also praised the initiative.
“There are not too many Muslims where I live so there are many people in the states, including myself, who have seen the news reports and quite frankly did not have a good impression. The overall perception of Muslims in the West has generally been one that is negative,” he said.
“But I can see really nice, warm and friendly Muslims here. Perhaps the perceptions we have had may change.”
The initiative to hand out roses comes amid rising anti-Muslim sentiments across Europe and US.
Even before the Brexit vote, anti-Muslim incidents rose by 326% in the space of a year, according to a report from the group Tell Mama.
Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2.7 million, mainly from Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin, according to 2011 statistics.Global overcapacity, plunging demand, and a price war
In the first quarter, South Korean shipbuilders saw their orders collapse by 94.1% to 170,000 compensated gross tons (CGT), compared to the prior year. In terms of dollars, orders collapsed 94% from $6.5 billion in Q1 2015 to just $390 million.
Global orders for new vessels in Q1 have collapsed too, but slightly less, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea, cited by IHS Fairplay: down 71% year-over-year to 2.32 CGT.
“Their business slump may continue throughout this year, and demand for oil tankers may improve slightly during the second half of the year,” Korea Eximbank said in the report. Current order backlog will provide work for about two years. For all of 2016, orders are expected to plunge by 85%, from $23.7 billion in 2015 to just $3.5 billion.
Chinese shipyards are in even deeper trouble.
In May so far, three shipyards went bankrupt and began liquidation: Zhong Chuan Heavy Industry, Zhong Chuan Heavy Industry Equipment, and Zhoushan Xuhua Metal Material.
In April, Zhenjiang Ship |
a prosecutor," Pleasants said.
Day eight of testimony in the trial began with a morning hearing in which Judge Debra Nelson ruled information about Zimmerman's studies and unsuccessful application for a police job in Virginia was admissible. Prosecutors called a military prosecutor who taught a criminal procedure class at Seminole State College in which Zimmerman earned an A.
"He was probably one of the better students in the class,"said Alexis Francisco Carter, an officer in the U.S. military JAG corps.
When defense attorney Don West cross-examined Carter, and pointed out Zimmerman at the defense table, the military lawyer smiled at the defendant.
"How you doing, George?" Carter said.
Prosecutors want to show that Zimmerman aspired to be a police officer and knew about Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which says there is no duty to retreat if one is confronted with potentially lethal force. Prosecutors now plan to introduce evidence about a college criminal justice course the defendant took that included course work on Florida's self-defense law. The testimony appears aimed at bolstering the state's claim he acted more aggressively than a civilian watch volunteer ought to.
Prosecutors also introduced a job application Zimmerman made to the Prince William County, Va., police department in Virginia in 2009 and an application to ride around with Sanford police officers in 2010. They also called to the stand Sanford Police Administrative Service Manager Jim Krzenski, who verified that Zimmerman filed the application.
Firearms expert Any Siewert testified that Zimmerman's weapon had a full magazine plus an additional bullet in the chamber. During cross-examination defense attorney Mark O'Mara pointed out that the defendant's firearm was safer because it was a double action handgun which requires a stronger pull than a single action weapon which countered the prosecutions earlier suggestion that the gun was unsafe.
Siewert also explained how gunpowder wound up on Martin's hooded sweatshirt as it was presented as evidence before the court.
On Tuesday, a medical examiner testified that Zimmerman's injuries were "insignificant" and could have been the result of a single blow as prosecutors continued to make their case that the neighborhood watch volunteer was not simply defending himself when he shot the 17-year-old Martin.
Zimmerman's best friend and the author of a book defending him also testified that when he drove Zimmerman home from the Sanford Police Station, Zimmerman told him Martin grabbed hold of his gun as the two grappled in the gated community.
"Somehow I broke his grip on the gun when the guy grabbed between the grip and hammer," Mark Osterman, author of "Defending our Friend: The Most Hated Man in America," said, quoting Zimmerman whom he also he described as "stunned" and "detached" as he drove Zimmerman and his wife home.
"He had a stunned look on his face," Osterman said, "He was wide-eyed. A little bit detached."
Osterman also said that Zimmerman told him that he got out of his truck after seeing the Martin walking through two buildings, which he thought was suspicious.
Zimmerman could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. The state argued during its opening statement that Zimmerman profiled and followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.
Over the first five days of testimony, jurors heard 911 calls from neighbors that included cries for help and the fatal gunshot. Zimmerman's attorneys are adamant that he is the one screaming on the recordings, while Martin's parents have said it's their son.
Jurors also listened to more than six hours of testimony from Martin's friend Rachel Jeantel, who testified that she was talking on the phone with the teen as the fight started.
West attacked inconsistencies in multiple statements she gave attorneys and law enforcement officials about what she heard, including whether she heard Martin say "Get off! Get off!"
There also was conflicting testimony from neighbors that witnessed parts of the struggle between Martin and Zimmerman. Some said it appeared the larger Zimmerman was straddling Martin, but neighbor Jonathan Good said it appeared Martin was on top.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Serafin Gomez is the Miami Bureau Producer for FOX News Channel. Fin covers Politics, Florida, and Latin America. Follow Fin on Twitter: @Finnygo.Apple is making it easier to get apps from the App Store with iOS 6 by removing the need to enter your password for every app you download to your device, according to numerous online reports. If all you’re doing is downloading an app update, a free app, or an app you previously deleted, Apple reportedly will not ask for your password in its next update to its' mobile OS for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Instead, you will only have to enter your password for paid apps. The change was first publicized by a Reddit user with access to the latest beta version of iOS 6 released to developers.
The decision to eliminate constant password checking appears to be part of Apple’s plan to streamline App Store purchasing on an iPhone, according to Macrumors. In addition to the password changes, downloading an app using iOS 6 will happen in the background. So instead of kicking you back to the home screen where you can watch the app install, you can stay in the App Store and continue to browse, Macrumors says.
Assuming Apple doesn’t pull these changes before the official launch of iOS 6, the news is likely to make iPhone owners happy. Entering your password can feel cumbersome when all you want to do is download a free app or process the 65 updates you’ve got sitting on your phone. Apple will reportedly still require password authorization before you can buy anything, but for most users that’s likely a welcome annoyance since it can prevent unwanted charges on your credit card.
Competing platforms such as Android and Windows Phone let you download apps, including paid apps, without a password check.
IOS 6 is due out in the fall featuring a new Maps app, Facebook integration, improvements to the Siri digital personal assistant, and a new iCloud-based photo sharing feature.
Connect with Ian Paul (@ianpaul) on Twitter andGoogle+, and with Today@PCWorld on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.NBC10's George Spencer is looking into the search efforts underway for Michael Etel who investigators say stabbed his girlfriend in the driveway of the Berlin Township home on Wednesday. Etel is considered armed and extremely dangerous and the issue of gun permits comes up and whether or not the lengthy process should be expedited. (Published Friday, June 5, 2015)
Man Wanted for Stabbing Death of Ex Still on Loose
A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of a man wanted for the deadly stabbing of his ex-girlfriend outside her South Jersey home.
Michael Eitel, 45, has been on the run from authorities since Wednesday night when police say he stabbed Carol Bowne to death in the driveway of her West Berlin, New Jersey home.
Bowne, 39, and Eitel dated for some time after the woman's husband died in a motorcycle crash, but the hair stylist later took out a restraining order against the man after he became violent against her, according to authorities.
New Jersey State Police and U.S. Marshals combed through the woods around Bowne's home by air and the ground trying to find Eitel. A fugitive task force was added to the search Thursday.
A motive for the killing is not yet known, but investigators said Eitel had an argument with another woman at a different home before he came to Bowne's house.
Bowne had recently added security cameras to her Patton Avenue home and, in April, applied for a gun permit, but had yet to receive approval.
Two days after Bowne's death, state senators Diane Allen, Jennifer Beck and Dawn Marie Addiego are drafting legislation that would prioritize permitting for those who have a restraining order in place.
"You're still going to have to go through the process, but every step of the way, your particular application will get priority," Addiego said.
Nancy Hutchinson with Camden County Women's Center spoke cautiously about the proposed law, however, concerned it could hurt domestic violence victims.
"[They must ensure] that if a gun is used for victims of violence for self-defense that there are laws in the legal system that help them if they have to resort to that so it doesn't come back and hurt them if a gun is used for their own protection," she said.Cramer: There could be more shenanigans after bitcoin futures start trading 11:33 AM ET Fri, 8 Dec 2017 | 03:01
Bets against bitcoin will "annihilate" the digital currency once futures begin trading over the weekend, CNBC's Jim Cramer predicted Friday.
Cboe bitcoin futures are set to begin trading on Sunday. The CME contracts launch on Dec. 18. Nasdaq, meanwhile, plans to start its own bitcoin futures as early as the second quarter of 2018.
"I think the short selling is just going to annihilate people when you can start trading it," Cramer said after talking with sources in the bitcoin community. A short seller is essentially taking a position on the belief that an asset price will fall instead of rise. Bitcoin futures will allow bitcoin shorts on a widespread basis.
"Once this thing starts trading the futures, they are just going to kibosh it," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." "You're going to see a lot of shenanigans."
Bitcoin rocketed above $19,000 Thursday on the Coinbase exchange before tanking. Pressure continued Friday, with the cryptocurrency falling nearly 18 percent at one stage.
Cramer has been a vocal critic of bitcoin, warning investors that it's like "'Monopoly' money" and people would be better off going to Vegas.
Critics, including JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, doubt the legitimacy of bitcoin. Dimon has repeatedly called it a "fraud." But proponents argue the digital currency is a good medium of exchange and a way to store value like gold.
"If you're in there buying it, buying bitcoin, you got to be aware there's going to be people who are going to sell it. They've been waiting to short it to you," Cramer said.
"The propensity of people when futures start would not be to bid it up after this turmoil that we've had," Cramer added.There was once a time when a bankruptcy filing by a company was a mark of shame. That stigma has fallen by the wayside, and firms now employ Chapter 11 not to protect themselves against creditors but for strategic purposes.
One of the most popular ploys is to use the bankruptcy court to undermine the bargaining position of labor unions. The latest firm to do so is American Airlines, which said it took the step to “achieve industry competitiveness.” This is corporate-speak for “we’re going to milk our employees dry.”
Such union-busting bankruptcies are far from new. They were pioneered three decades ago by the likes of ruthless airline executive Frank Lorenzo, who used Chapter 11 to abrogate union contracts after taking over Continental Airlines in 1983. Six years later he tried something similar at Eastern Airlines, but changes in the law forced him to settle for weakening the unions rather than eliminating them altogether. Subsequently, most of the other major carriers (and various smaller ones) also went through the bankruptcy process.
Airline management has made the most of the system. In 2006 a federal bankruptcy court barred unions at regional carrier Mesaba Airlines from engaging in strikes or other job actions, prompting the company’s unions to agree to management’s wage-cutting demands. In 2008 a bankruptcy judge gave Frontier Airlines permission to cancel its collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters, but that decision was later overruled in federal district court. The union, nonetheless, had to make contract concessions, as have workers at other carriers and in other industries.
It remains to be seen how far AMR will go in using the bankruptcy process against its unions. Yet there is little doubt that it will seek to slash labor costs, especially those relating to pensions. The head of the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has already expressed concern that AMR might terminate its plans—the way United Air Lines did during its stint in Chapter 11.
This would put an enormous strain on the PBGC, which has already amassed a deficit of $26 billion and would have difficulty providing significant payments to the tens of thousands of people covered by AMR’s pension plans.
There is good reason for AMR’s unions to be concerned about management’s intentions. AMR’S crusade against labor began three decades ago, when Robert Crandall took control of the company in the early days of airline industry deregulation. Apparently inspired by Reagan’s crushing of the air controllers strike, he was determined to get workers to bear the financial consequences of increased competition.
In the early 1980s AMR was one of the country’s first major employers to adopt the pernicious practice of two-tier wages. Crandall pressured unionized pilots to accept a contract that cut the pay of new hires by a whopping 50 percent; for flight attendants the reduction was more than 30 percent, making many of them eligible for food stamps. The moves transferred $100 million a year from paychecks to company coffers.
AMR also pioneered the practice of high-tech offshore outsourcing in 1983 when it set up a subsidiary in Barbados called Caribbean Data Services. The company began air-shipping tons of used ticket coupons to the facility, where operators (mostly women) paid $1.75 to $3 an hour entered the information on computer terminals and then transmitted it via satellite to the airline’s accounting center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. By 1985 the operation was successful enough in cutting costs that American shut down its data-entry operation in Tulsa.
When unions began to challenge the two-tier system in the late 1980s, AMR sued them for supposed violations of federal labor law, fired activists and threatened to shut down the airline. Eventually, Crandall had to accept a softening of the two-tier arrangement, but he pursued a relentless campaign against labor costs which prompted a 1993 strike by flight attendants that ended only when President Clinton personally intervened. Four years later, Clinton intervened again when American’s pilots walked out to protest the company’s rigid bargaining position.
Crandall’s successor, Donald Carty, continued the company’s confrontational labor relations posture. In 2003 he used the threat of bankruptcy to wring $1.8 billion in annual concessions from AMR’s unions. While those negotiations were taking place, AMR management failed to mention that it was simultaneously offering lucrative retention bonuses and special pension protections to top executives at the company. When the plan came to light, the uproar was so intense that AMR’s board ousted Carty and—for a while—adopted a less aggressive posture toward the unions. With the bankruptcy filing, the company appears to be returning to its savage ways.
When Occupy protesters or others talk about income inequality, conservatives complain that this is class warfare. The real class war is that being waged by corporations against decent wages and benefits, using the bankruptcy courts as one of their most effective weapons.
What makes this all the more galling is that severe restrictions have been placed on the ability of struggling individuals—including young people overwhelmed by student loan debt—to use the bankruptcy system to gain relief. Here, as in so many other areas, corporate “persons” have been given the upper hand over real people.Texas is preparing to take a major step in reforming its prostitution laws, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Several measures which are moving through the Legislature would reduce the crime of prostitution from a felony to a misdemeanor and order treatment and counseling, not jail time, for offenders.
Ana Yanez-Correa, who heads the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, which has been pushing for reform of the state's prostitution laws, says the only result of the current law, mandating prison sentences of up to five years for people convicted of prostitution, is huge costs to the taxpayer for felony prosecution and incarceration, with no impact on the number of hookers on the streets, and no change in the miserable lives of the prostitutes.
"Many of these woman, and men, have been violated, they have been sexually assaulted, they have mental health and substance abuse problems, they are homeless," she said.
She says researchers have shown that, more than any other criminal, prostitutes will leave their unpleasant lifestyle if they have opportunities in other areas. But Yanez-Correa says current laws actually make it a lot more difficult for that to happen.
"After they are convicted as a felon, they have a'scarlet P' on their foreheads," he said. "You can't get that job, you can't the tools that you need to live responsibility to get out of that horrible lifestyle."
She points out that the proposals being discussed would not 'legalize' prostitution,' it would still be a crime, but they would remove the 'collateral consequences' of a felony conviction.
She stresses that counseling and treatment would be mandatory, and convicted prostitutes who refuse to undergo the treatment could still get jail time. But she says the bills would 'offer individuals a viable exit from the business, while helping them avoid the devastating, lifelong consequences of a conviction.'
"Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, hey, today I'm going to become a prostitute!" Yanez Correa says.If you’re running Google Chrome 57 or above, it turns out there’s a hidden dark mode. Reddit user _paul- found the menu, which you can enable with a quick jump into the console menu.
The dark is, as you’d expect, dark, with a black background and white text. Here’s how to turn it on:
Head to YouTube. Open up the developer menu by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows (Option +Command+I on Mac). Click on Console. Paste in this line of text: document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE” then tap Enter (note: for the time being, head over to reddit and paste the code from there, as we’re having some technical difficulties).
Close the developer window and refresh the page. If you’re logged into your YouTube account, click the profile icon on YouTube. Then click on Dark Mode. If you’re not logged in, click the three-dot icon that appears, then select Dark Mode.
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That’s it, you now have an experimental dark mode available to you. Commenters are suggesting it works in other browsers as well. Firefox requires that you delete old cookies first, and it should work on Edge out of the box. I couldn’t get it to load in Safari though.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An orphaned chihuahua-shih tzu puppy has been adopted by a mother cat, who is also nursing her kittens (videos). The mother cat, Mrs. Rabbit, and her kittens, Thumper and Friend Owl, have accepted the puppy, who nurses alongside the kittens and plays with them.The puppy, named Bambi, was born Oct. 8. His mother and siblings died during delivery, Cleveland Animal Protective League director Sharon Harvey said."The owner bottle fed Bambi for a few days, but wasn't able to keep up, so she brought him to us for help," Harvey said. "As the survival rate for bottle-fed orphans this young is pretty iffy, our veterinarian decided to have our staff see if Mrs. Rabbit, a stray who had just come in with her kittens, would allow the puppy to nurse."Mrs. Rabbit and her kids will stay in a foster home for a month then be neutered at the APL. Bambi has already been adopted."But the very special momma cat and her kittens will be available for adoption," Harvey said. "We hear stories like this every now and then, but this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this firsthand. It's quite a testimony to the unconditional love and spirit our animal friends are able to share with us and with each other.""Our shelter is filled with compassionate people who are dedicated to saving the lives of homeless animals, and now we have a very, very special and selfless cat who is doing more than her part to help. It just doesn't get much better than that."EUGENE, Ore. – Texas Track & Field can claim something no other program can so far through the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field. The Longhorns have swept the men's and women's titles in the same event to be tops in American shot put.
Ryan Crouser wowed the crowd in a return to his home state as he surpassed 22 meters for the first time in his career on the first day of the Olympic Trials. On Thursday night in the rain, alumna Michelle Carter claimed the women's shot put title with a new meet record.
"I texted Chris Plonsky that the Horns rule America in the shot put," said Texas Head Coach Mario Satenga.
Rule the shot put they did.
Carter overcame the best field the women's shot put has ever had an Olympic Trials to make Team USA as it marked the first time the top five finishers for the women all threw over 60 feet.
The women's competition also saw multiple lead changes throughout, including two in the fifth round that knocked Carter down to third place on the bubble to not make the team if Tia Brooks could surpass her in Round 6. After Brooks fouled her final attempt, Carter was securely on Team USA, but she wanted more.
Carter flung the shot out to a new meet record 19.59 meters (64-3.25). It marked her seventh outdoor USA title in the event and fourth consecutive. It also is her third Olympic team where she hopes to medal after finishing in fifth at the London Olympic Games in 2012. She also is fresh off her gold-medal performance and American record at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in March.
For Crouser he was up against legends in the sport. People he grew up watching were standing next to him waiting for their turn in the ring. It was a surreal experience for him and one that he was happy to be a part of as there is a changing of the guard so to speak in men's shot put in America.
"There was really cool atmosphere out there between the older guys and the younger guys, a relatively seamless shift between Adam (Nelson) and Reese (Hoffa) and us younger guys," Crouser said after his win last week. "I told my dad this morning, I wanted to just make finals to say just one time in my life that I got to throw with Adam, because we were in different rings during qualifying."
Against his idols Crouser showed the future is bright for the sport with his toss of 22.11 meters (72-6.50), just one centimeter short of the Olympic Trials record held by Nelson. It also was two centimeters short of the current world lead, which is held by Crouser's Rio teammate Joe Kovacs at 22.13 meters.
All three of the men's shot putters headed to Rio are first-time Olympians with Penn State grads Kovacs and Darrell Hill joining Crouser. They currently rank 1-2-3 in the world this year.
Aside from overcoming the best America has to offer in a loaded field, both Carter and Crouser come from legendary family trees.
Crouser's family could be considered the royal family of throwing in the state of Oregon. His father was a thrower at the University of Idaho and both his uncles were All-Americans at the University of Oregon. His uncle Dean Crouser was a three-time NCAA champion, and uncle Brian Crouser won NCAA titles in the javelin twice and was an Olympian in 1988 and 1992.
Dean Crouser's son Sam won two NCAA titles in the javelin and is headed to Rio this summer as well to carry on the family legacy. And his daughter and current Longhorn Haley Crouser will throw in the final of the women's javelin on Saturday. Haley set an American high school record in the event as well.
Carter's father Michael Carter is one of the most decorated track and field athletes in SMU history. He also was a star football player with three Super Bowl rings to his credit with San Francisco.
But Michelle Carter grew up only knowing of her father's football success. She told reporters after her victory on Thursday that her father kept his seven NCAA titles, American high school record and Olympic silver medal in shot put from her as a way to ensure she chose her own path. When her seventh grade coach encouraged her to take up the shot put, that's when father Michael revealed his daughter had the event in her blood.
And since then she has had a storied career of her own and with her father acting as her coach during her professional years.
"He wanted to make sure this was something I chose on my own and nobody was trying to make me do it because of what he accomplished in the sport," she said. "He didn't pressure us to do anything. If we did something, it had to be us that chose it. He wanted us to choose it on our own because he didn't want us to do anything we didn't enjoy."
And being the American record holder both indoors and out, winning medals and representing her country are definitely things that Michelle Carter enjoys.
No matter how they became shot putters, whether as part of a legendary family tree, or unearthing a family secret in seventh grade, Crouser and Carter are the best America has to offer in their event, and they both are Lifetime Longhorns.As a rash of new streaming players hit the market I have been receiving a lot of questions about new HDMI cables. Do you need a new HDMI cable for a new player? Is it worth the extra money to buy the high-end cable? Will inexpensive cables give the same image?
Typically there is no reason to buy a new HDMI cable. Most cables sold the last few years are at least the 1.4-HDMI standard that will support 4K.
If you want a new HDMI cable there is no reason to buy the high-end HDMI cable. Inexpensive HDMI cables will give the same image and sound quality as expensive cables.
Don’t trust what I say? Geoffrey Morrison from CNET says: “Here’s the deal: expensive HDMI cables offer no difference in picture quality over cheap HDMI cables.”
So what do I recommend? I recommend buying the $1–$3 6ft HDMI cables on Amazon. They may take a while to get to you but they are inexpensive and do a great job.
Want something quicker or don’t trust generic cables? Buy an Amazon basic cable for about $6.50—a great quality cable for a fraction of the price.
Here are a few cables I recommend on Amazon: (Yup these are affiliate links but I’m not trying to make money here. If I was I would recommend the expensive cables.)
C&E 6FT HDMI Cable
DVI Gear 6FT HDMI Cable
Amazon Basic HDMI Cable
So don’t get caught up overpaying for HDMI cables. Honestly anything over $8 for a 6ft HDMI cable is overpaying.
Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news, tips, and reviews.
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The store in Barstow remains closed for a third day Friday because of the damages.
Barstow police said in a statement that the boy, who was not with his parents, set the fire with a lighter on Wednesday afternoon. Wal-Mart employees tried to put it out with fire extinguishers but failed, and some had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters arrived and extinguished it, but serious damage was done by both fire and water.
Police looked at surveillance video and saw the boy with a scooter and a backpack.
He was found on a street corner later in the day. He was arrested and taken to juvenile hall.AMD continues to soldier forward in the PC market, but CEO Rory Read wants the company to get at least 20 percent of its revenue from other sources by the end of this year. Some of this money will come in from next-generation game consoles like the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One. And some of it, according to a report from PC World, will soon be coming from Android tablets and Chromebooks.
"We are very committed to Windows 8; we think it's a great operating system, but we also see a market for Android and Chrome developing as well," AMD Senior Vice President and General Manager Lisa Su said at this week's Computex trade show. This runs counter to her statements from earlier this year, when the company was "betting heavily on Windows 8" and had no immediate plans to support Android.
Su didn't give a timeframe for when either Chrome OS or Android versions compatible with AMD chips would be available. However, the company did recently announce some low-voltage APUs (codenamed Temash) with TDPs of as little as 3.9 watts that could easily fit into this type of device. Those chips will supposedly be shipping soon, if they aren't already.
Moving to support other operating systems is a smart move for AMD, if one that they're a bit late with. Undercutting Intel on price has long been part of the company's business strategy, and both Chromebooks and Android tablets are continually trying to push prices lower. Current sub-$249 Chromebooks are powered by both ARM and Intel, and ARM-based Android tablets under $199 are also plentiful (and Intel is reportedly aiming for that price point with its forthcoming Bay Trail Atoms). At the right price, AMD's OK-CPU-good-integrated-GPU combination could be just what these devices are looking for.Xiaomi today announced that the Redmi Note 4 that the company launched in India back in January has reached a new sales milestone. The company managed to sell a million units in just 45 days, the fastest for any device sold in India.
The Redmi Note 4 went on sale in India towards the end of January. Since then the phone met with a strong response from consumers. However, due to Xiaomi's flash sales model, every time a lot of customers had to return empty handed after the initial stock vanished in seconds. As of this writing, the phone is out of stock.
This is why the 45 days figure is more impressive, because the phone wasn't even available for most of those 45 days. One could only imagine how many more units it would have sold if this was an open sale.
SourceWindows to your soul, portals to your data? Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images
This post originally appeared on Business Insider.
The contact lens of the future may do a lot more than just correct your vision.
Earlier this week, Google was awarded a patent for a solar-powered contact lens that is capable of communicating with computers and collecting biological data about the wearer.
The tech giant originally announced its smart contact lens project in 2014 and revealed that it was testing lenses that could measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and a tiny glucose sensor. But the new patent reveals new potential use cases for a smart contact lens.
For example, according to the patent the contact lens could have sensors that detect a range of the wearer’s biological data, including internal body temperature and blood-alcohol content.
The sensors could also potentially gather data about the wearer’s environment. According to the patent, the device could possibly sense allergens like grass or tree pollen, pet dander, and dust mite excretions.
Photo detector sensors and solar cells on the contact lens would harvest light to constantly power the device. The photo detectors could be used to receive data, giving the device the ability to communicate with mobile phones and computers.
Google also suggests in the patent that the lens could enable the wearer to read information in barcodes. Or be used to verify the wearer’s identity.
“Retinal analysis of a user can be performed and an optical signal transmitted in response to an authentication request,” the patent states.
Of course, as with most patents, there’s no guarantee that such a contact lens will become a reality anytime in the near future. However, given that Google has openly said they are working on similar technology, it wouldn’t be surprising if some of these features are included if they ever do roll out a smart contact lens.
See also: Zooey Deschanel’s Startup Just Got Bought By Time IncFarmhouse Harvest Dining Table
This beautiful rustic chic farmhouse harvest dining table is handcrafted from solid wood (no veneers) and proudly made in our Michigan workshop. This design strikes the right balance between rustic charm and farmhouse chic. Our farmhouse harvest dining table is certainly rustic, but it is also refined and features a hand applied grey wash finish. We also have perfected the popular look of making wood appear “unfinished”, yet it does have a finish so it will not stain. Be careful of those tables offered by a larger national chain that truly are “unfinished”. They use raw, unfinished wood, and yes it looks good. But spill something on it, and your table is ruined. There are hundreds if not thousands of customers that wish they would have known this before purchasing. We know this because we get asked to repair them all the time. Unfortunately, when juice, coffee or wine penetrates deep into unprotected wood, there is no amount of sanding that will remove the stain. Not to worry as our guys have figured out how to offer this look, yet it is seal coated, and the wood is protected.
Our farmhouse harvest dining table is available any length and width you need. It can also be made expandable. Custom furniture is a specialty of Woodland Creek Furniture. Let us build you a quality dining table that will be passed down for generations.ANAHEIM – The Columbus Blue Jackets had every reason to slow down in their 4-2 loss at the Anaheim Ducks.
It was the last game of an already successful California road trip. The team had surprised the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings, winning their first two games of a three-game trek through the Golden State.
They had a long flight scheduled the next day – and they were down 2-0. And then the Blue Jackets made it 2-1. Then the Ducks pushed it to 3-1 midway through the third period.
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Again nobody would have faulted the Blue Jackets if they folded. The mediocre teams in the NHL tend to cave during the final contest of a long trip – especially if the team already was guaranteed a winning record on the voyage.
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But Columbus continued their dogged play in all zones and Scott Hartnell took a feed from Brandon Saad in transition and poked the puck past Frederik Andersen with a minute left in the game to make it 3-2. The Ducks eventually put the game out of reach with an empty netter, but the Blue Jackets showed new coach John Tortorella they won’t quit for him. That day-by-day they were further buying into his blood and guts brand of hockey.
“I don’t think we gave in today,” Tortorella said. “We were a little inconsistent but we didn’t give up.”
Story continues
The hiring of Tortorella to coach Columbus three weeks ago after the firing of Todd Richards moved the needle around the NHL. Tortorella is considered a rock star coach – someone with a big personality, who has achieved a high level of success. He won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 and is the winningest American born coach in NHL history. In some ways he’s the United States’ equivalent to Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock as far as personality and profile.
He had been out of coaching for a year after a rough stint with the Vancouver Canucks, but seemed the perfect fit for Columbus after the team, which had preseason Stanley Cup aspirations, struggled to an 0-7-0 start.
And so far he’s given the Blue Jackets what they’ve needed to get out of the slump – brutal honesty with a bit of discipline. In eight games with Tortorella, the Blue Jackets are 4-4-0 and set at 4-11-0 on the season. They’ve outscored their opponents 22-20 since the coaching change.
“I think it’s something we needed in here. We needed a guy to come in and be real honest with us in how we were playing individually and a group,” forward Brandon Dubinsky said. “I think he’s done that. Nobody can hide. If you’re playing well, you’re going to get the opportunity and if you’re not then you’re not going to get that opportunity. I think as an athlete that’s really all you can ask for because your work ethic determines your ice time and your opportunity, so he’s done a lot of good things since he’s been here and I think our group is getting better.”
There’s often wonder about Tortorella and who he really is. He’s known as a guy who gets into fights with the media and even other teams.
But that’s just one part of his personality – a small sliver that’s caught on camera. Players see him in the locker room and have a better sense of him as a coach and a person.
He’s not just a demanding coach who wants his players to block shots.
“He loves being in the locker room, he loves coaching, he loves teaching, he loves helping guys. He has a side to him that isn’t brash or harsh,” Dubinsky said. “He cares a lot about his players and his family and you see that sometimes in his media outbursts where somebody attacks one of his players and he takes it personally.”
He also gives his players parental-level advice, which often means he’s highly truthful. Outside of the Xs and Os, this is a core tenet of Tortorella’s coaching philosophy. Getting a player to buy into what he’s preaching involves telling the player exactly what he feels about them. While it may lead to some agitation initially, he believes this helps the greater good of the player and the team in the long-term.
“I think they need to know where they’re at all times, good and bad,” Tortorella said. “A lot of people like to focus on the bad but a lot of times it’s the good. I’m going to continue doing that. If conflict comes out of it, I don’t think conflict’s a bad thing. I think people are a little afraid of conflict, but when there is honesty there’s going to be conflict and if you work through it together as mature people you become closer and I think it’s good for your team.”
Players and management around the Blue Jackets are often careful to point out how they all liked Richards as a coach. But there seems to be a level of understanding that Richards couldn’t be quite as blunt in his assessments of players as Tortorella. It’s not that one belief is more correct than the other. The Blue Jackets for this season seemed to need a coach who tells it like it is.
“I think Richie was a little more patient, maybe in situations if guys maybe were struggling at times,” |
run an out route, Moss is running a shallow cross while Gaffney has a deep pattern.
Grossman's arm strength, or lack there of, is on full display on this play. Davis has to dive back towards the ball to catch it. He manages to reel it in, but short of the first down marker. Luckily, the Giants get called for an unnecessary roughness penalty, giving the Redskins the first down. On the following third down, Kyle calls the same play (felt like I've said that before).
It's the exact same play. Davis motions into the trips and is the target on the out route.
This time, Grossman manages to get the ball to Davis without any troubles. Davis is able to turn and run upfield, and fights his way well into the red zone.
I think I'll end this post on the same drive as those last two plays. On third and goal, the Redskins spread out the receivers.
On the pre-snap read, Grossman can see the Giants have no safety cover on the near side.
This is the perfect coverage for the Redskins. They have Gaffney running a slant, with Davis running an out.
The route combination forces the corners into traffic. Gaffney makes sure to slip under the traffic, creating separation. With no safety to take away the slant inside, Gaffney is wide open. Grossman pulls the trigger and the Redskins kill off the game.
What were your thoughts on this game? What sticks out in your memory about that first half? Let us know in the comments below.The state of Georgia seems confused. It doesn’t seem to get when it’s reasonable to expect proof “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Every judge, lawyer and defendant – actually anyone who’s even seen a television show about the law – knows that the reasonable-doubt standard applies to the prosecution in criminal cases. Since it’s extreme—constitutionally and ethically speaking—to deprive someone of his or her liberty, our legal system places the burden on the government to establish its case.
There’s one exception to this rule. In Georgia, a prisoner appealing a death sentence on grounds of mental retardation must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that he is in fact retarded.
Accordingly, unless the Supreme Court intervenes, the state of Georgia will send Warren Hill, a man with an I.Q. of 70, to his death on Wednesday. Jurors in his case say they would have sentenced him to life without parole if they had that option. The family of the victim has said he should not be executed.
But the Georgia pardons board has just denied his appeal for clemency.
The Supreme Court banned the imposition of the death penalty on mentally retarded offenders a decade ago, but left it to the states to decide how to carry out that order. Of the 50 states, only Georgia requires proof of retardation beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mr. Hill appealed to the State Supreme Court, which issued a 4-3 ruling upholding the law, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals deferred to the state. But the dissenting minority in that case argued that the federal courts must “guard against extreme malfunctions in the state criminal justice systems.”
Although the Supreme Court refused to review of the case in June, Mr. Hill’s lawyer, Brian Kammer plans to ask them to reconsider and, meanwhile, stay the execution.
I believe strongly that the death penalty is morally wrong, and our editorial board has argued that the Supreme Court was wrong when it upheld its constitutionality. It’s impossible to administer it fairly and ethically, as the situation in Georgia clearly demonstrates.(Reuters) - When the local doctor who had been treating Vicky Hilborn told her that her rare cancer had spread throughout her body, including her brain, she and her husband refused to accept a death sentence. Within days, Keith Hilborn was on the phone with an “oncology information specialist” at Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
Keith Hilborn holds a photo of his wife, Vicky, at his daughter's home in Summerville, Pennsylvania, February 23, 2013. Vicky Hilborn died of cancer in 2009 after attempting and failing to get oncology treatment from the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Picture taken February 23, 2013. To match Special Report USA-CANCER/CTCA REUTERS/Jason Cohn
Hilborn had seen CTCA’s website touting survival rates better than national averages. His call secured Vicky an appointment at the for-profit, privately held company’s Philadelphia affiliate, Eastern Regional Medical Center. There, the oncologist who examined Vicky told the couple he had treated other cases of histiocytic sarcoma, the cancer of immune-system cells that she had.
“He said, ‘We’ll have you back on your feet in no time,’” Keith recalled.
Vicky’s cancer treatment was forestalled by an infection and other complications that kept her at Eastern Regional for three weeks. In July 2009, when she got back home, things changed. Despite Keith’s calls, he said, CTCA did not schedule another appointment. As his wife got sicker, Keith, a former deputy sheriff in western Pennsylvania, was reduced to begging.
The oncology information specialist “said don’t bring her here,” he recalled. “I said you don’t understand; we’re going to lose her if you don’t treat her. She told me I’d just have to accept that.”
Vicky Hilborn never got another appointment with CTCA. She died on September 6, 2009, at age 48.
CTCA is not unique in turning away patients. A lot of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers in the United States decline to treat people who can’t pay, or have inadequate insurance, among other reasons. What sets CTCA apart is that rejecting certain patients and, even more, culling some of its patients from its survival data lets the company tout in ads and post on its website patient outcomes that look dramatically better than they would if the company treated all comers. These are the rosy survival numbers that attract people like the Hilborns.
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View related graphic at link.reuters.com/fyt46t
BEATING THE AVERAGES
CTCA reports on its website that the percentage of its patients who are alive after six months, a year, 18 months and longer regularly tops national figures. For instance, 60 percent of its non-small-cell lung cancer patients are alive at six months, CTCA says, compared to 38 percent nationally. And 64 percent of its prostate cancer patients are alive at three years, versus 38 percent nationally.
Such claims are misleading, according to nine experts in cancer and medical statistics whom Reuters asked to review CTCA’s survival numbers and its statistical methodology.
The experts were unanimous that CTCA’s patients are different from the patients the company compares them to, in a way that skews their survival data. It has relatively few elderly patients, even though cancer is a disease of the aged. It has almost none who are uninsured or covered by Medicaid - patients who tend to die sooner if they develop cancer and who are comparatively numerous in national statistics.
Carolyn Holmes, a former CTCA oncology information specialist in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said she and others routinely tried to turn away people who “were the wrong demographic” because they were less likely to have an insurance policy that CTCA preferred. Holmes said she would try to “let those people down easy.”
Equally significant, CTCA includes in its outcomes data only those patients “who received treatment at CTCA for the duration of their illness” - patients who have the ability to travel to CTCA locations from the get-go, without seeking local treatment first. That means excluding, for example, those who have exhausted treatment options closer to home and arrive at a CTCA facility with advanced disease.
Accepting only selected patients and calculating survival outcomes from only some of them “is a huge bias and gives an enormous advantage to CTCA,” said biostatistician Donald Berry of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The company defends its practices. Spokeswoman Pamela Browner White said CTCA’s survival data are in “no way misleading, nor do they deviate from best practices in statistical collection and analysis.” As for the Hilborns, she said, the company does not discuss individual cases.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America got in trouble with regulators in 1996, when the Federal Trade Commission accused it of, among other things, presenting survival claims it couldn’t support. The company entered into a consent decree with the FTC and, without admitting any of the allegations, agreed not to make unsubstantiated outcomes claims. The company also “implemented a voluntary, robust compliance program,” White said.
Asked if CTCA’s current outcomes claims conform to the consent decree, Richard Cleland, the agency’s assistant director for advertising practices, said: “No one at the commission can comment on non-public information.”
“A FREE-MARKET GUY”
Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which estimates it treats 4 percent to 8 percent of U.S. patients with complex and late-stage cancer, was founded in 1988 by Richard J. Stephenson, who has served as chairman ever since.
Stephenson, who declined to comment for this article, serves on the board of FreedomWorks, a non-profit group that advocates for small government and low taxes, and he is “very much a free-market guy,” CTCA President and Chief Executive Stephen Bonner told Reuters.
He also has a history of pushing limits. A graduate of Northwestern University Law School, Stephenson started out as an investment banker. In 1966 he became a trustee of Americans Building Constitutionally, an organization that helped wealthy individuals set up not-for-profit corporations and personal trusts to avoid paying federal income and inheritance taxes.
In 1969, a California state court found the group’s top official and six others guilty of grand theft or conspiring to commit grand theft. Stephenson had pleaded no contest to false advertising, a misdemeanor, and testified for the state, according to media reports at the time.
Stephenson ventured into healthcare in 1975, when he and partners bought Zion-Benton Hospital in Zion, Illinois, renaming it American International Hospital. By the late 1980s, American International was facing financial problems and its “reputation had been severely damaged” by local press reports about its use of unproven cancer treatments, according to a 2004 court opinion on a successful petition by a former CTCA president seeking an increased valuation for his share of the company.
In 1988, Stephenson founded CTCA. He was motivated, said CEO Bonner, by the difficulty he had identifying and obtaining the best therapies for his mother after she developed bladder cancer. She died in 1982.
Stephenson began building what was to become a national network of cancer centers that would uphold “the Mother Standard,” described on the company website as “a warm, nurturing approach (that) involves caring for patients as we would want care for our own mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and other loved ones.”
The hospitals also would seek patients “who were willing to travel to receive treatment” and “who were covered by private commercial insurance and could afford those expenses not paid by insurance,” according to the 2004 court opinion.
THE TOUGH CASES
Today, CTCA - with hospitals in Illinois, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia, plus an outpatient clinic in Washington state and headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois - is the only hospital system in the country that specializes solely in complex and advanced cancers. It does not release revenue or profit figures.
The company has treated about 50,000 patients since 1988, CEO Bonner said. (By comparison, the non-profit MD Anderson, a leading cancer center, treated about 115,000 patients last year.) CTCA expects 6,000 new patients and 15,000 to 16,000 continuing patients this year, he said, and is considering expanding in the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast and even Asia.
At each facility, the standard cancer treatments - radiation and chemotherapy - adhere to national guidelines, Bonner said. “But because we see mostly patients with later-stage, complex cancers, they often need something else,” he added - psychological and spiritual support as well as “holistic” interventions such as yoga, acupuncture and reiki, a laying-on of hands.
More and more academic cancer centers offer such alternative medicine, which some insurers cover.
“Patients who feel they are understood and empowered will have a better outcome,” Bonner said. They’ll summon the strength to continue therapy, “even if the last thing they want to do is another round of chemotherapy.”
The CTCA formula resonates with many patients. According to Healthgrades, a doctor- and hospital-ratings site, CTCA facilities consistently beat national averages in patient satisfaction.
“We were very impressed with the personal attention,” said Rose Weistock, whose husband, Harvey, was treated for non-small-cell lung cancer at the Zion hospital, now the Midwestern Regional Medical Center, after his local physician gave him three to five years to live. “You didn’t feel like you were just a number,” she said.
CTCA flew the couple at no charge from their Maryland home to Chicago - complete with limo from the airport - to tour the hospital and undergo tests. Harvey, an accountant who had medical insurance through his job, began chemotherapy on that 2004 visit. The Weistocks appreciated the emphasis on what CTCA calls a cancer-fighting diet and on boosting the immune system through mind-body and spiritual practices.
Harvey died in a Maryland hospital in 2005. The family sued CTCA, alleging that he died after receiving chemotherapy he couldn’t tolerate, and settled out of court. Still, Rose’s admiration for the hospital’s personal attention remains unwavering.
HOPEFUL PITCH
“They market hope,” Gail Robison, a staff nurse at the Zion hospital from 2003 to 2007, said of CTCA.
The marketing typically features CTCA’s state-of-the-art care and holistic approach. Ads note that featured patients might not be representative: “You should not expect to experience these results.”
The ads also challenge viewers to “compare our treatment results to national averages.” Doing so, on the company’s website, shows that CTCA’s reported survival outcomes regularly beat those averages.
Experts in medical data who reviewed CTCA’s claims for Reuters say those claims are suspect because of what they called deviations from best practices in statistics - in particular, comparing its carefully selected patients to those nationwide.
“It makes their data look better than it is,” said Robert Strawderman, professor and chairman of biostatistics at the University of Rochester. “So the comparisons used to suggest that CTCA has better survival rates are pretty meaningless.”
The selection process begins when a prospective patient first contacts CTCA, by phone or web chat, and speaks to an oncology information specialist. “The first thing you do is be kind and greet them, but you’re qualifying them,” said Carolyn Holmes, the former oncology information specialist. “You ask, ‘How old are you?’ meaning, ‘Are you Medicare-age?’”
Holmes says she learned to recognize callers with “Cadillac insurance policies” and those from poor zip codes. She said she tried to redirect undesirable patients away from CTCA.
“You don’t want them,” Holmes said about Medicare patients. Medicaid? “Absolutely not.” Other former employees confirmed her account of screening patients based on their means of payment.
Holmes sued Southwestern Regional Medical Center, CTCA’s affiliate in Tulsa, in 2012 for terminating her job after she says she experienced symptoms consistent with multiple sclerosis.
CTCA denies any knowledge of Holmes’s possible disability and claims she failed to satisfy performance standards, according to court records. The case is pending in Oklahoma federal court.
CTCA spokesman White said that the company has an “insurance-screening process and established criteria” and trains its specialists to direct callers to other resources when CTCA is unable to offer treatment.
CTCA accepts Medicare patients “in some hospitals,” said CEO Bonner, and “a tiny bit” of Medicaid. It also has a fund, named for Stephenson’s mother, that provides $2.5 million a year in charity care.
SKEWED POOL
The practices Holmes described result in a patient pool that looks very different from the nation’s.
At the Zion hospital, about 14 percent of patients were covered by Medicare and 4 percent by Medicaid in 2011, according to data the hospital submitted to Illinois health authorities. Over the previous 10 years, the Medicaid percentage was often in the single digits. Reuters was not able to obtain data from CTCA’s other hospitals.
In the database CTCA compares itself to, called SEER and run by the National Cancer Institute, 53 percent of patients were diagnosed at the Medicare-eligible age of 65 or older, and 14 percent are below the poverty level, an indication of those covered by Medicaid or uninsured.
SEER includes patients “with and without insurance, with and without other serious medical conditions, at or not at cancer centers, treated by all types of doctors, not just oncologists, and even including those who never received treatment because the cancer was diagnosed too late,” said Celette Skinner, associate director for Population Science & Cancer Control in the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Those factors all depress the survival of SEER patients, making CTCA’s results look better by comparison.
For instance, patients without insurance, whom state filings show CTCA rarely accepts, are only half as likely to undergo a screening test for cancer, says American Cancer Society statistician Elizabeth Ward. And screened patients are alive longer after diagnosis than are unscreened patients. That reflects the effect of screening, not treatment.
Poor people, whom CTCA rarely treats, also tend to have worse health, such as heart disease and susceptibility to infection. Those “co-morbidities” are responsible for as many as half of all cancer deaths in the year after diagnosis, said Soneji Samir, an expert on cancer statistics at Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire. CTCA’s patients “have less risk of other causes of death.”
CTCA makes every effort to adjust its data so comparisons to the national database are legitimate, said biostatistician Chengjie Xiong of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who performed CTCA’s survival analysis as a consultant to the company.
But “comparisons cannot be done between CTCA and SEER database on income level,” he said in an email. That means “there are some differences” between the two patient populations.
Xiong said he is doing new survival calculations using more recent data from CTCA, trying to make sure the comparison to the national database is rigorous. The new results, Xiong said, are expected to be posted on CTCA’s website this month.
For some cancers, CTCA will still have better survival rates, he said. For others, “the survival difference in favor of CTCA is no longer statistically significant” after adjusting for several differences between CTCA’s patients and those in the national database.
“VERY RED FLAG”
CTCA also excludes from its survival calculations thousands of patients it does treat but who did not receive “treatment at CTCA for the duration of their illness.”
“‘The duration of their illness’ is a very big and very red flag,” said MD Anderson’s Berry. CTCA’s patients will “tend to be healthier” than those in the general population from which SEER draws its data, he said, adding: “Ability and willingness to travel is an independent factor” associated with longer survival.
No federal or state law requires hospitals to report their cancer outcomes, let alone mandates how to do the calculations. But many healthcare providers voluntarily err on the side of inclusion.
“We follow them for the duration of their illness and still report them even if they were treated elsewhere,” said oncologist Alan Campbell, medical director of Spectrum Health, which runs medical practices and hospitals in Michigan. “Doing otherwise could skew your survival numbers.”
Other major cancer centers do not report outcomes at all, arguing that the statistics can be manipulated.
CTCA also appears to exclude the vast majority of its patients when it calculates survival data. In survival results from 2004 to 2008 posted on its website, CTCA reported 61 patients with advanced prostate cancer, 97 with advanced breast cancer, 434 with advanced lung cancer, and 165 with advanced colon or rectal cancer. These are the four most common solid tumors. In the same period, CTCA treated thousands of patients at its Zion facility alone, according to filings with state regulators.
“We agree that some of our sample sizes” are small “and have always stated this as a limitation of our study,” said Xiong, the consultant to CTCA.
“I’d have some concerns about why and wonder if some cherry-picking was going on,” said Spectrum Health’s Campbell.
Moreover, while the standard reporting period for cancer survival is five years after diagnosis, CTCA on its website doesn’t go that far; for the four most common tumors, it reports survival up to four years at most. And as Reuters found, the company’s advantage often diminishes as the five-year mark approaches (see accompanying graphic).
Soon after Keith Hilborn got Vicky back home, her local doctor cleared her to travel. Keith started calling the CTCA oncology information specialist he had first spoken to. “She said things like ‘We’ll have to get back to you,’” Keith said.
Slideshow (5 Images)
They never did. Vicky “was depending on me, and I couldn’t get them to treat her,” he said. “She never got a single cancer treatment from them.”
Hilborn received a statement from CTCA saying Vicky’s care cost $319,902.20. “This was just for treating her infection,” he said. “My local hospital could charge like that, too, if they flew you around and sent limos for you.”
He refused to pay, keeping the reimbursement Vicky’s insurer had sent to him. CTCA sued him for payment and won. A sheriff’s sale of his belongings is expected to raise money to pay the judgment.Pooley jumped 1.97m at the British Championships in Birmingham
Here's a tall story - an ultra-fit champion British athlete who suffers jibes every day because of her body.
High jumper Isobel Pooley is not overweight, but stands 1.92m (6ft 3½in), and some people cannot get their heads round that height.
"People swear and say: 'She's huge, have you seen that girl over there?' And I want to turn round and say: 'I'm not deaf,'" she tells BBC Sport.
"It's a part of my daily life. They say: 'How tall are you?' or just make pointless comments that don't go anywhere like 'You're really tall aren't you?' 'Aren't you tall?' 'You're massive'.
"People are just so rude without realising. They assume that it's OK to point it out. It's not kind ever to stop and stare at people, but that's what us tall people have to endure."
The 22-year-old is certainly using her height to her advantage though, setting a British record, qualifying for next month's World Championships, and eyeing a shot at the 2016 Olympics.
She opens up to BBC Sport about the psychology of the high jump, why Serena Williams is a 'goddess in her body' and how sport has helped her overcome prejudice.
Higher than a fridge - the two-metre test
There's an old athletics adage that you're not a "proper" high jumper until you soar past your own height.
London-born Pooley was raised in Hampshire, studied in Nottingham and trains in Loughborough
Pooley went five centimetres clear of that when setting a new GB outdoor record of 1.97m at the British Championships earlier this month, and had the chance to go for a milestone.
"Two metres is the landmark height for a lot of female jumpers. To attempt that at a British Championships in front of a home crowd was absolutely sensational. It was such a monumental experience," she recalls.
"Despite not being successful at the attempt, I was able to at least look up to that bar and square up to it and feel confident in the near future that I am actually going to be able to tackle that height."
Her successful jump of 1.97 matched heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson's indoor mark at Birmingham earlier in the year.
Only three women in the world have gone higher in 2015. It was the latest stage in the progression of Pooley, who set the previous best British mark of 1.96 in Germany last year, passing a 33-year-old record, and was third in a Diamond League event in Doha in May.
"I'm ready and I gave myself a strong and consistent message in the weeks leading up to the British trials that I was going to be able to give that outstanding performance," she said.
"The feeling landing on the bed and knowing I was over the bar was just immense gratification, and feeling that's no less than I deserve because I've worked really hard and the only thing I've changed is I've let myself believe I can jump that high."
Flawed fixation - missing out on London 2012
"High jump is hugely psychological. The bar is a challenge and it is inevitably going to catch you out in the end - it always ends in a failure," says Pooley.
Despite only being 19 at the time, Pooley nearly reached the qualifying standard for the 2012 London Olympics.
But at 1.90m, just two centimetres short of the standard needed to make a home Games, she froze.
"I got so fixated on the height of the bar, and about achieving selection, I was just incapable of jumping or even attempting that bar to anything near my ability," she adds.
"I actually knew how to clear it, I had the answers, but I was so flustered about the concept of this home Games. The temptation when the bar goes higher is to change things, and that inevitably ends in disaster."
Pooley won silver in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, her first major senior medal
Pooley started to fulfil her potential at senior level with a silver medal at last year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
"There are indicators of potential such as my height, dedication to training, the fact my coach (Fayyaz 'Fuzz' Ahmed) bothers with me at all - his time is like gold dust - and he devotes so many hours to training me shows I must be worth it," she says. "All I want to do is live up to how good I can be and the bar is an irrelevance now."
Mind games - 'don't try, just achieve it'
Pooley went to London as a spectator, cheered on training partner Robbie Grabarz to Olympic bronze, and now regards missing out as a blessing in disguise, having learned to trust her own techniques and believe in herself.
"A lot of the problems us high jumpers encounter are created in our own head as a reaction to the height of the bar. If we don't know the height, it makes it a lot more simple," she says.
"In training, my coach will put the bar up and not tell us how high it is so a lot of the time we are in the dark."
To get her approach right, Pooley has been helped by psychologists, including Julie Crane - the wife of her coach Ahmed - who herself won high jump silver for Wales at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Crane uses neuro linguistic programming, which examines how your thinking can affect performance.
"She'll pick up on things I have said which have significance that I didn't realise," says Pooley. "So I'll say something like 'I'm going to try to achieve this' and she says 'No, don't try, just achieve it'."
How it all started Aged 13, and already 6ft tall, she tried high jump for the first time in a school PE lesson. "I liked the fact it was individual, it wasn't a team sport and I wasn't going to let anyone else down or rely on anyone else. I didn't have to do ball skills. I just had to run and jump, and that seemed very attractive in its simplicity. "The moment I tried it, I thought 'this is the best thing ever'. When I had the chance to go down to my local club I jumped - excuse the pun - at the opportunity."
'Why does the man have to be the big guy?'
Pooley believes athletes have a kind of inner beauty, harnessed through ability.
"For me it's not about looking thin, it's about jumping high," she says.
"If I reach the point where I'm super light and unhealthy, that's not a positive situation to be in. It's about being the best athlete I can be.
Wimbledon winners Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic at the tournament's Champions Dinner
"I enjoyed watching Serena Williams in the tennis, because she is a goddess in her body. She is big compared to your average woman, but nobody would say she is not beautiful.
"Her beauty is practical too, where you are not judging it on what it looks like but what it can do, and I think that's a really healthy principle to take into wider society.
"I hate it when people say: 'How are you ever going to find a boyfriend?' assuming that he has to be taller. Why do we have to think the man has to be the big guy? There are big women and small men."
'I would have killed to be 5ft 3in'
Pooley is tall even for a high jumper, towering over most opponents, and has learned to love her height. It means she takes fewer strides, for example.
Pooley made the front cover of Athletics Weekly after her British title
"Luckily I'm confident in my skin now but when you are growing up, especially when you are in your teens, that is an incredibly difficult time for any young person in terms of their own body image and self confidence," she says.
"Sport helps so much because all of a sudden it threw a positive light as it was such a clear advantage to be tall.
"When I was growing up, I would have killed to be 5ft 3in, instead of 6ft 3in, but now I wouldn't give up my height for the world.
"I'm glad life threw me that challenge because it has helped me become a lot more confident in a whole multitude of ways."
Whereas many people are reluctant to comment on weight, race or disability, height seems to be fair game - footballer Peter Crouch endured chants of "freak" earlier in his career.
"Sport is fantastic for flipping those nasty comments on their head," adds Pooley.
"A fundamental philosophy of being an athlete is 'control the controllables' and if you can't change something all you can change is your attitude towards it.
"When people say to my mum: 'Oh you're daughter's awfully tall,' she replies: 'Yes, and she's British champion in the high jump.'"
New rivals - and new heights on the horizon
Training features surprisingly little jumping - maybe 10-20 efforts in three sessions a week - alongside co-ordination drills, weights, short sprints and acceleration runs.
"It is a really common misconception that we just jump all the time but that is just not physically possible, our bodies would break down," she says.
Pooley largely trains with men for whom 2m is no big deal, but now has company in Victoria Dronsfield, the Sweden-born high jumper with an English father who has just been accepted as a British athlete.
"She pushes me on a daily and weekly basis. Although the boys push me, it's almost a bit too extreme to try and lift their weights or run as quickly as they do; having a female makes it that more attainable as a goal."
What's the high jump like? "To take off is quite difficult, tons of bodyweight goes through one leg so you have to get the right speed and the right angle. "It's almost exactly like riding a motorbike round a corner - when you lean into the curve, you have to have a certain amount of speed to stay on your wheels, but equally too much and you'll crash. "A good run-up will usually produce a good jump. Sometimes you can know three or four strides away from the bar, because you know how a good jump feels in training. "It's very immersive when you do get it right. You're concentrating so hard it is almost like you're not doing anything. I wouldn't say that I am completely there in a conscious sense. Your body does the hard work, and your brain enjoys the ride."
Becoming Britain's first female Olympic high jump medallist might seem a tall order - but don't rule out GB's rising star from reaching new heights.
She has another Diamond League meeting in Monaco on Friday, but there will be no appearance in the Anniversary Games in London a week later.
"Unfortunately they've chosen not to put a women's high jump in the programme, which is very disappointing but I'm going to do my utmost on the Friday night to come down and watch Robbie [Grabarz]," she said.
After her World Championships debut next month - "Beijing is going to be a hell of a big deal" - attention will switch to next year's Olympics, and then the 2017 Worlds in London.
"It's completely realistic that I can make the Beijing final, and then to be an Olympic finalist at 23 would be an enormous landmark for me," she adds.
"It's really easy to get ahead of yourself when you give one good performance but this is going to be a long journey and 2017 is a massive target. Having a home World Champs is an opportunity that many athletes would give their right arm for."Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko is one of those movies that a lot of people really love because of the impact it made on them when they were in their angsty teenage years, and while that passion has made it into a certifiable cult classic, it has also set the bar for any official follow-ups impossibly high. Still, Kelly has announced that he’s planning to revisit the film someday, telling HMV that “there’s something much bigger and more ambitious to do in that universe.”
Of course, Kelly’s vision for a more ambitious Donnie Darko film would be—in his words—”big and expensive,” so he’d want to make sure an appropriately large budget is in place before he moves forward with anything. That way, he’d be able “to do it justice” and not compromise anything. He doesn’t offer any details beyond that, though, leaving us to wonder just how much of a commitment his sequel would make to Sparkle Motion.
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Also, it’s worth noting that Kelly’s comment doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of S. Darko, the 2009 semi-sequel about Donnie’s sister having a crazy adventure of her own. Kelly didn’t have anything to do with that movie, though, so either he forgot it happened or he refuses to consider it an official part of the Darkoverse, both of which are understandable positions.
[via ScreenRant]Image copyright PA Image caption The three Rotherham MPs all deny the allegations
Three MPs in South Yorkshire are being investigated by police over alleged electoral expenses fraud.
Labour MPs Sir Kevin Barron (Rother Valley), Sarah Champion (Rotherham) and John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne) have all denied the allegations.
South Yorkshire Police said it was in the early stages of an inquiry into alleged expenses fraud in Rotherham during the 2015 general election.
It is assessing whether the deadline for investigations can be extended.
"Officers are currently collating information to assess whether an application for an extension to the 12-month parameters on the time to investigate could be obtained from the courts," the force said.
Sir Kevin, who is chairman of the House of Commons standards committee, said: "All my elections expenses were declared within the law and the rules set out by the Electoral Commission."
Mr Healey said: "These allegations are simply wrong. My expenses for the 2015 general election were reported fully in accordance with the law and the rules set out by the Electoral Commission."
Ms Champion has not yet responded to requests for a comment from the BBC.Customers in Indonesia can now pay online with bitcoin as the country’s leading payment solutions provider KinerjaPay has added the digital currency as one of the payment options on its platform. KinerjaPay, in a recent press release, has announced its partnership with Bitcoin Indonesia to facilitate the Bitcoin option for its merchant partners.
Apart from offering payment gateway solutions to online merchants, KinerjaPay Corp. (OTCMKTS: KPAY) also operates its own e-commerce portal where people can directly buy goods from the platform itself. By including Bitcoin payments, KinerjaPay has now become the first e-commerce platform in Indonesia to do so. Now customers can convert their bitcoin to Indonesian rupiah on the fly while making a transaction over the payment gateway to pay their bills, transfer money and purchase goods on the internet.
KinerjaPay and the growth of e-payments in Indonesia
KinerjaPay is currently one of the fastest growing digital payments platforms in Indonesia. In the past two months, the company has grown by over 300 percent as its user base has increased from around 12000 customers to 50,000. According to the company’s report, this has also led to an increase in the average number of transactions processed per day.
With over 1500 transactions per day, compared to previous 300 transactions, the company can expect the numbers to grow further with the integration of bitcoin payments. Currently, there are not many online merchants who accept digital currency payments in Indonesia and now the partnership with Bitcoin Indonesia means that the company’s partner merchants will be able to accept bitcoin payments from their customers soon. This will open up a lot of options for bitcoin users in the country.
In order to make bitcoin payments more popular, KinerjaPay has announced that it will be providing special offers to customers of Bitcoin Indonesia. With these special offers, the company intends to convert at least some of the 150,000 Bitcoin Indonesia customers into theirs as well. In a country where a majority of the population is hesitant to use online payment solutions due to concerns about credit/debit card fraud, KinerjaPay is working hard to build their trust by offering great deals and addressing their concerns. A currency like bitcoin where the user doesn’t have to share his/her bank account or card details will present an attractive option to the masses.
As a part of its incentives galore, the company is also working on its own branded mining setup, where people can mine digital currency. While speaking about the new developments, the CEO and Chairman of KinerjaPay, Edwin Ng is quoted saying –
“This partnership enables us to establish relationships with Bitcoin Indonesia’s membership, currently in excess of 150,000 accounts, which we expect will boost the volume of transactions on our platform going forward… We are also working to create a unique bitcoin mining element on our platform, something we believe will be very appealing to our users and will provide KinerjaPay with a real competitive advantage in the e-commerce sector.”
KinerjaPay is constantly |
Jose Silva
Marijuana growers, then, have turned into gamblers: Do they use approved products that might not fully protect their crops from pests, or do they opt for stronger stuff and risk running afoul of the law? This spring in Colorado, some of those gambles proved unwise. In March and April, the City of Denver ordered 11 local cultivation operations to quarantine tens of thousands of marijuana plants that they suspected of being treated with unapproved pesticides, meaning they could continue growing but couldn’t be sold. The Cannabis Consumers Coalition, a citizens group, has begun waving signs like "No Pesticides on My Flower” in front of the companies that were part of the sting, and most of the quarantined plants remain on hold. Some of the plants, which can fetch several thousand dollars each when mature, have already been destroyed voluntarily.
Circumstances are particularly vexing for growers because two of the pesticides used that led to the quarantine – Eagle 20 and Avid – aren’t listed in Colorado’s rules on marijuana pesticides, which means there wasn’t clear indication they were prohibited. “It’s been devastating,” says Sean McAllister, a Denver marijuana business attorney who represents four of the growers affected. “People have had to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover their lost inventory. People are having to scramble to adjust because they were doing something they had no idea was unlawful.”
Toxic tokes?
Are pesticide residues on marijuana a health concern? That question led Jeffrey Raber, a chemist who runs the Werc Shop marijuana testing lab in Los Angeles County, to analyze the smoke generated from marijuana treated with pesticides. The results, published in the Journal of Toxicology in 2013, were striking: 70 percent of the pesticides applied to the plants could be exposed to the lungs when smoked in a device like a glass bowl. “That is pretty much like injecting it into your bloodstream,” says Raber. “The smoking didn’t destroy the pesticide molecules, so you could have some pretty significant amounts of exposure.”
Findings like this, plus the fact that neither Colorado nor Washington, the two states that allow recreational marijuana, have yet to launch full-scale product monitoring programs for pesticide and other contaminants, lead some folks to think it’s only a matter of time until marijuana companies start facing lawsuits over pesticide contamination.
It’s why some people think the lack of approved pesticides for the marijuana industry might be a good thing. Without these chemical crutches, maybe cannabis growers could lead the way in developing an all-natural agricultural industry. “The reality is you can absolutely grow quality cannabis with organic methods,” says Chris Van Hook, a lawyer and founder of the Clean Green organic cannabis certification program in California. “Many of the pests people are talking about don’t necessarily damage the flower.”
But others think an all-organic marijuana industry is an impossible ideal when you have pests like spider mites, powdery mildew and root rot that can quickly decimate a finicky, closely spaced crop like marijuana -- and these risks might be exacerbated as the industry moves toward large-scale outdoor grows and porous greenhouses where it might prove even harder to manage pests. “It’s very difficult for someone growing outdoors to manage their crops without pesticides and get the yields they want,” says Kurt Badertscher, co-owner of Otoké Horticulture, a Colorado marijuana consulting company. “Frankly, if you talk to anybody who is in high-production agriculture and say, ‘I am going to take away most of your pesticides,’ they will say, ‘I am selling my farm.’”
EPA weighs in
The need for more guidance on pest control caused the Colorado and Washington State departments of agriculture to ask the EPA in February whether FIFRA section 24(c) could be used to approve marijuana pesticides as a Special Local Need, leading to the federal agency’s response in May. Special Local Need registrations are a state-based process designed for localized pest problems or minor crops, where an addendum to a pesticide’s registered use label is more practical than the full-scale EPA registration process. According to the EPA letter, to get a marijuana pesticide approved as a Special Local Need, a manufacturer would likely have to identify a product that is federally registered for uses similar to cannabis, such as those used on food or tobacco crops that are grown under comparable circumstances. Pesticides that have potential, according to CDA’s Yergert, include the insecticides Imidacloprid and Spinosad and the fungicide Azoxystrobin.
Photo: eLife - the journal (https://goo.gl/BeWpeB)
The section 24(c) registration process could provide a way forward for states struggling to manage marijuana pesticide use without violating federal law, says WDA’s Johansen. “It gives a little more flexibility to the state, and the EPA doesn’t have to approve the registrant; they just have to say, ‘We don’t have a problem with it.’ It’s not an ideal mechanism, but it is a step forward.”
What’s more, a Special Local Need registration usually requires far less time and money than a full EPA pesticide registration. “It’s a shorter process and cheaper. We are hoping six to eight months [for a registration], if there is a company that is really interested in moving forward with this,” says Yergert.
But that's a big if. While Johansen says he’s spoken with pesticide manufacturers interested in the marijuana industry, will any of them be willing to invest in even this abbreviated product registration process? It doesn’t help that unlike other Special Local Need registrations, states and manufacturers can’t rely on the expertise of state university agricultural departments or the U.S. Department of Agriculture, thanks to marijuana’s federal illegality.
And even if pesticide manufacturers move forward with the 24(c) process, no one knows for sure whether the feds will ultimately sign off on it. “The EPA note reads something like, ‘Sure, you can try, and here is some guidance on how to build the case,’” said Badertscher of Otoké Horticulture. “There is no statement that anything will get an exception.”
It’s possible, then, that the pesticide industry could end up like the banking industry, where even with tacit approval from federal regulators, businesses have been reluctant to wade into the developing marijuana scene without further federal guidance. In the meantime, while state agriculture officials and industry stakeholders search for potential pesticide companies to partner with, growers like Koh will have to keep searching their plants for bite marks and powdery mildew, hoping to catch the pests before it’s too late.New magazine scans have emerged from various Japanese magazines to reveal a few tidbits for Kirby: Triple Deluxe. Releasing for the 3DS in Japan next month, the first few translations have given us some interesting details.
First up, our pink friend’s got a new bell power-up, where he can hold a bell in each hand, as well as one on his head – see the scan above. Translations suggest that Kirby can even hide inside the bell to protect himself from enemies. Adding to this, there’s also a new beetle power-up confirmed from the scans. Another new power, which allows Kirby to turn into a rainbow and “hoover” items and enemies up, is called the Big Bang – you may have spotted this in the previous Nintendo Direct trailer.
Other new details from translations report that a few stages require players to tilt the 3DS, you can collect over 250 key chains which can then be traded over StreetPass, plus there’s a number of mini-games for one to four players – one of which requires you to jump on drums to reach the goal. You can check out the rest of the scans, here, and some close-ups, here."E.T." is a song by American singer Katy Perry from her third studio album, Teenage Dream (2010). She co-wrote the song with its producers Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Ammo. "E.T." was serviced to radio stations as the album's fourth single on February 16, 2011. One version of the song features verses from American rapper Kanye West. Musically, it is an electronic and hip hop ballad which draws heavily from dubstep and techno, along with smaller amounts of drum and bass. According to Perry, the song lyrically speaks of "falling in love with a foreigner".[1]
The song became Perry's fifth non-consecutive number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and also topped charts in Canada, New Zealand and Poland. To date, "E.T." has sold over six million digital downloads worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles worldwide and Perry's third highest selling song in the U.S. It was the fourth biggest song of 2011, according to Billboard.
To promote the song, Perry and West performed on the tenth season of American Idol, the 54th Grammy Awards, and at Madison Square Garden for Z100's Jingle Ball. Floria Sigismondi directed the song's music video, which depicts Perry as an evolving alien drifting in outer space before landing on an abandoned litter-covered Earth, interspersed with clips of large felines hunting game. The video garnered positive reviews from music critics.
Background and release [ edit ]
The official single version of "E.T." features rap verses by Kanye West
Perry's decision to write "E.T." came after its beat was accidentally played during a recording session she had with Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Ammo. It was originally intended for American hip hop group Three 6 Mafia.[2] However, after hearing it, Perry chose to work with the track. She told MTV News: "I heard it and I always knew I wanted to write this futuristic, alienistic song, and they pulled it up and I was like, 'Wait, I can wrap my head around this. I know this seems like a long shot, but I think I have the perfect material to put on top of this sound.' And I did, and it really worked out perfectly."[3]
On August 17, 2010, the solo version of the song was released as a promotional single from Teenage Dream.[4] In December 2010, Perry asked fans through Twitter to help her select the album's fourth single. On December 13, 2010, she tweeted, "Thanks for all your great suggestions for the next single today!" and "Your voice has been heard! We're on the same page."[5] In early January 2011, Perry announced via Facebook that "E.T." would be the record's fourth single. The announcement was accompanied with the single's artwork, which features Perry with "cat eye make-up, bangs, and a sequined top".[6] Unlike the original, the single version features rap verses from rapper Kanye West.[7] The remix debuted on February 16, 2011, worldwide.[8] On April 12, 2011, the song was sent for airplay on US urban radio.[9] The version with West was later included on Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection.[10]
Composition [ edit ]
Musically, "E.T." is an electronic and hip hop song, and draws heavily from dubstep and techno, along with smaller amounts of drum and bass.[13][14][15][16] BBC Music described the song as a "rave-influenced quasi ballad".[17] The song is written in the key of F minor and follows a slow tempo of 76 beats per minute in common time. Perry's vocal range spans from E♭ 4 to D♭ 5.[18] Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times noted a "hip-hop diva's stutter" in the song similar to that of Rihanna.[11] Matthew Perpetua of Rolling Stone found the song sounded similar to hard rock ballads by Evanescence.[19] The song's production has been described as "a mishmash and bleeps and blips with a driving drum track".[20] Darryl Sterdan of the QMI Agency noted the song uses the "stomp-stomp-clap" beat from Queen's "We Will Rock You" (1977),[12] while AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted similarities to productions helmed by Ryan Tedder.[21]
According to Perry, the song is about "falling in love with a foreigner".[1] James Montgomery of MTV News also noted that Perry sings about a "lover from different dimension".[14] For its single release, the song was reworked to feature two verses from Kanye West, in which he raps about "extraterrestriality".[22] "E.T." opens with the first rap verse by West containing the lines "I got a dirty mind / I got filthy ways / I'm trying to bathe my Ape in your milky way / They callin' me an alien / A big-headed astronaut".[22] Then, using metaphors about extraterrestrials, Perry sings, "You're not like the others / Futuristic lover / Different DNA".[23] The chorus has Perry addressing her lover: "Kiss me, kiss me / Infect me with your love and / Fill me with your poison", claiming to be "ready for abduction".[24] West contributes a second verse to the track, before Perry's final refrain, with heavily auto-tuned vocals: "I know a bar out in Mars / Where they driving spaceships instead of cars".[20][23] He finishes with a reference to the fictional animated character Shrek and lyrics about "alien sex": "I'mma disrobe you then I'mma probe you / See, I abducted you so I tell you what to do."[22] Ben Kaplan from National Post noted West's presence on the track was similar to the work on his fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak (2008).[20]
Critical reception [ edit ]
Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly felt that Perry shows strength on the song, comparing its sound to a combination of American rock musicians Lita Ford and Trent Reznor.[25] Kerri Mason from Billboard felt that "E.T." together with some other tracks from the albums is heavier sonically and lyrically, with a boom-boom-pow electro punch and Perry discussing more toxic relationships."[26] Even though Robert Copsey from Digital Spy stated that West's contribution on the track was "needless", he felt that the track "is a quirky and assured slice of state-of-the-art pop".[27] Ben Kaplan from The National Post lauded the track as a "great duet", praising the vocals of both performers.[20] Speaking for West's contribution on the track Brad Wete from Entertainment Weekly noted that the song was improved from a male perspective.[28] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic commented that Perry "replicates Ryan Tedder's glassy robotic alienation on 'E.T.', but tellingly avoids ripping off Lady Gaga".[21]
Matthew Cole of Slant Magazine disliked the single's "inscrutability" and said that song's backing track was reminiscent of t.A.T.u.'s "All the Things She Said".[29] Jason Richards from Now called the song "awkward" and Sputnikmusic's Rudy Clapper dismissed its attempt at a more mature sound, calling it "cheesy".[30][31] PopMatters' staff writer Steve Leftridge called the song "neither strong nor edgy nor clever nor sonically interesting enough to lend any genuine credibility to Perry as a serious artist with anything to actually say".[32] Amos Barshad of New York magazine felt West's alien metaphors went into jarring, misogynistic directions.[23] Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club gave the song a C-, saying that while its lyrical content was "borderline-embarrassing", it did earn "a couple bonus points for showing a relatively darker side" of Perry, while A.V. Club editor Steven Hyden was more critical of the both Perry's and West's lyrics, saying that "borderline-embarrassing" was too generous and that "the whole concept of the song is so beyond either side of sanity" that it was impossible to grade.[33]
Chart performance [ edit ]
One week before the official release of Teenage Dream, the solo version of "E.T." was released as a promotional single and debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 42, selling 64,000 digital copies.[4] Following its single release featuring West, the song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 on March 5, 2011 at number 28 with 110,000 copies being sold.[34] In its fifth week, for the issue dated April 9, 2011, "E.T." topped the chart, giving Perry her fifth and West his fourth number-one single on the Hot 100.[35] It ended the six-week run of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and made Teenage Dream the ninth album in history to yield four number-one singles.[36] "E.T." spent five non-consecutive weeks at number-one on the Hot 100 chart and was certified eight times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[37] It topped the Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart for seven weeks, the longest since Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie" in 2010.[38] "E.T." is one of the best-selling singles worldwide, and is the second-highest-selling single of Perry's career. According to Billboard, it was the fourth-biggest hit of 2011.[15]
It debuted the same week on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 13.[39] In Australia, the song debuted at number 12 and peaked at number five for two weeks in February 2011.[40] Since then "E.T." has been certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association.[41] One week after debuting at number 17, "E.T." topped the New Zealand Singles Chart on January 31, 2011, becoming her sixth number-one in the country, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand for sales of 15,000.[42] As of July 20, 2011, it also became Perry's third single to be on New Zealand's Best Singles of All Time, just behind "Firework" and "California Gurls".[43] On February 26, 2011, the solo version of the song entered the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart at number 36, and later topped it, becoming her sixth number-one on the chart.[44][45]
On the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 (Pop Songs), "E.T." set a record for most weekly plays in the 18-year history of the chart: for the tracking week of April 25 – May 1, 2011, Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems registered 12,330 plays over its 131 stations—an average of 94 plays per station. This figure rewrote Perry's previous record held with "California Gurls" in July 2010 (12,159).[46] That record was later broken yet again by Perry, when her single "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" registered 12,468 plays for the week dated August 13, 2011.[47] Meanwhile, on the Rhythmic Airplay Chart, she achieved her first number-one hit, a rare feat for female pop artists considering she was the third to ever do so.[48]
In other Billboard charts, "E.T." reached number two on the Adult Pop Songs chart, and the top 20 on the Adult Contemporary and Latin Pop Songs charts.[49][50] Its highest sales week according to Nielsen SoundScan came in its fourth week at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100, where it sold 344,000 copies following its American Idol performance.[51] The song sold over 300,000 digital copies in a week four times, becoming one of four songs in history to achieve this.[38] "E.T." was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on April 28, 2011.[52] "E.T." was the highest selling track for the first half of 2011. The song is Perry's fourth and West's first song to reach the 5 million range which, for Perry is more than any other female artist in digital history.[53][54] As of January 2015, the song has sold 5.8 million copies in the US.[55]
The song re-entered the Canadian Hot 100 at number 18 following its single release and topped the chart in its 12th week, on May 7, 2011.[56][57] "E.T." has charted in Ireland at number five, has become a top ten hit in Austria, Germany, and Italy, and became a top 20 hit in Belgium (Wallonia), Denmark, France, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, and a top 40 hit in Belgium (Flanders).[40][58][59][60] On the UK Singles Chart, the single peaked at number three in its eighth week, becoming her eighth top ten hit there.[61] Elsewhere in Europe, the song charted in its solo version at number 18 on the Slovak airplay chart, 20 on the Czech airplay chart, 27 on the Dutch Top 40, and 28 on the Greek airplay chart.[62][63][64][65] As of July 2012, the song has sold over 6.4 million digital copies worldwide.[66]
Music video [ edit ]
Background and production [ edit ]
MTV debuted the video on March 31, 2011.[67] A backstage picture of West wearing street clothes along with Perry in a pastel-colored makeup and a giant braided headpiece was shown on MTV.[7] On March 21, a teaser trailer was released; it was 12 seconds long and showed clips of an unidentified flying object.[68] Prior to release, Perry aspired to make it "larger than life".[7][68]
The music video was directed by Floria Sigismondi. It was produced by Natasha Alexsa Garcia, Danny Lockwood and Kelly Norris Sarno. The director of photography was Jonathan Sela. The video was edited by Jarrett Fijal. The online artist was Bill Pollock. VFX were produced at Dot & Effects by Jeff Dotson. Colorist was Beau Leon at New Hat. The style team included make up artist Kabuki, hair stylist Pamela Neal and costume designer Carol Beadle, along with wardrobe stylist Johnny Wujek.[69]
Synopsis [ edit ]
Perry kisses Shaun Ross's character to transform him from a robotic alien being.
The video begins with the song "Where in the World Can My Lover Be?" by Midge Williams & Her Jazz Jesters playing in the background. As the music begins, West is shown in a Sputnik-like spacecraft revealing pictures before zooming out of the craft.[70] In the video, Perry, as an alien, drifts through outer space while slowly evolving into a humanoid appearance before landing on an abandoned Earth filled with trash. Clips are interspersed of large felines hunting game.[71] She comes across a broken robot, resembling a spaceman; upon her kiss it turns into a naked man, played by Shaun Ross.[72] It is eventually revealed that Perry's legs resemble those of a gazelle.[73] Meanwhile, West is featured in the video floating in a traveling spacecraft.[74][75] The video also alludes to a presumable future, as Perry finds a box containing a skeleton of a pigeon (a species said to have gone extinct in 2030) and a pair of Vogue sunglasses, which she later wears. Throughout the video, Perry wears heavy cosmetics,[76] including blue and pink make-up, cat-like and reptile-like eyes, and braids resembling those of Medusa.[77][78]
Reception [ edit ]
The video received positive reviews from critics. Willa Paskin of New York magazine praised Perry's looks in the video as "detailed, outlandish, [and] semi-gorgeous rainbow-kabuki".[73] Kara Warner from MTV News also praised her appearance in the video, calling her an "angelic alien princess". She also felt the video was Perry's "most complex, stylized and out-there video production yet".[71] Joseph Brannigan Lynch of Entertainment Weekly felt that West's rap verses helped the song top the Billboard Hot 100, and called the video an "awesomely bizarre sci-fi video, which impressively resists any obvious Spielberg references".[79] Matthew Perpetua from Rolling Stone described the video as "a sequel to Avatar or a Katy Perry video game", and felt the song and video were "a bold move away from Perry's usual silliness and sexuality".[19] Los Angeles Times described the video as a "sweeping visual manifestation".[80] In a more negative review, Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine criticized Perry, saying she looked like an "animated video-game character", while saying West was a "non-presence". Cinquemani later went on to say: "It's a step up from bras that shoot whipped cream and fireworks, but this is ultimately Sigimondi's vision, and it's far from her finest five minutes."[81] At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, the video for "E.T." won awards for Best Collaboration and Best Special Effects.[82]
Live performances and cover versions [ edit ]
Perry performing "E.T." in Budapest Hungary in October 2010.
The song was included on the set list of the California Dreams Tour, Perry's second concert tour.[83] Perry has also performed "E.T." at several venues, including a performance at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on December 10, 2010 for Z100's Jingle Ball.[84] The song was released as a free track on Katy Perry Revenge 2, a game for the iOS application Tap Tap.[85] A lyrics video for the single was released on March 16, 2011.[86] After playing "We Will Rock You", West performed "E.T." without Perry at the 2011 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.[87] Perry performed the single with West for the first time on the tenth season of American Idol on April 21, 2011. Carried by background dancers, she wore a flickering outfit and was joined by West, who was previously unannounced.[88]
An acoustic version of "E.T." was performed by VersaEmerge in May 2011 at The Fueled By Ramen Studios.[89] On June 27, 2011, the video of a stripped-down cover of the song by the American pop punk/alternative rock band Yellowcard was featured in Billboard's Mashup Mondays series.[90]
Track listings and formats [ edit ]
Digital download[91] "E.T." (featuring Kanye West) – 3:51 "E.T." (album version) – 3:26 Digital download – remix EP[92] "E.T." (Tiësto remix – club edit) – 7:10 "E.T." (Benny Benassi radio edit) – 3:20 "E.T." (Dave Audé remix – radio edit) – 3:38 "E.T." (Noisia remix) – 3:53 "E.T." (Johnson Somerset and John Monkman remix) – 9:49 German CD single[93] "E.T." (featuring Kanye West) – 3:49 "E.T." (Tiësto radio edit) – 4:03 Digital download – German remix EP[94] "E.T." (featuring Kanye West) – 3:51 "E.T." (Tiësto remix – club) – 7:10 "E.T." (Benny Benassi radio edit) – 3:20 "E.T." (Dave Audé remix – radio edit) – 3:38 "E.T." (Noisia remix) – 3:53 "E.T." (Johnson Somerset and John Monkman remix) – 9:49 Covers "Sunwalter - E.T." (Katy Perry cover) – 3:10
Credits and personnel [ edit ]
Credits adapted from Teenage Dream album liner notes.[24]
Charts and certifications [ edit ]
Certifications [ edit ]
Release history [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]Enjoying some of the new units in Starcraft II? Well don’t get too attached, because according to Blizzard’s David Kim they could be cut at any moment, if balancing issues call for it.
Speaking to PCGamesN at Gamescom, David Kim spokeof the challenges in keeping unit numbers slim to ward offover-complexity. “There’s a set number of units that should be in the game, but we just don’t know 100% what that is. Initially in Wings of Liberty we went with 13-14 units, which is similar to what Brood War had. When we started exploring a bit more we tried to stick to that rule, but when you’re taking units out and putting new stuff in, there are some problems. Wings of Liberty is pretty solid in terms of each unit being useful in a certain scenario -we tried saying, well what if 15 is the right number, or 16 is the right number?
“After trying it out, we think it’s okay to add a couple of more units, but at the same time we don’t want it to go too out of balance, so that it becomes too complex. That’s something we have to watch for during the beta, and really make sure that the number we have right now is good for the game.”
But would they ever take a knife to brand newunits? Apparently so.
“We are definitely open to cuttingunits,” asserts Kim,”depending on how the beta goes.”
When asked how long the Heart of the Swarm beta will run, Kim was suitably vague. “As long as it takes us to get the game where we want it to be.”Hello again fellow Steemers!
If you don't know me or haven't read one of my posts. I wrote a post that ended up in the top 10 Steemit trending posts yesterday. The post was about my plan to leave Wordpress for Steemit.
To follow up on my promise, here's a popular article I wrote about life and work on my Wordpress blog (at the end I'll show you how Steem is helping me achieve my goals):
I'm going to let you in on a little secret. This secret allowed me to retire early at the age of 29. But I'm going to warn you, if you clicked on this post expecting to learn a unique financial strategy that enabled me to save enough, over a short period of time, to never have to work again, you're in for a big disappointment.
Although saving was crucial to retiring, it wasn't the most important thing. In reality, I only had about a year's worth of expenses saved up prior to quitting my job, hardly enough to retreat to a tropical island and sip Mai Tais for the rest of my life.
Okay enough stalling. Here's the real secret to how I managed to retire early. Are you ready? Here it is:
I simply changed my definition of the word "retirement".
That's it.
I just changed my mindset. I changed what the word "retirement" meant to me and just like that, I was retired.
I changed what I believed was society's definition of retirement:
When you sacrifice 40 or 50 years of your life doing something you don't like, so you have enough money to do what you want...when you're old.
To my own personal definition of retirement:
When you stop doing what you think you're "supposed to do" and start doing what's uniquely right for you...today.
Once I adopted that frame of mind, I was free to do anything. I stopped looking to others to figure out what to do, instead I looked within, and the answers were obvious.
For all of you thinking to yourself, "This advice is unrealistic new age hippie bullshit!" I challenge you to really think about what I actually did:
I decided this wasn't for me, I saved for a year, I turned in my two weeks, and I walked out the door. Simple right? So if what I did was so simple, why do so few people do it?
Real financial hardship notwithstanding (I'm privileged as fuck btw), I think the real reason is that people are terrified of walking away from what's comfortable and familiar, and to instead, embrace the unknown.
If you feel that way, I'd tell you the idea of wasting your one life trying to live up to other people's expectations is a lot more terrifying.
Also you're not going to know what's right for you immediately. The purpose of the journey is to help you figure that out.
I came up with this definition after I was asked when I going back to corporate for the millionth time. My answer always was, "I don't plan to go back, I love my life right now, why would I go back?"
I realized I was already doing what I loved, which was traveling, writing, spending time with the people I love, and picking up gigs in the sharing economy. Why would I want to stop? It was at that point, I realized I was "retired."
You see, I'm not talking about retirement in the financial sense. Notice nowhere in my definition did I mention "money" or "not working."
I'm talking about something bigger than work and money. I'm talking about retirement as a state of mind. I'm challenging the fundamental premise behind the concept of "retirement" all together.
The premise that says you can't do what you really want until you've put in time doing what you're "supposed to do"...like everyone else.
The premise that has you waiting for the "perfect time" to do something bold. When that perfect time doesn't exist outside of today.
The premise that has you putting off making the most of your life today, knowing you can get hit by a bus tomorrow.
The premise that keeps you from living according to your unique truths, in exchange for the comfort that comes with conformity.
Don't get me wrong. The last thing I'm telling you to do is to quit your job to travel and freelance like I did. That was unique to my situation and it's probably not right for you. Especially if you have a family to feed, student loans up to your eyeballs, or actually like your job. And don't look to me or anyone else to tell you what's right for you, only you know that.
However, what I am telling you to do is to stop waiting to "retire" from situations that are not healthy for you and your loved ones. Whether it's retiring from toxic relationships, destructive habits, an unhealthy lifestyle, or an inauthentic life.
My hope is that once you retire from whatever it is that's making you miserable, you'll never have to retire again. For in the process of "retiring," you'll make space to create a life you love, a life that's uniquely true to you, a life you'd never want to quit.
Thank god I did. If I didn't, I'd probably still be sitting in my cubicle writing some mindless report, instead of writing what you just read.
Update 7/15: I wrote this post 11 days ago on Wordpress, got 1,000+ views, and made $0 dollars. So instead of continuing to do what I felt added the most value to the world (sharing my thoughts), I had to go back to driving for Uber & Lyft to make enough to pay the rent.
Upon discovering Steemit and posting 3 articles. I've made over $2,000 dollars. Steemit is validation to everything I wrote in this post. Validation that if you follow your intuition, trust that by creating value for others, you'll be taken care of. My advice for all you new Steemers out there is don't ask how you can make the most money, instead, ask how you can create the most value, if you do that, the money will follow...A team in the St. John's Junior Hockey League refused to play a pivotal tournament game because of an abusive fan, and now that team wants Hockey NL to step in and take action.
The executive for the Conception Bay Junior Renegades forfeited the team's semi-final game against the St. John's Caps last weekend.
Kevin Tobin, who's on the team's executive, said the fan has already been banned from several arenas on the Avalon.
According to Tobin, the man is known to the league and his conduct has been a concern for years.
If three or four rinks ban him, there's a sense that this is escalating. - Kevin Tobin, Conception Bay Renegades
While the man isn't profane, Tobin said he's extremely aggressive.
"He's screaming and yelling at the players, he's yelling at the parents," said Tobin.
"There was a player injured and was taken off the ice and he was standing near the boards, blocking the path of taking the player to the dressing room."
Tobin said it's taking a toll on some of the young people at the games. He recalled seeing one child, aged seven or eight, with tears in his eyes.
"It's different than heckling like, 'Come on, come on, you can do better than that,' or trying to poke fun at certain players," said Tobin.
"It's, in my opinion, crossing the line."
Die-hard fan
Tobin said the fan in question is an adult.
"He is a die-hard Caps fan," said Tobin.
"We've been in the league five years, and we've seen him and heard him for the last five years — maybe, in particular, the last three or four."
Tobin said, at first, the team thought the man was joking around.
"Then it's just constant, constant, constant. If three or four rinks ban him, there's a sense that this is escalating," said Tobin.
"There were people with him the other night... It's just escalating."
The Renegades' refusal to play resulted in the Caps being awarded the semifinals.
The Renegades appealed that decision, but Tobin said the league dismissed the appeal because the team didn't give the required 72 hours notice.
Missing the point
Tobin said he's frustrated by this because on March 11, the league sent a letter to the man banning him from all junior hockey league games and practices.
The letter referenced the man's consistent run-ins with players, officials and fans.
"We sincerely hope that you abide by our request and please stay away," the letter reads.
According to Tobin, the league doesn't appear to be enforcing its own rule.
"Then it's left to us to make a decision," said Tobin.
"Do we go ahead and play the game and see if anything is going to happen in game four?"
Tobin said his players were disappointed by the decision to forfeit, but the executive believed it was in the best interest of everyone involved |
Scotland and its people. Even during their journey together through Scotland, Johnson "exhibited prejudice and a narrow nationalism".[209] Hester Thrale, in summarising Johnson's nationalistic views and his anti-Scottish prejudice, said: "We all know how well he loved to abuse the Scotch, & indeed to be abused by them in return."[210]
Health [ edit ]
Johnson had several health problems, including childhood tuberculous scrofula resulting in deep facial scarring, deafness in one ear and blindness in one eye, gout, testicular cancer, and a stroke in his final year that left him unable to speak; his autopsy indicated that he had pulmonary fibrosis along with cardiac failure probably due to hypertension, a condition then unknown. Johnson displayed signs consistent with several diagnoses, including depression and Tourette syndrome.
There are many accounts of Johnson suffering from bouts of depression and what Johnson thought might be madness. As Walter Jackson Bate puts it, "one of the ironies of literary history is that its most compelling and authoritative symbol of common sense—of the strong, imaginative grasp of concrete reality—should have begun his adult life, at the age of twenty, in a state of such intense anxiety and bewildered despair that, at least from his own point of view, it seemed the onset of actual insanity".[211] To overcome these feelings, Johnson tried to constantly involve himself with various activities, but this did not seem to help. Taylor said that Johnson "at one time strongly entertained thoughts of Suicide".[212] Boswell claimed that Johnson "felt himself overwhelmed with an horrible melancholia, with perpetual irritation, fretfulness, and impatience; and with a dejection, gloom, and despair, which made existence misery".[213]
Early on, when Johnson was unable to pay off his debts, he began to work with professional writers and identified his own situation with theirs.[215] During this time, Johnson witnessed Christopher Smart's decline into "penury and the madhouse", and feared that he might share the same fate.[215] Hester Thrale Piozzi claimed, in a discussion on Smart's mental state, that Johnson was her "friend who feared an apple should intoxicate him".[126] To her, what separated Johnson from others who were placed in asylums for madness—like Christopher Smart—was his ability to keep his concerns and emotions to himself.[126]
Two hundred years after Johnson's death, the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome became widely accepted.[216] The condition was unknown during Johnson's lifetime, but Boswell describes Johnson displaying signs of Tourette syndrome, including tics and other involuntary movements.[217][218] According to Boswell "he commonly held his head to one side... moving his body backwards and forwards, and rubbing his left knee in the same direction, with the palm of his hand... [H]e made various sounds" like "a half whistle" or "as if clucking like a hen", and "... all this accompanied sometimes with a thoughtful look, but more frequently with a smile. Generally when he had concluded a period, in the course of a dispute, by which time he was a good deal exhausted by violence and vociferation, he used to blow out his breath like a Whale."[219] There are many similar accounts; in particular, Johnson was said to "perform his gesticulations" at the threshold of a house or in doorways.[220] When asked by a little girl why he made such noises and acted in that way, Johnson responded: "From bad habit."[219] The diagnosis of the syndrome was first made in a 1967 report,[221] and Tourette syndrome researcher Arthur K. Shapiro described Johnson as "the most notable example of a successful adaptation to life despite the liability of Tourette syndrome".[222] Details provided by the writings of Boswell, Hester Thrale, and others reinforce the diagnosis, with one paper concluding:
[Johnson] also displayed many of the obsessional-compulsive traits and rituals which are associated with this syndrome... It may be thought that without this illness Dr Johnson's remarkable literary achievements, the great dictionary, his philosophical deliberations and his conversations may never have happened; and Boswell, the author of the greatest of biographies would have been unknown.[223]
Legacy [ edit ]
[224] Statue of Dr. Johnson erected in 1838 opposite the house where he was born at Lichfield's Market Square. There are also statues of him in London and Uttoxeter.
Johnson was, in the words of Steven Lynn, "more than a well-known writer and scholar";[225] he was a celebrity for the activities and the state of his health in his later years were constantly reported in various journals and newspapers, and when there was nothing to report, something was invented.[226] According to Bate, "Johnson loved biography," and he "changed the whole course of biography for the modern world. One by-product was the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature, Boswell's Life of Johnson, and there were many other memoirs and biographies of a similar kind written on Johnson after his death."[3] These accounts of his life include Thomas Tyers's A Biographical Sketch of Dr Samuel Johnson (1784);[227] Boswell's The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785); Hester Thrale's Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, which drew on entries from her diary and other notes;[228] John Hawkins's Life of Samuel Johnson, the first full-length biography of Johnson;[229] and, in 1792, Arthur Murphy's An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson, which replaced Hawkins's biography as the introduction to a collection of Johnson's Works.[230] Another important source was Fanny Burney, who described Johnson as "the acknowledged Head of Literature in this kingdom" and kept a diary containing details missing from other biographies.[231] Above all, Boswell's portrayal of Johnson is the work best known to general readers. Although critics like Donald Greene argue about its status as a true biography, the work became successful as Boswell and his friends promoted it at the expense of the many other works on Johnson's life.[232]
In criticism, Johnson had a lasting influence, although not everyone viewed him favourably. Some, like Macaulay, regarded Johnson as an idiot savant who produced some respectable works, and others, like the Romantic poets, were completely opposed to Johnson's views on poetry and literature, especially with regard to Milton.[233] However, some of their contemporaries disagreed: Stendhal's Racine et Shakespeare is based in part on Johnson's views of Shakespeare,[191] and Johnson influenced Jane Austen's writing style and philosophy.[234] Later, Johnson's works came into favour, and Matthew Arnold, in his Six Chief Lives from Johnson's "Lives of the Poets", considered the Lives of Milton, Dryden, Pope, Addison, Swift, and Gray as "points which stand as so many natural centres, and by returning to which we can always find our way again".[235]
More than a century after his death, literary critics such as G. Birkbeck Hill and T. S. Eliot came to regard Johnson as a serious critic. They began to study Johnson's works with an increasing focus on the critical analysis found in his edition of Shakespeare and Lives of the Poets.[233] Yvor Winters claimed that "A great critic is the rarest of all literary geniuses; perhaps the only critic in English who deserves that epithet is Samuel Johnson".[7] F. R. Leavis agreed and, on Johnson's criticism, said, "When we read him we know, beyond question, that we have here a powerful and distinguished mind operating at first hand upon literature. This, we can say with emphatic conviction, really is criticism".[236] Edmund Wilson claimed that "The Lives of the Poets and the prefaces and commentary on Shakespeare are among the most brilliant and the most acute documents in the whole range of English criticism".[7] The critic Harold Bloom placed Johnson's work firmly within the Western canon, describing him as "unmatched by any critic in any nation before or after him...Bate in the finest insight on Johnson I know, emphasised that no other writer is so obsessed by the realisation that the mind is an activity, one that will turn to destructiveness of the self or of others unless it is directed to labour."[237] It is no wonder that his philosophical insistence that the language within literature must be examined became a prevailing mode of literary theory during the mid-20th century.[238]
There are many societies formed around and dedicated to the study and enjoyment of Samuel Johnson's life and works. On the bicentennial of Johnson's death in 1984, Oxford University held a week-long conference featuring 50 papers, and the Arts Council of Great Britain held an exhibit of "Johnsonian portraits and other memorabilia". The London Times and Punch produced parodies of Johnson's style for the occasion.[239] In 1999, the BBC Four television channel started the Samuel Johnson Prize, an award for non-fiction.[240]
Half of Johnson's surviving correspondence, together with some of his manuscripts, editions of his books, paintings and other items associated with him are in the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson, housed at Houghton Library at Harvard University since 2003. Materials in the collection may be accessed through the Houghton Reading Room. The collection includes drafts of his Plan for a Dictionary, documents associated with Hester Thrale Piozzi and James Boswell (including corrected proofs of his Life of Johnson) and a teapot owned by Johnson.[241]
A Royal Society of Arts blue plaque, unveiled in 1876, commemorates his Gough Square house.[242]
On 18 September 2017 Google commemorated Johnson's 308th birthday with a Google Doodle.[243][244]
Major works [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
a b (5 feet 11 inches) tall when the average height of an Englishman was 165 cm (5 feet 5 inches).[195] Johnson was 180 cmtall when the average height of an Englishman was 165 cm
References [ edit ]
Specific
GeneralPhoto
“The party needs to fundamentally retool our thinking.” “We must speak to the aspirations and the anxieties of every American.” “We have extraordinarily real and deep problems.”
All these statements were uttered by Republicans (Joe Straus, Paul Ryan and Newt Gingrich, respectively) in 2012, according to an election post-mortem by Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post.
But in 2014, similar sentiments could just as easily come from Democrats. This year it’s they who may be, as Yuval Levin at National Review suggests, intellectually exhausted.
“There is less energy in the Democratic coalition,” says Ezra Klein at Vox, than there is among young Republican policy thinkers like Paul Ryan.
He adds, “The Obama administration has been a factory of policy ideas but now its agenda is stalled — and it’s not clear what comes next.”
To the frustration of many Democratic voters, key parts of that agenda — raising the minimum wage, for example — easily surpassed the fortunes of the Democratic candidates (who ostensibly, though not necessarily vociferously, supported them) in the midterm elections. State ballot initiatives raising the minimum wage succeeded in states like Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.
As Kevin Baker put it in The New York Times, Democrats are in good shape if they can “get people to vote our way even when they agree with us.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Baker suggests, the party cannot rely on demographics alone and instead should offer, as it has in the past and notably under the “Roosevelt Republic,” “big things.”
Is there a “big thing” in the offing? Mr. Klein discussed this with Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, who says, broadly speaking, not exactly. She thinks that the thinking on the left has become too small — “as a side-effect of being in power, Democrats had become too obsessed with ideas that could plausibly pass.”
Observers often mention inequality as a potential sweeping theme. At Politico, Edward-Isaac Dovere reports that President Obama has been urged by many on the left to formulate a vision for addressing the problem. Mr. Dovere quotes a strategist with ties to the White House as saying, “The best thing he can do is focus on income inequality, and talk about and propose things, and just be a fierce advocate for addressing the economic divide.”
But Josh Marshall, at Talking Points Memo, sees inequality — as a political matter — as a “loser.” He points to a different “big, central issue” for Democrats: “What is driving the politics of the country to a mammoth degree is that the vast majority of people in the country no longer have a rising standard of living.”
David Leonhardt, at The Upshot for The New York Times, agrees: “The great wage slowdown of the 21st century — which has left incomes below the level when Mr. Obama took office — is the biggest challenge for the Democratic Party today.”
So that’s, if not the problem, at least a big problem. Unfortunately, as Mr. Marshall (and others) says, “Democrats don’t have a policy prescription to make that change.”
Mr. Leonhardt, in another Upshot article, acknowledges that certain economists could point to a combination of lower health care costs, improved access to education and infrastructure projects as an answer. “But most Americans would not be able to give a clear answer.”
He writes that in the long term, those elements cited by economists — and most important, strong economic growth — should improve income gains.
But in the short term, they won’t. So what might? “The best hope for doing so, in the immediate future, is probably the oldest and most obvious play in the book: a tax cut,” Mr. Leonhardt says.
Yet Mr. Klein, in another article at Vox, notes that President Obama passed tax cuts for the middle — and “then Democrats got destroyed in the 2010 election. So it’s not clear that middle-class tax cuts are much of a salve.”
And as for an end to wage stagnation as the single “big thing” for Democrats, Mr. Klein hits a note of caution: “I think the wage slowdown is one of the defining issues of our time. And I would actually like it to be the force driving American politics. But I’m not sure it is.”
He looks ahead for a place to debate these issues and suggests that the 2016 primary battle could be a “venue for intellectual renewal.” Yet, he notes, Hillary Clinton clearly dominates the field of potential candidates, and this is “likely to make it unusually difficult for more marginal candidates — who are often the most intellectually exciting participants in primaries — to be heard.”
The historian Nicole Hemmer, writing at U.S. News & World Report, agrees that Democrats “need a debate about what liberalism is in the 21st century, and what policies best fit the needs of workers whose wages no longer rise as their productivity does.”
And, she argues, “they don’t have policy answers, in large part, because when it comes to debates about policy and ideas, the Democratic Party has been moribund since the wrenching foreign policy fights over Iraq. The party has in some ways been a victim of its own success.”
In any case, after the midterm elections, Democrats no longer have to worry about being victims of their own success.This area of environmental and scientific interest has long been hailed as a natural haven for large cats (the lynx), rare birds (the dipper and black stork), as well as other animals, a focus on harm prevention through no-go zones for walkers and anti-vehicle barriers after a certain height have allowed considerable sustenance of smaller life forms (birds, rats etc), often dismissed by those who are uninformed; but vital for this particular ecosystem. The Harz is of immeasurable significance for the varied and many thousands of living being residing within its forests.
However, whilst such mass tourist interest can generate some environmental awareness this is usually to no avail due to the consumerist mindset of capitalist ‘green’ pressure groups (for-profit/for-show mentality of groups like Greenpeace, WWF, and the NRDC) which often do more harm than perceived good. I would like to add that while many grassroots green groups do mean well and are both anti-corporate and not for profit, the root cause (namely the system) must be dealt with first in order for any true ecological awareness to be spread.
The idea that capitalism can be reformed to ‘work for the earth’ is exactly the kind of bullshit liberal mentality that allows the faux eco groups to propagate their nonsensical ‘environmentally aware’ tourist resorts and hotels and make a profit whilst poisoning the Harz and indeed other areas of natural conservation.
The 40 year separation of east and west Germany meant that planet earth was given an ecological ‘breather’ within the 870 mile death strip, where nature has been gradually re-taking her territory in an era of industrialisation and pollution. It has formed the spine of German-wide ecological corridors (as well as those of Central Europe) vital to the preservation of bio-diversity recorded in this seemingly controlled-wilderness. Now known as the Green Belt, this conservation area serves as a habitat for a vast (exact number unknown) amount of. animals and organisms
“To speak of ‘limits to growth’ under a capitalist market economy is as meaningless as to speak of limits to warfare under a warrior society. The moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists, are as naive as the moral pieties of multinationals are manipulative. Capitalism can no more be ‘persuaded’ to limit growth than a human being can be ‘persuaded’ to stop breathing. Attempts to ‘green’ capitalism, to make it ‘ecological’, are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth.” -Murray BookchinThe Environment and Public Health Committee opposes the European Commission’s proposal to renew the controversial herbicide licence for 10 years. Instead, MEPs say the EU should draw up plans for a phase-out of the substance, starting with a complete ban on household use and a ban in use for farming when biological alternatives (i.e. “integrated pest management systems”) work well for weed control.
Glyphosate should be completely banned in the EU by 15 December 2020, even with the necessary intermediate steps, MEPs say.
Concerns over scientific assessments of the substance
The EU risk assessment process of renewing the substance’s licence was mired in controversy, as the UN cancer agency on the one side and EU food safety and chemicals agencies on the other pointed to different conclusions regarding its safety.
Moreover, the release of the so-called “Monsanto Papers” (Monsanto is the owner and producer of Roundup®, of which glyphosate is the main active substance), internal documents from the company, shed doubt on the credibility of some studies used in the EU evaluation on glyphosate safety, say MEPs.
The EU’s authorisation procedure, including the scientific evaluation of substances, should be based only on published, peer-reviewed and independent studies commissioned by competent public authorities, MEPs say. EU agencies should be beefed up in order to allow them to work in this way.
They also reiterate that all the scientific evidence that has been the basis for the positive classification of glyphosate and the proposed re-authorisation should be disclosed, given the overriding public interest.
The non-binding resolution was approved by 39 votes to nine, with 10 abstentions.
Next steps
The full House is to vote on the resolution on 24 October in Strasbourg. EU member states will vote on a Commission proposal to renew the marketing authorisation of glyphosate
the following day.
A European Citizen’s initiative calling for a ban on the herbicide reached more than a million signatures in less than a year and will trigger a public hearing in Parliament in November.
Quick Facts
Glyphosate is an active substance widely used in herbicides. Patented in the early 1970s, it was introduced to the consumer market in 1974 as a broad-spectrum herbicide and quickly became a best-seller. Since its patent expired in 2000, glyphosate has been marketed by
various companies and several hundred plant protection products containing glyphosate are currently registered in Europe for use on crops.
Agriculture accounts for 76% of the use of glyphosate worldwide. It is also widely used in forestry, urban and garden applications. Its exposure is on the rise, owing to the increase in the total volume used. People are exposed to glyphosate primarily by living near sprayed areas, through home use, and through diet. Glyphosate residues have been detected in water, soil, food and drinks and non-comestible goods, as well as in the human body.A 29-year-old Texas mother is being charged after it was discovered that she put her 3-year-old son up for adoption on Craigslist, reports KHOU.
The posting read:
“Hi. I’m trying to adopt out my 3yr old son. I’m not in a good place in my life and don’t feel like I can care for him properly but I don’t know where to start. If you or know anyone who is interested in caring for him please let me know. I’m a single mom and can’t do this. Thanks, Desperate.”
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A database search led police to Stephanie Christine Redus who admitted that she did place the ad, but that she never actually meant to give up her child and that the ad was just a way of relieving stress. She said that she is pregnant and that she has been suffering from depression and anxiety since she hasn’t been able to take her medication.
The mother was arrested and charged with advertising for placement of a child. She was placed on a $1,000 bail.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The rollout of Australia's National Broadband Network has been heavily criticised
In 1872, rugged, frontier Australia was lauded for overcoming the tyranny of distance to connect itself to the world via the "bush telegraph", a two-year project stringing 3,200km (2,000 miles) of wire through the outback that became part of the nation's folklore.
By contrast today, while striving to be seen as an "innovation nation", Australia stands condemned, even ridiculed, for its latest drive for connectivity: a modern, fast internet network.
Three letters - NBN - have come to strike dread into the minds of consumers, with the National Broadband Network symbolising for many a template in how not to do things.
Given Australia's large size and sparse population density of three people per square kilometre, the NBN is the country's largest ever infrastructure project.
The total budget sits at A$49bn (£29bn; $38bn). Of that budget, around 35% must be spent connecting the final 10% of users, including wiring to remote areas, erecting many of the required 2,600 wireless towers and, most expensively, putting two satellites in the sky.
This week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the NBN a mistake and a "calamitous train wreck" by a previous Labor government. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hit back by saying the project's issues "lie all on your head" - meaning the current conservative government.
The escalating blame game, the NBN's slow roll-out, and a switch to inferior technology midstream have combined with other factors to leave Australians frequently asking the question: Why is our internet so slow?
In 2013, Australia ranked 30th for average internet speeds. The NBN was meant to improve that, but the most recent standings ranked Australia 50th.
The State of the Internet survey by US internet firm Akamai put Australia - with an average of 11.1 Mbps (megabits per second) - behind countries including Kenya, Hungary and Russia. And while it promotes itself as part of go-ahead Asia, Australia sits only eighth in the region, behind neighbours such as Thailand (21st overall) and New Zealand (27th).
Some comparisons are misleading. Only 1.75% of Kenyan homes have fixed-line internet, compared with 90% in Australia. For many, particularly inner-city Australians on the best NBN technology, fixed-line speeds are adequate, particularly if you pay more.
But there's no escaping Australia has been overtaken by many countries on the internet table.
What's worse is that with many of those connected to the NBN reporting no improvement over old ADSL connections, of the homes equipped to take the new service, only 40% have chosen to do so. In business, and international competitiveness, the fears are perhaps more serious.
NBN by the numbers A$49bn The current estimated cost of building the network 2007 The year the project was announced
2020 When the rollout is expected to be completed
A$91,196 The cost of connecting one remote property
159% The rise in complaints since last financial year Getty Images
"Going lower in ranking is alarming, and just not acceptable," says University of Sydney academic Dr Tooran Alizadeh, who has researched the NBN extensively and, like others, worries Australia's best minds will be lost to countries with better technology.
"Australia wants to be in the first 10 or so economies in the world. Obviously if you want to do that your internet access cannot be ranked 50th."
The history
In 2007, Mr Rudd announced 98% of Australian homes would be on the NBN by 2020. It was a breathtakingly ambitious idea. It was also, according to critics, backed by inadequate research into logistics and costs, initially put at A$15bn.
The natural starting point was Australia's oldest telecom company, Telstra. Elsewhere, countries like New Zealand simply used the infrastructure already laid by their major telecom company to install fast internet cabling. But Telstra, halfway privatised at the time, clashed with regulators over how it might onsell broadband access to its competitors, and so pulled out of the running to build the network.
Eventually, the government announced it would simply start a whole new semi-autonomous company from scratch. Called the NBN, it would set up the infrastructure to connect Australians with state-of-the-art fibre optic cables to their homes, selling bandwidth wholesale to retailers.
Progress was slow, sporadic, and expensive.
With Australia's preference for underground wiring, often concrete driveways would have to be dug up and relaid. Costs thus blew out for connecting houses from an envisaged average of A$4,400 to, in some cases, more than A$20,000, an NBN spokesman says.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A rocket carrying the NBN's first satellite is launched into space from French Guiana in 2015
Complaints soon arose over why some regions were connected before others, with schools and hospitals, for example, getting very unequal standards of internet quality. Accusations of government pork-barrelling, however, were wide of the mark.
"The government just wanted progress, so it became a matter of which places were easiest and quickest to connect," one source with intimate knowledge of the subject told the BBC. "Often this came down to issues like basic geology - where was the rock easiest to drill through?"
After the conservative government attained power in 2013, the NBN struck more upheaval, with copper wire ordered for the final stretches of connection, surrounding neighbourhood broadband nodes.
This presents a slower connection to the twice-as-expensive fibre optics. It also means residents, say 400 metres from the node, will have slower internet than a neighbour a few doors away. Critics also charge it's a false saving, since copper wire needs replacing far earlier than fibre optics.
Complaints and competition
Then came the NBN's high pricing to retailers, who buy limited supply to pass on to consumers, which leaves so many Australians staring in frustration while buffering or, worse still, service drop-outs occurring each peak hour.
"NBN has worked hard to bring the cost of bandwidth down but we cannot fill the pipes ourselves - it is up to the retailers to make sure that they are buying enough capacity to deliver a good quality of service," an NBN spokesman told the BBC.
Yet another complication is the number of retailers - 180 - making it hard for the NBN to police quality control for end users.
"We've had huge problems getting our house connected to the footpath node," says Matt Grant, a factory manager in suburban St Clair, just 39km from central Sydney. "But when I complained to the retailer, they told me to talk to the NBN. When I talked to the NBN, they sent me back to the retailer."
Image copyright Getty Images
He was eventually connected, but said "it's no better than we had with ADSL, especially in peak times".
Last week, Australia's Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman revealed there had been a 159% increase in NBN-related complaints in the last financial year.
NBN chief executive Bill Morrow told the Australian Broadcasting Corp this week that it "turns [his] stomach" that some customers were being left behind, but he placed blame on retailers, and said the government would ultimately decide when to replace copper connections. He also noted increasing competition from mobile broadband technology.
"Look, it is a competitive environment, but I just want to repeat we are doing everything we can to ensure the NBN delivers a great service," he said.
The network says it's still on target to have 98% of homes connected by 2020, but Australia's internet malaise will still take some solving.
There's hope of improvement, but not until base prices can come down as the NBN gradually recoups its massive expenditure. And despite the political finger-pointing, Mr Turnbull's government insists the network will be "fit for purpose".
"Australia needs a 21st Century broadband network and this is not being delivered," said Laurie Patton, executive director of consumer advocacy group Internet Australia.
"The way we're heading now, whoever is in office in 2020 will have to deal with our biggest ever national infrastructure debacle."Assad Can Stay, For Now: Kerry Accepts Russian Stance
By MATTHEW LEE and BRADLEY KLAPPER
December 15, 2015 " Information Clearing House " - " AP " - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday accepted Russia's long-standing demand that President Bashar Assad's future be determined by his own people, as Washington and Moscow edged toward putting aside years of disagreement over how to end Syria's civil war.
"The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change," Kerry told reporters in the Russian capital after meeting President Vladimir Putin. A major international conference on Syria would take place later this week in New York, Kerry announced.
Kerry reiterated the U.S. position that Assad, accused by the West of massive human rights violations and chemical weapons attacks, won't be able to steer Syria out of 4 ½ years of conflict.
But after a day of discussions with Assad's key international backer, Kerry said the focus now is "not on our differences about what can or cannot be done immediately about Assad." Rather, it is on facilitating a peace process in which "Syrians will be making decisions for the future of Syria."
Kerry's declarations crystallized the evolution in U.S. policy on Assad over the last several months, as the Islamic State group's growing influence in the Middle East has taken priority.
President Barack Obama first called on Assad to leave power in the summer of 2011, with "Assad must go," being a consistent rallying cry. Later, American officials allowed that he wouldn't have to resign on "Day One" of a transition. Now, Assad's stay could be indefinite.
Russia, by contrast, has remained consistent in its view that no foreign government could demand Assad's departure and that Syrians would have to negotiate matters of leadership among themselves. Since late September, it has been bombing terrorist and rebel targets in Syria as part of what the West says is an effort to prop up Assad's government.
Kerry said, "No one should be forced to choose between a dictator and being plagued by terrorists." However, he described the Syrian opposition's demand that Assad must leave as soon as peace talks begin as a "nonstarting position, obviously."
Earlier Tuesday in the Kremlin, Putin noted several "outstanding issues" between Russia and its former Cold War foe. Beyond Assad, these include which rebel groups in Syria should be allowed to participate in the transition process and which should be deemed terrorists, and like the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, be combatted by all.
Jordan is working on finalizing the list of terrorist v. legitimate opposition forces. Representatives of Syria's opposition themselves hope this week to finalize their negotiating team for talks with Assad's government. The U.S., Russia and others hope those talks will begin early next year.
Appearing beside Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hailed what he described as a "big negotiating day," saying the sides advanced efforts to define what a Syrian transition process might look like.
The two countries also have split on Ukraine since Russia's annexation of the Crimea region last year and its ongoing, though diminished, support for separatist rebels in the east of the country. The U.S. has pressed severe economic sanctions against Russia in response and has insisted that Moscow's actions have left it isolated.
But Kerry sang a different tune on Tuesday.
"We don't seek to isolate Russia as a matter of policy, no," Kerry said. The sooner Russia implements a February cease-fire that calls for withdrawal of Russian forces and materiel and a release of all prisoners, he said, the sooner that "sanctions can be rolled back."
The world is better off when Russia and the U.S. work together, he added, calling Obama and Putin's current cooperation a "sign of maturity."“Renewables will do close to nothing to contribute to overcoming unemployment.”
“Renewables will create massive job losses in other industries.”
“The present energy supply saves millions of jobs everywhere”.
Sounds familiar, right?
Many of us have heard these lines a zillion times in the past – and I am sure we will keep on hearing those myths in the future, especially from the various interest groups nourished by the fossil fuel and nuclear industries.
One strategy political opponents use in arguments is to respond to fictional statements which were never released. A classic one is “The global climate has always changed for natural reasons and many million years back it was about 10 degrees warmer than today – a time when no fossil fuels were used”.
No one has ever disputed that. The difference is that natural climate change occurred in past millennia at a slow pace – today, with human interventions and emissions in the atmosphere, it is happening much faster.
Part of the solution
It’s the same with the renewable energy and unemployment argument. No one ever said that renewables will play a major role in solving unemployment. Overcoming high unemployment in any country or region requires social actions and government interventions on a myriad of industrial and business policy fronts and sectors. Renewables – just one sector of industrial development – can’t be held responsible for that scale of change.
But fact is that renewables create (on average and based on the specific technologies) between three to six times more jobs for the same amount of energy produced than fossil fuels or nuclear. By no means do renewables aggravate the unemployment problem – they are a fundamental part of the solution. Everywhere.
The World Coal Association, the lobby group of the coal industry, states that coal provides up to 7 million jobs. The employment numbers for oil & gas industries combined amount to up to 6 million people based on various upper range statements by the sector. Some argue the numbers are significantly lower. Still, let’s work with those for the sake of the argument. It’s impressive anyway.
But wait – in 2013, coal provided about 3.8 billion tons of oil equivalents (OE). Oil and gas provided about 7.2 billion tons of OE. So, together all these fossil fuels provide about ten times more energy than all renewables (including large hydro) – about 1.1 billion tons of OE.
According to a recent International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) study, solar, hydro, wind & co. keep about 9.2 million people employed. Much more impressive.
The so-called ‘new renewables’ (solar and wind) alone employ more than four million people across the globe, while delivering ‘only’ five percent of all electricity. Compared to the 40% of global power that comes from coal, solar and wind provide almost five times more jobs per kilowatt-hour.
No surprise then that the renewable giants in the world have the largest renewable energy employment figures, with China having a share of almost four million people alone. Germany’s almost 400,000 jobs in the clean sector trump by factor nine the people employed in the nuclear sector, for instance, at its height when it provided about one third of all power in the country – one third is now the share of renewable electricity.
So we can easily say that potential job losses in the incumbent sector are more than compensated by new and clean energy sources. The myth of job destruction is refuted and shown to be non-existent. But can we really say this?
The social aspect
We should not. We also have a social responsibility, particularly environmental NGOs like WWF. A global Energiewende only functions if “no one is left behind” when creating societal consensus of this emerging third industrial revolution of a fully renewable powered world economy.
Of course, that does not include the highly-paid white collar jobs in the incumbent fossil and nuclear industry that still carry on to pave the way for climate and energy chaos. But we must be supporting our colleagues and comrades, the blue collar jobs, in the respective industries. Not easy I know. Many prejudices and sentiments prevail on both sides.
New jobs created in the renewable energy sector are regionally and personally distant from the job losses of a fossil fuel industry worker. Staff benefitting from renewable energy expansion are often highly skilled, urban and flexible. That is very different from a coal miner or a gas pipeline worker. One does not make an offshore oil driller in the Gulf of Mexico into a solar PV engineer in San Francisco.
This is about the ‘just transition’. We as civil society need to support trade unions and the workers to embark on a smooth and fair pathway, including re-skilling, training, and not the least compensation for job losses. It won’t be easy for all and it won’t come without harsh conflicts.
But if we don’t make that effort, we lose a large opportunity and social responsibility. If we, however, do so credibly and honestly, we enhance our support base for moving away from nuclear and fossil fuels towards renewables.
And that helps all to understand that the opponent is not the worker in an open pit mine who probably has no other job opportunity. But it is the large coal company’s fat-earning executives that have their spin doctors under tight control. Let’s make sure that their employees increasingly don’t trust them anymore and work with us instead.
Onwards!
SOURCE: climate-energy.blogs.panda.org - http://climate-energy.blogs.panda.org/2015/05/25/with-9-2-million-employed |
even when someone is murdered by her husband, her mother feels like she has to defend her daughter's right to end the marriage.
To be extremely clear, I'm not blaming Debbie Lane here for anything. Her comment just struck me because it reflects how much women are pressured and guilt-tripped into being with men and taking care of men, even if doing so comes at great personal cost. It's obvious why a mother would want people to understand that her murdered daughter was a good person. It's not her fault that "good person" is defined, in our culture, in terms of female self-sacrifice.
Whenever I hear a story about a man killing a woman for telling him no — and that's a story that happens about three times a day in this country — I can't help but think about what an unbelievable sense of entitlement the murderer must have to think he gets to snuff out a woman's life rather than accept her choice to say no. Most people struggle with rejection in life, and most people find a way to deal with it and move on. But there's a significant percentage of men who, on some level, don't accept a woman's right to say no.
Some have a mild case of entitlement, such as the man who got miffed the other day on the street when I pretended not to hear his "compliment" about my body. Some get more serious, stalking and harassing women who reject them. Some, about one man every eight hours on average in the United States, resort to killing.
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Despite all this, there's still a widespread tendency to romanticize it when men reject women's rejections. For instance, there was a recent spate of news stories celebrating a man in Bristol, England, who set up a piano in a park and vowed to play until a woman he called his "Rapunzel" heard him out or took him back or somehow gave him the attention she was clearly unwilling to give.
“I know people in my situation will send flowers or text or write letters but that only ever seems to make things worse," he said. But even though it's completely obvious this stunt is a way to force a woman who is trying to get away to give him attention, much of the coverage portrayed him as "heartbroken," "romantic" and motivated by "lost love."
The good news is that a number of people on social media pushed back hard, noting that in fact it's creepy and abusive when someone refuses to take no for an answer, which finally caused this guy to give up. Half of the British public polled called the guy creepy, which shows serious progress in terms of identifying bad male behavior for what it is.
The lesson here, we may hope, is that this notion that men are entitled to women's affections is not actually etched into male DNA. Society matters, and if we decide to we can start treating male entitlement like the toxin it is. We don't need to badger women to "give him a chance" or "work on the relationship." We don't have to romanticize men who won't take no for an answer.
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Again, male entitlement exists on a spectrum. Few men who get caught up in the idea that women owe them actually turn into killers, though unfortunately not few enough. But this entitlement is the root cause of a myriad of problems, not just for women, but for men who are given so much social permission to nurture unhealthy obsessions. It's about time we started pushing back.Henry Dayday is gunning for his old job.
The former Saskatoon mayor officially announced his mayoral campaign for the upcoming municipal election Thursday at the Nutana Legion.
Saskatoon needs a change of leadership, the 76-year-old said.
Dayday, who served as Saskatoon’s mayor from 1988 to 2000, spent about 30 minutes blasting the current city administration before announcing his bid.
He criticized the rising cost of the new Remai Modern art gallery as well as recent tax increases, and called road conditions in the city “a crisis.”
“I guess in my day we decided to fix them rather than count them,” he said.
Dayday is the third candidate to enter the mayoral race so far.
He was expected to announce his mayoral bid May 19 at a news conference, but instead asked questions about councillor remuneration.
Sitting mayor Don Atchison confirmed in late 2014 he’d be seeking re-election, and three-term city councillor Charlie Clark announced his mayoral bid last month.
The municipal election is set to be held Oct. 26.
--- with files from Calvin To/CTV SaskatoonThe second annual Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic is set for June 1 and this year will include an amateur mass participation ride, the Velothon Philadelphia.
The 45-kilometer Velothon Philadelphia will be the first US-based event in the International Cycling Union's Velothon Majors, race organizers announced.
The race will take place entirely on closed roads. The course includes one and a half loops of the Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic pro bike course, including the Manayunk Wall and Lemon Hill, according to race organizers.
"After our successful first year of the Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic, we committed to continue the growth of world-class cycling in Philadelphia," said Richard Adler of Liberty Sports Development, the event producer.
"Partnering with the UCI Velothon Majors and adding the inaugural Velothon Philadelphia to race weekend expands the event into more neighborhoods and allows cycling enthusiasts from around the country to join us in this annual tradition. As the first US event in this prestigious UCI Velothon Majors, joining Berlin and two other major European markets to be announced shortly, we are adding another chapter to Philadelphia's long and storied history as an international cycling destination."
Registered participants receive a package including an event medal, goody bag, chip timing, staffed aid stations as well as mechanical support provided by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.
For more details and rider registration, visit www.velothon-philadelphia.com.The Bears’ priorities have changed. Their schedule is now full of pro days and pre-draft visits. It’s draft season.
Money still will be spent. Even with a draft, general manager Ryan Pace has a roster to fill out.
But the bulk of the Bears’ work in free agency is done.
Here’s a look at what the expectations should be for the nine players the Bears have signed so far:
QB Mike Glennon. (AP)
HIGH
Mike Glennon
Expectation: Starting quarterback.
Drew Brees. Or how about Brock Osweiler, Elvis Grbac, Matt Flynn or Scott Mitchell? They were all in their late 20s when teams signed them to be starters.
Brees, of course, is Pace’s baseline for evaluating quarterbacks after the two spent nearly a decade together with the New Orleans Saints.
In many ways, Brees, a Super Bowl champion and future Hall of Famer, is an unfair standard to be held to, and Pace surely knows that. But Glennon still was signed to start. His average annual salary of $15 million ranks 22nd among NFL starters. He’ll be under pressure to play well in a big market. For better or worse, he’ll be compared to Jay Cutler.
Since the end of the season, Pace has laid out a number of characteristics he wants from his quarterback. To that end, Glennon should be judged by his decision-making (see interceptions and turnovers) and his ability to lead (see Cutler’s turbulent past).
That might seem like too much for Glennon, but the Bears will hold him to a high standard. Most of his guaranteed money is paid out in 2017; he needs to earn the second and third years of his deal.
Marcus Cooper
Expectation: Starting cornerback.
Cooper fits Pace’s profile for ideal free-agent signees. Familiarity? Check. He briefly played for defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and secondary coach Ed Donatell in 2013 with the San Francisco 49ers.
Chip on his shoulder? Check. The 49ers waived Cooper, a seventh-round pick out of Rutgers in 2013, as part of their final roster cuts before that season, and the Kansas City Chiefs claimed him.
Emerging player? Check. He excelled during his only season with the Arizona Cardinals last year. A Pro Bowl alternate, he led the team with four interceptions.
One concern is that Cooper was part of a Cardinals defense that was No. 2 in total defense and No. 4 against the pass.
All of the above makes him intriguing. The Bears aren’t financially committed to Cooper, 27, past the first year of his three-year deal, but the length of the contract still indicates how much they like him.
Prince Amukamara
Expectation: Starting cornerback.
Contracts don’t determine playing time. In 2015, Alan Ball barely played for Fangio and Donatell despite having a one-year, $3 million contract. Tracy Porter earned their trust.
Amukamara, 27, got $7 million for 2017 and currently accounts for the fourth-highest salary-cap hit among Bears players. His contract makes it clear the Bears have penciled him in as one of their starters, but Fangio and Donatell will make sure he warrants extensive playing time. He needs to reward the Bears’ faith in him. His ability to stay healthy matters, too.
MEDIUM
Kendall Wright
Expectation: Top-two receiver.
Wright, the 20th overall pick in 2012, fell out of favor with the Tennessee Titans and coach Mike Mularkey over the last two seasons, and his production reflected it.
But the Bears are hoping a one-year prove-it deal — a staple under Pace — and reuniting Wright with offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains will turn him into a valuable addition. In 2013, he had 94 catches and 1,079 receiving yards when Loggains ran the Titans’ offense — this despite having Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jake Locker at quarterback.
Wright also will be expected to make up for any difficulties Kevin White experiences in his return from surgery on his left leg.
The odds appear stacked against Wright, especially since Glennon is an unknown. But don’t underestimate the motivation of playing out a one-year deal.
Quintin Demps
Expectation: Starting safety.
Demps isn’t the second coming of Antrel Rolle, who was 32 when the Bears signed him and coming off five consecutive seasons without missing a game.
Demps is 31, but he didn’t distinguish himself as a starter until the 2015 season with the Houston Texans. Last year, he set a career high with six interceptions.
In other words, Demps is emerging later in his career, whereas Rolle seemed destined to tail off. A spate of injuries did in Rolle in 2015.
The Bears protected themselves through Demps’ deal, which includes only $5 million guaranteed for 2017, plus per-game roster bonuses. But if he stays healthy, Demps might the play-maker the Bears were missing at safety the last two years. He has 11 interceptions over the last four seasons.
Dion Sims
Expectation: No. 2 tight end.
The Bears still have Zach Miller, but Sims’ deal says the Bears envision him being more than an in-line blocker. He was guaranteed $6 million at his signing.
Sims set career highs last season with the Miami Dolphins with 11 starts, 26 catches and four touchdown receptions.
The hope is that Sims’ experience with Adam Gase’s offense helps his transition. Loggains, who took over Gase’s coordinator job when Gase left to coach the Dolphins, has kept some of Gase’s philosophies in place.
LOW
Markus Wheaton
Expectation: Top-four receiver.
Expectations should be low based off Wheaton’s production last season: four catches, 51 yards and a touchdown in three games. There also are concerns about his health after he underwent surgery for a torn labrum in December. So it can be argued the Bears overpaid for Wheaton with a two-year, $11 million deal.
But they invested in the 2015 version of Wheaton, not last year’s version. He had 44 catches for 749 yards and five touchdowns in 2015.
Wheaton’s challenge will be succeeding without Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and fellow receiver Antonio Brown. Emmanuel Sanders was able to do it after signing with the Denver Broncos in 2014.
John Jenkins
Expectation: Reserve defensive lineman.
The Bears needed a capable backup behind nose tackle Eddie Goldman, who struggled to stay healthy over his first two seasons. Enter Jenkins, a 6-3, 359-pound brute who was drafted by the Saints when Pace was in their front office.
This weekend, the Bears also are meeting with lineman Ricky Jean Francois, who played for Fangio with the 49ers.
Tom Compton
Expectation: Swing offensive tackle.
Compton, who has 10 starts over five seasons, said he plans to compete with tackles Charles Leno Jr. and Bobby Massie for playing time. But don’t be surprised if the Bears add competition for him at swing tackle.Sail the seas for high adventure! Get ready to face the toughest bosses with the wise King of Red Lions as your guide!UPDATE 9/16/13 New cover. Render by Glenbricker's Review MAJOR UPDATE: 8/16/13 I have given this set another facelift, this time expanding the island and creating an enemy for the King of Red Lions with the warship. The set would now be 576 pieces, probably in the $40-$45 price range.Playability features:1) The King of Red Lions sail is moveable and his head can be turned and placed in a variety of positions. The sail can be swapped out for the cannon (non-firing).2)There is an enemy warship to battle.3) Link can fight the Chu-chu jellies on the island. Also, the rock can be removed to revealing a hole that leads to secret chamber where. Link must then battle the spiders to retrieve the treasure. The chamber is accessible via a hinge.UPDATE 2/13/13 I have given this set a reworking. I have updated the boat and the island and I have created a far more accurate Link. This set has 205 pieces. At this piece count, this set would probably be in the $20-$25 price range.Playability features:1) The King of Red Lions sail is moveable and his head can be turned and placed in a variety of positions.2) The tree can be "chopped" as in the game.I think the set works as a stand alone set but a line could certainly be expanded from this.The lawyer for an Ottawa public servant who won the right to work in a different building from an annoying colleague says the case is a victory for all employees with mental health issues.
“It’s certainly a step forward in recognizing the impact of mental health issues in any workplace — not just the federal public service,” said Kim Patenaude, who represented Line Emond, a data manager at the Parole Board of Canada, in a recent case heard by the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board.
She said the decision might broaden the definition of what constitutes a disability since it recognizes stress-related mental health problems.
In its recent decision, the board ruled that the federal government had a duty to accommodate Emond’s “emotional stress” by relocating her to a separate building from Mr. X, the unnamed colleague who triggered her mental health crisis.
The tribunal heard that Mr. X was often loud, barefoot, profane and flatulent in the office, and that he made a vague threat against Emond during a confrontation in May 2010.
But it wasn’t until Mr. X filed a harassment complaint against her eight months later — one element of the complaint would eventually be upheld — that Emond found herself unable to cope with the prospect of returning to her Laurier Avenue workplace. Her family doctor recommended that she be moved to another location since Emond’s stress was so severe that it was causing memory and concentration issues, and interfering with her ability to solve problems and make decisions.
Psychologist Georges Ramsay told the tribunal that Emond was honestly afraid of Mr. X, and warned that returning her to the same workplace “could even lead to suicidal reactions.”
The employment tribunal found that Emond’s “emotional stress” amounted to a disability that the government had to accommodate in keeping with federal human rights law, which among other things, prohibits discrimination against those with serious physical or mental conditions. The government’s proposed solution — giving Emond a secure office in the executive suite of the same Laurier Avenue building — was not a reasonable one, the adjudicator ruled, ordering officials to find her a cubicle somewhere else in Ottawa.
Patenaude said the case has the potential to broaden an employer’s responsibility when it comes to reasonable accommodation, but she cautioned that each case must be examined on its individual merits.
“Regular stress is regular stress, but there’s stress that goes beyond that,” she said. “In this case, for instance, she’s having memory problems, concentration problems. There were more symptoms associated with the emotional stress than with regular, everyday stress. Regular, everyday stress is a normal part of life. This situation went above and beyond that.”
Broadening the ability of public servants to make claims for disability and accommodation based on stress-related problems has serious implications. A report issued last year by the government’s disability insurance plan manager, Sun Life Financial, revealed that 11,670 federal employees were collecting disability benefits, and that mental health was responsible for almost half of new claims. Depression and anxiety were the most commonly cited mental health problems.
Ottawa labour relations lawyer Alan Riddell said human rights tribunals have recognized that intense stress can cause disabling depression or anxiety.
“There’s no question,” he said, “that issues of mental health are becoming bigger and bigger factors it the workplace and in relation to questions of discrimination, constructive dismissal and express dismissal.”Ghost Ride Surfing – CRAZY Guy Surfing Behind a Boat with no Driver!$500 in...
Ghost Ride Surfing – CRAZY Guy Surfing Behind a Boat with no Driver!
When we first laid eyes on this video, we truly couldn’t believe our eyes. It seems like there has to be a catch somewhere here because what we’re seeing is insanity!
The gentleman pictured in this video is out on his ski boat alone and decides to hop off of the back and surf the boat’s wake while nobody is on board to pilot it!
Check out the video below as he hops off of the back and we start biting our nails. This takes some extreme courage to pull off, one false step and that boat is a goner!BERKELEY, Calif. (Reuters) - In 70 years, most cities in the Northern Hemisphere will be unfit to host the summer Olympics due to rising temperatures associated with climate change, according to a medical journal’s findings published this week.
“Our study using climate change projection shows that there will be very few cities at the end of the century that will be able to hold the summer Olympics as we know them today,” said John Balmes, a professor of public safety at the University of California, Berkeley, who co-authored the paper.
The findings, which originally appeared in the The Lancet, indicate that by 2085, only eight Northern Hemisphere cities outside of Western Europe are likely to be cool enough to host the summer Games. San Francisco would be one of just three North American cities that could serve as hosts.
The researchers used projections for the wetbulb globe temperature (WBGT), a measurement that combines temperature, humidity, heat radiation and wind, to determine the viability of potential host cities.
They focused their search in the Northern Hemisphere, home to 90 percent of the world’s population, and only considered cities with at least 600,000 residents, the size considered necessary for hosting the Games.
The findings assumed that any city with more than a 10 percent chance of having to cancel a marathon due to temperatures exceeding 26 degrees Celsius, or 78 degrees Fahrenheit, would not be a viable venue.
“If you’re going to be spending billions of dollars to host an event, you’re going to want have a level of certainty that you’re not going to have to cancel it at the last minute,” said UC Berkeley Professor Kirk Smith, a co-author on the study.
According to the projection models, by 2085, all of the cities that are or were in contention for either the 2020 or 2024 summer Olympics, Istanbul, Madrid, Rome, Paris and Budapest, would be unfit to host the games.
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Tokyo, the host of the 2020 games, would also be too hot to ensure athlete safety.
In North America, the only suitable sites would be Calgary, Vancouver and San Francisco.
“If we project out to the 22nd century, then there are only 4 cities in the world that can host the summer Olympics and that would be Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin and Belfast,” said Balmes.Trump is the Anti-Reagan
For months now I have avoided writing this. I dreaded the process and hoped it wouldn’t be necessary. But alas, events and the pleas of others have compelled me. Three emails in the span of about 30 minutes last Tuesday sealed the deal. “Recently, in discussions with Trump supporters, I have had many say to me that one of the reasons they support Trump is because he is the modern-day equivalent to Ronald Reagan,” writes Connor, a former student of mine in his final year of law school. “Trump supporters keep perpetuating this comparison. Considering your expertise on everything Reagan, I wanted to mention this to you, in hopes you would write an article on it.” Connor’s email was far from the only such entreaty. I have been receiving these requests for months. Further back still, one writer about a year ago wrote a piece asserting 15 similarities between Reagan and Trump. That thing has been sent to me more often than I could count. It practically went viral. Enough is enough. Yes, it’s time.So this is what it’s come to.
After four years of invective, four years during which the right has called President Obama a traitor, a communist, a fraud, an affirmative-action case, a terrorist-sympathizer, and a tyrant, its shrillest voices have been reduced to the most primal insult of all. They are calling Obama’s mother a whore.
For a while now, pictures purporting to show Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, modeling in 1950s bondage and fetish porn have been floating around the darker corners of the Internet. Now, though, they’ve made their way into a pseudo-documentary, Joel Gilbert’s Dreams From My Real Father, which is being mailed to voters in swing states, promoted by several Tea Party groups and by at least one high-level Republican. At the same time, Dinesh D’Souza’s latest book, Obama’s America—the first of all his works to hit the top spot on The New York Times bestseller list—has a chapter essentially calling Dunham a fat slut. If Obama is reelected, it’s hard to imagine where the right goes from here.
It’s tempting to ignore Dreams From My Real Father because it’s so preposterous. The movie claims that Obama’s actual father was the poet and left-wing activist Frank Marshall Davis, who Dunham met through her father, who was a CIA agent merely posing as a furniture salesman. “My election was not a sudden political phenomenon,” says the narrator, speaking as if he were Obama reading his autobiography. “It was the culmination of an American socialist movement that my real father, Frank Marshall Davis, nurtured in Chicago and Hawaii, and has been quietly infiltrating the U.S. economy, universities, and media for decades.”
Davis enjoyed taking nude photos of women, and the images said to be of Dunham, to which the director pays lascivious attention, are presented as evidence of their intimate relationship. “These photos were taken a few weeks before 1960, when Mom was about five weeks pregnant with me,” the narrator says. “Frank then sold the photos to men’s mail-order catalogs.”
What matters here is not that a lone crank made a vulgar conspiracy video, one that outdoes even birther propaganda in its lunacy and bad taste. It’s that the video is finding an audience on the right. Gilbert claims that more than a million copies of Dreams From My Real Father have been mailed to voters in Ohio, as well between 80,000 and 100,000 to voters in Nevada and 100,000 to voters in New Hampshire. “We’re putting plans in place, as of next week, to send out another 2 [million] or 3 million, just state by state,” he told me.
Gilbert won’t say who is funding this distribution, and there’s no way to verify his numbers. Had he not made other right-wing documentaries in the past, I might suspect that the whole thing is a brilliant conceptual art project about the limits of anti-Obama credulity. But the fact is, people are reporting receiving the disc in the mail. Tea Party groups and conservative churches are screening it. It was shown at a right-wing film festival in Tampa during the Republican National Convention, and by Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum Council in Missouri. Alabama GOP Chairman Bill Armistead recently recommended it during a speech, saying, “I’ve seen it. I verified that it is factual, all of it. People can determine.”
Meanwhile, D’Souza’s book, Obama’s America, the companion volume to his hit documentary 2016, is enjoying its fifth week on The New York Times bestseller list, though it has fallen to the No. 4 spot. Obama’s America makes the same argument as his 2010 bestseller, The Roots of Obama’s Rage: that Obama is motivated by an anti-colonial animus against Western power. “Obama views Muslims who are fighting against America in Iraq and Afghanistan as freedom fighters, somewhat akin to Indians or Kenyans fighting to push out their British colonial occupier,” he wrote in the 2010 book. He writes more or less the same thing in the new one. The primary difference is that while before he mainly focused on Obama’s father, now he turns his attention to Obama’s mom as well.
D’Souza argues that part of the reason Ann Dunham sent Obama to live with her parents in Hawaii was so she could pursue affairs with Indonesian men. “Ann’s sexual adventuring may seem a little surprising in view of the fact that she was a large woman who kept getting larger,” he writes. On the next page, he continues, “Learning about Ann’s sexual adventures in Indonesia, I realized how wrong I had been to consider Barack Obama Sr. the playboy … Ann … was the real playgirl, and despite all her reservations about power, she was using her American background and economic and social power to purchase the romantic attention of third-world men.”
There is no evidence for any of this—D’Souza mentions the name of exactly one man who Dunham had a relationship with after her divorce. Even if it was true, however, it’s hard to see how it’s relevant to Obama’s supposed taste for subversion, since as D’Souza himself points out, Obama wasn’t living in Indonesia at the time. The chapter is simply an expression of glandular-level contempt. It shows that a writer once considered a legitimate conservative intellectual has been reduced to sputtering “yo mama” at our president.
After the last four years, perhaps we shouldn’t expect anything more. That itself, however, is telling. In 2001, the Republican activist Barbara Olson was quoted saying, “Look at Bill Clinton’s mother, as opposed to George W.’s mother. Is your mother a barfly who gets used by men? Or is your mother a strong woman who demanded respect for her ideas and always received it?” She was widely condemned and issued an abject apology. D’Souza’s nastier words, by contrast, have barely caused a ripple. Conservative groups haven’t been scandalized by their association with Gilbert’s movie. This is who they are. There’s nothing left to be shocked about.It’s no secret we’re in the midst of a mental health crisis. Whether you attribute this to social-media-induced nausea or a societal trade-off between “purpose and power,” as explored in Yuvai Hariri’s latest offering Homo Deus, it amounts to much the same thing – an explosion in prescription SSRIs, billable therapy hours, and most disturbingly, suicides. Sadly, we are presently much less capable of diagnosing mental diseases than we are physical ones.
Now, thanks in large part to revolutions in artificial intelligence and bioinformatics, researchers are unraveling many of the mysteries behind mental illness. In particular, a new paper (PDF link) authored by a collaboration of scientists at USC, Carnegie Mellon University, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center claims to have drawn a bead on some of the biomarkers that differentiate depressed and suicidal patients.
You may think you’re good at reading other people’s faces and moods. But when it comes to telling the difference between a person who is suicidal and one who is merely depressed, the signs are much more subtle. To tease out the differences, the researchers looked at a handful of facial gestures displayed by three groups of people – those with suicidal ideation, depressed patients, and a medical control group. During interviews with these groups, they recorded gestures that included smiling, frowning, eye brow raising, and head motioning. The data was then fed into a machine-learning algorithm that looked for correlations between different gestures, alone or in combination, and patient groups.
Remarkably, rather than frowning being the most telling feature in discriminating between depressed and suicidal patients, it was smiling. Specifically, Duchenne smiles versus non-Duchenne smiles held the key to differentiating the groups. A Duchenne smile involves the contraction of muscles surrounding the eyes, while a non-Duchenne smile doesn’t involve the eyes. Those people displaying non-Duchenne smiles were far more likely to possess suicidal ideation than those lacking them.
In speaking with Dr. Morency, one of the researchers behind the study, he expressed hope that this algorithm could see use in a clinical setting helping doctors differentiate between patients who are depressed or suicidal. Obviously, a person who is at risk for suicide requires a different kind of observation than someone who is struggling with a mild bout of depression. Studies such as Dr. Morency’s, however, often raise as many questions as they answer. Particularly, what happens when the algorithms start knowing us better than we know each other? Judging by the speed at which Facebook and Google are applying data mining methods to our social media accounts, that day is likely not far away.
Unfortunately, astute minds like Dr. Morency’s have little to say when it comes to the unintended consequences of their work. Scientists typically draw a strict line between research breakthroughs and the societal application of such. For instance, were an algorithm such as Dr. Morency’s to find its way into the hands of insurance companies rather than medical clinicians, the results could be distinctly unsavory. A propensity towards suicide might negatively affect one’s ability to purchase life insurance, receive promotions, or even obtain a job.
Unless we begin thinking deeply about the application of algorithms such as this, and pushing our legislators to institute sensible standards for their regulation, the genie that is machine learning may well turn out to be a demon.
Now read: What are artificial neural networks?Mrs. Kirchner and the other defendants appealed the ruling this week and are set to return to court on Tuesday for a hearing before a higher court.
Image An Argentine judge has accused Ronald K. Noble, a former secretary general of Interpol, above, of taking part in a cover-up in the investigation into a 1994 terrorist attack at a Jewish community center in Argentina. Mr. Noble has rejected that claim. Credit Mohd Fyrol/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mr. Noble said he was stunned by how badly Argentine judicial officials had bungled the investigation into the bombing.
“There has never been a case at Interpol with the kind of investigative, prosecutorial and judicial problems that have allowed a murderous terrorist attack where 85 persons were killed and many more wounded more than 20 years ago to go unpunished,” he said.
Since the ruling was issued, Judge Bonadio has come under attack from all sides of the political spectrum. Experts and politicians have questioned the strength of the evidence underpinning the accusation and suggested that it may have been politically motivated.
Judge Bonadio did not respond to a request for comment.
He is not the first to implicate Interpol in a cover-up in the bombing case. Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate the bombing, made a similar allegation against Mrs. Kirchner shortly before he died under mysterious circumstances in January 2015. Mr. Nisman alleged that the Argentine government asked Interpol to pull red notices filed against Iranians as part of a deal that sought to expand commerce between the nations.
An investigation into Mr. Nisman’s death is continuing.
“There is no evidence to support Judge Bonadio’s conclusion that there existed some kind of secret agreement between Argentina and Interpol to remove the AMIA red notices,” Mr. Noble, 61, wrote. “If Judge Bonadio were interested in the truth, he could have contacted Interpol’s former general counsel.”
Judge Bonadio suggested in his ruling that Mr. Noble might have enabled Mrs. Kirchner because the former Interpol chief had a “close relationship” with former Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, who was also charged with treason in the case last week. Mr. Timerman, who is undergoing cancer treatment, is under house arrest.
Mr. Noble, a New Jersey native who after leaving Interpol now works as a security consultant in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, denies he had anything beyond “a very good professional relationship” with Mr. Timerman.Join Take Two each weekday at 9 AM where we’ll translate the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that people are talking about. Find us on 89.3 KPCC, hosted by A Martinez.
"I want to know what happens to L.A.-area undocumented people when they are detained" – KPCC listener Tina Shull on SoCal. So Curious.
The threat of deportation weighs heavily on many people living in the U.S. illegally.
A lot of things can happen, though, between being picked up by immigration officials and actually getting sent back to your home country.
To help answer Tina's question, KPCC's immigration reporter Leslie Berestein Rojas joined Take Two.
Say you're undocumented and you get picked up by ICE. What happens?
It really depends on your case: where you're from, what your background is, if you have a criminal record, etc. But I'll give you some basics. Say you're from Mexico, which shares a land border with the U.S., and you get picked up incidentally – at a worksite or wherever. You don't have a deportation order, but you are living here illegally. If you don't have a criminal record, chances are you'll get sent out of the country pretty fast. You'll be offered a "voluntary return," which means you don't fight it. In that case, you could be transported to the border the same day.
But does everyone get a shot at a legal hearing if they want it?
Anyone can ask to see a judge, and anyone can say they have a credible fear of going back. In that case, officials will determine if you're a flight risk or if you're a security threat. At that point, they'll decide whether to put you in detention. If you have a criminal record, chances are good that will happen. If you have a deportation order already, it could go a couple of ways. They could simply reinstate the deportation order and get you out of the country ASAP. Or, if you have been formally deported before and you've come back, they'll mostly likely try to prosecute you. That means federal jail time.
What if you're not from Mexico?
Well, they can't just send you across the border, right? So there's a good chance you'll be detained. Pretty much the same rules apply, otherwise – you can appeal your deportation or not. If you appeal, you could be detained for some time as your case moves through immigration court. If not, they'll send you back to your home country as soon as they can get travel documents for you, and get you on a flight.
So if you have one of those more complicated cases and you are detained, where would you be placed?
The idea is to hold people close to home, though that doesn't always work out. It depends on where there is space. If you're from the LA area, there's a good chance you'll wind up at the detention center in Adelanto, which is about 90 miles from L.A., or at one of two county jails in Orange County that contract out bed space for immigrant detention. If there's no space, they might send you farther out. And by the way, one important note: say you're a legal permanent resident – a green card holder – but you've committed a crime that can get you deported. Chances are you'll be in detention for a while. It's not only because you'll be considered a mandatory detainee because of your crime, but because you have a lot invested in the U.S. Legal residents will typically appeal their deportation, and this can take a while.
Let's get back to those who are sent back to Mexico. What happens when they get there?The Florida State Prison where death row inmates are executed. (Matt McClain/ The Washington Post)
A death-row inmate in Florida has asked the state to execute him by electrocution rather than lethal injection, the state’s default way to carry out executions, in what is believed to be the first such request under a state law allowing inmates to pick the electric chair over a fatal dose of drugs.
If his request is granted and his execution carried out, Wayne Doty, who was sentenced to death for killing another inmate, would become the first Florida inmate executed by electrocution since the 2000 law letting inmates choose between two methods was signed by former governor Jeb Bush.
Doty said in a handwritten affidavit that his decision was motivated in part by a desire to speed up the process and bring peace to himself and the family of his victim.
He also pointed to what he called issues “surrounding executions through lethal injection.” In recent years, a shortage of lethal injection drugs has prompted harried scrambles in states trying to carry out executions and repeated legal challenges from death-row inmates.
[Oklahoma may have used the wrong drug to execute an inmate this year]
Florida, one of the country’s most active death-penalty states, has not been immune to the situation. Earlier this year, the Florida Supreme Court halted executions in the state while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a challenge to Oklahoma’s lethal-injection protocol (which is essentially identical to Florida’s drug combination).
The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld Oklahoma’s protocol in a case that centered on the drug midazolam, a sedative used |
with two confidants, the camera dollies in on this great historical moment. “He’s mad,” says one. “No,” says the other. “He’s a visionary.”) United Passions breezes through the highlights of Rimet’s 33-year reign as president of FIFA—the Great Depression and the rise of fascism are accounted for in about two lines of dialogue—before moving on to João Havelange (Sam Neill), a Brazilian leader who ousted the pro-apartheid Stanley Rous and groomed a dynamic Swiss protégé by the name of Sepp Blatter.
The one plausible statement in United Passions comes when Havelange, inheriting a cash-strapped organization, introduces Blatter to the rest of FIFA’s executive committee: “He’s apparently good at finding money.” And how! Through key sponsorships from companies like Adidas, Blatter helps turn FIFA around and positions himself as Havelange’s right-hand man and successor; once elected, he fights off various traitors in his midst and keeps on winning support. As Blatter, Tim Roth at least has the dignity to carry himself with a troubled, burdened gait, even if he stops short of outright shame or guilt. It’s the film’s position that Blatter has weathered storm after storm and strengthened FIFA’s influence beyond what its founders could have dreamed. Truly “A Burns For All Seasons.”
United Passions leaves no historical-drama cliché unexploited: the voiceover narration, the jumbled Europudding accents, the expository dialogue, the hasty compression of major world events, the thickly applied old-age makeup, the not remotely seamless mix of re-creations and archival footage. It’s all there, in support of FIFA’s lies. Every four years, the world collectively plugs its nose and watches the World Cup, guiltily accepting some degree of complicity in supporting FIFA because the tournament’s allure is just too powerful to resist. But a movie touting the greatness of the world’s most corrupt sporting body, featuring almost no soccer whatsoever? Fans will want a refund just for hearing about it.The problem with inviting a television crew into your home is that everyone who watches the TV show is going to have an opinion on everything you say. So if you say something that's not PC, rude, or a bit mean, everyone in the UK has heard it. There's no such thing as a flippant comment anymore.
Gogglebox is great for that kind of thing. It's a bit meta, watching a TV show about people watching TV, but as a nation it is our favourite hobby...
But people are up in arms about the callous comments sisters Ellie and Izzie made about the United Airlines incident earlier this month - they're baying for blood.
The Yorkshire based family were watching the shocking news story about Dr David Dao who was dragged off a United Airlines plane because the airline wanted to use his seat for their staff.
UA had offered £645 and a night in a hotel for any passenger who would give up their seat. But when no one took the airline up on the generous offer, they decided to forcibly remove someone from their seat. And they chose Dr David Dao, who explained that he couldn't give up his seat because as a medical doctor, he had a duty of care to the patients he was going to see the next day.
Credit:Twitter/@Tyler_Bridges
Unfortunately, the airline didn't care and dragged the Chinese doctor from his seat, knocking his head against a chair and causing him to profusely bleed from the mouth.
The incident has shocked the world - repulsive behaviour from any company. In a reflection of how disgusted the entire planet was by this offensive incident, the shares of UA have plummeted. It's unsure if it will ever recover.
The Leeds based sisters Ellie and Izzie watched the news story and said it was: "Brutal."
Their parents were not impressed and Ellie and Izzie's mum said: "What happens when you get thrown out of a nightclub when you have too much to drink. I mean even nowadays they can't do that!"
But it didn't take long for the two sisters to find the incident funny.
Instead of focusing on the terrible attack on Dr David Dao, the two sisters thought about how they would immediately try to capitalise on the incident if they had seen it.
Credit: Channel 4/Googlebox
"Oh my god! That would make an amazing Snapchat story!" said Ellie.
Izzie then responded, "That would be straight on my story! What caption would you do? When they tell you no booze left on the flight!"
Um hello, girls? A man has just been harassed by an airline. This is serious stuff.
People are not impressed at all and were really upset by how callous the two sisters were. And some people even questioned why Channel Four broadcast Ellie and Izzie's remarks; probably because they knew it would get a lot of media coverage!
The sisters joking that they would put the United Airlines incident on their Snapchat if they were there, they really are thick #gogglebox
- Kirsty (@HeyHoEatPie) April 14, 2017
#Gogglebox @ellieandizzi should be ashamed of themselves saying the united airlines incident would of'made a great snapchat story' :angry:
- Cara:star: (@CaraSidney) April 14, 2017
It's not funny really though, is it girls? #gogglebox
- Lynsey Spence (@Sidekick28) April 14, 2017
Listening to Ellie & Izzi's accent is like nails on a chalkboard!:weary:#Gogglebox
- Grant Rivers (@SnowAndBeach) April 14, 2017
Re: the Leeds girls making Snapchat comment. They shouldn't have said it. But perhaps C4 shouldn't have shown it either. #Gogglebox
- David Brown (@MrDavidEBrown) April 14, 2017
But they still have some fans.
Genuinely shocked at the hate @ellieandizzi get on twitter. They're my favourites on #gogglebox! Haters gon' hate
- ☭ Leanney ☭ (@Amberrleanne) April 15, 2017
Well you win some, you lose some I guess.
Words: Laura Hamilton
Featured Image Credit: TwitterHow long have I been looking for these?
[About 20 minutes? -Ed]
Second only to those springy clips you get in 200 in 1 electronics kits, these are GREAT for protoyping stuff that won’t/shouldn’t fit in a breadboard – like Tesla coils.
Fahnestock Clips!
From Wikipedia:
“Fahnestock clips were seen on early radio receiver breadboard construction, model train power connections, and the like. Today, they have largely been supplanted by binding posts. However, they remain in use in elementary schools especially, where their ease of use and visible connections make them a popular way for science instructors to teach the creation of simple circuits, and most university physics departments still have them on apparatus.
The clip was patented 26 February 1907[1]by John Schade Jr., assigned to Fahnestock Electric Co. Less than 2 weeks after the patent was issued they filed for reissue.”
And you can get them here : Micromark
or in fancy brass here : Online Science MallThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Ghrelin is a gastric peptide hormone, discovered as being the endogenous ligand of growth hormone secretagogue receptor. Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid peptide presenting a unique n-octanoylation modification on its serine in position 3, catalyzed by ghrelin O-acyl transferase. Ghrelin is mainly produced by a subset of stomach cells and also by the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and other tissues. Transcriptional, translational, and posttranslational processes generate ghrelin and ghrelin-related peptides. Homo- and heterodimers of growth hormone secretagogue receptor, and as yet unidentified receptors, are assumed to mediate the biological effects of acyl ghrelin and desacyl ghrelin, respectively. Ghrelin exerts wide physiological actions throughout the body, including growth hormone secretion, appetite and food intake, gastric secretion and gastrointestinal motility, glucose homeostasis, cardiovascular functions, anti-inflammatory functions, reproductive functions, and bone formation. This review focuses on presenting the current understanding of ghrelin and growth hormone secretagogue receptor biology, as well as the main physiological effects of ghrelin.
The major biological functions of ghrelin include the secretion of growth hormone, the stimulation of appetite and food intake, the modulation of gastric acid secretion and motility, and the modulation of the endocrine and exocrine pancreatic secretions.
In addition to the stomach [ 1, 8 ], ghrelin is expressed in many tissues such as duodenum, jejunum, ileum, colon, lung, heart, pancreas, kidney, testis, pituitary, and hypothalamus [ 3, 9 – 13 ].
Ghrelin is a unique 28 amino acid peptide containing an n-octanoyl group on the serine in position 3 that was purified from rat stomach in 1999 [ 1, 2 ]. Ghrelin is the only known peptide hormone modified by a fatty acid. Ghrelin is synthesized by the endocrine X/A-like cells of the fundus mucosa representing about 20% of gastric mucosal cells in humans [ 3 – 5 ]. Ghrelin is the natural ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue (GHS) receptor (GHS-R) cloned in 1996 [ 6 ]. Circulating ghrelin consists of more than 90% of desacyl ghrelin and less than 10% acyl ghrelin [ 7 ]. However, the acyl group of ghrelin is essential for its binding to GHS-R and the concomitant activation of the inositol triphosphates/calcium pathway [ 1, 2 ].
Ghrelin and desacyl ghrelin can undergo another posttranslational modification: phosphorylation on Ser18 by protein kinase C [ 49 ]. Compared to nonphosphorylated ghrelin and desacyl ghrelin, both phosphorylated forms exhibited lower binding capacity to phosphatidylcholine : phosphoserine sucrose loaded vesicles [ 49 ]. However, additional studies are required to determine if ghrelin phosphorylation can occur in cells under specific conditions and if so what would be the impact of such phosphorylation on the subcellular localization and biological function of the peptide.
Knocking out GOAT, possibly in combination with deficiency in ghrelin and/or GHSR, should allow assessing the physiological consequences of a deficiency in ghrelin acylation and/or ghrelin signaling. Moreover, GOAT represents a useful pharmacological target in the treatment of obesity and other diseases [ 48 ]. Finally, further studies should contribute to a better understanding of the role of GOAT in the control of ghrelin acylation and its subsequent effects.
Very recently GOAT has been detected in human plasma and its expression level was positively correlated with body mass index and negatively correlated with ghrelin level when evaluating normal subjects and subjects with either anorexia nervosa or obesity [ 44 ]. It has to be noted that in that particular study ghrelin level was the same in obese patients and normal weight subjects [ 44 ], as opposed to other previous studies showing either decreased ghrelin levels [ 39, 45 ] or increased ghrelin levels [ 46, 47 ]. Further studies using large cohorts of subjects will be required to assess if GOAT indeed counteracts the effects of ghrelin and contributes to the development or maintenance of anorexia nervosa and obesity.
GOAT knockout in leptin-deficient ob/ob mice does not improve glucose tolerance or body adiposity, suggesting that the desacyl/acyl ghrelin ratio has no major effects on glucose homeostasis in a model of massive obesity and glucose intolerance [ 43 ].
In agreement with its physiological functions, ghrelin acylation, via GOAT, is involved in eating behavior. In homeostatic eating (when food intake is driven by necessity, due to energy deficiency as perceived by the brain and body), GOAT knockout mice models can exhibit similar or contrasting phenotypes depending on the type of diet. GOAT knockout mice fed with standard chow diet demonstrated higher desacyl ghrelin than their wild-type littermates but had similar body weight, fat mass, and food intake [ 40, 41 ]. However, GOAT knockout mice fed with high fat diet displayed either similar body weight, body composition, and food intake to their wild-type littermates [ 41 ] or lower body weight, no changes in body composition, and increasing food intake [ 40 ]. GOAT knockout mice fed with high fat diet rich in medium-chain triglycerides displayed lower body weight and fat mass, despite increase food intake [ 40 ]. These discrepant phenotypes observed could result from the distinct genetic background of the mice models used. In hedonic feeding (when food intake is motivated primarily by pleasure), GOAT knockout mice phenotypes suggested that GOAT is a critical modulator in food reward. Indeed, GOAT knockout mice displayed an attenuated food motivation in an operant responding model when deprived of food for 24 h [ 42 ] and a decreased hedonic feeding response in a “dessert effect” protocol [ 42 ].
While rat gastric GOAT mRNA levels are similar in fed and 48 h-fasted animals, they increased in response to leptin administration in fasted animals, indicating that GOAT is a leptin-regulated gene [ 38 ]. Higher GOAT mRNA levels detected in chronic restricted-nutritional conditions, such as anorexia nervosa, could account for the higher acyl ghrelin levels measured [ 39 ].
The investigation of GOAT substrate specificity, using an in vitro assay for GOAT activity, indicates that Gly1, Ser3, and Phe4 surrounding Ser3 in proghrelin represent crucial amino acids for GOAT activity [ 33 ]. Pentapeptides corresponding to the first five N-terminal amino acids of ghrelin with its C-terminal end amidated and with an ester or amide (conferring a better efficiency than the ester) linkage between Ser3 and C:8 competitively inhibit GOAT activity [ 34 ]. Similar pentapeptide with Ala3 instead of Ser3 represents efficient GOAT inhibitor that can no longer be used as a substrate [ 34 ]. A peptide-based bisubstrate analog GO-CoA-Tat, a potent inhibitor of GOAT, improves glucose tolerance and reduces weight gain in wild-type mice fed with medium-chain triglycerides diet, but not in ghrelin-knockout mice [ 35 ]. Furthermore, GO-CoA-Tat decreased circulating octanoyl ghrelin levels and body weight in mice fed with high fat diet [ 36 ]. Very recently, mutations and chemical modifications of a novel fluorescent substrate peptide for GOAT allowed defining specific interactions without GOAT active site playing a role in ghrelin recognition [ 37 ]. These recent finding should allow developing more potent and specific GOAT inhibitors for evaluating the GOAT-induced ghrelin acylation pathway as a new therapeutic target.
Nascent ghrelin peptides, derived from the human ghrelin gene transcription and translation, are subjected to a unique posttranslational modification consisting in the acylation of the hydroxyl group of the Ser3 [ 1 ]. Both ghrelin 1–28 and ghrelin 1–27 are subjected to acylation, essentially by an octanoyl group (C8:0) and more rarely by a decanoyl (C10:0) or decanoyl (C10:1) group [ 23 ]. Ingestion of either medium-chain fatty acids or medium-chain triglycerides increases ghrelin acylation [ 26, 27 ]. The enzyme responsible for ghrelin acylation is ghrelin O-acyl transferase (GOAT) belonging to the family of membrane O-acyl transferases (MBOAT) [ 28, 29 ]. Ghrelin and GOAT colocalize in gastric X/A like cells [ 28 ]. Diets enriched with C8 medium-chain or C10 medium-chain triglycerides led to a modification in the proportions of octanoyl or decanoyl ghrelin stored in the same granules in gastric X/A like cells, suggesting that GOAT is likely to use the most available substrate to perform ghrelin acylation [ 30 ]. Ghrelin acylation is believed to occur in the endoplasmic reticulum prior to the processing of proghrelin by various proteases on either the preproghrelin and/or the proghrelin precursors [ 22, 29, 31, 32 ]. GOAT acylates ghrelin with fatty acids ranging from C:7 to C:12 [ 28 ]. Presumed donors of acyl group are acyl-CoA, even though it remains unclear how acyl-CoA could get into the endoplasmic reticulum lumen [ 29 ]. In an in vitro assay of GOAT activity, GOAT was shown to possess a preference for n-hexanoyl-CoA over n-octanoyl-CoA as an acyl donor [ 32 ]. However, several lines of evidence suggest that the intracellular concentrations of n-acyl-CoA are likely to affect GOAT substrate specificity. Mutation in position 338 of GOAT, at the MBOAT-conserved histidine residue, abolishes ghrelin octanoylation [ 28 ].
The data published so far on the human ghrelin gene structure strongly suggests a higher level of complexity than previously recognized. Additional studies will be required to address the fine-tuning regulatory mechanisms of the ghrelin gene transcription and processing that may depend upon tissue type and physiological conditions. Identification and characterization of novel transcripts as well as novel derived-peptides from the human ghrelin gene would raise challenging questions concerning their physiological and pathophysiological implications.
The enzymes responsible for processing preproghrelin into ghrelin include signal peptidase cleaving at Arg23, prohormone convertase 1/3 (PC 1/3) cleaving at Arg51 (generating ghrelin 1–28) [ 22 ], and carboxypeptidase-B like enzyme cleaving at Pro50 (generating ghrelin 1–27) [ 23 ] ( ). The involvement of prohormone convertase 2 (PC2) and furin in the preproghrelin processing remains controversial [ 22, 24, 25 ]. The enzymes responsible for processing preproghrelin into obestatin remain yet to be identified.
The human ghrelin gene is located on the short arm of chromosome 3 (3p25-26) and contains six exons (2 are noncoding) and 4 introns and encodes a 511 bp mRNA [ 14 – 16 ] ( ). Preproghrelin (117 AA) contains 23 AA signal peptide and a 94 AA segment corresponding to proghrelin [ 17 ] ( ). Proghrelin is made of the 28 AA ghrelin peptide and a 66 AA carboxyterminal peptide called C-ghrelin [ 16, 18, 19 ] ( ). C-ghrelin is further processed to a 23 AA peptide named obestatin [ 20 ] ( ). Besides, alternative splicing of the human ghrelin gene generates additional transcripts coding for other peptides including des-Gln14-ghrelin [ 16, 21 ] ( ). Finally, antisense transcripts (transcribed from the antisense strand), unlikely coding for proteins, may produce noncoding RNAs, possibly involved in posttranscriptional and/or posttranslational gene regulation [ 16 ].
Ghrelin is expressed in low amounts in the central nervous system [ 9 ]. Neurons from the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, a region involved in the control of food intake, express ghrelin [ 1, 90 ]. Pituitary also contains ghrelin [ 11, 91 ].
Ghrelin is predominantly expressed in the digestive system, with highest expression levels in the gastric mucosa [ 1, 8 ]. Gastric mucosa is composed of five endocrine cell types: enterochromaffin cells (EC), enterochromaffin-like cells (ECL), D cells, G cells, and X/A-like cells which, respectively, secrete serotonin, histamine, somatostatin, gastrin, GABA, and ghrelin. Human versus rat gastric mucosa are, respectively, composed of 30%/60–70% ECL cells, 20%/20% X/A-like cells, 22%/2.5% D cells, and 7%/0–2% of EC and G cells [ 5, 80 ]. X/A-like cells secreting ghrelin are ovoid cells located into the gastric fundus [ 3, 4, 81 ]. In the gastrointestinal tract, ghrelin expression gradually decreases from the duodenum to the colon [ 3, 9, 10 ]. Circulating ghrelin originates in vast majority from gastric mucosa and gastrointestinal tract [ 8, 82 ]. In pancreas, ghrelin immunoreactivity colocalized with glucagon-producing cells (α cells) [ 83, 84 ], insulin-producing cells (β cells) [ 85 ], a new type of endocrine cell called ε cells [ 86 – 88 ], and acinar cells [ 89 ].
In the light of the rapid degradation of ghrelin in the circulation, investigators need to pay greater attention to the conditions of collection and conservation of blood samples to ensure optimal ghrelin stability. Furthermore, the nutritional status of individuals and the time point of blood sample collection should also be carefully controlled. Finally, pharmacokinetic parameters of ghrelin should be taken into account when designing clinical research. Ruling out these important issues would definitively impact the accuracy of acyl ghrelin levels determination and, consequently, and most importantly, on the assessment of its physiological and pathophysiological roles. Furthermore, a large number of studies evaluating ghrelin levels do not distinguish between total ghrelin, acyl ghrelin, and desacyl ghrelin levels. Investigators should therefore choose the best available method for ghrelin levels determination and be aware and discuss the limitations of the method used. All together, these elements are likely to contribute to the possible contradictory data published in the literature concerning the physiological and pathophysiological role of ghrelin. In conclusion, only combined controlled steps will ensure accurate ghrelin level determination and proper interpretation under physiological and pathophysiological conditions ( ).
Other important considerations should be taken into account for proper ghrelin level assessment such as the nutritional status of the individuals, the time point at which blood samples are collected [ 75 ], and the efficiency of peptide extraction as well as the limitations of the methods used to assay ghrelin levels (acyl, desacyl, and/or total ghrelin) [ 76 – 79 ].
A very recent study attempted to evaluate the pharmacokinetic parameters of infused acyl ghrelin, desacyl ghrelin, or both combined in healthy human subjects with normal liver and kidney functions [ 72 ]. Following acyl ghrelin infusion, mean half life of acyl ghrelin was in the range of 9–11 min, while that of total ghrelin (acyl + desacyl ghrelin) was in the range of 35 min [ 72 ], in agreement with previous studies [ 63, 73, 74 ]. The clearance time of acyl ghrelin was about three times higher than the one for acyl ghrelin [ 72 ]. Data from this study revealed that acyl and desacyl ghrelin have different metabolic rates in the circulation with different rates of clearance [ 72 ]. Infusion of desacyl ghrelin increased desacyl concentrations without affecting acyl ghrelin levels [ 72, 74 ]. Combined acyl and desacyl infusion led to increased acyl and desacyl ghrelin concentrations, to the same extent as that observed with individual infusion [ 72 ]. Moreover, the data indicated that acyl ghrelin was actively deacylated in the plasma [ 72 ]. The relatively constant acyl ghrelin/desacyl ghrelin ratio, measured at baseline and during infusion, suggests that both desacyl ghrelin production (due to acyl ghrelin deacylation) and desacyl ghrelin elimination were increased in similar proportions [ 72 ]. Determination of pharmacokinetic parameters of acyl ghrelin and total ghrelin is of prime importance for conducting appropriate clinical research. Furthermore, the modification of pharmacokinetic parameters in diseased subjects is likely to influence clinical research data and conclusions.
Due to the rapid degradation of ghrelin into the circulation, it is necessary to collect blood samples under appropriate optimal conditions warranting the intact conservation of the peptide. Several studies have evaluated the effect of blood collection and storage conditions on the measurement of ghrelin levels [ 67 – 71 ]. To ensure ghrelin stability, it is now strongly recommended to collect blood samples with EDTA-aprotinin (or other proteases inhibitors) under cooled conditions and proceed to the sample acidification and dilution prior to ghrelin measurement [ 69, 70 ]. Despite the obvious involvement of esterases in ghrelin degradation, the use of esterases inhibitors has not been recommended during blood sample collection. This is quite surprising considering that the addition of PMSF (an inhibitor of serine esterase) and eserine salicylate (an inhibitor of butyrylcholinesterase) has been shown to increase the recovery of acyl ghrelin in blood samples [ 64 ]. Additional studies should be performed to assess the usefulness of combining esterases inhibitors to the recommended guidelines to further improve ghrelin stability.
In human, circulating ghrelin consists of desacyl ghrelin (>90%), acyl ghrelin, and C-ghrelin [ 7, 18, 58 ]. Circulating C-ghrelin is decreased by about 80% in rat [ 59 ] and in humans [ 8, 60 ] following surgical gastric mucosa removal. It presently remains unknown if ghrelin and desacyl ghrelin are both secreted into the bloodstream via similar or distinct secretory pathway(s). In rats, gastric ghrelin is degraded by deacylation and N-terminal proteolysis [ 61 ], and deacylation is performed by lysophospholipase I [ 62 ]. The high desacyl/acyl ghrelin ratio in the circulation can be explained by the shorter half life of ghrelin compared to desacyl ghrelin [ 63 ] and plasma ghrelin deacylation [ 58, 61 ]. Butyrylcholinesterase and other esterase(s), such as platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase, are responsible for ghrelin deacylation in human serum, while carboxylesterase accounts for ghrelin deacylation in rat serum [ 61, 64 ]. Interestingly, butyrylcholinesterase knockout mice fed with standard chow diet (5% fat) displayed normal body weight, while those fed with high fat diet (11% fat) became obese [ 65 ]. As increased ghrelin levels cannot explain obesity, butyrylcholinesterase could play a role in fat utilization [ 65 ]. Paraoxonase was also suggested to participate in ghrelin deacylation in human serum [ 66 ]. However, this hypothesis was refuted as EDTA had no effect on ghrelin deacylation and there was a negative correlation between desacyl ghrelin levels and paraoxonase activity [ 61 ]. Desacyl ghrelin mostly circulates as a free peptide, while acyl ghrelin circulates bound to lipoproteins [ 64, 66 ]. The acyl group is required for ghrelin interaction with triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and low-density lipoprotein, while N- and C-terminal ends of ghrelin are required for its binding to high-density lipoproteins and very high-density lipoproteins. It is therefore hypothesized that triglyceride-rich lipoproteins mostly transport acyl ghrelin, while high-density and very high-density lipoproteins transport both acyl and desacyl ghrelin [ 64 ].
Several studies have investigated the structure-activity relationship of ghrelin peptides. The presence of acyl group on Ser3 is required for most of the observed biological activities of ghrelin [ 51, 52 ]. The position of the octanoylated Ser is important as C8:0 Ser2 conserved the activity of the peptide while C8:0 Ser6 or C8:0 Ser18 decreased it [ 53 ]. Maximal ghrelin activity, conferred by C8:0 Ser3, is maintained by C10:0 Ser3, C12:0 Ser3, and C16:0 Ser3 but drastically decreased by C4:0 Ser3 or C2:0 Ser3 [ 51 ]. While the replacement of Ser3 by Trp3 maintains the activity of ghrelin, its replacement by aliphatic AA (such as Val, Leu, or Ile) completely inhibits its activity [ 51 ]. The ester bound between C8:0 and Ser3 is not indispensable for ghrelin activity as it can be replaced, without affecting the activity, by thioether or ether bounds [ 51 ]. The N-terminal positive charge and Phe4 are necessary for ghrelin activity and recognition by GHS-R1A [ 54 ]. Systematic C-terminal truncation of ghrelin identified the N-terminal pentapeptide of ghrelin, including C8:0 Ser3, to be the minimal peptide fragment equipotent to ghrelin [ 52, 55 ]. In addition, amidation of the C-terminus increased the activity of the ghrelin fragments [ 52, 55 ], while N-acetylation drastically decreased it [ 54, 55 ]. Bound to lipids, both acyl and desacyl ghrelin adopt a short α-helix conformation, respectively, from Pro7 to Glu13 and Pro7 to Glu14, surrounded by more flexible N- and C-termini [ 56, 57 ]. The minimal active core sequence of ghrelin required for GHS-R1a activation is summarized in.
Ghrelin has been purified from various mammalian species such as human [ 1 ], rat [ 1 ], and mouse [ 50 ] ( ). All mammalian ghrelin sequences present a strict sequence conservation of the first 10 N-terminal AA and the acylated-Ser3. Human and rat ghrelin are identical with the exception of AA in positions 11 and 12. Ovine and bovine ghrelin sequences are made of 27 AA, rather than 28, and are lacking Gln14.
Consequently, further investigations will be required to identify potential desacyl ghrelin receptor(s). The identification of desacyl ghrelin receptors would lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms and sites of action of this peptide.
Despite its lack of binding to GHS-R1A at physiological concentrations, desacyl ghrelin has been shown to have numerous biological effects, suggesting that it may act via a yet unidentified receptor. Desacyl ghrelin could modulate food intake as in [ 118 ] even thought GOAT knockout mice displayed suppressed fat mass despite increase in desacyl ghrelin levels [ 40 ]. In addition, desacyl ghrelin modulates cell proliferation [ 76, 119 – 123 ], cell apoptosis [ 124 – 127 ], cell metabolism [ 126, 128, 129 ], glucose homeostasis [ 130 – 132 ], and body temperature [ 133 ].
GHS-R1B is unable to bind acyl or desacyl ghrelin [ 6 ]. GHS-R1B, considered in the past to be functionally inactive, is now believed to act as an important modulator in ghrelin-induced GHS-R1A signaling. Indeed, GHS-R1B is able to heterodimerize with GHS-R1A and to decrease the constitutive activity of GHS-R1A [ 102, 106, 107, 109 ]. GHS-R1B exerts a dominant negative effect via a conformational restriction of the GHS-R1A that becomes unable to subsequently activate G protein and recruit β-arrestin [ 117 ]. Furthermore, GHS-R1B can form heterodimers with neurotensin receptor 1 (NTS1) and function as a receptor for neuromedin U, thereby affecting the growth of lung cancer cells through the transactivation of its downstream signals [ 105 ].
Heterodimerization definitively represents a novel mechanism for fine-tuning of GHS-R1A-mediated signaling, and introduced another level of regulatory complexity. However, the physiological relevance of such mechanism remains to be further investigated. Nevertheless, GHS-R1A dimerization with other receptors offers novel pharmacological targets and therapeutic perspectives.
GHS-R1A forms heterodimers with serotonin 2C receptor (5-HT 2C ) and leads to the attenuation of ghrelin-induced calcium signaling [ 115 ]. GHS-R1A/5-HT 2C heterodimers induce the attenuation of ghrelin's orexigenic effects [ 116 ]. These data are in favor of a role of GHS-R1A/5-HT 2C heterodimers in homeostatic appetite signaling.
The formation between GHS-R1A and dopamine D1 (D1) and D2 (D2) receptors impacts the role of ghrelin in the regulation of rewarding and motivational eating behavior [ 104, 112, 114 ]. The formation of GHS-R1A/D1 heterodimers leads to the attenuation of GHS-R1A signaling, suggesting a switch in GHS-R1A coupling from Gαq11 to Gαs [ 104 ]. GHS-R1A/D2 heterodimers alter the Gαi/o-induced signaling of D2 by inducing calcium mobilization upon dopamine stimulation that was independent of GHS-R1A-Gαq11 mediated signaling or GHS-R1A constitutive activity [ 112 ]. Furthermore, GHS-R1A/D2 heterodimers attenuates food intake [ 112 ].
The formation of heterodimers between GHS-R1A and melanocortin 3 receptor leads to a mutual signaling interference and consequently to alteration in the homeostatic control of food intake and energy balance [ 110, 111 ].
GHS-R1A interacts with the somatostatin receptor 5 (SST5), leading to a coupling to Gαi/o instead of Gαq11, allowing ghrelin (rather than somatostatin) to suppress glucose-stimulated insulin secretion [ 113 ]. Moreover, the high ratio of ghrelin to somatostatin affects the formation of GHS-R1A/SST5 heterodimers [ 113 ].
But, it has now been also shown that GHS-R1A forms heterodimers with members of the prostanoid receptor family such as vasodilatator prostacyclin receptor (IP), the vasoconstrictor prostaglandin E2 receptor subtype EP3-I (EP3-I), and thromboxane A2 (TPα) [ 108 ]. The consequences of such heterodimer formation include decreased GHS-R1A expression, increased intracellular GHS-R1A localization, and decreased constitutive GHS-R1A activity [ 108 ]. Though, another consequence of receptor heterodimerization may be ligand specificity switching, this has not be explored or shown for GHS-R1A.
The monomeric existence and functioning of GHS-R1A have been established [ 99 ]. However, growing evidence now supports the notion that GHS-R1A, similarly to other GPCRs [ 100, 101 ], may form dimers [ 102 – 116 ]. GHS-R1A can dimerize into homo- or heterodimers and therefore potentially affect downstream signaling. GHS-R1A was shown to function as homodimer [ 103, 107 ].
Several studies have been designed to develop GHS-R1A peptide and nonpeptide agonists, inverse agonists, and antagonists and to map the site of interactions of these molecules with GHS-R1A using mutational, molecular modeling and computational analyses. Despite the necessity to understand the molecular bases leading to the development of drugs modulating ghrelin signaling, the studies addressing these issues will not be detailed here as they are extremely too focused in light of the scope of this review.
Coupling of GHS-R1A to G-protein involves the 3rd intracellular loop. The lack of a 3rd intracellular loop in GHS-R1B prohibits it from coupling to G-proteins. GHS-R1A activation leads to the subsequent activation of phospholipase C, inositols triphosphates, and intracellular calcium pathways [ 94 ]. At physiological concentrations, only acyl ghrelin binds to GHS-R1A, while at supraphysiological concentrations (1 μM) desacyl ghrelin appears to bind to the receptor as well [ 95, 96 ]. The cell membrane has been suggested to act as “catalyst” for ghrelin binding to its receptor. Indeed, acyl ghrelin and desacyl ghrelin are electrostatically attracted to membranes by their basic residues, but acyl ghrelin penetrates deeper due to its acyl group [ 96 ]. The acyl group of ghrelin is assumed to favor ghrelin partitioning into the lipids to increase the local concentration of ghrelin in the vicinity of the receptor, to bring ghrelin to the membrane where its binding pocket is present, and to optimize the conformation of ghrelin for improving its docking to GHS-R1A [ 96 ]. Noteworthy is that GHS-R1A possesses constitutive level activity [ 97 ] that appears to be conferred by the presence of |
hours Time Played 2.8% On Fire 27.00 Eliminations 9.31 Obj Kills 01:13 Obj Time 10,686 Damage 17.54 Deaths 26% Weapon Acc 8.0% Critical Hits 2,088 Dmg Reflected 12.46 Final Blows 3.00 Solo Kills 4.46 Dragon Kills Symmetra 2 months ∞ Quick Rank 6,375 Quick Score 14 Wins 4.07 Medals 3 hours Time Played 1.1% On Fire 21.43 Eliminations 6.93 Obj Kills 00:42 Obj Time 7,774 Damage 11.21 Deaths 19% Weapon Acc 8.07 Final Blows 10.86 Portal Trips 2,112 Dmg Blocked 10.36 Photon Kills 11.07 Sentry Kills Junkrat 1 year ∞ Quick Rank 5,276 Quick Score 13 Wins 4.92 Medals 3 hours Time Played 0.7% On Fire 23.46 Eliminations 9.77 Obj Kills 00:37 Obj Time 13,943 Damage 13.08 Deaths 14% Weapon Acc 13.38 Final Blows 4.23 Solo Kills 0.00 Env Kills 4.38 Enemy Traps 3.00 Tire Kills Bastion 1 month ∞ Quick Rank 5,957 Quick Score 12 Wins 5.42 Medals 2 hours Time Played 4.2% On Fire 21.58 Eliminations 8.92 Obj Kills 00:33 Obj Time 12,965 Damage 1,260 Self Healing 12.58 Deaths 21% Weapon Acc 4.0% Critical Hits 55% Final Blows 7.08 Recon Kills 11.83 Sentry Kills 2.67 Tank Kills Winston 1 month ∞ Quick Rank 4,884 Quick Score 6 Wins 5.83 Medals 1 hour Time Played 4.1% On Fire 32.17 Eliminations 11.50 Obj Kills 01:39 Obj Time 8,871 Damage 18.17 Deaths 3.33 Solo Kills 38% Final Blows 14,168 Dmg Blocked 3.67 Melee Kills 5.00 Jump Kills 2.33 Rage Kills Roadhog 1 month ∞ Quick Rank 3,958 Quick Score 5 Wins 6.60 Medals 1 hour Time Played 2.9% On Fire 24.20 Eliminations 8.60 Obj Kills 01:47 Obj Time 13,660 Damage 5,961 Self Healing 18.80 Deaths 19% Weapon Acc 8.0% Critical Hits 2.20 Solo Kills 21.20 Heroes Hooked 41.2% Hook Acc 4.20 Hog Kills Torbjörn 1 month ∞ Quick Rank 3,024 Quick Score 5 Wins 3.00 Medals 1 hour Time Played 2.5% On Fire 17.40 Eliminations 5.80 Obj Kills 00:10 Obj Time 8,577 Damage 9.40 Deaths 20% Weapon Acc 6.0% Critical Hits 5.20 Weapon Kills 0.80 Overload Kills 14.20 Turret Kills 2.00 Molten Kills Orisa 3 weeks ∞ Quick Rank 2,187 Quick Score 5 Wins 3.60 Medals 1 hour Time Played 0.0% On Fire 16.60 Eliminations 5.60 Obj Kills 00:43 Obj Time 8,506 Damage 8.80 Deaths 22% Weapon Acc 4.60 Final Blows 0.00 Env Kills 8.00 Off Assists 21,500 Dmg Blocked 571 Dmg Amped Sombra 2 years ∞ Quick Rank 3,584 Quick Score 4 Wins 4.50 Medals 60 minutes Time Played 4.9% On Fire 25.25 Eliminations 7.50 Obj Kills 01:18 Obj Time 8,186 Damage 21.50 Deaths 32% Weapon Acc 0.0% Critical Hits 9.25 Final Blows 2.00 Solo Kills 34.50 Enemies Hacked 17.75 Enemies Pulsed Wrecking Ball 2 months ∞ Quick Rank 0 Quick Score 1 Wins 1.00 Medals 11 minutes Time Played 0.0% On Fire 8.00 Eliminations 2.00 Obj Kills 00:58 Obj Time 5,338 Damage 13.00 Deaths 27% Weapon Acc 0.00 Final Blows 0.00 Solo Kills 0.00 Env Kills Roles Role Wins Defense 3 days 306 Tank 2 days 192 Offense 3 days 256 Support 3 weeks 2,491 Trends Wins On Fire Recent Activity More Quick Play 8 hours 1 Wins 6.00 Medals 27.00 Eliminations 5.00 Obj Kills 01:29 Obj Time 11,863 Damage 8,996 Healing 21.00 Deaths 1 Quick Play 11 hours 2 Wins 2.00 Medals 17.00 Eliminations 6.50 Obj Kills 00:54 Obj Time 4,804 Damage 6,864 Healing 6.50 Deaths 1 1 Quick Play 12 hours 1 Wins 9.00 Medals 35.00 Eliminations 5.00 Obj Kills 01:00 Obj Time 16,395 Damage 11,498 Healing 17.00 Deaths 1 10,391 Medals 3.20 Avg 5,693 1.75 Avg 2,366 0.73 Avg 2,332 0.72 Avg Lifetime Stats Game Time Games Won 3,244 Avg Game Time 15:08 Time Spent Playing 1 month Time Spent Alive 1 month Time Spent Dead 2 days (8.78%) Medals and Cards Total Medals 10,391 (3.20 avg) Gold Medals 5,693 (1.75 avg) Silver Medals 2,366 (0.73 avg) Bronze Medals 2,332 (0.72 avg) Voting Cards 3,582 (1.10 avg) Eliminations Eliminations 39,352 (12.1 avg) Final Blows 16,366 (41.59%) Solo Kills 4,062 (1.25) Deaths 32,331 (10.0 avg) E:D Ratio 1.22 Combat Statistics Damage Done 16,323,902 (5,032 avg) Healing Done 33,925,554 (10,458 avg)33-year-old Steven Michael Young of San Carlos was stopped by SFPD officers last Wednesday at Bush and Larkin for a vehicle registration inspection, after he'd driven into the city for what his family says were some funtimes before possibly getting arrested for his third strike. Young had a warrant out for his arrest in San Mateo County, so when he got pulled over he made a run for it, and fired on the cops who gave chase as he ran down Larkin Street.
Young allegedly fired six rounds at the officers before they fired two rounds back, hitting him in the face and killing him. Police told the story in a community meeting last night, perhaps to defend any accusations of wrongdoing of course, unlike the shooting of convicted felon and suspected murderer Kenneth Harding, this wasn't caught on video (even though he actually shot himself) and is therefore less likely to incite protest.
Young's family sounds like they saw this coming, telling cops that they knew he wouldn't be taken alive if he ever got pulled over, because he already two strikes and didn't want to go back to prison. He had prior convictions for burglary and narcotics, but it's unclear what the warrant in San Mateo County was about. According to police anyway, Young's family is "grateful no police officer or member of the public was hurt in the shooting."
[Examiner]Love spicy food? Then you'll absolutely adore our Ghost Pepper Candy. These sweet treats are made using Bhut Jolokia, commonly referred to as the Ghost Pepper. This screaming hot pepper, thought to have originated in India, was awarded the Guinness World Record for the World's Hottest Pepper in 2007. Made by hand in New York, these small hard candies have been carefully crafted to ensure the ideal blend of sweet watermelon and spice, without overwhelming you with heat. Each pack includes approximately 16-18 candies.
Candy made from one of the world's hottest pepper
About 100 years ago, a man named Wilbur Scoville devised a system for rating the hotness of peppers. Your typical banana pepper scores in the range of 100-900. A cayenne is in the 30,000-50,000 range, and a habanero tops out at around 300,000. But those lightweights aren't what is used to create Spicy Watermelon Candy.
Instead, it is the Bhut Jolokia which packs the bite in these amazing candies. This pepper (commonly referred to as the Ghost Pepper) boasts a Scoville rating of 1,000,000! To help put this in perspective, law enforcement pepper spray is about 5,000,000 Scoville units.
Now, before you call us insane, please note that only a fraction of this ridiculously hot pepper is used to make the candy. The manufacturer went to great lengths to ensure that the sugar cuts through the hotness to create a wonderful blend of sweet and spicy.
Ghost pepper + delicious candy = hot dang!
Our Ghost Pepper Candy is a meticulous, hand-made blend of ghost pepper and sweet watermelon hard candy. Don't worry — it isn't overwhelming! The sweetness of the hard candy cuts through the spice to make for a sweet and spicy candy treat.
Perfect mixture of sweet and spicy
If you love spicy food, get these candies immediately! They are the perfect gift for anyone known for dousing their every meal in Sriracha, Tabasco, or Frank's Red Hot Sauce. Each pack contains approximately 28 grams of candy (which works out to 16-18 individual candies per set).
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What are the ingredients?
Answer: Sugar, water, glucose, citric acid, artificial coloring, and bhut jolokia.
Question: Where is it made?
Answer: New York.
Question: How spicy is it?
Answer: Four of us sampled the Ghost Pepper Candy initially. Three individuals, known for enjoying spicy foods, didn't find it to be overwhelming or uncomfortable in the least. The fourth man (aka The Evil Boss) definitely felt the burn and needed a glass of water.
So, long story short: If you like spicy foods, you'll love these candies. If you aren't a fan of the heat, then you may find these a bit on the hot side.The inaugural Enlisted Remotely Piloted Aircraft Pilot Selection Board has chosen 30 enlisted Airmen to fill fiscal year 2017/2018 training slots as a part of the deliberate approach to enhance the Air Force’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance mission.
The historic enlisted RPA pilot selection board convened at the Air Force Personnel Center Feb. 6-8 and selected two senior master sergeants, five master sergeants, nine technical sergeants, 14 staff sergeants and five alternates from about 200 active duty enlisted applicants from various Air Force Specialty Codes. These 30 Airmen join the Enlisted RPA Pilot program along with the 12 other Airmen from the Enlisted Pilot Initial Class, four of whom started training in October 2016. The Air Force plans for the number of enlisted RPA pilots to grow to 100 within four years.
To be considered for the selection board, Airmen had to hold a rank from staff sergeant through senior master sergeant and have six years of retainability from course graduation date. They were also required to complete the application, an Air Force initial flying class II physical examination plus a pilot qualification test, which is key in measuring aptitude for success in RPA pilot training.
“The selection board process mirrors that of the undergraduate flying training program as closely as possible,” said Senior Master Sgt. Dave Desilets, Career Enlisted Aviator Assignments Manager. “The board uses the ‘whole person’ concept to evaluate candidates.”
Candidates were evaluated based on their entire military personnel record and pilot candidate selection method, or PCSM, test score. The average PCSM score for those selected was 73 with overall select scores ranging from 55 to 96. Airmen who had already amassed off-duty flying hours were also able to apply that experience toward their PCSM, which Desilets said is the same scoring system used to select Air Force officer pilots.
Expanding opportunities in the RPA program is one of many ways the Air Force is tapping into the talent of its skilled, diverse and innovative enlisted force. Originally open to just career enlisted aviators, the Air Force opened the program to all enlisted AFSCs in August 2016 to allow more active duty Airmen to apply.
“This gives Airmen an opportunity to excel in a new way,” Desilets said. “We have an incredibly talented pool of enlisted Airmen, and we're confident that this rigorous selection process yielded excellent enlisted aircrew who will continue to provide combatant commanders with the ISR they need to win today's fight.”
The Air Force has plans to integrate enlisted pilots into RQ-4 Global Hawk flying operations, with the first two board-selected Airmen slated to begin Initial Flight Training at Pueblo Memorial Airport in Pueblo, Colorado, in April. The remaining EPIC and board-selected students are lined up to attend training throughout 2017 as training slots become available.
After IFT completion, students will progress through the RPA Instrument Qualification Course and RPA Fundamentals Course at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph and the Basic Qualification Training at Beale Air Force Base, California. The entire program spans almost a full year. The first two EPIC students are scheduled to graduate and receive their pilot wings in May.
“This proactive step will make the most of the capabilities of our enlisted force to provide options that build a more agile ISR force in the future, placing highly capable enlisted forces in a position to support the future threat environment," Desilets said.
The call for nominations for the 2018 Enlisted RPA Pilot selection board is scheduled for April.
The selection list has posted to myPers. To view the list, or for more information on the enlisted RPA pilot selection process, visit the active duty enlisted Retraining page, or select “Any” from the dropdown menu and search “Enlisted RPA.” Additional information is also available on the Air Force Portal Rated Assignments page.
For more information about Air Force personnel programs, go to myPers. Individuals who do not have a myPers account can request one by following these instructions.EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio (KDKA) — Police in one Ohio town are hoping that the shocking reality of drug abuse will help to fight the heroin epidemic.
The graphic photos of two adults, passed out in their car because of suspected heroin overdoses, have received in excess of two million views on East Liverpool’s Facebook page.
In the same vehicle, in the backseat, there’s a 4-year-old boy.
The graphic images tell a frightening story. Police say an officer watched a Ford Explorer weave erratically and stop.
Officers found an impaired James Acord in the driver’s seat. He said he was taking his unconscious passenger, Rhonda Pasek, to the hospital, and then became unresponsive himself. Narcan was administered and both regained consciousness.
The 4-year-old in the backseat was the son of one of the adults.
The Facebook post reads, in part: “We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug. We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can’t speak for himself but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.”
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East Liverpool Public Safety Director Brian Allen told KDKA-TV’s Ralph Iannotti, “Sometimes, the truth is graphic. These pictures are the truth.”
Allen said officials thought long and hard before posting the graphic photos.
On their Facebook page, police continued, “We are well aware that some may be offended by these images, and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time the non-drug using public sees what we are dealing with on a daily basis. We are well aware some may be offended by these images, and for that we are sorry.”
Allen said the city and police have received some negative feedback from the photo posts, even a few death threats aimed at him and the mayor of East Liverpool.
Acord and Pasek face child endangerment and other charges. The child has been placed in foster care.The occupation of a house in the Palestinian neighborhood in the city of Hebron by residents of Hebron's Jewish settlement is a provocation that could destabilize security in the city, sources in the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday.
Dozens of residents from the Jewish settlement in Hebron occupied a three story house in a Palestinian neighborhood in the city overnight Wednesday, about one hundred meters south of the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Children that entered the house in Hebron on March 29th, 2012. Jewish Community of Hebron
The group, which entered the house around 1 A.M. on Thursday, includes entire families, women and children. Representatives of the group claim that the house was purchased nearly four months ago after lengthy negotiations with its previous Palestinian owner. The group states that it holds documents validating its claim on the building.
The IDF stressed that the house is located in an area which is controlled by the IDF, and that such an event can lead to the deterioration of the security situation.
"For us this was a provocation, at this time this is problematic," a military source said, adding that if, as was claimed, the property was purchased legally then it is not clear why the group go occupied the house overnight, in the presence of a large group of people.
Following the group’s move into the house, a large contingent of Israel Defense Forces soldiers, responsible for the security of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, arrived on the scene. For now, they decided to maintain the status quo and allow the group to stay. Currently, entry to the building is permitted only to members of the initial group, with no additional persons allowed to enter.
Read this article in HebrewNEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Here’s how the media are viewing the once-hottest news story: Occupy Wall Street is 99% dead.
In the first phase of Occupy Wall Street, journalists were dazzled by the spirit and the anger of the participants. For a brief, flickering moment, the idea of rallying as an economically aggrieved 99% of the population had terrific potential.
Reporters trekked to Zuccotti Park to observe the latest link in the chain, advancing from the anti–Vietnam War protests of the ’60s and ’70s to the anti-nuclear-power demonstrations that followed them.
Now we’re seeing the lamentable second wave of the Occupy Wall Street story. The spirit has been muffled by people who want to cash in on the popularity of Occupy Wall Street and exploit the participants’ idealism.
Reuters Occupy Wall Street protesters take cover against snow in Zuccotti Park.
Sure, the crowds of supporters and sympathizers will continue to gather at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, the starting point for what became a global movement. And, yes, similar groups will congregate elsewhere around the world. You can be sure that this news story will rank prominently in those year-end retrospective pieces.
I wrote in this space a few weeks ago that Occupy Wall Street would become corrupted by big business, which would exploit the popularity of the movement to sell blue jeans, T-shirts and beer. I wasn’t far off.
We’ve heard rumblings that MTV’s VIA, -0.78% “Real World“ is scouting people between the ages of 20 and 24 for a series with an Occupy Wall Street theme.
In another sign that Occupy Wall Street is ripe for exploitation, there is actually a website called Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street.
Further, the Associated Press has noted that some in the movement are attempting to trademark the phrase “Occupy Wall Street.” Some of the leaders “filed an application Oct. 24 to trademark the name of their movement with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.” The source of the information was one of the group’s lawyers.
The media, serving as a proxy for the general population, are impatient and bored by what outwardly seems like a marked lack of progress.
No less an authority on American social movements than folk singer Joan Baez, a notable dissident during the eras of the Vietnam and nuclear protests, said: “I’ll be convinced when it develops a real direction.... So far it’s hard to tell.”
The only time someone gets excited about the protests these days is when some external force intervenes, such as when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg attempted (unsuccessfully) to clear the park, purportedly to clean it.
In a 24/7 news cycle, interest wanes quickly. Occupy Wall Street couldn’t, or wouldn’t, hold journalists’ attention.
We now cover Occupy Wall Street the way we handle the daily weather report, traffic and rail reports — dispassionately, briefly and by rote. For the media, the excitement has gone out of the story.
MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you think Occupy Wall Street’s moment in the sun has passed or am I being shortsighted?
(Please feel free to post your comments below.)I live in Southwestern Pennsylvania, a region that has seen a sharp increase in what I refer to as “redneckification” over the past decade. As such, it is not uncommon to see houses, vehicles, and women in various states of undress proudly displaying the Confederate flag. Why aren’t more people asking why the hell this is happening and what does it actually mean?
It’s About “Heritage”… Right?
So let’s get the 800 lb. elephant in the room out of the way; if you in any way imply that the Confederate flag is a symbol of slavery and therefore incredibly racist, you are promptly rebuked. “It’s not about racism. It’s about heritage.”
…and that’s where you’ve lost me. Granted, I only have a degree in political science and a law degree, but I’m not seeing where exactly this alleged “heritage” is coming from. Let’s take a look:
So, whose heritage is it about again? Riiiiight.
If America Is Supposed To Be About Winning, Why Are We Glorifying The Losing Side?
Americans flying the Confederate flag, especially those living in the North, are somehow claiming a stance of patriotism by displaying the symbol of the people they defeated in a war. The closest possible comparison would be displaying the flag of some of the other enemies the United States has defeated in war, such as the Nazi flag. Okay, maybe the insane imagery of Americans walking the streets with Nazi flags doesn’t carry quite the same shock value it did before we Made America White Great Again, but you get the point.
What kind of morons celebrate victory by worshipping the symbol of the people they beat? If your team wins the Super Bowl, do you celebrate by going out and buying a t-shirt of the losing team? Of course not. But somehow, this warped and twisted logic has permeated our nation when it comes to the Confederate flag.
Okay, so it’s not heritage. What else could it be? I asked this question on my Facebook page last week, and the best anyone could do was say people liked the way the Confederate flag looks. Again, that was the BEST anyone could do. If only those people could find another flag to fly that is red, white, and blue and consists of a pattern of stars and stripes…
So, again, why do people in the northern states fly the Confederate flag? You’re not going to like it, but the answer is a combination of racism and ignorance.
It’s About Racism, Whether You Realize It Or Not
You can say it’s not about racism all you want, but let’s call a racist a racist here. It’s about racism. If you’re claiming you’re proud of your heritage, you mean you’re proud to be white. If that’s the case, you are also saying by definition you are proud to not be anything other than white. I’ll let the good people at Merriam-Webster take it from here:
Does this mean anyone and everyone showing off the Stars and Bars is a card-carrying member of the Klan? Of course not, mainly because I’m guessing they don’t give out actual membership cards. This is where the ignorance comes in. (Hey, people under 50 years old, I’m looking at you.) We have hit a point in our history where many Americans weren’t alive for, and therefore have no recollection of, the long and bloody path of the Civil Rights Movement. Lest anyone think otherwise, it was no fucking joke:
Many of the people celebrating the symbols of the Confederacy have no fucking clue what America was like for minorities back then. When we say that shit got real, we’re talking public lynchings in the town square, not Twitter wars and memes. And while you may think you could never be the one hanging from the tree, remember that for the first time ever, there are fewer white than nonwhite children under 10 years of age in America.
And considering how faux-outraged people get these days, let’s remember that there people living today whose grandparents and great-grandparents were actual slaves. If someone had owned, beaten and raped my ancestors, then my country fought a war to win their freedom, I’d be pretty pissed off if the descendants of the guys who lost the war started celebrating the legacy of my ancestors’ oppression. That’s not being an angry black person; that’s being anyone with any sense of decency whatsoever.
So to the 19-year-old kid putting a Confederate flag on your pickup truck, don’t act all shocked when people accuse you of being racist. Maybe you don’t understand what that flag really represents to many Americans, but that’s all the more reason not to fly it. Ignorance of history is no excuse, especially if we are to believe that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. You need to know why flying the Confederate flag is equal parts stupid and wrong so you can make sure your kids know because that’s the only way we can stop this cycle of overt racism in America.
And to those keyboard cowboys who love to spout off that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, just shut up. Yes, there are very complicated and nuanced reasons why the Civil War occurred, but to pretend slavery wasn’t the major factor is just, as you like to call it, fake news. If by chance you are smart enough to really understand the economic and geopolitical factors of the United States in the mid 19th century, you are smart enough to know why you shouldn’t be flying the Confederate flag, so spare us your talking points.
We have enough real problems in America. We don’t need to open very old wounds and bring back the problems of our past. So for Christs’ sake, please, for the love of God, stop worshipping the Confederate flag as a symbol of redneck pride. Stop now, before the racial divide in this country gets worse. The distance from where we are now to hanging people in the town square based solely on the color of their skin is a hell of a lot shorter than you probably realize.This is another one of my miniature pieces. I’ve taken a pocket watch, gutted it and built a scene that shows the terrors of the deep ocean!
The octopus is guarding his treasure chest, but Captain Nemo’s sub got too close and now the old wise octopus is forced to defend himself and his treasure. It’s not looking good for the crew of the Nautilus!
The scene is constructed of polymer clay. I used a clear epoxy for the wave (and added paint to it as needed). I used a mix of oil and acrylic paint on the clay to get the colors I wanted. This piece won an Honorable Mention at the Prairie Winds Gallery 2015 Miniature Show and tied for first place in Nebraska State Fair (Polymer Jewelry).
This piece is available for sale for $349.99 and can be purchased through my Etsy store:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/240681983/attack-on-the-nautilus-custom-pendent
See some of my other miniature artwork:“Je viens de la Casamance” (I am from The Casamance): on a recent trip to Senegal, this was the answer that I received roughly three quarters of the time when I asked staff members at hotels, guides, and people who approached me on the beach where they were from in Senegal. Throughout my ten days in the country, the word built up on aura of notoriety and awe in my mind – like something beautiful and dangerous, inaccessible yet desirable. The next words would usually inform me that the Casamance is the true heart of the country, where the luscious beauty of Senegal lies, and where people know how to have real fun. But the actual history of the Casamance region paints a different image from the one that I had built up in my mind based on local accounts.
The Casamance has long been a region in limbo, caught between worlds: today trapped between Senegal and The Gambia, it was subject to both French and Portuguese colonial efforts before the border was negotiated in 1888 between the French colony of Senegal and Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) to the south. The settlement resulted in Portugal losing possession of the Casamance, which was at the time the commercial hub of its colony. To this day, the region has preserved its local variant of West African Portuguese-based Creole, known as Ziguinchor, and the members of its deeply rooted Creole community carry Portuguese last names like Da Silva, Carvalho, and Fonseca. Ironically, interest in the Portuguese colonial heritage has been revived of late in order to solidify a distinct identity, particularly in Baixa (“lower”) Casamança. Such an identity is also aided by the presence of people from Bissau-Guinean, who have entered Senegal as expatriates, immigrants, and refugees fleeing the poverty and political instability that has affected Guinea-Buissau.
Unfortunately, the Casamance region has seldom been stable, its instability stemming from Senegal’s very independence. Indeed, Senegal’s first president, Leopold Sedar Senghor, allegedly promised the region’s leaders that if they joined Senegal for 20 years they could subsequently have their own state if they wanted it. When the government failed to follow through on the promise in 1980, street demonstrations in the Casamance capital, Zinguichor, turned violent. The main impetus behind the separatist drive is the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), created in 1947 as a political party, before turning to outright separatism in the 1980s. The MFDC gained widespread local popularity following brutal repression against demonstrators who were calling on officials to make good on Senghor’s promise.
Beyond these historical factors, the separatist movement also has economic and geographic origins. First, the Casamance region is the richest in the country by virtue of its lush vegetation and vast natural resources, which has earned it the title of national granary. Peanuts, Senegal’s main cash crop, are particularly important in the region. The exploitation of these riches, which often bypasses the local population, has fostered a sense of victimization among the Southerners, many of whom grieve the systematic plundering of their region for the benefit of other regions, particularly Dakar. Religious differences exacerbate such tensions. Whereas the vast majority of the Senegalese people are Muslims, many residents of the Casamance are Christians or animists. The prevailing sentiment in the region and among the locally dominant Diola (Jola) ethnic group is that they do not benefit sufficiently from their region’s wealth and that Dakar, the capital, reaps most of the profit that is rightfully theirs.
Another factor is the Casamance region’s geographical isolation from Senegal due to the existence of The Gambia. Indeed, the region is poorly connected to the rest of the country by a long, and often nearly impassable road that passes through the eastern Tambacounda region. It is possible, however, to travel from central Senegal to the Casamance by way of the sea or though the territory of the Gambia, but neither option is easy. As a result of such isolation, the Casamance sometimes seems cut off from the rest of the country, and the frustration caused by this alienation fuels a fierce desire among some of its inhabitants to free themselves from the rule of Dakar.
When I visited Senegal this past December, I was told how most Senegalese convoys get across The Gambia. The only way to go to the Casamance without taking a detour all around the Gambia, which would take days, is to cross the River Gambia itself. However, there is no bridge that would make this traversal easy. Indeed, the only current way to get across is a ferry, whose ownership was shifted from the Gambia Public Transport Corporation to the Port Authority in 2001. The authority is eager to maintain its monopoly, and reluctant to allow the construction of a competing bridge. As a result, trucks line up for up to 5 days to get across the river, generating a huge loss of efficiency and profitability, especially for trucks carrying perishables.
Although the Senegalese government has made some efforts at a bridge initiative, the Gambian ferry company has done everything within its power to prevent the implementation of this project. Recently however, The Gambia has paired with the Taiwanese government to enhance the ferry service, which has been highly hazardous. Taiwan is not the only East Asian country interested in Senegal and the Gambia. According to our guides, the Chinese are building soccer stadiums in all major Senegalese towns and cities, ostensibly ‘for free’ but actualy in exchange for fishing rights in the bountiful waters off the coast.
On top of the lack of accessibility, the Casamance faces a major problem in drug trafficking. Drug traffickers take advantage of the local isolation and instability to expand their business, turning the border that the Casamance shares with Guinea Bissau into a hub for the illicit trade. The rebel leaders therefore have a very profitable business in hand and are unlikely to accept anything less than a very favorable settlement. Unfortunately, the Senegalese government is seemingly unwilling to seek a resolution to this issue. While hundreds of Senegalese soldiers are present throughout the Casamance, they have made little headway against the rebellion, and there are growing concerns about human rights violations and the disabling of local economic development. Concrete negotiations with the separatists have not happened for many years. It now seems clear that neither party in really seeking to bring the other to the table for open discussion. Finally, there has been an unfortunate lack of media attention on this conflict. The Senegalese government has also failed to provide information. Indeed, since the inception of the conflcit, no concrete or official figures have been released regarding the number of victims. Some sources, however, claim that up to 5,000 people have lost their lives over the past several decades of fighting.
To add insult to injury, the death toll has been severely exacerbated by the lingering presence of landmines scattered across the region, which has also lead to the abandonment of many villages by former inhabitants. A reported 800 people have lost their lives due to mines since 1988, and the lack of action from the Senegalese government has meant that the demining work has largely been left up to a select group of NGOs. Although a few initiatives have been launched, such as the DDP “disarmament, demining, and ‘projects’” put forward by former President Wade, these peace initiatives have been largely unsuccessful. However, with a recent acceleration of violence, support for the separatist rebels has been dwindling among many locals. In an interview with the IRIN, Moussa Sagna, a trader and resident of Zinguinchor, explains: “The rebels must stop creating violence in the region; they must understand that it is their parents who have suffered now, for 30 years. They shouldn’t fight for the independence of Casamance and at the same time make people suffer in Casamance.”
If Senegal wants to experience genuine economic development in a near future, it will need to monbilize all the assets that are in its possession. However, it is doubtful this will happen in the absence of its potentially richest region. The Casamance not only has substantial natural resources, but also has great potential for tourism. There can be no question of the urgency for Senegal of the Casamance problem. Economic opportunities remain unrealized, the drug trafficking virus keeps spreading, and the death toll seems to have maintained a steady pace since the early 1980s. With Senegal’s newly instilled biometric visa regime and entry fee for tourists, as well as the discontinuation of the famous Paris-Dakar rally, tourism has experienced a serious hit over the past few years. The government will thus need to find another means to revive its economy, which has not had the same impressive growth rates that many African countries have experienced over the past few years.The BBC has announced that a number of websites, including BBC Food and Newsbeat, are to close as part of plans to save £15m.
The online News Magazine will also close but "long-form journalism" will continue in some form.
Local news indexes for more than 40 geographical areas in England will also cease to exist.
But the BBC will continue to offer a rolling Local Live service. The BBC's Travel website is also facing the axe.
Separately, plans are being considered to merge the News Channel with the BBC's international 24-hour television news service.
While BBC Food is to go, the commercial site, BBC Good Food, will continue.
But the planned end of the BBC Food website prompted an online petition, which has attracted more than 90,000 supporters.
The 11,000 existing recipes on the BBC Food website will not be searchable which could make them harder to find online unless you know the URL.
iWonder closure
"There's been a lot of interest in BBC recipes today," a BBC spokesperson said.
"We are glad that so many people care so much about all our content. But just to be clear, we have never said we'd delete all the recipes and nor will we.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chef Ken Hom: |
along with the West Bank, in the 1967 war. It dismantled settlements in Gaza and pulled troops out unilaterally in 2005.
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StumbleUpon What are these?The last time we took a look at a QNAP NAS, Windows Vista’s first service pack had come out a month earlier. So, we’re overdue on taking a look at another, but we’re in luck: The TS-269L is a great model to end our drought with.
As a “Home & SOHO” NAS, the TS-269L is designed with entertainment, productivity, file sharing, and of course, effective backups, in mind.
What helps set one NAS vendor apart from another nowadays isn’t just the hardware features, but software features. When Greg took a look at QNAP’s TS-109 those six years ago, its Web interface was about as generic as one could get. At the time, no one thought anything of it, but as with the Web itself, evolution happens.
Today, NAS vendors take their Web interfaces – and software – very seriously. Once that box is plopped under a desk, it’s the software that gets the user’s full attention, and it has to look good. It has to be intuitive. Across the biggest NAS vendors, I believe Synology and QNAP produce the most appealing interfaces. From a usability standpoint, I’d rank a lot of them about the same. From a feature standpoint, that can of course change based on the NAS itself, as well as the vendor’s app selection (an area that’s hard to conclude-upon, given most of them offer a lot of apps).
But enough of that – let’s talk about the TS-269L in particular. The bulk of the NAS’ exterior is protected with a taupe-colored aluminium shell, while the front of the unit is plastic. As you might have surmised, the “2” in TS-269L refers to the NAS’ two-bay design. For those who are in need of more storage – or a lot more storage – the TS-469L, TS-669L, or TS869L can take care of that problem.
We’ll take a tour of the TS-269L in a few moments, but for now, here’s a rundown of its specifications:
QNAP TS-269L 2-bay NAS – Hardware Processor Intel Atom D2550 ( 2C / 4T, 1MB L2 Cache, 1.86GHz) Memory 1GB (Expandable to 3GB) Ethernet 1Gbps x 2 Connectivity 2x USB 3.0 (Back)3x USB 2.0 (Front: 1, Back: 2)
1x eSATA (Back) Dimensions 5.91″ (H) x 4.02″ (W) x 8.5″ (D) Et cetera Status LED: LAN, USB, eSATA, Power, HDD1, HDD2
Weighs 1.74KG (No drives)
Idle Noise: 18.5dBA
Load Noise: 20.4dB (500GB HDDs )
Sleep Power: 16W
Load Power: 25W
Kensington Lock
Right off the bat, the thing that stands out most to me about the TS-269L is that it features a desktop-targeted Atom D2550 SoC. That chip’s 1.86GHz clock speed is nice, but what makes it better is the fact that it supports HyperThreading. That provides this NAS with four CPU threads to work with. 1GB of RAM is nice to see as well, especially since it can be expanded to 3GB.
In total, the TS-269L has five USB ports; four of which are located at the back, and one 2.0 which can be found in front. Also at the back is an eSATA port, and as expected, any of these can be used in conjunction with QNAP’s backup solution.
Like all high-end NAS boxes, the TS-269L boasts a huge amount of software and features – at best, I’m going to be able to cover just a small fraction. For a full look at the software capabilities, check here.
QNAP TS-269L 2-bay NAS – Software RAID Capabilities Single, JBOD, RAID 0, 1
RAID Recovery
Hot-swap
FIPS 140-2 256-bit AES Encryption
Thin & Thick Provisioning
SMART Support Network Dual Gigabit w/ Jumbo Frames
Fixed IP or Dynamic IP
IPv4 & IPv6
SMB/CIFS, HTTP(S), (S)FTP, Telnet, NFS and AFP Protocols
UPnP & Bonjour Discovery
Link Aggregation for Load Balance, Failover, 802.3ad, Balance-XOR Data Backup Real-time Remote Replication
USB One-touch Backup
QNAP Windows Software
Support for Apple Time Machine
Data Backup to Cloud Storage
Over the course of the time I’ve been using this NAS, it’s had its software updated on multiple occasions. A couple of weeks ago, I updated to the latest firmware and had to retake some screenshots due to tweaks that were made, and just this past week, I was provided with another firmware that required me to do the same. QNAP is constantly evolving its QTS interface, and it’s good to see. Across all of the firmware releases I’ve used, the most recent one is the best, but the differences are so subtle in some cases, it’d make for some boring reading.
It’s time for the hardware tour, and because I tend to like fronts better than backs, let’s start there.
While the design here kind of makes it look like this front part lifts off, it doesn’t (I’m referring to the notch to the top-left). On this front-left portion, four status LEDs can be found, along with a two buttons: Power and One-touch Backup. After One-touch Backup is configured on the NAS, it can be used to backup data off of the USB device, or vice versa.
Turning the NAS around, we can see four of the five USB ports available, as well as an eSATA. There’s also an HDMI port for those who wish to use the NAS as a media-streamer. One of the perks this higher-end NAS model brings is dual LAN ports; these can be aggregated, or used for individual connections.
After removing a couple of small screws, the top of the chassis can be slid away from the front and then pulled up. Beyond taking this shroud off, I didn’t dismantle further; I knew I’d never be able to get it back together again. Overall, the internal design is clean.
Here’s the opposite side, showing off the available DIMM slot. As mentioned earlier, this NAS can be expanded to have 3GB of RAM. As logic implies, that’d require a 2GB stick to be installed here, which QNAP itself sells for an absurd $159 on its official shop. The upside of getting the stick through QNAP means that it’s guaranteed to work, but so should a 2GB Corsair DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM at Newegg that costs $35.
Nonetheless, been wondering where the original stick is? Why, it’s right on the opposite side:
Most NAS boxes offer no-brainer hard drive installation, and I can confirm that the TS-269L did in fact allow me to install the drives with almost no brain function. Lift up on the handle, pull it out, install the hard drive, and plug it back in.
QNAP has included two Ethernet cables with the TS-269L, appropriate for what I’m sure are obvious reasons. Perhaps even more appropriate, it’s also included a power adapter.
Not pictured, other accessories included are: CD-ROM, quick-install guide, and screws for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives.
With that hardware tour behind us, let’s boot this thing up and check out its inner bits.Former NDP environment critic and Halifax MP Megan Leslie is returning to Ottawa — but not as an elected official this time.
Leslie says she has accepted a position as senior consultant on ocean governance with World Wildlife Fund Canada. In that role she'll cross party lines to further the organization's five-year plan with federal and provincial governments.
The job starts in a couple of weeks, she says.
"Yeah! I'm excited!" Leslie told CBC News on Wednesday. "Obviously, this is a non-partisan role. Or maybe the better language is a cross-partisan role."
Leslie, who was the NDP's former deputy leader, lost the Halifax riding to Liberal Andy Fillmore in October's federal election.
Her new job will require her to work out of Ottawa, British Columbia and Nova Scotia
"It's a different role for me, but you'd be amazed by how much that kind of conversation actually happens behind the scenes when you're an elected official. So, it's a role I'm quite comfortable with, trying to bring people to the table from different areas."
Leslie says it was WWF Canada CEO David Miller who "really sold" her on the job.
"He thought that my experience with legislation and my experience with how things work on the legislation scene and my ability to play nicely with other parties were all assets to the organization in terms of them accomplishing the goals they set out in their five-year strategic plan."
Community and conversation
It wasn't just WWF's conservation priorities that appealed to her, she says. The organization's history of working in equal parts with bureaucracy and community is what attracted her to the job.
"Everybody knows their name. But maybe more important to me, they're an organization that understand that if you are going to succeed in conservation or protecting nature you have to have community be part of that conversation."
The job focuses more on environmental policy than science, she says. Leslie cites the Marine Planning Partnership as a big reason for joining their team.
The partnership between British Columbia and 18 First Nations was signed in an effort to manage 102,000 square kilometres of coastline.
Leslie says the way WWF Canada participated in that agreement aligns with her political sensibilities.
"You have to work with First Nations communities and governments. And you have to work with local communities and you do have to work with industry," Leslie said.
"There are three oceans in Canada and I think that's a fantastic model for how we look at ocean management on all our coasts."With only 2 days left until the event, SBS has revealed that Song Ji Hyo will be the Lucky Princess counterpart to the five Lucky Boys!
On December 19th, the official Twitter account for SBS Gayo Daejeon with an update saying, “#2014SBS Music Awards D-2 Who are her Lucky Boys? Five main characters with all the love you can receive #SongJihyo #LuckyBoysxSongJihyo.” An update of Song Ji Hyo in character was posted with the update.
It is public knowledge that she can hold her own against the boys as demonstrated by her “Ace” title on the hit variety show Running Man. Song Ji Hyo has definitely proven that she’s no joke with multiple Running Man wins under her belt. The Lucky Boys and the Lucky Princess will be featured at the upcoming SBS Gayo Daejoon while the event’s MCs and have prepared their own special stages as well.
Meanwhile it was recently revealed that the dashing five Lucky Boys, CNBLUE’s Yonghwa, INFINITE’s L, WINNER’s Mino, 2PM’s Nichkhun, and B1A4’s Baro, have also enlisted fellow idols as their staff with ZE:A’s Kwanghee as their manager and M.I.B’s Kangnam as their stylist.
Are you excited to seeing how Song Ji Hyo handles the five Lucky Boys this weekend at SBS Gayo Daejoon?BP today announced that it has started up the Thunder Horse South Expansion project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico 11 months ahead of schedule and $150 million under budget.
The project is expected to boost production at the facility by an estimated 50,000 gross barrels of oil equivalent per day, further increasing output at one of the largest oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Thunder Horse South Expansion – along with our recent approval of the $9 billion Mad Dog Phase 2 platform -- demonstrates that the U.S. Gulf of Mexico remains a key part of our global portfolio today and for many years to come,” said BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley.
“This project also marks the first of several major upstream start-ups expected before the end of this year and a major step toward our goal of adding 800,000 barrels of new production by 2020,” he said. “These new projects, coupled with a series of recent agreements we’ve reached around the world, reflect the growing momentum across BP and clear progress in building a strong foundation for the future.”
The Thunder Horse South Expansion project adds a new subsea production system roughly two miles to the south of the existing Thunder Horse platform. The system is a collection point for wells connected to the Thunder Horse platform by two 11,000-foot flowlines installed on the seabed in late 2016.
The project was completed more than 15 percent below budget by relying on proven standardized equipment and technology rather than building customized components.
The first new well for the project tapped into the highest amount of hydrocarbon bearing sand seen to date at the Thunder Horse field, with drilling results confirming more than 500 feet of net pay. Planned for 2017, but brought online on December 8, 2016, the project demonstrates continued momentum for BP in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico where last year it started up a major water-injection project at Thunder Horse and approved the $9 billion Mad Dog Phase 2 project, expected to come online in late 2021.
Richard Morrison, regional president of BP’s Gulf of Mexico business, said: “The Thunder Horse South Expansion project, brought online ahead of schedule and under budget, proves that deepwater can be done in a cost-effective way, while keeping a relentless focus on safety. It also shows the effectiveness of our strategy in the Gulf, which is all about increasing production from within our existing asset base and large portfolio of undeveloped resources.”
Developed with partner ExxonMobil, the Thunder Horse platform sits in more than 6,000 feet of water and began production in June 2008. It has the capacity to handle 250,000 gross barrels of oil and 200 million gross cubic feet per day of natural gas. The facility continued to operate during construction and installation of the new subsea production and pipeline system.
In the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, BP operates four large production platforms — Thunder Horse, Atlantis, Mad Dog and Na Kika, and holds interests in four non-operated hubs — Mars, Olympus (OCPNF), Ursa and Great White.Yes, you will have to add it on steam once you 'll have the code.
The code will be delivered the 10th of february, or just a few days before for game pre-laod.
And btw, not sure how works the refund for digital products from S-Korea. Here in Europe we have commercial laws about this that grant us guaranted refund. (If you want a refund on steam, but I read somewhere that you don’t want ^^).
For pre-purchase games, you will not receive a key immediately at the
point of pre-purchase, rather you will receive the key on the day of
release (or a day or two beforehand dependant on the game publisher) We
cannot guarantee that you’ll be able to preload; however, we are in
constant talks with the publisher to ensure keys are released as early
as possible.
On release, your key will be displayed in your GMG account found here, and you will also receive an email with your game key once it has been issued.
You are welcome to a refund on your Pre-purchase as long as you meet the following criteria:
The game activation key (including any bonus or beta keys) has not yet been disclosed to you by email or webpage.The release of the game, or the pre-load is not within 48 hours of
the refund request. We are unable to process refunds 48 hours before a
game is due to be released or preload begins.If purchased through Paypal, refunds can not be processed after 60
days from purchase. After this, only a credit refund can be offered in
its place.Iraqi Forces Launch Offensive to Liberate Final ISIS Stronghold in Iraq
Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials said they welcome the commencement today of the Iraqi forces' offensive to liberate Qaim district from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Qaim is ISIS’ final stronghold in Iraq and approximately 1,500 ISIS fighters are estimated to remain in the immediate vicinity.
Iraqi forces are battle-hardened after their victories in Mosul, Tal Afar and Hawijah, and are a determined, professional force dedicated to ridding Iraq of ISIS, task force officials said.
The coalition provides Iraqi forces with training, equipment, advice, assistance, intelligence and precise air support. The coalition will continue to support Iraq’s government “as we recognize together the importance of a unified Iraq to the long-term security and prosperity of the Iraqi people,” officials said.
Rigorous coalition standards and extraordinary measures in the targeting process seek to protect noncombatants in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict and the principles of military necessity, humanity, proportionality and distinction, task force officials said.
Qaim sits in the Middle Euphrates River Valley on the Syrian border where it connects with the Syrian town of Abu Kamal. Prior to ISIS’ control of the city, Qaim district’s population was around 150,000. “We anticipate a significant return of residents to the district upon Iraq’s liberation of [Qaim],” officials said.
Iraq’s government and the Iraqi forces, with the support of the global coalition, have liberated more than 4.4 million Iraqis and reclaimed over 47,769 square kilometers, approximately 95 percent of land once held by ISIS. Much work remains to consolidate gains as operations continue to destroy ISIS’ remaining capabilities, task force officials said.In 1944, Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal, in his famous study An American Dilemma, unpacked the hypocrisy of Jim Crow segregation in a society based on liberty and equality.
The new PBS documentary American Denial picks up this decades-old question and asks it again: how in the world can a country that claims to cherish freedom and fairness treat black people so terribly?
Using Myrdal's work as an entry point, director Llewellyn ("Llew") Smith and producers Christine Herbes-Sommers and Kelly Thomson offer a new answer that's based on a modern, research-grounded understanding of how oppression works. The film makes the case that everything from the racialized police-involved violence that has captured the country's attention in recent months, to educational inequalities, economic disparities, and the incarceration crisis all have a common root: unconscious racism, also known as implicit bias. They pin the blame on a belief — so deeply entrenched that many of us aren't aware that we hold it — that white is better than black.
I had a conversation recently with Herbes-Sommers and Smith, who worked on the film for more than 5 years, about how the topic of unconscious racism has become even more timely since they began the project, and why it's so urgent that all Americans ask themselves two key questions: "Why do I think this?" and "What are the consequences"?
Jenée Desmond-Harris: What was your inspiration for making this film?
CHS: When it comes to talking about race and bias generally, white people don't want to feel guilty anymore, and black people don't want to feel angry anymore. For us, [the goal] was, what is a way for us to begin to probe the question in a way that everyone could embrace, as both personal and political? We all have biases, but how can we look at those in a way that allows us to change the destructive outcomes of those biases?
"White people don't want to feel guilty anymore and black people don't want to feel angry anymore"
LS: In terms of the nature of the film, we were also interested in using history as a way to begin to open up this conversation and a lens through which we could ask some very penetrating questions about how we create racial dynamics.
JDH: How does American Denial explain how implicit racial bias has influenced this country throughout history, and how it works today?
CHS: The narrative spine of the film is Gunnar Myrdal's 1,800-page, multivolume study on the Jim Crow South. He asks a very profound, very difficult question: how can a society that is so devoted to equality, justice, and equal opportunity both allow and enable a system of laws and practices that oppress a significant percentage of the population?
He alludes to idea that there is unconscious bias, but that's not what he identifies. Probably the best way we see unconscious bias in the film is through a test called the Implicit Association Test, which was developed by Mahzarin R. Banaji of Harvard.
And probably the most poignant sections of the film are the black doll/white doll tests of Kenneth and Mamie Clarke [conducted during the 1940s] and a modern iteration of the test in which the results are the same. Young children five, four, six years old, are given two dolls — a black doll and white doll, and the interrogator ask which doll is the nice doll, the smart doll, the dumb doll, the ugly doll, the pretty doll, and the results are horrible: a third of black children are identifying the white dolls as smart, good, healthy, clean, and successful. But when it comes to the question "What doll are you?" the children don't want to identify themselves as bad, stupid, ugly, et cetera, but they're not white. We see this internalized conundrum and the results of historical biases and practices.
LS: What's interesting about that test is it gets to the question of implicit biases — that even people of color can have biases against themselves and that gets internalized because we're all subjected to the same kinds of biases that devalue black skin and black life compared to white skin and white life.
The kind of bias the FBI Director James Corney is talking about when he's talking about police making assumptions about who's more likely to kill and who's not, that's not so different from the kind of bias that's being articulated in the doll study — in one place its being internalized and in one place its being executed in public action.
CHS: These biases are not neutral. They lead to arrests, stereotyping, mass incarceration... whole communities are being eviscerated by these biases in practice.
JDH: You mentioned arrests and incarceration. What areas outside criminal justice are useful to explore when thinking about implicit bias?
CHS: In the film, we see an extension of implicit bias test into the realm of medicine. A group of doctors are asked how they would prescribe certain blood pressure medications, and there's a huge correlation — blood pressure medication is given much less to black men than to white men with the same symptoms, when everything else is equal.
Another place you see it is in employment and hiring. Legions of studies indicate that identical resumes are treated differently once race is identified. Virtually every realm of human endeavor in US is colored one way or the other by a racial dynamic.
LS: Other research shows that black boys are viewed as older and less innocent than white boys [by teachers and police officers]. It's not that these people are consciously trying to do these things, but they're articulating what is in their unconscious and the unconscious associations they make... but of course these teachers wouldn't describe themselves as racist, and we wouldn't say they are bad people. We're all drinking the same water, and we're getting the same messages. How these are being articulated in our life is a question we're not asking enough.
JDH: Do you think the film's focus on implicit bias and your emphasis that it's something that affects everyone takes the question of blame out of the equation and makes it easier, or more palatable, for viewers to become open to thinking about modern-day racial inequality?
LS: It's a conversation we haven't tried to have in that way. We keep trying to have these winner-take-all conversations, and we keep winding up in the same place. What we are trying to do [with the film] is invite the viewers into the film to think about this for an hour in a way that is not about apportioning blame. It's about how are we all victimized by the destructive ideas we've internalized... and how that affects the institutions we depend on.
"It's about how are we all victimized by the destructive ideas we've internalized... and how that affects the institutions we depend on"
CHS: Rather than a conversation about blame, it's about collective individual responsibility — to invite viewers to look at themselves without fear, knowing that other people might be doing the same thing. It's a collective exercise in self-examination.
LS: Banaji acknowledges in the film that even when she takes her own test, she can't associate good with black as quickly as she associates good with white.
C: And she's appalled by that!
JDH: There are a lot of people who really resent any discussions of race and racism, and who become very defensive and insist that people who discuss race are creating an issue where there isn't one. Could confessions like Banaji's and those of the other experts in the film, and the emphasis that racial bias is something that affects all of us, be disarming to these types of viewers?
CHS: Overall, we tried to tell the story in a really gentle, inviting, complicated way. Black and white scholars are implicating themselves and each other in this imminently human project of cultivating biases and reevaluating them for their destructive consequences.
[This type of inquiry] always leads to the question, "Why do I think this?" Not just why is there a bias, but "Why don't I want to talk about this anymore?" You end up peeling back layers of resistance and denial — that's an extremely courageous process for human beings to engage in, and we hope that film invites viewers to do that.
LS: I keep thinking about the people who are afraid to have these kinds of conversations, and there's this feeling that if we don't talk about it, it might go away. But we have to talk about it because there are lives at stake. There are people dying in encounters with police. There are African-Americans locked away, in a society that incarcerates people at a higher rates than in any other society in the history of the world. There are real problems that we have to address going forward, and it would be wonderful if these tragedies would lead to a moment where we start to really address some of these issues in ways that we haven't.
"When was the last time you saw the words "implicit bias" come out of the mouth of an FBI director?"
CHS: And we think the moment may be closer upon us... when was the last time you saw the words "implicit bias" come out of the mouth of an FBI director?
But our capacity for denial as individuals and a culture is rapacious — a lot of it is self-protective, but in the end a lot of the stuff that is self-protective is destructive to others and to society as a whole.
LS: One thing you could say to these people who say they're really sick of this is this is something to explore, even though you may not want to do it. Gently cajole people to actually take the [Implicit Association] test, and see how they feel when they get the results. You don't necessarily have to believe them, but it's something to think about.
JDH: What is the fundamental question the film is trying to get viewers to answer? Is it "Why do I think this?"
LS: It's that, and "Why do I do this?" And "What consequences does it have that these things are being thought by me, and that these thoughts are shared with people who are friends, strangers, and people in institutions we depend on for democracy and justice?"
CHS: Right. It starts with the "why" question and then next question is, "What are the consequences when it's not just me who feels it and acts on it? Because biases are nothing if they have no consequences. If they don't have consequences, then they're just personal opinions and preferences.
JDH: A lot of people think that biases are just harmless and personal.
CHS: But they're not. They're not at all.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
American Denial premieres on Independent Lens on Monday, February 23, 2015, 10:00-11:00 PM ET (check local listings) on PBS.
WATCH: 'The racism of the US justice system in 10 charts'The good news for the Los Angeles Dodgers is that Zack Greinke’s elbow ligaments and tendons are fine. The bad news is Greinke himself doesn’t know when he’ll be able to pitch again.
The right-hander has been dealing with inflammation in his pitching elbow and was given an injection of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to settle down the elbow. In my experience, inflammation is a telltale sign of loose bodies -- perhaps a bone spur or something similar. But when I pressed Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, he told me there were no loose bodies or a bone spur in the back of Greinke’s elbow.
The Dodgers are hoping the PRP injection helps Greinke as it did his teammate Chad Billingsley, who is pain-free and throwing great. Greinke didn’t want to talk about the elbow, only saying that he was going to follow the direction of the training staff. To him, the best-case scenario might be pitching the second game of the season, but he definitely won't be able to throw 120 pitches by then even if all goes well.
Greinke is emblematic of the Dodgers right now: lots of star power with lots of questions. The star power sends expectations through the roof -- expectations that don’t match the team’s actual ability level and health. A good season has the Dodgers winning 90 games and a playoff berth, but the fact is they simply aren’t better than clubs such as the Giants, Nationals, Reds and Tigers.EAST LANSING -- Michigan State University is forming a task force to "guide the process of transitioning" the university to a tobacco-free campus, a top school official announced Wednesday.
Provost June Pierce Youatt said in a statement that the Office of the University Physician would lead the task force. The goal of the task force is to guide campus and community leaders in creating a tobacco-free policy at MSU, which could be voted on by Michigan State University trustees later on this year.
"The rationale for this move rests largely on a fundamental concern for the health of the entire campus community," Youatt said.
"Moving toward a tobacco-free policy aligns with our efforts to create the healthiest academic and workplace environment possible at MSU," she added.
A petition to ban smoking on campus started by a MSU junior last year received more than 1,500 signatures. A survey done by the MSU Anti-Cancer Society shows about one-in-four students at the East Lansing university smokes.
A survey by the MSU Office of Survey Research reported about 70 percent of students never smoked cigarettes and 20 percent of students hadn't smoked in the previous month.
There are more than 1,400 smoke-free college campuses in the U.S. and Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana and Oklahoma all have bans on smoking on the campuses of public universities. Iowa banned smoking at both public and private colleges.
In Michigan, all of the University of Michigan campuses -- in Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint -- ban smoking. Central Michigan University, Michigan Technological University, Hope College, Spring Arbor University and 15 community colleges all have smoking bans on campus as well.
Michigan State does currently have a smoke-free policy inside of university buildings. Smoking is banned in any "closed space, regardless of location, except specifically designated private residential space and hotel rooms. Smoking will not be permitted near exits and entrances of buildings, except at a reasonable distance or unless otherwise designated."
Cigarettes and tobacco cannot be sold on campus, per Michigan State policy.
Anyone with concerns or questions about the task force's work can contact the University Physician's office at uphys@msu.edu.
Kyle Feldscher is the Capitol education and MSU reporter for MLive Media Group. Reach him via email at kylefeldscher@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter at @Kyle_Feldscher. Read more stories here.A day after seizing the Mukalla airport and a military base on the outskirts, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has taken over a “massive weapons depot” in the city, securing a large quantity of arms.
The depot was one of the few things still being guarded by the Yemeni military in the southeastern city, which has been facing an AQAP offensive for a solid week. The troops were quickly routed, however, leaving AQAP with the depot.
Mukalla is far outside of AQAP’s usual stronghold in the southwest, but since the fighting has escalated between various factions in the Yemeni military, the Houthis, and the Saudi airstrikes, AQAP seems to be left more or less alone to expand its own possessions.
As the Saudis continue to escalate their war, it seems increasingly likely that AQAP will be the primary beneficiaries of the conflict, as it has distracted the Houthis, the only faction really resisting their expansion, and the Saudis seem to only be focused on Shi’ite factions, and not AQAP.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzWhat confounds me about the Bain Capital/Romney story’s current iteration is that there’s such a long, uncontested record describing Romney’s ties to the company through 2002. In the Boston Globe’s investigative biography The Real Romney, we get about half a page describing how the company’s founder exited in 1999. The Olympics job came through. Bain Capital was worried that a Mitt-less company would fall apart. A hasty deal was struck to keep him on top of the firm’s paperwork while he was on leave.
So who gave people the idea that Romney had completely severed ties with Bain in February 1999? The Romney campaign! On May 14, bristling at the first Obama/Bain attacks, the Romney campaign (via spokeswoman Andrea Saul) sent out a kitchen-sink debunking statement. The argument, made VERY LOUDLY in bolded sentences, was that Romney “left Bain Capital” in 1999. The sentences in question:
The Bankruptcy And Layoffs At GS Industries All Occurred AFTER Governor Romney Had Left Bain Capital in February 1999.
After Agreeing To Head The Salt Lake Olympic Committee In February 1999, Romney Said He Will Leave Running Day-Today Operations To Bain’s Executive Committee.
Fact Checkers Have Stated That The Facts “Exonerate Romney” From Allegations Relating To Any Bain Deals In The Early 2000s.
You can see how people got the idea that Romney was out, see-ya, exit-state-left when it came to Bain. But here’s the weird part. The articles being cited clearly said that Romney had left the company but would provide some advice when it was needed. Here, for example, is the article referred to in the second bullet point.
“Romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions. But he will leave running day-to-day operations to Bain’s executive committee.” (Greg Gatlin, “Romney Looks To Restore Olympic Pride,” The Boston Herald, 2/12/99)
When you go back over the explanations the Romney campaign used to beat back Obama/Priorities USA attacks, you see them fumbling the 1999/2002 distinction like a retired NFL-er with busted knees. In late May, for example, Ed Gillespie (a Romney adviser and surrogate) gave Romney credit for all the jobs created by Bain over its entire history – not stopping in 1999, not even stopping in 2002. Every time Romney’s been hit over something that happened after February 1999, it claimed more definitively than it could prove that he had nothing to do with that stuff.
This is a truly bizarre scandal. At base, we’re seeing a candidate get shamed because he took a (paid) leave of absence in order to successfully turn around the Olympics. But the way he described that decision in his 2006 book Turnaround made it clear – he kept up some Bain Capital ties. “When I talked to my partners at Bain Capital,” he wrote, “I opined that it wouldn’t make sense for me to come back to the company at the end of my tenture at SLOC as I had following my [1994] campaign.” They disagreed and came to a different arrangement – not as much control as he’d retained in 1994, but not zero influence.
If only the campaign had explained this clearly. The reason that Romney’s having trouble escaping this language trap is that it was built and baited by hasty “war room” responses.
UPDATE: I can’t put the entire Herald piece here, for rights reasons, but here’s a longer quote.
Asked why he decided to leave his post at the helm of Boston venture capital firm Bain Capital Inc., Romney replied: “My son Josh asked that same question … I think I’m either blessed or cursed with an overactive public service gland. Now and then it compels me to do things that don’t make sense on an accounting basis.”
He described the Olympic games as “one of the very few powerful symbols of peace on the world stage.”
Romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions. But he will leave running day-to-day operations to Bain’s executive committee.MTV's 'Real World: Paris' Star 'Ace' Busted for DUI
Clyde 'Ace' Amerson from MTV's 'Real World: Paris' Arrested for DUI
EXCLUSIVE
The Southern frat boy from MTV's "The Real World: Paris" was arrested this week for DUI.
Law enforcement sources tell us Clyde Amerson -- known as Ace on the 2003 reality show -- was arrested and booked Wednesday morning for DUI in Carrollton, Georgia after allegedly rear-ending someone on the road.
Cops say they responded to the accident -- in which nobody was injured -- and felt Ace was under the influence since he appeared drowsy, slurred his speech and had trouble with his balance. Our law enforcement sources say he admitted taking Benadryl and Rx pills.
We're told police drew blood, and toxicology tests are pending.
Ace was taken into custody and charged with 2 misdemeanors -- 1 count of DUI and |
whenever you cross our collective path.
These are among the guidelines released Wednesday by the U.K.’s national tourism agency, Visit Britain, advising natives on how to deal with visitors during the 2012 London Olympics.
And for the love of God, don’t touch him (Indians. And just about everyone else).
“However,” the guide notes drily. “(T)his may be different in Quebec.”
Other British insights into our national character: We’re on time. We like shopping and nature. We shake hands and use first names.
Most importantly, we are not Americans. This is so vital that Visit Britain repeats the idea twice.
“Many in Britain treat Canadians as Americans even though they are quite different from their American neighbours,” the guide advises, possibly with pen trembling over paper. “Canadian may take offence if labeled as American.”
Canada’s the easy one. Some of the other directives are as inscrutable as Aramaic. Parse this piece of advice about Argentineans.
“Don’t pour wine (for an Argentinean). The whole process has a number of social taboos and unless you understand them you could insult someone. For example, pouring wine backwards into a glass indicates hostility.”
Taboos? As in, forbidden fruit? Is this how Argentineans hit on each other? And how, exactly, do you pour wine “backwards”?
“What? What?!” says Daniel Karlin when told of this advice. Karlin is the founder of a Buenos Aires-based wine club called Anuva Wines. He’s lived there. His wife, Lourdes, is Argentinean.
“That’s bizarre,” said Karlin. “I’ve never heard of such a rule. I’ve poured wine for literally hundreds, thousands of Argentines. And not one has ever made a comment about any strange or uniquely Argentine etiquette with respect to pouring wine.”
Well, then. This certainly casts other Visit Britain tidbits in a different light.
Do I really have to ask a Japanese person if he needs help three times before he will accept?
Is it true that New Zealanders don’t tip?
Is it really wrong to call a Korean a “guy”?
Do Russians truly think that meat is “more prestigious” than fish?
Maybe not. Or maybe Daniel Karlin has thousands of enemies in Argentina he doesn’t know about.
Here’s some advice, Britain. Stick to your strengths – a brisk handshake and an impenetrable cloak of ennui.
And stop touching me.
EXCERPT FROM VISIT BRITAIN BROCHURE
Section on Canadian tourists from Visit Britain brochure “Delivering a first class welcome”
CANADA
Social practices – not laws – govern many types of behaviour in Canada. Some traditions are well established and are politely but firmly enforced.
For example:
• Lining up, or queuing: People normally line up or queue according to the principle of ‘first-come, first-served.’ They will be angry if you push ahead in a line-up instead of waiting your turn.
• Not smoking in private homes: Most Canadians do not smoke.
• When you are in people’s homes, you should always ask their permission to smoke. However this may be different in Quebec.
• Being on time: You should always arrive on time. People who are often late may be fired from their jobs or suspended from school. Many Canadians will not wait more than 10-15 minutes for someone at a business meeting. For social events, it is expected that you will arrive within half an hour of the stated time.
• Respect for the environment: Canadians respect the natural environment and expect people to avoid littering.
• Bargaining: Bargaining for a better price is not common in Canada, but there are some exceptions. People who sell things privately may also bargain.
• Smart shopping: Stores compete on price with one another to attract customers. Note: the price marked on goods in stores does not include taxes, which add from 7-15% to the cost of an item, depending on the province.
• Shaking hands: It is customary that you always shake hands at a first-time meeting and always in business situations.
• First names: Canadians are always on a first name basis; especially in social situations and informal business environments.
• Not Americans: The Canadian visitor to Britain is not an American.Trouble started earlier in the night, when Narang scolded two men on a motorcycle, one of them identified by the police as a 23-year-old youth named Naseer, who brushed past his son when the 8-year-old boy ran outside to retrieve a cricket ball that had rolled on to a bylane. The men allegedly threatened the doctor with dire consequences and fled the spot. They returned 10 minutes later with a heavily-armed group, determined to teach him a lesson.
On Thursday night, a mob carrying iron rods descended on the home of a 40-year-old dentist in West Delhi's Vikaspuri and dragged him out of his house as his horrified son and wife watched helplessly. As the men rained blows on Dr Pankaj Narang, his family members appealed to their neighbours for help. But by the time the police arrived on the scene, it was already too late. Dr Narang had succumbed to his injuries.
According to the Indian Express, Narang had tried calling the police control room in the intervening minutes before the assault, but found the line busy. He then decided to go to the Janakpuri District Centre, where PCR vans are normally stationed. Not finding a single van, Narang returned home to find that a mob had already gathered outside his house and was pelting stones.
According to reports, as the men, armed with hockey sticks and bats, assaulted him, Narang ran around the neighbourhood pleading for help, and even apologised for his part in the initial scuffle, but they did not stop until he died.
Narang's cousin, Sanjeev Popli, a surgeon with a private hospital in the capital, told Express that the dentist "had multiple fractures in his skull, his eyes were swollen, he was bleeding from his nose. Before he could be shifted to the operation theatre, he suffered a cardiac attack". A case of murder, attempt to murder, trespassing and rioting has been registered and eight persons arrested.
Social media erupted with shock and anger at the gruesome death of the doctor. Some Twitter users pointed out that the incident, initially thought as a clear case of road rage, was actually premeditated murder.
This wasn't some snap where these people just lashed out. They came *back* for this guy and killed him. Ugh. — Rohan (@mojorojo) March 26, 2016
Soon the hashtags #DrPankajLynched and #JusticeForDrNarang started trending. "#DentistMurder in Delhi has communal undertones, media has pre-judged perpetrators to be juvenile before tests. How come? Act of protection?" tweeted BJP's Nupur Sharma. But Sharma was not alone in her accusation that the murder had a communal angle to it.
If the Delhi dentist had been a Muslim and attackers Hindus, newspapers would be inserting religion in headlines. Also, Kejriwal is not BJP. — Tufail Ahmad (@tufailelif) March 25, 2016
MSM passing-off #DrPankajLynched as road-rage justified not covering Malda as it was too far & Dadri closeby. Like Hyd was on way to Gurgaon — Nupur Sharma (@NupurSharmaBJP) March 25, 2016
#DentistMurder in Delhi has communal undertones, media has pre-judged perpetrators to be juvenile before tests. How come? Act of protection? — Nupur Sharma (@NupurSharmaBJP) March 25, 2016
Hindu lives don’t matter to the media. Hindu beaten to death by mob only “road rage”. Hurt horses can get better coverage! #DrPankajLynched — Dr David Frawley (@davidfrawleyved) March 25, 2016
With no evidence, church attacks given communal spin, Dadri turns beef killing. But #DrPankajLynched by'mob'. If that's not sick, what is — Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) March 25, 2016
We are a country wher a student suicide can b "Institutional Murder" but planned murder of a man will be termed "road rage" #DrPankajLynched — Revolutionary Monk (@RevolutionMonk) March 25, 2016
Twitter was awash with rumours that Bangladeshis upset with India’s win in the T20 World Cup match were behind the murder, even though police dismissed the claim. The rumours allegedly stemmed from the assumption that the men who assaulted Narang were Bangladeshi Muslim residents of a slum right behind his house.
The silence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about the incident was questioned by his political rivals who levelled accusation of divisive, vote bank politics against him.
Wat kejriwal has turned Delhi into? It's a result of his divisive politics. He had all the time to go to Dadri but not when #DrPankajLynched — Satish Upadhyay (@upadhyaysbjp) March 25, 2016
Is it true that @arvindkejriwal who got maudlin over Dadri is silent on vikaspuri cause apart from victim being Hindu culprits are AAPiye? — Adi (@reviewero) March 25, 2016
As the debate around Narang's death remained polarised, a senior police official finally took to Twitter to share factual details about those arrested. Monika Bhardwaj, additional deputy commissioner of police (west), asserted that out of nine persons arrested, five were Hindus and said the accused Muslims were from Uttar Pradesh and not Bangladesh. She ruled out the communal angle and appealed for calm.
Out of 9 accused person 5 r Hindu.At the moment of first scuffle, out of 2, 1 was Hindu.The Muslim accused r residents of UP,not Bangladesh — Monika Bhardwaj (@manabhardwaj) March 25, 2016
4 juveniles among 9 arrested for murder of vikaspuri doctor. No religious angle at all, as rumoured by some. We appeal u to maintain peace. — Monika Bhardwaj (@manabhardwaj) March 25, 2016
Bhardwaj's tweet restored some order, prompting Kejriwal, who is mostly at loggerheads with the Delhi Police, to tweet in her praise.
Proud of such police officers for bringing truth out and thwarting attempts by some people to give it communal color https://t.co/npIYSDN2DU — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 26, 2016
The clarification led columnist Tarek Fatah to retract his earlier tweet about a "Muslim mob".
CORRECTION: My earlier tweet that the attackers were a Muslim mob is not factual. Here is official police report https://t.co/viIubWBUam — Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) March 26, 2016
A sensible police officer speaking. It's a shocking crime but avoid coloured rumours to turn it in a communal riot https://t.co/6GZxwN4GvT — Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) March 26, 2016
While there is no communal angle, but there is no doubt about getting #JusticeForDrNarangpic.twitter.com/CSUu4i5Vhb — Ankit Lal (@AnkitLal) March 26, 2016
While the police has a lot of answering to do for failing in timely intervention that could have saved Narang's life, Bhardwaj's tweets are unlikely to stem the flow of divisive comments from handles that insist that migrant Muslims assume Hindu names to fit in, implying that the crime could have been committed by an all-Muslim crowd.
don't get carried away by names of murderers, its normal that many muslims keep Hindu names #JusticeForDrNarang — nahush jain (@jainnahush) March 26, 2016
"Friends and neighbours of Dr Narang met me today and requested police protection for family and police patrolling in area. Spoke to LG, who immediately agreed. They also advised me to visit the family after a few days as family was in shock right now," tweeted Kejriwal.
As social commentators raise the Dadri incident to draw a parallel to the Narang case, questioning why the former was slammed as an incident of communal violence while the latter is not, they would do well to remember the vastly different triggers surrounding both.
Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by a mob outside his home on suspicion of eating beef. The police have enough documented evidence by now to support the claim that the rumours that led to the lynching of Akhlaq were of a communal nature, with many people present in the mob who knew the Muslim man. In Narang's case, initial police reports suggest that quarrel was part of an incident of road rage that soon took a sinister turn when the accused returned with premeditated intention of causing harm. There were both Hindus and Muslims present in the mob that beat Narang.
While the family needs empathy and privacy during their moment of grief now, the onus lies squarely with the police to prevent any further incidents, provide them with security and bring the guilty to justice.Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/8/2015 (1290 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
In time for guaranteed annual income Aug. 11, Noralou Roos and Evelyn Forget made the case for eliminating poverty and reducing health-care costs by introducing a national guaranteed annual income. They estimated a bare-bones program would cost $17 billion and a Cadillac version $58 billion. In either case, the net cost would be lower, once additional tax revenues and savings to health and social programs were factored in.
In addition to reducing poverty, introducing a GAI provides the opportunity to simplify the tax system and to make it fairer, with no increase in taxation rates. We could achieve these goals by eliminating most non-refundable tax credits and using the additional tax revenues generated to finance a single refundable tax credit that would be based on income. This single refundable tax credit would provide a GAI, in the form of a negative income tax.
In Manitoba, $1.23 billion in provincial income tax revenue could be generated by eliminating the following non-refundable and refundable tax credits: basic, age, married and married equivalent, caregiver and infirm dependants, disability, private pension income, fitness, Manitoba family tax benefit, education property tax credit, seniors’ tax credit, homeowners school tax credit and the personal/cost of living tax credit.
With this additional tax revenue, one could then finance a refundable tax credit that provided a single adult a maximum annual benefit of $6,000 per year. This benefit would be reduced as other income increased, disappearing when annual income reached $38,000. For those with a disability or infirm dependents, the maximum value of the benefit would be increased by an additional $1,000. The value of the maximum benefit would be adjusted according to Statistics Canada’s family equivalency scale, such that a family of two, four and six persons would receive a maximum benefit of $8,485, $12,000 and $14,697, respectively. The refundable tax credit would disappear once total family income reached 214 per cent of the market basket measure of poverty line for Winnipeg ($76,045 for a family of four).As refugees flee the brutal chaos in Syria, their plight has prompted a lot of talk about the Jews who fled Germany in the Nazi era. Sometimes the people who raise the topic are highlighting the parallels; other times they're trying to draw distinctions. But one similarity between the situations hasn't gotten as much attention as it should. Both crises fed the fears of foreign infiltration that have long lurked within American culture.
In the late 1930s and early '40s, Americans saw Nazi agents everywhere. In August of 1940—more than a year before Pearl Harbor—Gallup's pollsters knocked on people's doors and asked, "Without mentioning any names, do you think there are fifth columnists in this community?" Forty-eight percent said yes, some of their neighbors were probably secret agents; just 26 percent said no. Those suspicions often extended to the refugee population. The Saturday Evening Post told its readers that Nazis "disguised as refugees" were working around the world as "spies, fifth columnists, propagandists or secret commercial agents." Similar stories appeared in such organs as Reader's Digest and American Magazine, with the latter running a feature that bore the calm, collected headline "Hitler's Slave Spies in America."
The idea in that piece was that the agents among the refugees didn't want to do Hitler's bidding. They simply had no choice, because otherwise their relatives back home would be in danger—an approach the article called a "blitzkreig of blackmail." This theory was endorsed by no less than President Franklin Roosevelt, who said at a press conference that refugees ("especially Jewish refugees") could be pressed into Nazi service with the words "we are frightfully sorry, but your old father and mother will be taken out and shot."
Those worries turned out to be overblown. In Insidious Foes: The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front, the historian Francis MacDonnell concludes that "Axis operations in the United States never amounted to much, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation easily countered the 'Trojan Horse' activity that did exist....Though the Germans practiced espionage, sabotage, and subversion in United States, their efforts were modest and almost uniformly unsuccessful." In American Refugee Policy and European Jewry, 1933–1945, Richard Breitman and Alan Kraut point out that "fewer than one-half of one percent of all refugees arriving from Nazi-Soviet territory in 1940" fell under enough suspicion to be brought in for questioning; just a fraction of those were indicted, and "most of those were violation of immigration regulations rather than espionage."
Furthermore, one of the best defenses against infiltration turned out to be the refugees themselves. After the American ambassador to France, William Bullitt, declared that "More than one-half the spies captured doing actual military spy work against the French army were refugees from Germany," the anti-fascist writer Heinz Pol noted not merely that the number was far smaller than that, but that the handful of pseudo-refugees who did exist were frequently caught with the assistance of refugee organizations, who after all were especially eager to work against Hitler. (Significantly, Pol's argument appeared in The Nation, which at that point in its history was very susceptible to fears of foreign subversion. The magazine ran a regular feature, called "Within Our Gates," devoted to exposing alleged fifth-column activities; one installment argued that "every German alien in the country" except the refugees and obvious dissidents "must be presumed to be doing everything within his power to undermine the United States.")
But fear carried the day. "Instead of adding reasonable screening precautions to the existing immigration procedures," the Holocaust historian Rafael Medoff writes in Blowing the Whistle on Genocide, "the State Department exaggerated the threat, and Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long used it as a pretext to cut in half the use of the already small quotas" of Jews permitted into the country. That was in 1940; in 1941 Long tightened the number yet again. By 1944, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau would write a blistering memo complaining that State Department officials had "not only failed to use the Governmental machinery at their disposal to rescue Jews from Hitler, but have even gone so far as to use this Government machinery to prevent the rescue of these Jews." Medoff argues that the State Department was rife with anti-Semitism at the time, and that this fed its eagerness to choke off the flow.
Today, of course, the fear is that some of the Syrians seeking refuge in America are actually terrorists working for ISIS. More than half of the nation's governors have announced that they don't want the refugees settling in their states, and at least one Republican presidential contender—Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—has suggested that Washington impose a religious test on the would-be immigrants, letting in the Christians and keeping out the Muslims. One governor who is also a Republican presidential contender, New Jersey's Chris Christie, says he would bar even "orphans under five," suggesting that perhaps he was paying too much attention to last week's chatter about Baby Hitler.
The opponents of Syrian immigration will surely argue that ISIS terrorists are not obliged to follow the same strategies as Nazi spies or saboteurs; the fact one fear was overblown, they'll say, does not prove another anxiety is also mistaken. And it is certainly true that some agents of one sort or another have hidden themselves among a flood of exiles. During the Mariel boatlift of 1980, the Cuban government undeniably inserted some spies among the people fleeing to the United States. (Though it's not completely clear who came out ahead in that operation. American investigators identified several spies, put them under surveillance, and in the process uncovered at least one Cuban agent who had set up shop in the U.S. before the boatlift.)
Yet the fact remains that refugees receive the toughest screening of any immigrant group coming to these shores, with extra layers of scrutiny and a process that usually takes more than a year. There are, bluntly, much easier ways to get a terrorist into America. But if you don't want more Arabs in America anyway, you can scare people into backing your agenda by fanning those fears of infiltration. Much like those State Department flunkies who didn't like Jews.Traditional Chinese art works of the past and present have become increasingly valuable “commodities” for investors of both the East and West. Each year, the Spring and Fall sales of the three auction houses – Sotheby's and Christie’s and the China Guardian – are flooded with gallery owners, artists, buyers and sellers. They are never surprised by the soaring prices and total turnover. Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) and Qi Baishi (1864-1957) are the most frequently heard names in any auction houses. They are like Jackson Pollock, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso in western businessmen’s eyes, whose works sell for millions of dollars. For example, The painting "Lotus and Mandarin Ducks” by Zhang Daqian has just set the new record for Zhang at Southeby’s for 191 million Hong Kong dollars (over 24 million USD) this May.
Apart from appreciation and investment, it might be an alien concept for laymen outside the Chinese system that one of the most essential functions of art works is corruption. The concept of “elegant bribery”, or Yahui in Chinese, refers to the action and process of a systematic corruption that only involves cultural products and artefacts: antiques, rare plants, paintings and calligraphy as a medium of the crime. Art works, in particular, have become no more than tools of corruptions among officials, merchants, art dealers and sometimes even artists.
The history of elegant bribery can be traced back to ancient Chinese dynasties, and arguably, it has been an intractable problem since the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Consider the case of the prime minister Yan Song (1480-1567) and his son Yan Shifan (1513-1565): they were notorious for corruption in general, and they were known to have received elegant bribes in particular. Eventually, the emperor confiscated all of their properties, and over 6000 pieces of invaluable calligraphy and paintings were found— most of them were bribes of their subordinates.
In this article, I am going to systematically lay out why and how Chinese people use art works as a medium of corruption. There are thousands of creative ways to accomplish this kind of corruption without the possibility of being caught. I will only focus on the most common ways of bribery, using Chinese paintings, via both auction houses and galleries.
The Reasons behind Elegant Bribery
There are at least three important reasons for people to “elegantly” bribe officials in exchange of contract deals, promotions and all sorts of advantages. First, comparing to other types of corruption, elegant bribery demonstrates the “taste” of both the bribers and bribees. Bribes such as stocks and apartments are good investments, but bribes of art works make them “look cool”. The bribed officials possess their very own private collections of certain famous painters or calligraphy works of ancient dynasties. The image of “private art collector” is a perfect symbol for one’s socio-economic status and, more importantly, vanity. Therefore, it turns out to be a norm that the bribers should know the “tastes” of their targeted bribees— what he/she likes— may it be Qi Baishi’s signature paintings of “prawns”, Xu Beihong’s (1895-1953) famous “galloping horses” in ink, or an ivory snuff bottle, carved with the 18 Buddhas at the mid-Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)?
Second, although the prices for some of the cultural treasures fluctuate over time, there are masterpieces and precious antiques that guarantee unreasonable profit. Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010), one of the most influential Chinese painters in the late 20th century, produces works that ensure skyrocketing prices increase, from approximately 12500 USD per square feet in 2003 to 62500 USD per square feet in 2010 (despite the fact that he has been repeatedly accused of plagiarizing Jackson Pollock). The nominal return of these “commodities” is way more promising than a well-furnished flat or the devaluating US fiat money.
Third, elegant bribery is much harder to trace and prosecute by the police than the other kinds of corruption, mainly because the corruption process of such kind is incredibly discreet. There are no receipts and records of transactions for any of these antiques. In addition, the procedures ensure that the bribing money is whitened. Moreover, there is an open secret that gives “elegant bribery” a competitive edge over other forms of bribery: the treasures do not have to be real. Consequently, the very nature of elegant bribery creates rooms for perfect excuses for the corrupted officials. Even if they get caught, they can either say: 1) they do not know that the paintings are real; 2) the art works are fake and they do not have any nominal values. In fact, in some cases, even the artwork owners lie by saying that the real paintings are fake in order to escape from legal punishment.
Manufacturing Fakes
Even the most famous painters/scholars in history created fake paintings. Ironically, nowadays, the Chinese regard this action as a virtue rather than a vice. They believe that only the true painters can be the “masters of imitation”. For instance, before being famous, Zhang Daqian used to forge paintings to make a living. As a forger, he created plenty of ancient paintings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Sooner or later, some of these forged paintings were collected by western museums including the British Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He recognized those and he was proud of his mischief. After his death, scholars and the public seldom challenge him as a forger. Instead, the common accepted view towards Zhang’s behaviour is that he is a courageous painter who dared to “challenge the past painters” by imitating them. Through mimicking ancient classic painters’ works, Zhang has successfully become one of them. However, this view does not solve the moral problems of Zhang for having been a forger.
Ironically, there are many people who forge Zhang Daqian’s paintings (and other famous ones) since the late 20th century. Manufacturing fake paintings is a secret business as well as a “one-stop service”. Discreet “factories” have been set up for creating fakes. For example, in order to forge a coloured landscape painting of Zhang Daqian (3ft x 6ft), the CEO of the forgery factory has to hire unknown but trustworthy art students, artists, or craftsmen who specialize who are proficient in certain techniques of the painting. The division of labour is extremely intensive; hypothetically, the forgery can possibly be divided into seven tasks:
Painting trees Painting mountains and rivers (which could involve certain painting techniques different from those of painting trees) Using colours; the coloured landscaping of Zhang’s are the most profitable style Forging poems and signatures Forging Zhang’s seals using the right kind of seal paste; the seals are engraved in exact, since the seals’ details can be found in many of his catalogues Framing the art work “Repackaging” the fake painting as if it were worn-out over the years.
All of these tasks require enormous practice, energy, skills and a little bit of luck so as to avoid being caught. Informants have repeatedly told me that the fakes are increasingly hard, if not impossible, to detect. With the help of modern technology, the forgers try their very best to study and utilize what they have learnt for years. In some senses, these serious people are printing forged money of the Republic.
The Process of Elegant Bribery: Four Scenarios:
As I have mentioned before, there are countless ways to bribe “elegantly” and “legitimately”. In the following, I will present four most common scenarios down:
The First Scenario:
The corrupted official can sell a fake painting at any rigged gallery. After coordinating with the official, the briber will go to the designated gallery and buy it at the agreed price plus the commission of the gallery owner. All of the three parties know that the painting is fake, but eventually they are all benefited. This fake painting can be reused and it can go through another bribery circulation of other “elegant” buyers and sellers.
The Second Scenario:
The briber puts a real and expensive painting at the gallery. The gallery marks down the price as if it were a fake painting. The official buys it as if he has the greatest bargain on earth. Sooner or later, the official can resell it at the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.
The Third Scenario:
The briber visits the official and gives him/her a real or fake painting as a present. Three days later, a seemingly unrelated person knocks the door of the official and buys that particular painting at an unreasonably high price. This buyer is actually a trusted subordinate of the briber, and, by doing so, the whole process does not involve the gallery whose owner will certainly ask for a commission.
The Fourth Scenario:
There are rigged auction houses all over China and they become the most suitable places for elegant corruption. The briber, first of all, gets a fake painting either from a gallery or a fake painting factory. Then, s/he provides relevant document proof of scholars and experts to take care of the problem of authenticity. These scholars and experts are paid to confirm the authenticity of this fake painting. They falsify every historical detail, evidence of painting style and scientific verification of the materials used. The forged painting is then given to the official as a gift and is auctioned at a very high price. Eventually, there is always someone coming from nowhere who wins the bid. Again, the bidder is a trusted person of the briber. These auction houses get hush money before the whole corruption process is completed.
Conclusion: Corruption with Chinese Characteristics
Every society manifests that it is a crime to bribe. However, when it is done repeatedly and discretely on a daily basis with offenders getting away with it, people might no longer be sure whether it is morally acceptable to do so. Corruption is the hidden golden rule of China. Bribers are very eager to satisfy the desire of their targeted bosses. They would all look at the issue neutrally by stating that it is an inevitable “transaction cost”. In this sense, art may mean something else in China. They may no longer be individual expressions of someone’s concepts or feelings. They may no longer be the vital essence of human beings that bring impacts to society at large. For any businessmen, art is no more than a profitable commodity that feeds their families. However, as for the elegant bribers and bribees, art is the most convenient “invisible cloak” that helps them survive at the era of Chinese corruption.PHOENIX -- For the second straight year, the number 14 hovered over the Big 12 conference during its spring meetings.
Gone were questions and speculation about a 14-team league, a possible outcome of the Big 12's expansion inquiry, which was conducted last spring and summer. Instead, the league dealt with a number it could not augment: 14 draft picks.
The Big 12 produced 14 picks in last month's NFL draft, its lowest total since it formed in 1996. The league had 21 fewer picks than any other Power 5 conference. Even after adjusting for the number of conference members, the Big 12 (1.4 picks per school) averaged more than one pick less than any other Power 5 league team, including 2.39 picks per school less than the SEC, which led all conferences with 53 selections.
The league's previous low had been 17 picks in 2014. Yet in 2016, the Big 12 produced 26 selections, tied with the ACC, but with an average of 1.86 picks per school, it was better than the ACC's average of 1.73. The 26 picks were also nearly better than the Pac-12's 32 selections.
The reduced total, coming after the Big 12's second absence from the College Football Playoff in the event's three-year lifespan, spotlights potential vulnerabilities in the league. For the most part, though, Big 12 coaches aren't concerned.
"You have cycles. You have waves," Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said. "We're obviously down when it comes to top, top prospects. We have good players, but maybe not the elite level that some of the other leagues have. I don't think it's panic mode yet."
West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen was more direct: "I don't think there's anything to worry about. I'm a little tired of [the media] making it a big deal."
Running back D'Onta Foreman, a third-round choice by the Houston Texans, was the only Texas Longhorn player selected in this year's NFL draft. James Gregg/Austin American-Statesman via AP
Several Big 12 coaches threw out their totals of undrafted free agents this year or overall NFL draft-pick production. Some pointed to the future and predicted bigger outputs.
Others looked at the draft as a whole and selection totals as misleading gauges on their program or their conference.
"It's not our job to be a farm league," new Texas coach Tom Herman said. "It's like I tell kids in recruiting. It doesn't matter if you play at a 1A high school or a 6A high school. If you're good enough to play at Texas, we'll find you. The same thing goes true for college. If you're good enough to play in the NFL, they're going find you.... It's irrelevant what conference you played in. It's irrelevant what school you went to. It's, did God bless you with enough talent?"
Added TCU's Gary Patterson: "I don't go out and recruit saying, 'This guy, the only reason I'm going to take him is he fits the NFL model.'"
While it's easy to make a snap judgment on the Big 12's draft total, it's important to dissect the number. The Big 12 often fights the perception that its style of play -- particularly the prolific, fast-paced offenses around much of the league -- doesn't generate enough appealing NFL prospects.
A counter to the claim is Patrick Mahomes, the Texas Tech quarterback selected No. 10 overall. Kansas City traded up to pick Mahomes, who put up unfathomable numbers for the offensive-minded Red Raiders.
"That's the most unconventional offense in the country," said Holgorsen, who runs a related system. "You take a quarterback No. 10 out of that offense, it speaks volumes about that kid. He was the scariest player I've coached against in the last three years."
When Kingsbury talked with NFL coaches and scouts about Mahomes and former Texas Tech quarterback Davis Webb, a third-round pick, he "never heard any negative talk about our conference or the lack of prospects." NFL scouts evaluate players first, not teams or leagues, and while they notice trends in the Big 12, they don't see any competitive disadvantage for the league.
Still, the Big 12 shouldn't be worry-free after the draft. The league had only two linemen selected, in the sixth and seventh rounds. Patterson, while pointing out that TCU alone produced two offensive line draft picks in 2016 (the league had five), noted that the Big 12 recruiting footprint doesn't produce as many "big bodies" as other areas.
TCU recently broadened its recruiting strategy, and in February the Horned Frogs signed line-of-scrimmage players from Florida, Alaska, Washington and California. Next month, the school will participate in satellite camps in California.
Texas produced only one draft pick, running back D'Onta Foreman, for the second consecutive year. The Longhorns had five players selected in 2015 but none in 2014.
Asked if Texas' struggles are the problem for the Big 12, Herman replied, "A problem is that Texas needs to be good. It's not the problem. The conference is always better when Texas is winning a whole bunch of games."
The league also is better when it keeps its top homegrown players. Myles Garrett, the No. 1 overall pick in last month's draft, grew up in the heart of Big 12 territory in Arlington, Texas, but attended Texas A&M. The No. 3 and No. 6 picks, Solomon Thomas and Jamal Adams, also are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area but attended Stanford and LSU. The draft had 24 players from Texas, the fourth-highest total among states, but only seven played for Big 12 teams.
While recruiting rankings aren't fail-safe indicators, the Big 12 has had only one team among ESPN's top 20 classes the past two seasons.
If there is a concern among Big 12 coaches, albeit a small one, it's that the league's paltry draft output will be used against them on the trail.
"As a conference, they're going to say, 'If you want to go to the NFL, don't go to the Big 12,'" Kingsbury said. "But to me |
on fathers that are, in many ways, inconsistent with Utah code."
"There's been a very choreographed effort to sweep birth fathers and others under the rug," Hutchins said.
And some of those birth fathers were present and vocal.
"I do have a voice, and it needs to be heard," said Jake Strickland, a father currently fighting for custody of his child.
"There's two sides to every story," added Bobby Nevares, a man in the same situation as Strickland, "but they didn't want to hear the father's side."
Hutchins said the council didn't really want to hear his side either and accused him of having an agenda.
"If you want to call that ‘an agenda,' then absolutely, call it an agenda. And that agenda is to see that we have a balanced approach in Utah to how we're doing adoptions," Hutchins said.
It's clear this father's right is a hot-button issue among the council. Today's meeting was certainly tense as each side traded accusations.
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Related StoriesImage caption Having received his driving licence, Niko Alm now wants to get pastafarianism officially recognised
An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".
Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.
Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.
Later a police spokesman explained that the licence was issued because Mr Alm's face was fully visible in the photo.
"The photo was not approved on religious grounds. The only criterion for photos in driving licence applications is that the whole face must be visible," said Manfred Reinthaler, a police spokesman in Vienna.
He was speaking on Wednesday, after Austrian media had first reported Mr Alm's reason for wearing the pasta strainer.
After receiving his application the Austrian authorities had required him to obtain a doctor's certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive.
According to Mr Reinthaler, "the licence has been ready since October 2009 - it was not collected, that's all there is to it".
The idea came into Mr Alm's noodle three years ago as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point.
A self-confessed atheist, Mr Alm says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted, US-based faith whose members call themselves pastafarians.
Image caption A medical interview established the self-styled "pastafarian" was mentally fit to drive
The group's website states that "the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma".
In response to pressure for American schools to teach the theory known as intelligent design, which some Christians favour as an alternative to natural selection, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wrote to the Kansas School Board asking for the pastafarian version of intelligent design to be taught to schoolchildren.
Straining credulity
In the same spirit, Mr Alm's pastafarian-style application for a driving licence was a response to the Austrian recognition of confessional headgear in official photographs.
The licence took three years to come through and, according to Mr Alm, he was asked to submit to a medical interview to check on his mental fitness to drive but - straining credulity - his efforts have finally paid off.
It is the police who issue driving licences in Austria, and they have duly issued a laminated card showing Mr Alm in his unorthodox item of religious headgear.
When asked for his reaction to Mr Reinthaler's comments, Mr Alm told the broadcaster ORF: "I didn't know I was guilty of not collecting it. That doesn't alter the fact that it still took nearly a year [to be issued]".
The next step, Mr Alm told the Austrian news agency APA, is to apply to the Austrian authorities for pastafarianism to become an officially recognised faith.File photo taken in 2016 shows workers removing air ducts made from aluminum sheet metal in Beijing, China. (Photo: Ng Han Guan, AP)
U.S. aluminum producers filed an antidumping complaint against China on Thursday, charging they’ve suffered “material injury” from cheap imports that benefited from Chinese government subsidies.
The Aluminum Association, which filed the complaint with U.S. regulators on behalf of its members, said that Chinese aluminum foils were sold at deep discounts in the U.S. during the second half of 2016, ranging from 38% to more than 134% less than fair value.
The complaint asks the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to consider anti-dumping duties, reflecting the discount rates, to correct what the group says is “unfair pricing.”
“Today’s action marks the first time the Aluminum Association has filed unfair trade cases on behalf of its members in its nearly 85-year history,” said Heidi Brock, CEO of the Aluminum Association. “This unprecedented action reflects both the intensive injury being suffered by U.S. aluminum foil producers and also our commitment to ensuring that trade laws are enforced to create a level playing field for domestic producers.”
In trying to preserve economic growth and stable employment, China has maintained massive excess capacity for producing steel, glass, cement, paper, solar panels and other industrial products. Its foreign investments and infrastructure projects abroad have helped to absorb some of its overcapacity. But the government has employed subsidies to help exporters looking to unload unused goods.
Chinese aluminum foil producers, whose goods are used in a variety of consumer and industrial applications, benefit from 27 government subsidy programs, the complaint said.
The Trump administration has been vocal about being more aggressive in trade deals with China and other countries, including using tariffs and seeking more equitable financial terms for imports.
During the Obama administration's final days, the U.S. Trade Representative filed an enforcement complaint with the World Trade Organization over China's aluminum subsidies.
The association, based in Arlington, Va., has been working with aluminum producers for “a couple of years” to study the issue of overcapacity of industrial goods in China and to prepare its case, said Matt Meenan, a spokesman for the association. “We worked with the previous administration on a number of aspects, but we’re also working with the current administration as well,” he said.
Twelve years ago, U.S. production accounted for about 84% of domestic aluminum foil demand, the Aluminum Association said. With imports flooding the market, it has dropped to 69%, resulting in more manufacturers shedding jobs and closing factories. Chinese imports now make up about 22% of the U.S. market for aluminum foil and account for about 71% of the total U.S. aluminum foil imports.
“The reduction in domestic sales volume, as well as depression of U.S. prices by subject imports, has resulted in lost sales, decreased employment, and financial deterioration,” the complaint said.
Chinese aluminum producers, which make more than half the world’s aluminum, produced a new high of 2.95 million tons in the month ending in mid-February, according to data from the International Aluminum Institute in London.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2mtxVnfElectronic cigarettes (EC) are a developing technology aiming to provide nicotine without the harmful chemicals produced by tobacco combustion (Etter 2012). EC have the potential to generate a substantial public health benefit if there is a switch from smoking to EC use on a population scale (Public Health England 2015; RCoP 2016). So far, however, only a minority of smokers who try EC progress to the full switch from smoking to vaping (Douptcheva et al. 2013; Kralikova et al. 2013; Farsalinos et al. 2016). This suggests that the currently available EC products do not yet match combustible tobacco closely enough in providing smokers with what they want from their cigarettes. The nicotine delivery profile is likely to play a major role (Caldwell et al. 2012; McRobbie et al. 2010).
The parameters of nicotine delivery that are likely to be important for smokers include the overall nicotine dose and the speed of nicotine absorption (Schroeder and Hoffman 2014). Several studies compared nicotine yields from cigarettes and from EC using puffing machines (Cobb et al. 2010; Farsalinos et al. 2013; Goniewicz et al. 2014; Goniewicz et al. 2013; McAuley et al. 2012; Pellegrino et al. 2012; Trehy et al. 2011; Westenberger 2009). Earlier EC were shown to deliver much less nicotine than cigarettes, but recent devices used at high power setting have improved nicotine delivery (Farsalinos et al. 2016). Machine yields, however, may not correspond with the actual delivery of nicotine into the blood stream of users and the method provides no information about the speed with which nicotine is absorbed. Some studies measured levels of cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, in vapers, but this is more difficult to interpret because it is not known what proportion of cotinine is derived from nicotine that has been swallowed; and cotinine levels also provide no data on speed of nicotine delivery.
Some data comparing nicotine concentrations in blood samples from smokers and vapers exist as well. In smokers with no experience of EC use, first generation ‘cig-a-like’ EC delivered nicotine very slowly and at low concentrations (Bullen et al. 2010; Vansickel and Eissenberg 2012a; Vansickel et al. 2012b) suggesting buccal rather than pulmonary absorption. There is some evidence that experience with EC improves nicotine intake (Hajek et al. 2014) and so studies with experienced vapers using their EC ad-lib are probably more informative. In a study with experienced vapers who were, however, still prescribed a puffing schedule, nicotine concentrations reached 7 ng/ml 10 min after a 10-puff bout (Dawkins and Corcoran 2014). For comparison, plasma nicotine concentrations from a single cigarette average 15–20 ng/ml (Benowitz et al. 2006). Ad-lib vaping for an hour generated nicotine concentrations of up to 14 ng/ml in one study (Dawkins and Corcoran 2014) and 16 ng/ml in another (Vansickel and Eissenberg 2012a). In smokers with no experience with EC and a fairly intensive puffing schedule prescribed, 5 min after initiation, venous blood nicotine levels achieved with 8, 18 and 36 mg liquid were 9, 13 and 17 ng/ml (Lopez et al. 2015) while in an identical experiment with experienced vapers, the levels were 18, 26 and 36 ng/ml (Ramôa et al. 2015).
Apart from user experience and puffing characteristics, the type of EC is likely to play a major role. More advanced refillable EC products with stronger batteries delivered nicotine more efficiently than a ‘cig-a-like’ EC in one study (Farsalinos et al. 2014). Cigarettes typically reach time of maximal nicotine concentration (T max ) within a few minutes (Digard et al. 2013) while early first-generation EC achieved T max after 20 min (Bullen et al. 2010). Experienced vapers using their own EC, mostly tank systems, though again with a prescribed puffing schedule, averaged maximum plasma nicotine concentration (C max ) of only 8 ng/ml, but the T max was 5 min (St Helen et al. 2015). Even higher levels were achieved in a recent study where experienced vapers used an advanced vaping device with 24 mg/ml e-liquid (44 ng/ml after 1 h) (Dawkins et al. 2016).
Up to now, little is known about differences in nicotine delivery between individual EC brands. Among nicotine replacement treatments, those that deliver nicotine faster are more likely to be used long-term (Hajek et al. 2007; Sutherland et al. 1992). It is likely that compared to EC with low and slow nicotine delivery, devices with a faster and higher nicotine delivery will appeal to smokers more and will have a better potential to replace cigarettes and assist with smoking cessation. Other EC characteristics such as taste, ease of use, puff resistance, vapour volume and handling characteristics (and of course cost, as well as product marketing) are likely to be important too, but it can be expected that the nicotine delivery profile will be paramount. One sign of this is that nicotine containing EC dominate the market with nicotine-free models hardly used despite being otherwise equivalent and widely available (Etter 2012). Nicotine delivery, however, may need to fit into a relatively narrow range at both ends. Very high nicotine concentration liquids are also rarely used.
EC technology is evolving and market forces are likely to steer product development to features that appeal to smokers and increase the rate of adoption, but the process could be slow. Data are needed that monitor pharmacokinetic (PK) characteristics of different EC brands to provide information that could guide smokers faced with the wide range of different EC products, inform the choice of EC brands for studies of the potential of EC in smoking cessation, and guide further product development.
In the first study of this type, we tested PK profiles of eight common EC brands, together with conventional cigarettes and with vapers’ own devices. We also adjusted the common methodology in this field to our particular aim. Most studies assessing nicotine intake from alternative nicotine delivery products take the first post-baseline sample 5 min after the initial nicotine intake. We started 2 min after the first puff and followed the changes in nicotine absorption in 2-min intervals to allow for more accurate comparison with smoking and to assess whether speed of nicotine absorption suggest a buccal or a much faster pulmonary route. We also asked experienced vapers to use each device after overnight abstinence ad lib. EC studies up to now have typically used prescribed puffing schedules that do not allow for individual adjustments smokers make when using different products and may not correspond to ‘real-life’ levels of nicotine that vapers obtain from vaping.Share. HBO's hit is coming to digital download later this month. HBO's hit is coming to digital download later this month.
Game of Thrones' seventh season will be coming to Blu-ray and DVD this holiday season, with digital downloads available later this month.
HBO will release Game of Thrones: Season 7 on December 12 for Blu-ray and DVD and available for digital download on September 25, IGN can exclusively reveal.
First, take an exclusive look at the Conquest & Rebellion: An Animated History of the Seven Kingdoms feature, a standalone disc available only for a limited time in the season 7 Blu-ray and DVD release below:
Exit Theatre Mode
Find out more about Conquest & Rebellion, as well as the other Blu-ray and DVD version bonuses below:
Conquest & Rebellion: An Animated History of the Seven Kingdoms — A 45-minute, never-before-seen extension of the Clio Award-winning History & Lore features included on previous individual Blu-ray season releases will be included for a limited time with the Blu-ray and DVD set. Cast members Pilou Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger), Conleth Hill (Varys), Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen), and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) narrate an animated series focusing on Aegon Targaryen’s attempts to conquer the Seven Kingdoms, written by show writer Dave Hill.
— A 45-minute, never-before-seen extension of the Clio Award-winning History & Lore features included on previous individual Blu-ray season releases will be included for a limited time with the Blu-ray and DVD set. Cast members Pilou Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger), Conleth Hill (Varys), Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen), and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) narrate an animated series focusing on Aegon Targaryen’s attempts to conquer the Seven Kingdoms, written by show writer Dave Hill. From Imagination to Reality: Inside the Art Department-Extensive — This two-part featurette details production designer Deborah Riley and her art department's work on the show, dissecting the process behind the creation of this season’s incredible new sets, including Dragonstone, Casterly Rock, Highgarden, the Dragonpit, and more.
— This two-part featurette details production designer Deborah Riley and her art department's work on the show, dissecting the process behind the creation of this season’s incredible new sets, including Dragonstone, Casterly Rock, Highgarden, the Dragonpit, and more. Fire & Steel: Creating the Invasion of Westeros — This behind-the-scenes feature dives into the season's biggest moments via interviews with the cast and crew.
This behind-the-scenes feature dives into the season's biggest moments via interviews with the cast and crew. Audio Commentaries — Each episode will feature commentaries with various cast and crew members, including David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Jacob Anderson, Gwendoline Christie, Liam Cunningham, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, and more.
The Blu-ray release will include seven new animated pieces that give the history and background of notable season 7 locations and storylines, such as The Dragonpit, Highgarden, Prophecies of the Known World, the Rains of Castamere, and more. The series is narrated by members of the cast like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aidan Gillen, and more.
The Blu-ray will also feature exclusive in-episode guides, offering information about characters and locations on screen.
Additionally, the digital download package will feature the bonus "Creating the North and Beyond," a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Season 7, Episode 6's massive battle beyond The Wall.
For IGN's latest thoughts on Game of Thrones, make sure to also read IGN's review of Season 7 and check out the latest episode of IGN's Game of Thrones show, Dragons on the Wall, for a deep dive into the last season.
And for more on Season 7, find out how the cast supported each other in The Dragonpit, listen to Game of Thrones' Bran answer nine of our most burning questions and discuss a deleted scene between Sansa and Arya. Game of Thrones' finale director also discussed the fate of certain characters on The Wall following the finale, as well as what Tyrion's suspicious look was all about in the finale.
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Looking for a new show to binge now that Game of Thrones is over this season? Check out IGN's list of suggested shows to watch while you wait for the next Game of Thrones season.
If you're curious about how the books and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels have diverged read up on the author's latest comments about how many characters dead in the show will still be alive in his next book, The Winds of Winter. And for our best guesses on who those characters are, check out the gallery below.
Game of Thrones: Which Dead TV Characters are Still Alive in Winds of Winter? 10+ IMAGES Fullscreen Image Artboard 3 Copy Artboard 3 ESC 01 OF 20 STANNIS BARATHEON - By the end of Season 5, Stannis' quest to claim the Iron Throne had led him to utter ruin and after failing to capture Winterfell he found himself meeting the lethal end of Brienne's Oathkeeper. In the books, Stannis is still up at Castle Black, plotting his war against the Boltons while making deals with the Iron Bank to secure 20 thousand more soldiers. 01 OF 20 STANNIS BARATHEON - By the end of Season 5, Stannis' quest to claim the Iron Throne had led him to utter ruin and after failing to capture Winterfell he found himself meeting the lethal end of Brienne's Oathkeeper. In the books, Stannis is still up at Castle Black, plotting his war against the Boltons while making deals with the Iron Bank to secure 20 thousand more soldiers. Game of Thrones: Which Dead TV Characters are Still Alive in Winds of Winter? Download Image Captions ESC
Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush.Just as Sweden recently expelled one of China’s diplomats, the Asian nation returned in kind by expelling a Swedish diplomat and apparently also blocking online news site The Local from millions of Chinese web-surfers. China is known to block websites the government deems too controversial, and it appears The Local is its latest victim.
The site, which labels itself “Sweden’s News in English,” ran a story in late June about Sweden’s expulsion of the Chinese diplomat. It is believed that this story is the cause of the ban. The article focused on allegations that one of China’s diplomats was spying on political refugees who live in Sweden, according to The Local.
An Internet user living in China has reported that The Local appears to be the only Swedish news site currently being blocked by the government. Known as the Golden Shield Project, or the Great Firewall of China, the Chinese government began controlling Internet access in 2003 via this agency, whose sole mission is to deny access to offensive websites.
One of Sweden’s more vocal libertarian bloggers, Johan Norberg, has also been repeatedly banned from posting in China by the government agency. “I have been to China and have even met a person who works with Internet control there. As I understand it, they have some Swedish staff who keep a check on these things,” Norberg told The Local.In 2006 the Bureau of Justice Statistics published a Special Report covering crime statistics over 1990-2002. Here are some of its conclusions.
If you believe the U.S. Department of Justice and the Census Bureau, blacks committed about 8.8 times more violent felonies per capita than non-Hispanic whites did over 1990-2002, and Hispanics committed about 6.5 times more.
Forty-one percent of violent felons were black, non-Hispanic, 30% were Hispanic, and 26% were white, non-Hispanic. Blacks (46%) comprised a higher percentage of murderers than Hispanics (27%) or whites (23%). Whites(37%) and blacks(35%)accounted for higher percentages of rapists than Hispanics (23%). Blacks accounted for 54% of robbers, twice the percentage of Hispanics (27%)and about 3 times that of whites (17%). Blacks (39%) accounted for about two-fifths of those convicted of felony assault, compared to about a third who were Hispanic (32%), and a fourth who were white (26%).
As of the 2000 U.S. Census, non-Hispanic whites made up 70.4% of the population, non-Hispanic blacks 12.6%, and Hispanics 12.5%. Here is a table for easier comparison.
Percentages of Various Populations in 2000
US Violent Felons Murderers Rapists Robbers Felony Assault White, non-Hispanic 70.4 26 23 37 17 26 Black, non-Hispanic 12.6 41 46 35 54 39 Hispanic 12.5 30 27 23 27 32
Even a quick scan of this table shows that both blacks and Hispanics committed crimes in greater proportions than their populations. If we convert these numbers to per capita rates, normalized to the white, non-Hispanic rate, we can compare apples to apples.
Per Capita Crime Rates in 2000, Compared to Non-Hispanic Whites
Violent Felons Murderers Rapists Robbers Felony Assault Black, non-Hispanic 8.8 11.2 5.3 17.7 8.4 Hispanic 6.5 6.6 3.5 8.9 6.9
That is, non-Hispanic blacks committed 8.8 times more violent felonies per capita than non-Hispanic whites, etc.
Look at murders, for example. In 2000 there were about 16,000 murders in the U.S. Non-Hispanic whites committed 23% of them, or about 3,680. Since there were 198.2 million non-Hispanic whites in the U.S. then, the murder rate for non-Hispanic whites was 1.86 (per 100,000).
Similarly, the rate for non-Hispanic blacks was 20.8, and the rate for Hispanics was 12.2.
For international comparisons, the homicide rates in 2000 were 1.7 in the U.K., 20.0 in Namibia, and 10.3 in Mexico. (The rate was 5.5 in the U.S.)
You can look it up, all of it.
Hat tip: Dean Weingarten.
Also see Illegal Aliens Murder at a Much Higher Rate Than US Citizens Do and Murder Most Swedish.
Randall Hoven can be reached at randallhoven.com or, when not on sabbatical with the Sweet Meteor of Death, on Twitter.The CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA discussed the company’s new local headquarters, life in his new hometown of Brookhaven, and self-driving cars at a Sandy Springs Perimeter Chamber of Commerce lunch Oct. 11 at the Westin Atlanta Perimeter North hotel.
Dietmar Exler, who became the luxury car-maker’s USA CEO on Jan. 1, said the company’s “culture…changed drastically” as a result of hiring 300 new employees locally after moving last year from New Jersey to Perimeter Center.
Many of those new employees are millennials from outside the company or even the auto industry, and they have a more collaborative mindset. That’s one reason, Exler said, that the company’s new headquarters under construction in Sandy Springs has “small ‘me’ space and a lot of ‘we’ space.”
“Don’t underestimate, if you bring 300 young people in…the energy and the passion they bring,” Exler said in a conversation with Jim Fitzpatrick, CEO of the Sandy Springs-based CBT Automotive Network.
For employees moving down from New Jersey or elsewhere, metro Atlanta’s rush-hour traffic is proving to be a culture shock, Exler said. During a question-and-answer period, one attendee said she lives in a townhome complex a block from MBUSA’s new headquarters at Abernathy and Barfield roads and that residents are “seeing a lot of people interested in purchasing our homes.” She asked whether they are MBUSA employees.
Exler said that is possible because many employees are finding the local commute to MBUSA’s temporary headquarters in Dunwoody to be worse than expected. Some are looking to move “in close proximity” to the Sandy Springs headquarters, he said.
Exler said he is dealing with his own relatively short commute from Brookhaven, but gave no sign of moving closer to the office.
“I love Brookhaven,” he said after the lunch, adding that he lives in the Ashford-Dunwoody Road corridor.
Exler is originally from Austria and most recently lived in the Detroit area. During the lunch conversation, he said he got a taste of Southern hospitality on his first day living in Brookhaven. The neighbors came and “invited me to the birthday party of a guy down the street,” he said, adding that he and his wife immediately attended, bringing a bottle of wine as a gift.
MBUSA’s new headquarters is set to open in early 2018 and will stand alongside a new housing development from the company Ashton Woods. While MBUSA was welcomed by Sandy Springs, the overall redevelopment of the heavily wooded former Glenridge estate and demolition of a historic mansion across Abernathy was intensely controversial.
“You probably all know we bought that piece of land that was wooded, and to build the headquarters, we had to cut down some trees,” Exler said.
He said Trees Atlanta reviewed the headquarters site for any significant old trees and found none. The timber from some trees has been donated to Camp Southern Ground, a Fayetteville summer camp for children with various emotional, social or behavioral issues that was founded by country musician Zac Brown. MBUSA is also replanting some trees, he said.
While awaiting the new headquarters, MBUSA is temporarily based in an office building on Ashford-Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody. Exler said it is a good location, but compared it to renting an apartment versus buying or building a house. Dunwoody Mayor Denis Shortal, in the question period, praised MBUSA as a “good corporate neighbor” and said the company is welcome to return.
The move is not MBUSA’s only transition. Former CEO Steve Cannon, who also spoke to the chamber almost exactly a year ago, resigned in December 2015 to lead the company that owns the Atlanta Falcons and the new downtown football stadium for which MBUSA bought naming rights. Exler said he remains close to Cannon and consults him for advice.
Exler also discussed the future of self-driving and electric vehicles.
He predicted that fully autonomous, or self-driving, cars could be making highway trips within a decade, but that autopilot driving on side streets will remain a longer challenge. He said that MBUSA vehicles already have some “autonomous features” that detect when the car is veering out of a lane or about to hit a car in front of it. But a fully self-driving car has “some technical pitfalls, and then there’s human behavior.”
A vehicle detecting lanes on a snow-covered road is one technical issue, but “the engineers will figure it out,” he said. The human factor is the bigger challenge in such situations as bumper-to-bumper traffic. Such driving is technically illegal, so cars can’t be programmed to do it automatically, and other drivers would cut into the gaps anyway, Exler predicted.
“The only question is, are you going to go nuts first, or the guy behind you? Who’s screaming first?” he said.
As for electric vehicles, MBUSA will release its first such model two years from now, and will have a line of 10 models by 2025, Exler said. The push is driven by government mileage regulations, he said, adding that market leader Tesla is still losing money on car sales due to battery costs.
Asked by Sandy Springs City Councilmember John Paulson about millennial drivers, Exler said they currently are buying cars later in life. While millennials are stereotyped as living car-free in cities, Exler said that appears to be a temporary economic trend, with more people of that generation moving into traditional suburbs and driving.Seated on stage at the front of a packed high school theatre in Toronto this month, Brian Topp—a prominent contender in the race to be the next leader of the NDP—is told he has 60 seconds to introduce himself. Despite being some 400 km from Quebec, he opens in French, earning his first applause of the evening. Switching to English, he delivers a greeting-card sermon to the faithful. “This was Jack Layton’s town,” he says. “And he loved this town and we know why. It’s because it’s diverse and it’s cosmopolitan and it’s progressive, which is everything that Stephen Harper and his pet mayor don’t like about Toronto.” The swat at Rob Ford draws laughter and applause.
He enthuses then about everything New Democrats can do to build a “more equal” city and country, and finishes with a defiant slap at any suggestion the NDP must change fundamentally to succeed. “We don’t have to become Liberals to win,” he declares. The crowd bursts into applause for a third time.
But however meticulous the phrasing and however receptive the audience, he does not always wear a look of perfect relaxation and his voice does not quite boom. So if, two months from the leadership vote, there is little doubt that Brian Topp knows the right words, the only questions are whether he can look and sound the part.
Eight candidates remain, but consensus wisdom has the winner emerging from a lead pack that includes Topp, Thomas Mulcair, Peggy Nash and Paul Dewar. There is no obvious front-runner among them, and each is held back by one or two crucial questions. Topp, a highly regarded political strategist and adviser, must demonstrate that a perennial behind-the-scenes operator can learn to be the face and voice of the party. Of the experience so far, he is only positive. “It is nothing but fun,” he says. “It is gloriously liberating. Just being able to talk for yourself. I love it.”
A key figure in the NDP’s rise over the last decade, Topp was also one of Layton’s closest advisers (Topp was one of those who helped the late NDP leader draft his last letter). Born in Longueuil, Que., to a francophone mother and anglophone father, the 51-year-old is fluently bilingual. After joining the NDP in the mid-1980s, he helped Phil Edmonston become the first New Democrat ever elected in the province of Quebec in 1990. He proceeded to work, in succession, as an aide to Edmonston, NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin and Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, before managing the federal NDP campaigns in 2006 and 2008. Amid the manoeuvring that followed the 2008 vote, it was Topp who led the NDP’s coalition negotiations with the Liberals. In between his political activities, he helped lead the Toronto chapter of ACTRA, the union for film and television performers.
He was a key player again in the 2011 campaign and was elected party president last June. With his election to that post and with an eye to 2015—when both of his two sons will likely be in university—he had begun to consider a run for Parliament. Then the NDP found itself without a leader. “I was already about halfway to thinking this is something I wanted to do,” he says, “and then the good Lord decided that these events were going to happen now.”
He is far more politically astute than the last two Opposition leaders—Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff—who were chewed up and spat out by the Harper Conservatives. Romanow recalls Topp drilling him on how to deliver the day’s sound bite. But Topp is also not the effusive salesman that Jack Layton was. His closest analogue may in fact be the man he is trying to prove he can take on: Stephen Harper, another quiet strategist who does not exude matinee idol charm. The smile does not always look easy. The words do not readily gush forth. He can be warm on a personal level, surmises one senior New Democrat, but he has not yet learned to project it.
In conversations with NDP insiders, “smart” is inevitably one of the first adjectives used to describe him. By various accounts he is focused, demanding, loyal and funny (his sense of humour leaning to the wry). A fan of board games, he particularly enjoys Civilization, the intensive 1980s-era test of strategy (an average game can take eight hours to play). “I’ve watched him very carefully and I really thought about this leadership question a lot, about what it is that we need,” says Libby Davies, one of 12 NDP MPs to endorse Topp so far. “I feel like he’s got the right characteristics to not only hold the caucus together, but to move it forward in a very unified and dynamic way.”
He was anointed as a leading contender early on. Perhaps even too early—a Canadian Press report, published a day after Layton’s death, is said to have rankled some New Democrats with speculation that Topp was being encouraged to run. (Topp says he had nothing, directly or indirectly, to do with the story and is quoted in it as saying that such talk was “not appropriate” at that time.) Befitting a candidate with almost no public profile, Topp began his campaign aggressively three weeks later—bringing former NDP leader Ed Broadbent to bless him at his introductory news conference in September and announcing the endorsement of Romanow a week later.
His campaign seemed to lose momentum in December, but a certain assertiveness persists. Among the candidates, he seems the most eager to engage in debate. He has challenged Mulcair over comments the Quebec MP made early in the campaign that seemed to suggest a desire to adopt a centrist approach. He has proposed eliminating some tax exemptions for capital gains and taxing those earning more than $250,000 at a rate of 35 per cent, and in the first official leadership debate he challenged Dewar to explain how he would fund his campaign promises. “When you spend some time actually in the government, as opposed to just talking about being in government,” he says, “then you learn that the hard work of government is finding the resources to do what you want to do.” The release of his arts policy was accompanied by several videos from actors and singers endorsing his campaign, including a satirical clip of Peter Keleghan (The Newsroom, 18 to Life) enthusing that Topp was a “great kisser.”
He seemed relatively at ease during his first press conference—“Every now and then, somebody named Brian from Quebec comes in and gives it a try,” he quipped, referencing Brian Mulroney’s rise from the backrooms of the Progressive Conservative party—and he professes to be reasonably comfortable with his campaign so far. “It’s been everything I was hoping it would be,” he says. “Fascinating, interesting, exhausting, exhilarating.” After an admittedly subpar performance at an all-candidates meeting in Vancouver last month, he says he approached Toronto with the sort of rigour he applied to last spring’s leadership debates. On stage, he took frequent notes and nearly every intervention seemed to contain applause lines. An apparently off-the-cuff riff on the Harper government’s “war on science” won sustained cheers.
Having spent much of his life advising, assisting and supporting political leaders, he certainly knows how this stuff works. And in that there might be what the NDP is looking for. “I know he’s not been elected before, but in my mind’s eye, I can really see him going up against Harper,” Davies says. “I think he’ll outsmart Harper.”BRIDGETON -- The Bridgeton Board of Education reached a settlement with a former teacher who said that the district did not take adequate measures to protect her after a student assaulted her in 2015.
Michele Andrews of Millville received the $197,500 settlement in April 2017 after she alleged the school board did not address her concerns after being injured in multiple incidents while working. The lawsuit, which was filed June 2, 2016, also alleged that she lost her job after filing a formal complaint about the incidents with her superiors.
According to court documents, the first incident occurred in January 2015 when she was injured after being assaulted by one of the students in her classroom. After Andrews decided to file |
and to rewire our brains so that finding the bliss becomes more instinctual. If you already have a meditation practice, you can use the few minutes after your practice as a time for gratitude.
4. Repeat
Gratitude is like going to the mental gym; strength training for your neural pathways, if you will. The more you practice feeling grateful, the stronger that muscle gets. And over time, the workouts that at first seemed so challenging become easier and easier to do. You just have to keep showing up.
If this all feels like too much, try easing into a gratitude practice with this daily exercise: Every time your feet hit the ground when you get out of bed, simply say "thank you." Nature likes to be paid attention to as much as the rest of us, and it helps our lives bloom in response to the way we acknowledge it. As the saying goes, "Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers, or you can grow weeds."by
By Laura Riggs
Many students used to ask me, “What does it mean to be an RYT or E-RYT?”
The PC answer: “According to Yoga Alliance, the reported ‘professional’ organization for yoga instructors, these labels mean ‘Registered Yoga Teacher’ or ‘Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher,’ and if you have any interest in earning either of these two labels, then you have undoubtedly done some research into attending a training with a RYS: ‘Registered Yoga School,’”
However, I am now a former E-RYT who led many of these 200-hour TTs for RYTs at a RYS, and I can attest to the reality that this is all just a bunch of marketing BS by YA to get your GWs so that you can add one of these ambiguous labels to the end of your name.
Labeling is an easy way to provide students with a false sense of security that a particular teacher or school has a certain level of education or experience that other teachers/schools may not. This, to me, is sort of like believing that the TSA has bolstered our level of security for air travel. I read a post recently from a concerned yogi about teachers who are not registered with YA falsifying their accreditation by adding the label RYT to the end of their name. Rather than focusing on whether or not a few teachers are on the “cool kids” list, I would ask why these teachers opted out of the registry in the first place. Now, it could be that they have opted to donate their funds to a more worthwhile cause instead — like rescuing whales, helping starving children in Africa or earthquake victims in Turkey, or assisting with the massive EU bailout.
Since yoga instructors make next to nil when it comes to teaching yoga classes, I think the ones who have opted to not throw away $55-75/year on a meaningless, commercialized label are brilliant.
I have worked with many wonderful teachers who have opted to stay as far away from YA as possible and they are, in most cases, more qualified to guide a yoga class (or lead a teacher training) than many of the teachers currently listed in the YA registry. Reason being: YA lacks sufficient internal structure to monitor and hold the registered teachers and schools accountable in order to uphold the standards they have allegedly established. Furthermore, these so-called standards do not give any weight or bearing toward the qualifications actually needed to guide a yoga class in a knowledgeable, empowering, safe and ethical manner.
Yoga Alliance spends too much time fighting local governments to actually focus on reigning in yoga schools so that they abide by a set of standards that could actually give the profession some foundation of credibility. Granted, yoga is a spiritual system, which makes it difficult for me to resolve the philosophical conflict between having government get involved with the conduct of yoga teachers/ schools versus being repeatedly and severely injured by so-called teachers who have absolutely no business assisting students. There currently are NO legal requirements that yoga teachers actually be good teachers before they step into a classroom and start jacking with people’s effed up bodies.
The ability to effectively assist a student requires a great deal of knowledge about physical anatomy and the understanding of how to modify a practice for various injuries — similar to that of a massage therapist or chiropractor. So many of us start practicing yoga because we are too injured to continue with whatever other sport brought us to our doctor to begin with, at which point, said doctor advised us to “go to yoga; it will be good for you.” But while other healing professions require rigorous study, followed by a series of tests, in order to gain legal license to safely practice skills on the general public, yoga teachers are not legally bound to obtain any sort of education, seek out certification, or carry any type of licensing whatsoever. Your hairstylist has more accreditation than your “guide to obtaining spiritual enlightenment” and increased health and wellness.
I realize that we are an externally focused society, but are you f***king kidding me?
At minimum, a licensed massage therapist needs 600 hours of training on the physical anatomy alone. Current YA standards only ask teachers to have 20 hours (less than one full day), which includes how to assist students safely. So where do the remaining 180 hours of a 200-hour training go?
Good question, because the guidelines outlined by YA are fairly obscure: for example, 100 hours of class time must be logged. But many schools, the one I unfortunately worked for included, cheat their students out of official YA Standard hours. As defined by YA, an “hour” counts only if the class was conducted for trainees only, and not for the general public, by an E-RYT — not a studio manager or any other “unqualified” teacher. So, if you got corralled into the 5 o’clock class with your mat overlapping that of 85 of your closest friends, taught by the latest and greatest hot young thing, it technically did NOT count toward your 200- or 500-hour certification. Nor do your hours count if the session was to be led by promised master instructor Shiva Squat, but instead was taught by Mr. 1,001 Handstands-and-Call-it-a-Yoga-Practice.
Schools often do not adhere to these standards for two reasons:
It does not make financial sense to cancel classes on the schedule just because 40-50 (or sometimes 100) students paid thousands of dollars to participate in a legitimate training, when the studio has the opportunity to earn an additional $500/class minimum by allowing the public to participate, and Yoga Alliance will not monitor the quality of the programs delivered by said “registered schools.” I highlight here the “will not.” instead of “do not.” I made a few calls to YA some time ago to question the ethics of this practice by many RYS TT programs. I learned that YA “does not get involved with disputes between teachers/trainees and schools, you must speak to the head of the program directly about this.”
Uh… I am (or at least was) the head of the program, so now what? Talk to the owner of the studio? Yep, done that, and got this response: “All YA cares about is that you think someone is ready to teach; it really doesn’t matter if they complete the 200-hour training.” Of course, my reply was that none of the trainees were ready to teach. They had been shorted an education they invested in and desperately needed.
As you can imagine, this was not exactly in alignment with the financial plans the studio had. Especially when the ultimate goal of the TT program was to upsell current trainees on investing in subsequent and equally mediocre programs.
My concerns over the lack of responsibility on behalf of the school went completely ignored by the YA staff. That is, of course, until it was time for me to renew my E-RYT registration. After numerous mailers and phone calls from some lovely sales interns over at YA, I gently but adamantly refused to renew my registration because no reply had been given yet to these issues that I had raised over the integrity (or lack thereof) in our “profession” – a term I use loosely these days. Six months later, YA still hasn’t called me back… but they still send me renewal notices in the mail.
I commend the teachers who are not registered with YA.
It is a waste of time, effort and money. The instructors who add integrity to the profession of teaching yoga don’t tout that they are card-carrying members of the YA. They simply show up, act professional, seek out meaningful education on a continual basis, and serve their students. As a student, how do you find this type of teacher? Ask questions and pay attention. If the teacher is unable or unwilling to help you, this is a good indication that they might be an RYT, and therefore possibly not qualified to guide you on your spiritual growth, as they have yet to face the truth in their own life — that yoga isn’t always sunshine and unicorns — and sometimes it takes honesty to see things as they really are, say that they are broken, and be willing to do the thankless work of trying to correct them.
About Laura RiggsThe Quinnipiac poll giveth; the Quinnipiac poll taketh away.
One month ago, when a batch of Q polls found Hillary Clinton struggling to beat Republicans in three states won by President Obama, I dismissed the calls for Vice President Biden to save the Democrats. "The vice president polls substantially worse against Republicans than Clinton does," I wrote.
And at the time, it was true. For most of his time in the Naval Observatory, Joe Biden has polled behind the president and his assumed successor for the Democratic nomination, weakened by — respectively — slightly lower support from black voters and slightly lower support from women.
Other reporters have had to settle for getting Donald Trump wrong. I've decided to zig where they zagged: I'm going to blow it on Biden.
Thursday's Q poll resets the narrative, with Biden polling slightly better against Republican candidates than Clinton in Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. More importantly, he's got narrowly positive favorable numbers in each state. In each state, Clinton is deeply underwater, her unfavorables settled in above 50 percent.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Q poll, who is clearly happy when it makes news, says that Biden "gets the love" and "is becoming a more important player in the 2016 presidential race, with a solid grip on the 'from the gut' support of Pennsylvanians."
Joshua Alcorn, a senior adviser to the Draft Biden campaign — whose head gamely answered my annoying questions last month — was even happier. "The Vice President’s strength in these polls shows there is a desire to have him on the stage for the Democratic debate in October," Alcorn said in a statement. "Americans trust him to offer an alternative vision for our country."
How strong is Biden? Strong enough for me to choke down crow, but still not strong enough to "save" the party. "Saving" the party conjures up the image of a Colin Powell saving the Republicans in 1996, Godzilla-ing all over a weak field. According to the Q poll, Hillary Clinton is celebrating the fifth month of her e-mail scandal by trailing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. She leads Jeb Bush only in Ohio; she leads Donald Trump only in Ohio and Pennsylvania. (All three Republicans have homes in South Florida. It is the primary residence for the first two.)
Biden does... only marginally better. Clinton loses Florida to Bush, Rubio and Trump by nine, 12, and 2 points, respectively. Biden loses it by 13 points to Bush and six points to Rubio; he edges out Trump by three points. Clinton beats Bush and Trump in Ohio; Biden does the same, and also polls slightly better than Rubio. Clinton beats Trump in Pennsylvania, but polls behind Bush and Rubio. The same is true of Biden. So you could say that Biden is strong where Clinton isn't and be largely correct, at least according to these three polls. You could say that both struggle in megastates won by President Obama, and be even more correct.
The ad hoc committee to get Biden into the race is looking at a half-full glass here. "Some of the head-to-head numbers with Republicans reflect that they're taking this idea seriously," said Steve Schale, a well-regarded Florida Democratic strategist who helped the president win the state twice. "Joe Biden’s generally well-regarded. I’d chalk the Clinton numbers up to the fact that she had a real bad August, but she’s not the only candidate who’s ever had a bad August."
Meanwhile, Biden remains in the mid-teens in the Q poll's Democratic primary test. "I suspect that if he decides to get into the race that you'll see some of that change and bounce up," Schale said. "When you poll someone who’s not in the race, I’m not surprised to see a low number."
The enthusiastic read on this is that an excitable Biden vote is out there, waiting for the decision to run. The less-enthusiastic read is that Democrats already have a candidate whose personal favorable ratings grew before announcing a run for president, as people called for a stateswoman to step in and save the party. That candidate was Hillary Clinton.U.S. companies maintained their steady pace of hiring in September, helping the economy add 156,000 new jobs, new government data showed Friday.
The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.9 percent to 5 percent, largely because the labor force swelled with scores of new would-be workers — a sign that Americans are growing confident enough to come in from the sidelines.
The Labor Department also revised its estimates for job creation in July and August, with the combined total falling by 7,000. The nation has added 178,000 new jobs in the typical month this year, roughly double the pace necessary to keep up with population growth.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez speaks with Wonkblog's Chico Harlan about the latest jobs report. (The Washington Post)
[International Monetary Fund slashes prospect for U.S. growth]
With a prolonged period of reliable hiring, the labor market has helped push the U.S. economy through an otherwise lackluster stretch. Layoffs are at a four-decade low, wages are rising, and consumers are steadily pumping their newly earned money back into the economy. But the country still faces significant challenges, including surprisingly paltry business investment, and the International Monetary Fund this week said it expected the nation’s economy to grow just 1.6 percent this year, the lowest mark in five years.
That’s left Americans, one month before the presidential election, with mixed signals about the health of their economy. More people in the United States are working than at any previous time during the seven-year recovery from the financial crisis. But the U.S. economy is expanding no faster than other advanced economies, and eye-catching gains in the labor market are becoming less frequent as the nation approaches full employment.
“The broader trend is slow and steady, which is fine for the purpose of wishing for a sustainable recovery,” said Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com.
[Mortgage rates settle in ahead of employment report]
Markets opened flat on the labor report Friday morning. The three major indices were slightly down at closing bell.
The pace of job creation in September was slightly below market expectations, but some economists said Friday morning that the data does little to change the Federal Reserve’s calculus about a potential interest rate hike in December.
The data also highlighted one encouraging aspect about the labor force: More people are being enticed to join it. The pool of Americans working or looking for work grew in September by 444,000 people, the largest gain since February, and the labor force participation rate rose to 62.9 percent.
That gauge of worker engagement is at low ebb not seen since the 1970s — a result of retiring baby boomers and middle-aged workers disenfranchised after the recession. But the participation rate, after hitting a low point last September, has started to gradually rebound.
“The strong labor market is attracting people from outside the labor force back into employment,” Fed chair Janet Yellen said last month.
[Fed holds off on raising interest rates]
In September, the most notable gains came in the professional and business services sector — a category that includes accountants, engineers and architects, and where the average hourly wage is $30.93. Those positions accounted for more than one-third of America’s job growth. Hiring in the health care and food services fields combined for another large portion. The mining sector — hammered amid two years of low oil prices — held steady in September, ending a 23-month streak of job hemorrhaging.
For all workers, the average hourly wage rose by 6 cents in September, and paychecks have grown 2.6 percent from a year ago. That is slightly above the annual pace of around 2 percent maintained during earlier years of the recovery.
Over the last year, several states and large corporations have enacted minimum-wage increases. Wages are also being driven up by the tighter labor market — conditions where workers are in greater demand and have more leverage to ask for pay raises.
[U.S. services companies report fastest growth in nearly year]
As the United States nears full employment, the pace of hiring has slowed slightly this year. In 2015, the nation averaged 229,000 new jobs per month, and the unemployment rate fell from 5.7 percent to 5 percent. So far this year, the economy is adding roughly 182,000 new jobs per month; the unemployment rate began the year at 4.9 percent and has barely wavered since.
“The 5 percent unemployment rate still makes the U.S. the best house in a poor global neighborhood,” said Martin Jarzebowski, a senior investment analyst at Federated Investors. “We have to expect that employment rate will begin to moderate.”
The major presidential candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, have interpreted the economy in vastly different ways. Clinton has called for conventional tweaks — major infrastructure spending, a minimum-wage hike — and has said tax increases for the highest earners can create more equity.
Trump, meanwhile, says the U.S. government’s unemployment numbers are manipulated and artificially rosy. He says he will renegotiate or withdraw from major trade deals, slap import fees on imported products, lower taxes on businesses, keep more jobs at home, and improve U.S. gross domestic product growth to 3.5 percent.
"Today’s jobs report shows that the economy continues to create jobs and that wages continue to grow — but more work needs to be done,” Jacob Leibenluft, a senior policy adviser with the Clinton campaign, said in a statement.
The Trump campaign sent a fundraising e-mail on Friday morning saying that "Obama-Clinton" economic policies are “killing the American middle class.”
“The White House and the Clinton campaign will spin the numbers, pat themselves on the back for all the ‘success’ they’ve had on the economy, but Americans like you aren’t buying it anymore,” the e-mail said.An outbreak of E. coli food poisoning linked to Chipotle restaurants continues to grow in Washington, with 29 cases. In Oregon, the count dropped to 10, after laboratory results were confirmed.
The number of E. coli food-poisoning cases linked to Chipotle restaurants in the Northwest continues to rise, with 29 cases in Washington. The count dropped from 12 to 10, in Oregon, however, for a total of 39 confirmed in the outbreak, health officials reported Wednesday.
Fourteen people have been hospitalized; no deaths have been reported.
Forty-three restaurants operated by the Mexican fast-food chain remain closed in the two states as regional health officials scramble to identify the genetic fingerprint of specific cases and federal officials designate outbreak-response teams to help.
So far, many of the cases appear to be caused by E. coli O26, a strain that produces Shiga toxins that can cause serious illness.
Tests from eight ill people — five from Washington and three from Oregon — indicate they all were infected by Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O26 width the same DNA fingerprint, according to a report posted late Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More samples will be tested.
Health officials suspect fresh produce is the culprit, but test results of food from the restaurant sites — and the supply chain — are pending.
“It is possible that we will get some preliminary food-testing results by the end of the week,” Danielle Kenneweg, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Health, said in an email. “We don’t know yet if that information will be complete enough and ready for sharing.”
In Washington, cases include 12 in Clark County, six in King County, five in Skagit County, three in Cowlitz County, two in Island County and one in Whatcom County. Victims range in age from 1 to 67.
In Oregon, new lab results excluded three people originally thought to be part of the outbreak and confirmed one suspected case, for a total drop of two. Cases there range in age from 11 to 61.
More cases could be reported, with a time frame that now dates to Oct. 1. Health officials advise anyone with intestinal symptoms who ate at a Chipotle in Washington or Oregon to see a health-care provider.
The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has assigned a response team to assist with the probe from agency headquarters, in Washington, D.C., officials said. Investigators with the CDC are also helping from Atlanta.
“This team will coordinate FDA’s efforts with state and federal partners,” FDA spokeswoman Lauren Kotwicki said in an email. “The team will also analyze supply records to try to identify the food that is responsible for making people sick.”
Chipotle will conduct deep-cleaning and environmental testing in its restaurants and distribution centers, along with testing ingredients before resupplying, the firm said in a news release. It wasn’t clear whether the company would release those test results.
In addition, Chipotle has hired food-safety consulting firms to help identify and halt the outbreak, including IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group in Seattle, widely regarded as a top firm.
“The safety of our customers and integrity of our food supply has always been our highest priority,” Chipotle Mexican Grill chairman and co-chief executive Steve Ellis said in a statement.
Chipotle sites with confirmed illnesses
People who fell ill in Washington state ate at five Chipotle sites, health officials said:
1404 Broadway Ave., Seattle
4229 University Way N.E., Seattle
512 Ramsey Way, No. 101, Kent
7715 N.E. Fifth Ave., Suite 109, Vancouver, Wash.
1753 S. Burlington Blvd., Burlington, Skagit County
Washington State Department of HealthOutlast Launches For Xbox One, Proves Parity Clause Isn't Impenetrable By William Usher Random Article Blend Outlast kind of proves that point.
Outlast, which originally released on PC and then followed up with a PlayStation 4 outing, is now available on the Xbox One.
The scattered release schedule for the title caused many gamers to question the pertinence of Microsoft's parity clause for their system, but it had been revealed before that Microsoft would review some games with impartial launch windows for platforms on a
Sony, alternatively, has been taking in any and every high-quality indie title they can get their hands on. It's really worked against Microsoft, especially when a handful of highly anticipated indie titles will show
Previously, several indie developers commented how the management over the Xbox brand (before Phil Spencer took charge) was a
It at least looks like Chris Charla and Phil Spencer are working hand-over-foot to try to get the Xbox One back into the running after some unfortunate decisions were made by those previously in charge. Having Outlast appear on the console right out of the blue isn't a bad way to go about it.
The team even managed to get an Xbox-centric trailer for the game to help churn up some hype for the release. Check it out below.
The game itself is pretty much what the video trailer depicts: you're in a scary, gonads-to-the-wall mental asylum where you assume the role of journalist Miles Upshur, as he uncovers some ghastly deeds taking place in the gore-filled, horror-themed hospital. It's the typical scenario where you end up in a situation where you don't get all the high-end, high-tech weapons you usually have at your disposal in games like F.E.A.R. or Doom, and instead you have to use your wits and your reflexes to avoid ending up on the cutting-room table.
However, one of the more important features hasn't been revealed: there's no mention of the game's resolution and frame-rate, even though it's currently running at
Also, there's no mention of the game's Microsoft had mentioned before that the parity clause for the Xbox One (via the [email protected] program) wasn't the be-all, end-all for releasing independent titles on the Xbox One. Red Barrels'kind of proves that point. Major Nelson announced on his blog that the horror-survival game, which originally released on PC and then followed up with a PlayStation 4 outing, is now available on the Xbox One.The scattered release schedule for the title caused many gamers to question the pertinence of Microsoft's parity clause for their system, but it had been revealed before that Microsoft would review some games with impartial launch windows for platforms on a case-by-case scenario. This was made known back in December of 2013, when some indie titles were denied release on the Xbox One due to not being able to meet the parity clause. The upside was that the controversial measure received enough public feedback to cause Microsoft to offer some form of leniency when it comes to individually spaced platform releases.Sony, alternatively, has been taking in any and every high-quality indie title they can get their hands on. It's really worked against Microsoft, especially when a handful of highly anticipated indie titles will show console partisanship toward Sony's PS4 due to the parity clause Previously, several indie developers commented how the management over the Xbox brand (before Phil Spencer took charge) was a “disaster”. It at least looks like Chris Charla and Phil Spencer are working hand-over-foot to try to get the Xbox One back into the running after some unfortunate decisions were made by those previously in charge. Havingappear on the console right out of the blue isn't a bad way to go about it.The team even managed to get an Xbox-centric trailer for the game to help churn up some hype for the release. Check it out below.The game itself is pretty much what the video trailer depicts: you're in a scary, gonads-to-the-wall mental asylum where you assume the role of journalist Miles Upshur, as he uncovers some ghastly deeds taking place in the gore-filled, horror-themed hospital. It's the typical scenario where you end up in a situation where you don't get all the high-end, high-tech weapons you usually have at your disposal in games likeor, and instead you have to use your wits and your reflexes to avoid ending up on the cutting-room table.However, one of the more important features hasn't been revealed: there's no mention of the game's resolution and frame-rate, even though it's currently running at 1080p and 60fps on the PS4 Also, there's no mention of the game's Whistleblower DLC on the main store page for the Xbox One, but it's likely to arrive soon. You can purchase the game now for $19.99 over on the Xbox One's store page Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topStory highlights Jack Schlossberg: Young voters invested energy and hope in the 2008 Obama campaign
He says some aren't as enthusiastic after realizing political struggle is difficult
Schlossberg: President Obama has delivered on health care, student loans, climate issues
He says part of growing up is realizing that change doesn't come without sustained effort
It's just another coming of age story -- one we've all heard before -- but now it's about us.
Just as Holden Caulfield awoke to the excitement of the adult world around him and wanted to escape the phonies, youth voters brought a novel and intense energy to the world of politics during the 2008 election in an effort to escape the phonies we'd been listening to our whole lives.
Our debut into the world of politics was significant: The candidate with overwhelming youth support, Barack Obama, came out on top. I was too young to vote in that election, but after volunteering for the Obama campaign, I felt what many first-time voters and volunteers felt after the last election: proud, accomplished and significant.
Four years later, what was once to us the novel and exciting adult world of politics now seems bitter and partisan. We're a little bit older, less bright-eyed and a little more cynical.
Jack Schlossberg, next to a photo of John F. Kennedy
It is not surprising that a generation not tempered by past disappointments, that had hoped its representatives would work in good faith to fix America's problems, might be less enthusiastic this time around. The percentage of youth voters who plan on voting fell from 78% in 2008 to just 58% this summer. We're the least likely of any age group to vote in November.
But what a mistake it would be for us to throw in the towel now. Just because our politics and government can disappoint us sometimes doesn't mean we should forget how far we've come.
President Obama understands what our generation contributed in 2008. He knows where we stand on issues and he agrees with us -- he's been our biggest ally in Washington since the start of his presidency.
The president's signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, allows us to stay on our parents' health plan until we are 26. That means we'll have health insurance when we graduate from college, which more and more of us will be able to do thanks to the president's push to double funding for Pell Grants and his insistence on keeping interest rates low for the 7.4 million students taking out student loans. Because of Obama's repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," anyone can join the military, regardless of sexual orientation, an issue important to our generation.
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When Congress refused to pass the DREAM Act, Obama changed policy administratively, enabling immigrants who came to the country as children to avoid deportation.
Our president showed both political courage and moral responsibility when he stood up for women across America under attack from extreme Republican rhetoric and aggressive legislation curtailing women's rights and threatening women's health. Obama's swift, bold action to fix the broken American economy bequeathed to him by President George W. Bush has preserved homes and jobs for our parents and has preserved the possibility for home ownership and jobs for us.
Obama has acted aggressively on the issue most important to my generation: climate change. Our generation believes in healing the Earth. Between 2010 and 2011, the United States cut its foreign oil imports by 10%, or 1 million barrels a day. Domestic natural gas production has increased during each year of the Obama presidency, providing jobs and a cleaner source of energy.
After saving the American auto industry, the president then set out to strengthen it by demanding that car companies stay competitive in a global market and meet a 54.5 miles per gallon standard by 2025. Finally, in addition to investments in clean energy projects and jobs, Obama agrees with the 97% of scientists who recognize humans as the cause of climate change, while Mitt Romney "isn't sure."
To be sure, none of this has come easily or without opposition. Part of growing up is realizing the frustrating, heartbreaking truth that intense and sustained long-term effort is needed to effect change.
The difficulty of the obstacles that must be overcome and the scope of the fight that must be won make our accomplishments all the more impressive. Electing the first African-American president was a tremendous accomplishment, but it hasn't erased racism. Electing the first Catholic president, my grandfather, in 1960, did not mean that religious intolerance disappeared from our land. Whether it was the American Revolution, the Civil War or the civil rights movement, change has never come easy, and Americans have always had to fight for change we believe in.
If we can appreciate the long strides our country has made since 2008 instead of dismissing them as imperfect attempts, we will prove that not only are we quick learners but we're in it for the long haul. Participation in the democratic process is not only a right: It's a responsibility we all share.
Voting is something we can all do for our country. If we turn out to re-elect this president, we will prove that 2008 was not an anomaly, and that our generation and its concerns cannot be dismissed. Instead, 2008 will be seen as just the beginning. This fall let's display a deep commitment to our country, its ideals and provide a preview of the America we intend to build.SAN FRANCISCO -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who sustained a concussion Sunday against the St. Louis Rams, has been cleared and is ready to play against the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, according to a league source.
Bridgewater was a full participant in practice Friday, and though he still needed to be cleared through the final step of the NFL's concussion protocol, coach Mike Zimmer said he had "no doubts" Bridgewater would play.
On Saturday, the source said Bridgewater is "all set."
Editor's Picks Rams D-boss on Bridgewater hit: We're past it The defensive coordinator mostly declined to specifically address comments by Vikings coach Mike Zimmer.
The quarterback took an elbow to the head from Rams defensive back Lamarcus Joyner while he was trying to slide at the end of a run Sunday. Zimmer called the hit a cheap shot and criticized Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams for his team's style of play after the game, adding Monday that he also was upset about William Hayes' low hit on Bridgewater. Joyner was fined $23,152 for hitting a defenseless player; Hayes was not fined for his hit.
Bridgewater seemed in good spirits after the game, joking with teammates in the locker room and celebrating the Vikings' overtime win with family and friends at dinner. Zimmer said Monday that Bridgewater already had passed the first step of the league's concussion protocol, adding, "He should be good to go."
The quarterback's return would help a Vikings team trying to win a nonconference road game for the first time since 2012. The 6-2 Vikings are tied for first in the NFC North and will face the Green Bay Packers in Week 11 after they return home from the West Coast.The Republican National Committee (RNC) already has its eye on the 2018 midterm elections—as well as some gubernatorial races this year—a spokesman told Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel this weekend.
Steve Guest, an RNC spokesman, said on the show:
We’re getting ready for 2018 but we’re also getting ready for a couple gubernatorial elections that are happening this year. Virginia is one of the key races we’re really zoning in on. But going into 2018, and for any election going forward—this is what we did for 2016, and it worked really well and we’ll be doing it in the future—the RNC, the Republican National Committee, has a great research organization, a great data operation and a great get-out-the-vote effort that really motivates lots of people to get out and vote. For example, our research operation is there to prepare documents—opposition research for want of a better term—that if the Democrat says something [controversial], we want to have research there to catch them.
After going through how Democrats regularly flip-flop on issues, Guest noted that “We just released something on how Cory Booker praised Sen. Sessions a year ago” for working with him on civil rights issues, but now Booker was testifying last week against incoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“They should be very competitive, and hopefully the Republican Party as a whole can continue to build on the Republican majority that we’ve kept for the past couple years,” Guest said. “That’s the whole goal: To continue increasing the number of elected Republicans in the House, in the Senate and now, after eight years, we have the White House back. So, having all branches of government with Republicans, that’s setting the stage for some really good things.”
The map in 2018 does not look promising for Democrats at all. Republicans generally have much better operations in midterm off-year elections anyway, as conservatives are more energetic than progressives, and the map is a brutal one for Democrats in terms of Senate races.
There are 23 Senate Democrats up in 2018, and 10 of them are from states that President-elect Donald J. Trump won in the 2016 election: Florida, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, Missouri, and North Dakota. There are only eight Republicans up for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2018, and just one of them is up in a state that failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton won: Nevada’s Dean Heller. Independent Angus King of Maine—who caucuses with Democrats—is also up, something that may be trouble for the Democrats since Trump and Clinton split Maine in half, each winning one of the state’s two congressional districts, breaking the electoral vote prize in two for the first time in U.S. history. Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, another independent who caucuses with Democrats, may not even be safe because his reliably liberal state just elected a Republican governor in Phil Scott this cycle. Other Democratic seats, like the ones in New Mexico, Minnesota, Virginia, and more, are from states Clinton barely won with less than 50 percent of the vote.
There are two gubernatorial elections in 2017, in Virginia and New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican, is leaving office so Republicans will be hoping to find a suitable replacement for him in the Garden State, but GOP figures say that they’ve got their eyes on Virginia’s governorship with Clinton ally and current Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe looking weaker and weaker by the minute as he’s engulfed by scandal.
There are a number of gubernatorial elections in 2018 in which Republicans could succeed in taking back control from Democrats as well, in places like Colorado, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania; but the GOP will need to play some defense on this front in places like Florida, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Illinois, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Maryland.
That doesn’t even get into House races, and with a number of Democrats making critical mistakes already out the gate—like skipping President-elect Trump’s inauguration—many of the incumbent House Democrats, especially the ones who rallied around lightning rod controversial House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, may find themselves in seriously vulnerable spots in 2018 and beyond.
While the RNC prepares for this now, and is putting in place aggressive expansion plans for the future, their rivals over at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) can’t even |
lobby numerous times. He voted against the Brady Bill five times. He voted for what we call, the Charleston Loophole. He voted for immunity from gun makers and sellers which the NRA said, ‘was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years.'”
Hillary and Bernie battle over health care.
After a week of exchanging fire over health care, Clinton and Sanders finally faced off over the issue in person. Sanders, who released a health care plan hours before Sunday night’s debate, called for a “Medicare-for-all” system while Clinton argued that Democrats should focus on improving the Affordable Care Act instead of embarking on another major debate over health care.
“That is nonsense,” Sanders said at one point, growing noticeably irked after Clinton suggested that his push for single-payer health insurance is the same as a rollback of Obamacare.
Sanders attacks Clinton over Goldman Sachs speaking fees.
Sanders didn’t flinch when the moderators asked about the main difference between how he and Clinton would approach Wall Street. “The first difference is I don’t take money from big banks,” he said. “I don’t get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.” From there, he dove into policy details, citing his enthusiasm for busting up the largest financial institutions and “21st century Glass-Steagall legislation” to separate commercial and investment banking.
Sanders returned to the topic later in the evening. “Secretary Clinton—and you’re not the only one, so I don’t mean to just point the finger at you, you’ve received over $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one year,” he said.
Sanders calls for Justice Department investigations when anyone dies “in police custody.”
Sanders extended his criminal justice agenda Sunday evening with an ambitious new proposal, calling for the federal government to get involved whenever someone dies in police custody—an occurrence that has been highlighted by the recent deaths of Sandra Bland in Texas and Freddie Gray in Baltimore. “Whenever anybody in this country is killed while in police custody, it should automatically trigger a U.S. attorney general’s investigation,” Sanders said.
Clinton describes her relationship with Vladimir Putin.
During her time as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton famously spearheaded the Obama administration’s efforts to “reset” relations with Russia. But, since these overtures, Russian President Vladimir Putin has become increasingly bellicose and aggressive on the international stage. How would Clinton now describe her relationship with the Russian leader? “It’s, um, interesting,” Clinton said after a long pause, clearly choosing her words carefully.
Clinton calls attention to the crisis in Flint, Michigan.
In her closing remarks, Clinton raised the plight of the people of Flint, Michigan—where toxic levels of lead in the city’s drinking water has created a state of emergency—as an example of the kind of problem she wants to solve as president.
“Every single American should be outraged,” she declared. “We’ve had a city in the United States of America, which the population is poor in many ways and majority African American, has been bathing and drinking lead-contaminated water. And the governor of that state acted as if he didn’t really care.” Clinton speculated that if children in a rich suburb of Detroit were exposed to contaminated water, the reaction would have been different. Clinton went on to discuss how she dispatched one of her campaign operatives to Flint “to see what I could to help.”
Sanders, who spoke last, also addressed the crisis in Flint. “I demanded the resignation of the governor,” he said, calling Republican Gov. Rick Snyder a man who “should not stay in power.”Paul Gutierrez ESPN Staff Writer
The Raiders have a new strength and conditioning coach in A.J. Neibel, who spent the past two seasons with the Jaguars as their athletic performance specialist/physical therapy assistant. Neibel, who replaces Tom Shaw, was with the Raiders as a strength and conditioning intern in 2003 and spent six years in Oakland. He has since worked for MLB's San Francisco Giants (2009-10) and the NFL's Atlanta Falcons (2011-16). Jon Gruden's coaching staff has undergone numerous changes this offseason with running backs coach Jemal Singleton joining the Bengals in the same capacity, defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley going back to college to become a defensive coordinator at Tennessee and assistant defensive line coach Marco Coleman heading to his alma mater at Georgia Tech. Earlier this offseason, QB coach Brian Callahan left to become the Bengals' offensive coordinator and Gruden hired Brentson Buckner as DL coach with Mike Trgovac reassigned in the organization.Infinium Strike Announced as Xbox One Console Exclusive
Indie developer Codex Worlds has revealed that its upcoming tactical space action game Infinium Strike will be coming to Xbox One in Q2 2016.
Previously announced for PC, and even enjoying an open beta late last year, Infinium Strike was announced today to also be coming to the Xbox One. Developer Codex Worlds, founded by ex-Ubisoft employees, expects the game to hit the console in Q2 2016. It’s a positive boost for the console’s indie scene, which is struggling to match the number of indies appearing exclusively on the PS4
Infinium War is set in the far distant future: an intergalactic war with the Wrog – a race of sentient alien ships – is threatening to bring about human extinction. After decades of futile resistance, a last minute saviour appears in the form of a powerful resource called Infinium, which is best described as a living metal. The humans use this Infinium to create a battlecarrier called the Freedom Strike, which looks to be humanity’s last hope.
Players control the chief weapons officer of this ship, and will mastermind not just the weapon systems, but a whole fleet of ships and all the cutting edge technology available in the fight back against the Wrog. Described as a mix of action and strategy, it's a twist on tower defence whereby you need to out think the enemy by upgrading and placing weapons on your ship to deal with incoming alien threats as the emerge. You need to manage many sectors at once and not all of them you can see at the same time, leaving blind spots requiring a constant juggling act or management and scouting for trouble. Infinium Strike was funded on Kickstarter and has been in development for three years. It will feature two main modes; a Campaign that allows you to rise through the ranks from private to admiral, and Deep Space, a galactic-sized Horde mode.
Space is definitely the hot setting for 2016, with a host of big name video games on the horizon looking to change the way we view gameplay in the stars – think Star Citizen, No Man’s Sky and Eve: Valkyrie VR. Where will Infinium Strike sit when it’s all said and done?
If you’re looking for more great underground indies for the Xbox One and own an iPad, be sure to check out Episode 8 of award-winning digital magazine Grab It.
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DisqusA new analysis of the death penalty's costs says that taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment in California since it was reinstated in 1978, or about $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out since then, the Los Angeles Times' Carol Williams reported Monday.
The examination of state, federal and local expenditures for capital cases, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimated that the additional costs of capital trials, enhanced security on death row and legal representation for the condemned adds $184 million to the budget each year.
The study's authors, U.S. 9th Circuit Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Loyola Law School professor Paula M. Mitchell, also forecast that the tab for maintaining the death penalty will climb to $9 billion by 2030, when San Quentin's death row will have swollen to well over 1,000.
In their research for "Executing the Will of the Voters: A Roadmap to Mend or End the California Legislature's Multi-Billion-Dollar Death Penalty Debacle," Alarcon and Mitchell obtained California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records that were unavailable to others who have sought to calculate a cost-benefit analysis of capital punishment.Photo: Michael Graham Richard
The Future We Want Is Already Here, It's Just Unevenly Distributed
There's little doubt in my mind that compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) will turn out to be just a transitory technology. While they are a significant improvement on incandescent bulbs (which are better at producing heat than light), they remain a bit too fragile and hard to dispose of to be the lighting's 'holy grail'. Light emitting diode (LED) lights, on the other hand, could very well be the answer we've been looking for: They're very efficient, turn on instantly, last a long time (decades!), and don't contain easily dispersed toxins (mercury free, lead free, RoHS compliant). Let's have a closer look at GE's 9W 'Energy Smart' LED lightbulb. Read on for more info and photos.
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
The first thing that one notices when looking at the GE LED bulb is the strange shape of the heatsink. It's quite different from the Qnuru LEDs, but it seems to be doing a good job dissipating heat. The first question that people ask me when I show them these bulbs is: "Why do they need a heatsink? Are they that hot?" The simple answer is that LEDs are more heat-sensitive than incandescents, so while they produce a lot less heat, they still need to dissipate it faster to remain at their peak operating temperature.
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
Heat is the Enemy of LEDs
What's clever about the shape of this heatsink/radiator is that is allows light to escape on the sides and bottom of the bulb, making it a better replacement for a CFL or incandescent bulb (more on that below).
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
Some specs:
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
The GE LED bulb has a limited warranty of 10 years, but it's rated at over 22 years on the box, and it wouldn't be surprising at all if this was actually a conservative number. This means that some of us might be putting our LED bulbs in your will...
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
While GE says the bulb will save you $85 over its life, that's compared to a 40W incandescent. That number would be lower compared to a CFL, but it could also be higher since in my experience the GE 9W LED can replace a 60W bulb, not just a 40W.
That number will also become much higher in a few years when LED bulbs cost a lot less. If the GE 9W LED was the same price as a CFL, savings over the life of the bulb would make it a great investment, as well as the greenest way to get light other than the sun.
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
Light Quality and Directionality
Above is the GE 9W LED. It's a 'warm white' bulb, and the quality of the light is impressive. I don't really have anything bad to say about it compared to the quality CFLs that I've been using before. There's no strange red or blue tint to the light and it mixes well with other non-LED bulbs.
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
And this one is the Qnuru 9W LED (warm white version) in the same lamp.
The way the camera adjusts to light makes it a bit harder to see in the photos, but the GE light is more omnidirectional, sending a lot more light downward and to the sides of the bulb. Whether this is a big plus will depend on what kind of lamp you want to use the LED bulb with. If it's a torchiere, it won't help much (see below), but if it's a reading lamp like above, the GE definitely has the advantage.
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
This is the GE bulb in a torch lamp. In person, it's more obvious than on this pic that a lot of the GE bulb does a good job, but that a more directional LED bulb (like the Qnuru below) would do a better job of lighting the room.
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
Here's the Qnuru 9W LED bulb in the same lamp. Again, it's a bit hard to see on the pic, but in person, it does light the room a bit better.
For reviews of other LED lightbulb models, see the links below:
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
See also: Philips AmbientLED 17 Watts LED Lightbulb (Product Review)
See also: Qnuru 6.4W and 9.2W LED Lightbulbs (Product Review)
See also: FIRST Green 'e-Watt Saver' 7W LED Lightbulb (Product Review)
See also: Philips AmbientLED 12.5 Watts LED Lightbulb (Product Review)
Price: Right now these bulbs are $50 if you buy them straight from GE. That's too expensive for most people, but in a few years I'd be surprised if these or similar bulbs weren't selling for under $5-10.
Thanks to GE for providing the review unit.
If you like this article, you can follow me on Twitter (@Michael_GR) and Stumbleupon (THMike). Thanks.
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Quantum Dots Make LED Lightbulbs Emit More Pleasant LightNot long ago, every defection from Syria’s armed forces was hailed as yet another sign that the country’s military was about to collapse—and with it, the regime as a whole. In a dramatic public countdown, Al Jazeera installed an animation on its website featuring every single defector, as if to show that it was only a matter of time until the army was depleted from desertion and low morale.
Today, the Syrian armed forces are not only still standing, they are progressively reconquering lost territory. How is it possible that a military organization plagued by defections, allegedly doomed by its pluralist character, and embattled in a civil war is still fighting?
For a start, desertions are not what breaks an armed force’s neck. True, the Syrian military has suffered abandonments—estimates vary between 20,000 and 100,000, or between 15 and 50 percent of the original force. But desertions during combat are quite frequent in any force. In Napoleon’s Grande Armée, in Prussia’s army, and on both sides of the American Civil War, some 20–30 percent of fighters decided they had had enough. In contemporary Iraq, even before the Islamic State came into the picture, the country’s army had peacetime desertion rates of 25 percent, which climbed to 50 percent in combat situations.
Even in highly professional forces, desertion remains a phenomenon: 6 percent of the U.S. military and 5 percent of the British Army deserted during the years they spent in Iraq. In a civil war, the number of soldiers going absent without leave always increases.
Desertions mainly show that the troops are not in sync with the institution’s task or the way it performs that task. But absconders do not necessarily jeopardize a force’s operational capacity. Even the desertion of high-ranking officers does not entail a breakdown, although it can hurt morale.
In Syria, high- and low-ranking officers, including the former defense minister and general Ali Habib Mahmud, have deserted as much as the rank and file. But the officers did not take their units with them, which would have had a major impact. More dangerous than desertion, which is the decision of an individual, is disintegration.
When whole units break away from the force, it is an indication that the military’s backbone, namely cohesion and the command-and-control structure, is no longer working. Instances of military disintegration occurred in Libya in 2011, in Lebanon in 1984, and more recently in Iraq. So far, such a trend has not been witnessed in Syria.
In an effective move to prevent disintegration, the Syrian military has disbanded several brigades that were low in strength and has locked down those units it deemed vulnerable. Desertion has left the armed forces with the most committed troops and, paradoxically, has therefore strengthened cohesion in the remaining ranks rather than weakened it. The Syrian armed forces might have lost men, but the structure is still standing.
What is more, the Syrian military is not using all of its units but relies only on those that were always geared for internal repression and regime protection: the Republican Guard, the Special Forces, and the 3rd and 4th Armored Divisions—the first two of which are de facto commanded by Maher al-Assad, the president’s brother. Presumably 50–80 percent staffed with members of Syria’s ruling Alawite sect, these units are said to comprise 50,000 troops, bolstered by volunteers from Hezbollah and Iran.
But the sectarian factor in the Syrian conflict should not be overemphasized. The goal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father, who was president before him, has not been to promote Alawi beliefs but to protect their regime. Assad Sr. ousted Salah Jadid, another Alawi and the country’s de facto former leader, and did not hesitate to imprison, execute, or dismiss Alawi officers he deemed distrustful.
Instead, the regime has successfully played the military card to foster cohesion. Damascus has glossed over Alawi overrepresentation in the officer corps with the appointment of Sunni chiefs of staff and has bound officers in a highly personalized way, often directly to the president. Although the current civil war is dragging Syria further into sectarianism, the regime itself is surviving on the myth of the opposite—Syrian nationalism.
The fact that none of the units of the Syrian armed forces has responded to repeated calls for a coup shows not so much that there is no desire in the military to oust Assad but rather that the regime has successfully “coup-proofed” the armed forces and kept the relevant units close to its chest. To stage a successful coup, a mere 2 percent of troops or one brigade will suffice, provided they are the right units in the right place. As it happens, all such units are under regime control.
All things considered, the Syrian army has adjusted well to the challenge of an internal war, in both a tactical and a doctrinal sense. Although battered and injured, the military seems capable of crushing the rebel forces. Yet it will be numerically impossible to maintain peace in a country of Syria’s size with the remaining forces, as peace enforcement is a much more manpower-intensive business than war. The Syrian military might just win the war, but it cannot win the peace.
Florence Gaub is a senior analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies.“Either with Anarchy or with authority” by the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire (Greece)
Inter Arma received and translated:
Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, 25th day of hunger strike – Either with Anarchy or with authority.
It’s already been 25 days that the mother of Christos and Gerasimos Tsakalos and the girlfriend of the second one are locked up in the cells of democracy.
We have already been for 25 days on hunger strike until death, demanding their immediate release.
It’s been 25 days and already eight of us are in hospitals with their health condition on the limits.
25 days are not just a number on a calendar, it is the experiment of evolution of repression, with new methods of emotional blackmail against imprisoned anarchist urban guerrillas.
This is not the first time the cardinals of “justice” set up an Inquisition against relatives of imprisoned urban guerrillas. It has happened before in the past, with persecuted relatives who were ultimately acquitted in courtrooms, after they were led as trophies by the police, on the altar of media and journalistic cannibalism. But this is the first time that repression is applied with such intensity against relatives, unleashing pogroms. Three arrests, two detentions and a case file that remains open.
The velvet laws of democracy in a period of leftist management of authority, imposed their own coup, that not even the military junta had dared to impose. During the military junta, when a fugitive and wanted enemy of the regime found shelter in a relative’s house, not even the military judges dared to persecute or imprison their relatives. Today, however, democracy is revealed in an increasingly fascist and vindictive way. Even the illusions of freedom, retreat now. It wears the iron chest of law, to ensure its tyranny. It attacks by imprisoning relatives, counter-terrorism laws, hood-laws, persecutions even for political texts, increased power of the judiciary and the counter-terrorism agency, TV-trials with journalists in the role of prosecutors, raids and searches in houses… This is the background of democratic freedom.
Repression, then, is not just a word. It is not only handcuffs, investigators and locked prison doors. It is, above all, a social relationship. It is a constant promise and guarantee of the balance of power’s horror. So, this is why we say that the case of the detention of our relatives is not just a personal matter. It is the management of fear and an emotional blackmail which starts from the individual, to reach the collective. The goal is one: the complete isolation and permanent elimination of the choice of the anarchist urban guerrilla.
The power and its system knows, now, that the arrests and imprisonment of unrepentant anarchist urban guerrillas will not lead us to any surrender or truce. Even prison, can become the laboratory of subversive situations for people whose captivity did not extinguish the flame of freedom inside them. It is another thing for one to be arrested and another to surrender. The only way that the system invented to neutralize us, is to isolate us politically, through journalistic slander, and to make us hostages, held not only by the State BUT also by our choices, which now have an impact on our associates, leading them to prison.
Currently, the blackmail of authority is clear: We either make a truce or our relatives will remain in prison. These are the practices of real organized crime and mafia…
Towards the terror dilemma, we answer with the dilemma of dignity and combat – they will either release our relatives, or they will deal with the torching of social peace, on the background of the hunger strike and the interactive relationship of combat and the attack it creates.
Of course, repression has an expansionary intention, as it wishes for fear to take up every possibility of subversive relationship and action. The pre-trial detentions of our relatives work as the forefront of fear, aiming to generalize it. It is no coincidence that, in the investigative offices, they possess and have checked the books of the visits we had in prison since 2011… It is no coincidence that in the courts against us, not only is the name of everyone present kept in the cops’ files, but they’re also “mapped” (even photographed) by the counter-terrorist officers and the undercover cops inside the court room. So, the message is clear- since they didn’t hesitate to imprison our relatives, then every comrade in solidarity can be found captive in an investigative office because they helped us financially, because they sent us a letter, because they talked to us… Here’s the point where the puzzle of repression is being set up. The counter-terrorism law describes exactly this condition – “Whoever helps morally or financially a terrorist organization, can be charged with being a member of it”. The more indefinite power is, the more totally it governs… So, the counter-terrorism law wished to repress every expression of solidarity. In what other way could the term “moral help” be interpreted? This way, everything is placed on the vice of repression. Moral help can even be to send a book to a prisoner or distribute a text of theirs, or even to publish it on counter-information sites. The same goes for the financial help. Collectives funding political prisoners for their living inside prison, can be targeted.
The wager set against the onslaught of fear is demanding and unconditional. We can reverse the terms and make fear change side. Towards the fear of repression, we can stand up with the stubbornness and the decision to attack, with no truce. The beginning of the judicial coup that imprisoned our relatives can be the starting point of a restart of rupture and battle for total liberation. The hunger strike is a mound of dignity against the suffocating siege of laws. The hunger strike can work as a detonator that may trigger a fairly heterogeneous explosive mixture. It is a meeting point that, on the background of the invasion of the police and judicial state, it connects people of fight, regardless of the individual starting points, the specialties and one’s differences. In no case do we promote the fake “unity”, projecting the collective amnesia of the ruptures that have taken place. It is not a fake “all together”, but an imperative “now it is the time to act”. The challenge set by the enemy with our relatives’ imprisonment, goes over the individuals’ likes and dislikes and this is why it can release a huge dynamic. The dynamic of the sharpening of the constant anarchist attack against every form of power. There, in the attack does one discover him/herself and his/her desires. And we can argue again tomorrow, if we want… But, today, it is time for decisions.
Either with Anarchy or with authority
HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL DEATH FROM 2/3,
FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE CCF MEMBERS’ RELATIVES
NO TRUCE, LONG LIVE ANARCHY
Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – FAI/IRF,
Prison Cell
Tags: Athens, Christos Tsakalos, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire : Imprisoned Members Cell, Gerasimos Tsakalos, Greece, Hunger Strike, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, Repression, SY.RIZ.A.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2015 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Prison Struggle.CLOSE A Texas woman was arrested for fraud after a local sheriff threatened charges of disorderly conduct for a crude anti-Trump sticker. The woman says she believes the real reason for her arrest was for having the sticker. USA TODAY
A Texas woman was arrested a day after a local sheriff threatened to press charges against her for a sticker on her pickup that read, "F--k Trump." (Photo11: Mumemories, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — A Texas woman who donned a "F--k Trump" sticker on her truck was released from jail Thursday night, a day after a local sheriff threatened to press charges against her for the display.
Mike Fonseca said his wife, Karen, was picked up Thursday afternoon for an outstanding warrant from August. He posted her bond Thursday night, and she was released from jail about an hour later.
Records show Karen Fonseca is accused of fraud. The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office said they made the arrest after getting a tip about the warrant.
Karen Fonseca made headlines Wednesday after Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls threatened to arrest her for the anti-Trump sticker on her pickup. Records show Karen Fonseca is accused of fraud.
The sticker says “F--k Trump and f--k you for voting for him.”
Read more: Chinese rooster statue looks a lot like Trump
Nehls posted a photo of the truck on Facebook Wednesday: "I have received numerous calls regarding the offensive display on this truck as it is often seen along FM 359. If you know who owns this truck or it is yours, I would like to discuss it with you," the post read. "Our Prosecutor has informed us she would accept Disorderly Conduct charges regarding it, but I feel we could come to an agreement regarding a modification to it."
After the story went viral and thousands of commenters defended the sticker as free speech, Nehls deleted the post.
“The objective of the post was to find the owner/driver of the truck and have a conversation with them in order to prevent a potential altercation between the truck driver and those offended by the message. Since the owner of the truck has been identified, the Sheriff took down the post,” a Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said Thursday.
The Fort Bend County District Attorney said his office had no plans to file charges over the sticker.
“It’s hard to believe that a simple sticker could cause so much arousal,” Fonseca said Thursday before her arrest. "I have no regrets."
She and her husband have had the sticker for nearly a year.
"I'm almost certain it does have to do with this," said Karen Fonseca after her release. "People abuse the badge, and in my opinion, money talks. When you're in politics, people know how to work the system."
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2APsL9zDilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
The Kansas City Chiefs are the best NFL team that no one is talking about this offseason.
Coming off a 7-9 record and having fired their head coach, it's easy to see why some might be underrating the Chiefs.
However, Romeo Crennel and his crew have a legitimate shot to win the AFC West and make a playoff run this season.
Newcomer Eric Winston believes the Chiefs are well on their way:
I think we have the right personnel, we have the right coaches and we have the right scheme to be successful. I think we just have to keep pushing and keep moving towards that goal and have to just work through that part as we go.
Winston, of course, is the source of many fans' excitement this season, as the top right tackle in the "Bleacher Report 1000" chose Kansas City over a host of other teams to solidify an already young and talented offensive line. With Winston in the fold, the Chiefs will be moving toward a zone-blocking scheme, which should help the rest of the line as well.
Winston isn't the only big addition to the Chiefs this offseason, as Scott Pioli kept himself busy in free agency.
Rob Carr/Getty Images
Peyton Hillis moves from Madden coverboy and overall disappointment in Cleveland into the thunder role to Jamaal Charles' lightning in Kansas City. Hillis should be both an immediate and long-term improvement over Thomas Jones.
New offensive coordinator Brian Daboll will have his hands full figuring out how to get both on the field along with uber-weapon Dexter McCluster, but there are certainly worse problems to have.
Speaking of second chances, Kevin Boss faltered in his one-year stint as an Oakland Raider, but the Chiefs signed him as insurance for Tony Moeaki, who spent last year on injured reserve.
Boss, only 28, clearly has skill as both a blocker and pass catcher. If he can return to the type of player he was in a New York Giants uniform, the Chiefs could reap some serious benefits.
Over on defense, Crennel's squad took a big hit, losing Brandon Carr, who signed a five-year, $50 million contract to take his talents to Dallas. However, the Chiefs moved quickly (and shrewdly), signing Stanford Routt from Oakland. He isn't going to play as well as Carr did, but If Routt can keep the penalties under control, Kansas City's defense shouldn't miss a beat.
Al Bello/Getty Images
In the draft, the Chiefs surprised with their selection of Dontari Poe (NT Memphis) 11th overall. A phenomenal athlete, Poe is a classic boom-or-bust prospect. If he pans out, the Chiefs will find themselves with one of the more impressive 3-4 fronts in the NFL.
If Poe fails, the Chiefs would have to mix things up, but they have solid depth (if not as massive bodies) in guys like Allen Bailey and Ropati Pitoitua.
Second-round pick Jeff Allen (OT/OG Illinois) can back up a number of offensive line positions. Add in Winston and third-round pick Donald Stephenson (OT Oklahoma), and the Chiefs offensive line (once a serious weakness) has both talent and depth.
The rest of the Chiefs' draft was somewhat nondescript, but Devon Wylie (WR Fresno State), Cyrus Grey (RB Texas A&M) and Junior Hemmingway (WR Michigan) add talent and positional flexibility to a young and potentially explosive offense.
Of course, for the offense to be truly explosive, Matt Cassel has to start showing some of the talent that led Pioli to offer him more than $60 million in 2009. A Pro Bowl injury alternate in 2010, Cassel regressed in 2011, leading the Chiefs to a 4-5 record before landing on injured reserve.
Yes, he was without his starting running back (Charles) and tight end (Moeaki), but with the aforementioned added depth, he's officially run out of excuses.
The defense gets their quarterback back in 2011 as well as Eric Berry, who spent 2010 on IR after a promising rookie season. Berry's elite ball skills, paired with an elite pass-rushing front seven in front of him, could equal a lot of extra possessions for the Chiefs this year.
Of course, even with Berry on the bench last year, the defense was not a problem. Perhaps the most impressive feat of 2010 (and the reason Romeo Crennel was such a no-brainer for the head coaching position) was the Chiefs defense giving up only 328 points—best in the AFC West. When you consider the injury to Berry and the impotence of the offense, it's easy to predict better things ahead.
Looking around the division, the Chiefs have a window for success. Kansas City was fourth at 7-9 last season but only a game back from every other team in the AFC West.
This year, Peyton Manning isn't a sure thing like he used to be, and the rest of that Denver team could take some time to get acclimated to the new offense. Oakland has their own coaching and front office turmoil to deal with. San Diego has the talent but has been backsliding recently, putting Norv Turner solidly on the hot seat in 2011.
Are the Kansas City Chiefs a sure thing this year? Of course not, but with a host of young talent and a great offseason to build off of, they are solid playoff contenders with a bright future ahead of them.
Follow @Schottey
Michael Schottey is an NFL Associate Editor for Bleacher Report and an award-winning member of the Pro Football Writers of America. He has professionally covered both the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions, as well as NFL events like the scouting combine and the Senior Bowl.Missteps to Avoid in Medical School Admissions (Getty Images) Between standardized test scores, undergraduate grades and extracurricular activities, there are many opportunities to strengthen – or weaken – medical school applications. Here are 10 mistakes to avoid when seeking admission to an M.D. or D.O. program. 1. Not Knowing How Many Applications Are Required
1. Not Knowing How Many Applications Are Required (Steve Debenport/Getty Images) Unlike most graduate school programs, medical school admissions include two sets of applications. Primary applications usually ask for test scores, undergraduate grades and letters of recommendation; secondary applications tend to ask applicants for multiple essays. If their primary applications pass muster, applicants must be ready to also submit a secondary application to continue in the admissions process. 2. Overestimating Your Competitiveness
2. Overestimating Your Competitiveness (Hero Images/Getty Images) Some premeds are too confident about their competitiveness as applicants and apply to schools that are out of reach. Reviewing the average MCAT scores and GPAs for students accepted at the institutions on an applicant's radar is one way for applicants to lessen their chances of rejection, experts say. 3. Applying Too Soon
3. Applying Too Soon (Image Source/Getty Images) Submitting medical school applications following junior year of college may be a mistake for some premeds, especially if waiting would give them more time to improve an MCAT score or undergraduate grades. Applying after the fourth year of undergrad may be a better option for some. 4. Slacking on MCAT Preparation
4. Slacking on MCAT Preparation (Sally Anscombe/Getty Images) An applicant's score on the Medical College Admission Test is one of the most important parts of an admissions package. Allotting just a few days for studying likely won't cut it, experts say. Instead, applicants should plan to study for at least three months. 5. Neglecting Volunteer Opportunities
5. Neglecting Volunteer Opportunities (Hero Images/Getty Images) Volunteering is one way applicants can demonstrate their interest in health care and community service. Applicants should be careful not to spend too little time doing an activity, such as one day helping at a nursing home, or assume an overseas opportunity is better than volunteering locally. Sticking with the same activity for a few months is best, experts say. 6. Discounting Postbaccalaureate Programs
6. Discounting Postbaccalaureate Programs (David Schaffer/Getty Images) While it's common for students to go straight from college to medical school, a postbaccalaureate program may be a better option for students whose science grades don't represent their passion for medicine. Premeds looking to improve their understanding of chemistry or physics, or simply boost their MCAT score, can consider a postbaccalaureate program, which often helps candidates get into medical school. 7. Writing a Lackluster Personal Statement
7. Writing a Lackluster Personal Statement (Getty Images) In between studying for premed classes, applicants should also devote a few days or weeks to crafting a personal statement. A poorly written essay may show a lack of self-reflection or focus too much on a candidate's past achievements, one expert says. A well-written statement will tell a story that details an applicant's specific goals and accomplishments. 8. Stumbling Through an Interview
8. Stumbling Through an Interview (CaiaImage/Getty Images) The interview is usually the last step of the admissions process, and an ill-prepared candidate can botch it by not having a memorable response to a question like "Why do you want to be a physician?" Applicants should be prepared to discuss their unique qualities that will help them contribute to the medical school community and the medical field. They should also have a handful of questions they'd like to ask. 9. Choosing the Wrong Letter-Writers
9. Choosing the Wrong Letter-Writers (JGI/Tom Grill/Getty Images) Every applicant needs letters of recommendation, and it's easy to choose the wrong people to write them. A well-known professor or school administrator who doesn't know an applicant personally is an example of a poor choice, one expert says. Applicants should instead choose recommenders whom they know well and can speak to their potential as medical school students. 10. Pushing Off Research Opportunities
10. Pushing Off Research Opportunities (Westend61/Getty Images |
Wichita, he declared Nifty Nut House, the candy and nut shop at 537 S. St. Francis, “a national treasure.” And he stands by that declaration, three years later.
He even has a souvenir.
“You can’t forget that little squirrel,” he said of the shop’s logo. “I still sleep in that T-shirt.”
▪ On always wishing he could stay longer: “I always seem to meet fun people,” Brown said. “When we get to Wichita, we look around and say, ‘Wow. We have a lot to do. And that’s just the places we know about. In some towns, we look around and think, ‘Wow. This is going to be a long day.’”
▪ On making his list of Wichita restaurants to visit in October: Brown will again be dropping in on Wichita restaurants when he visits in October. Where he goes is up to his fans.
Sometime in September, he’ll ask fans to tell him where he should visit, and will ask them to answer him on Twitter using a special hashtag. The restaurants that get the most mentions will get a visit from Brown.
“We go where my fans tell me to go,” he said. “I hope that there are some new things, and if there aren’t, if people send me to the places I’ve already been in Wichita, I’m okay with that.”
Among the restaurants he visited based on hashtag mentions in 2014: Espresso to Go Go, Old Mill Tasty Shop, Little Saigon, Riverside Cafe, Reverie Coffee Roasters, the Donut Whole, Tanya’s Soup Kitchen, Public at the Brickyard and Nifty Nut House.
▪ On his other favorite Midwestern town: “My other favorite is Des Moines, Iowa,” he said. “Des Moines has just got a dynamite food thing going on, and one of my favorite restaurants in the U.S. is in Des Moines: Fong’s Pizza. It’s an old-school Chinese takeout joint that became a pizza/tiki joint. It’s freaking magnificent. I love the place. I make sure that Des Moines is on my tours just so I can go there.”
SHARE COPY LINK Baristas from around the Wichita area compete for the title of best latte artist. Video by Denise Neil with additional footage by Alexis Jungman, Sasha Keehn and Caroline Keehn.Female Muslim medical students choose faith over safety
Women students in several English hospitals have refused to roll up their sleeves to scrub up before surgery or treating patients because Islam dictates that baring the forearm is immodest behaviour. This contravenes new Department of Health guidelines that stipulate all doctors must be bare below the elbows in order to combat the spread of potentially lethal infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
Universities including Liverpool, Leicester, Sheffield and Birmingham have reported students objecting to the guidelines.
The Secular Medical Forum will be urging the GMC to clarify the extent to which students are permitted to let their beliefs compromise their practice, and ultimately patient health and safety.
The Forum — and the NSS — are concerned that the ethical basis of the medical profession that puts the need of the patient before personal belief or prejudice is being eroded. Students are trained with tax-payers’ money and have a duty of care to their patients that these objections ignore.
08 February 2008The European Commission, the civil service of the EU, announced earlier in February that cryptocurrency exchanges will come under the scope of the Europe's Anti-Money Laundering Directive. It also said it will examine the possibility of "applying the licensing and supervision rules of the Payment Services Directive (PSD) to virtual currency exchange platforms, as well as virtual wallet providers".
Feeling the need to do something in response to the attacks in Paris a few months ago, the French have clearly been rattling the cage of the other 27 member states in the European Council made up of European heads of state, including Prime Minister David Cameron.
The fabled anonymity of crypto is being conflated here with anonymous pre-paid cards. It is known one of the Paris attackers used a pre-paid card to pay for his hotel room before carrying out his attack.
In this regard, European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said: "We want to improve the oversight of the many financial means used by terrorists, from cash and cultural artefacts to virtual currencies and anonymous pre-paid cards, while avoiding unnecessary obstacles to the functioning of payments and financial markets for ordinary, law-abiding citizens."
I'm sure the solicitors in the audience would probably not disagree with the statement that quickly made law, rapidly made law, is often bad law - Sian Jones
Sian Jones, of the European Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology Forum, has given evidence before the European Parliament, attempting to dispel some of the myths surrounding virtual currency.
She said the parliament's approach had been measured before the events in Paris happened; it was conducting research into cryptocurrencies before taking any legislative steps. A report was being written with a view to consider voting on this in April.
"There has been a significant change in pace and tone," said Jones. "The Council in December called on the Commission to come up with an action plan to deal with security in Europe. The Brussels bureaucrats coming back from their Christmas break decided that there wasn't an awful lot that they could probably do: terrorism tends to be a matter for intelligence; it tends to be a matter for law enforcement.
"So they have dusted off a few topics that it was felt that they could do something about, and money laundering and combating terrorist financing legislation does emanate from Brussels so they have run with that."
Cryptocurrency came to the attention of Europe's lawmakers when the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive was drafted in 2015. At that point it was decided virtual currency does not fit very well with the directive and it can be looked at separately at some point in the future.
Jones said: "But now, under pressure to do something and come up with an action plan, it's been decided that virtual currencies should sit at the top of a target list of things that it wants to do something about, and more importantly to do something valid in a short order of time. In other words proposed legislative amendments to both the AML Directive and possibly also the Payments Services Directive by June this year.
"So we've gone from a long leisurely lope to a very fast gallop across Brussels trying to piece together, cobble together some might say, some very urgent legislation."
Jones was speaking to an audience heavy with lawyers at a BBLF technology event hosted by CMS Cameron McKenna LLP. She added: "I'm sure the solicitors in the audience would probably not disagree with the statement that quickly made law, rapidly made law, is often bad law."IDEAS Barker is the author of Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Your mind races. Your palms sweat. The words don’t come out of your mouth right, if they come at all. We’ve all been there at one time or another. And some of us get it worse than others, and more frequently. Social anxiety.
Nobody wants to look stupid or be embarrassed. But since it’s not like your life is on the line, why is social fear so bad? There’s an answer…
While it’s hard to remember what a broken arm feels like, it’s quite easy to remember all the times you felt mortified in public. So it’s not surprising that research shows social pain is actually worse than physical pain — because you can relive it over and over again:
Individuals can relive and reexperience social pain more easily and more intensely than physical pain. Studies 1 and 2 showed that people reported higher levels of pain after reliving a past socially painful event than after reliving a past physically painful event.
And the old saying is true: often the fear itself is much worse than whatever you’re afraid of. Research shows being afraid you’re going to lose your job can be worse than actually losing your job:
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…perceived job insecurity ranks as one of the most important factors in employees’ well-being and can be even more harmful than actual job loss with subsequent unemployment.
And the advice you usually get on how to deal with fear is dead wrong. What happens when you suppress your feelings?
Your ability to experience positive feelings goes down — but not negative feelings. Stress soars. And your amygdala (a part of the brain closely associated with emotions) starts working overtime.
From Handbook of Emotion Regulation:
…experimental studies have shown that suppression leads to decreased positive but not negative emotion experience (Gross, 1998a; Gross & Levenson, 1993, 1997; Stepper & Strack, 1993; Strack, Martin, & Stepper, 1988), increased sympathetic nervous system responses (Demaree et al., 2006; Gross, 1998a; Gross & Levenson, 1993, 1997; Harris, 2001; Richards & Gross, 2000), and greater activation in emotion-generative brain regions such as the amygdala (Goldin, McRae, Ramel, & Gross, 2008).
But there’s a way to deal with fear and anxiety that neuroscientists, the ancient Stoics and mindfulness experts all agree on. And it’s not that hard. Let’s get to it…
Read more: How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert
How To Make Fear Less Scary
There are a number of specific techniques for reducing those awful anxious emotions:
Mindfulness recommends “noting” troublesome thoughts like fear. Recognize and accept them to let them go.
Neuroscience advocates “labeling.” (Frankly, this is a lot like noting but backed by some PhD’s and an fMRI.)
Stoicism has “premeditation.” That’s when you ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and realize it’s not that bad.
Neuroscience also recommends “reappraisal.” This is reinterpreting your feelings with a new story that makes them less scary.
A random bunch of tips? Nope. So what do they all have in common?
You gotta use your brain. You gotta think. Some might reply, “I am thinking, I’m thinking about all the awful stuff that could happen if I embarrass myself. In fact, I can’t STOP thinking about it!”
But you’re not thinking. You’re reacting. Fight or flight. Like an animal would.
Look, our ancestors didn’t spend millions of years climbing to the top of the food chain so we could respond the same way a lizard does. We have this shiny new prefrontal cortex and can use it to fight fear.
In fact, you already have and you probably didn’t realize it…
Ever had so much going at once that something which would normally scare you just doesn’t? That’s not random. When your thinking brain — the prefrontal cortex — is highly engaged, it slams the brakes on feelings.
And you can use this trick deliberately. Anything that gets you thinking actively can smother anxiety:
…resources that are used to perform a cognitive task are no longer available for emotional processes. Accordingly, people can rid themselves from unwanted feelings by engaging in a cognitive activity, such as doing math equations (Van Dillen & Koole, 2007), playing a game of Tetris ( Holmes, James, Coode-Bate, & Deeprose, 2008), visualizing scenes such as sitting in a double-decker bus driving down the street (Rusting & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1998), sorting cards ( Morrow & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990), responding to colored lights ( Christenfeld, 1997), or filling out bogus questionnaires ( Glynn et al., 2002).
(In fact, this effect is so powerful, I recommend you don’t think too hard when you’re feeling good — because it can suppress those happy emotions just as easily.)
Now we’re talking about social anxiety, and it’s not like you can start doing your taxes at a party to feel less anxious. That’s okay. We can do one better. What should you think about?
Your fears. Yeah, it’s a cliche, but it’s true. “Face your fears.” Actively. With your brain switched to “on.” Neuroscience research shows when we avoid scary things we become more scared. When you face your fears they become less frightening.
From Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges:
Brain imaging findings suggest that extinction may involve a strengthening of the capacity of the PFC to inhibit amygdala-based fear responses (Phelps et al., 2004). Several approaches to treating anxiety disorders such as PTSD and phobias have been shown to be effective in promoting extinction. In essence, these therapies encourage the patient to confront the fear and anxiety head on.
And that’s what each of the techniques I listed do in one way or another: they engage your thinking brain to take over for the emotional brain and get a handle on what you’re feeling. You can try them and see what works for you. Or you can put together a fear-busting cocktail combo to really drop the hammer on that anxiety.
(To learn the 7 step morning ritual that will keep you happy all day, click here.)
Alright, now that we understand the underlying brain trickery, let’s look at how each method works so you can crush that social anxiety…
Noting/Labeling
Give the feeling a name. (No, don’t call it “Phyllis.”) Just tell yourself what you are feeling. Yes, it’s that stupidly simple.
“I’m feeling anxious.” By naming it, you’re shifting gears in your brain. It’s no longer an overwhelming feeling from your emotional amygdala anymore; now that it has a label your prefrontal cortex takes the reins.
From The Upward Spiral:
…in one fMRI study, appropriately titled “Putting Feelings into Words” participants viewed pictures of people with emotional facial expressions. Predictably, each participant’s amygdala activated to the emotions in the picture. But when they were asked to name the emotion, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activated and reduced the emotional amygdala reactivity. In other words, consciously recognizing the emotions reduced their impact.
With “noting”, some mindfulness practitioners like to take it one step further and instead of saying, “I’m feeling anxious,” they say, “There is anxiety.” This sounds really weird but it makes sense through a mindfulness lens: you are not your thoughts.
Just because something goes through your head does not make it you. It’s a passing feeling; one of a zillion you have each day. No need to identify with it.
(To learn how to beat impostor syndrome, click here.)
Okay, you slapped a label on that feeling and dampened it. Bravo. But how do you really engage your thinking brain and take fear-squashing to the next level?
Stoic Premeditation
Thoughtfully observe Phyllis — I mean, your fear. Observe your fear — and actually increase it. Imagine the worst that could happen. You are stripped naked in front of everyone and begin farting showtunes.
I know, this sounds terrifying. But imagining the worst is especially useful with social anxiety. Why?
Is someone going to stab you to death for saying something stupid? No. Do you live in a tribal society where social ostracism means you will be exiled and starve to death on the savannah? No.
So you’re not really afraid of what other people will do — you’re afraid of the feelings it will cause in you: embarrassment, shame, etc. News flash: you have control over the latter. They’re in your head. And nowhere else.
Visualize the worst and you’ll see it’s really not that bad. How do I know? You laugh about some of the embarrassing things you’ve been through in the past, right? So I recommend you just start laughing now.
(To learn how to make friends easily and to strengthen the friendships you have, click here.)
You hit yourself with the worst possible scenario and you can handle it. Awesome. But you might be anxious that you’re still going to feel anxious. Fine, fine. We got another arrow left in the quiver.
And this one’s powerful. This guy is the tactical nuke when it comes to dealing with fear and anxiety…
Read more: New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy
Reappraisal
Most people think their feelings are realer than real because they’re so visceral. We have a hard time denying what we feel.
Well, that’s wrong. Just because you feel it doesn’t make it real. Feelings aren’t a satellite dish receiving signals of eternal truth. Feelings come from beliefs. Change the beliefs and the feelings change.
From Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long:
In one of Ochsner’s reappraisal experiments, participants are shown a photo of people crying outside a church, which naturally makes participants feel sad. They are then asked to imagine the scene is a wedding, that people are crying tears of joy. At the moment that participants change their appraisal of the event, their emotional response changes, and Ochsner is there to capture what is going on in their brain using an fMRI. As Ochsner explains, “Our emotional responses ultimately flow out of our appraisals of the world, and if we can shift those appraisals, we shift our emotional responses.”
You say something at a party. Everyone starts laughing. You think they’re laughing at you. How do you feel?
Hold on, my bad, turns out their laughing with you. Now how do you feel?
See? Change the story and your feelings change. Harvard researcher Shawn Achor taught bankers to reappraise “stress” as a “challenge.” What happened? Here’s Shawn:
We watched those groups of people over the next three to six weeks, and what we found was if we could move people to view stress as enhancing, a challenge instead of as a threat, we saw a 23% drop in their stress-related symptoms. It produced a significant increase not only in levels of happiness, but a dramatic improvement in their levels of engagement at work as well.
Similarly, when I spoke to a Navy SEAL, an Army Ranger and a Special Forces instructor, they all said that reappraising their arduous training as a “game” — rather than something that would make or break them — was key to getting through it.
(To learn the science that will make you better at flirting, click here.)
Yay, we’re done… Actually, not yet. As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Rather that treating your fear, wouldn’t it be better to not have it in the first place?
What’s one of the primary sources of this anxiety? And how can we nip that in the bud?
Don’t Be An Opera Singer
When you’re feeling anxious in a social situation a lot of thoughts are going through your head: Will I bore them? What do I say? What if I embarrass myself? How do I impress them?
See a pattern here? Your brain sounds like an opera singer warming up: ME ME ME.
When I spoke to Robin Dreeke, former head of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Program, what did he say was key to connecting with people? Suspend your ego. Here’s Robin:
Ego suspension is putting your own needs, wants and opinions aside.
And Robin’s right. Don’t worry about impressing or not-screwing-everything-up. Research shows when people are meeting someone new they don’t evaluate the interaction by what you said — they evaluate it based on how well they think they performed.
So do you see the problem here? Why so many conversations are awful? Because your brain is going ME ME ME and their brain is going ME ME ME. You need to break the cycle. So try: YOU YOU YOU.
When you’re focused on yourself, you are literally being self-conscious. And that breeds the fear and anxiety. So focus on the other person. It’s simple: listen to what they have to say and ask them to tell you more.
It will make the person you’re talking to happier. Studies show people get more pleasure from talking about themselves than they do from food or money:
Talking about ourselves—whether in a personal conversation or through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter—triggers the same sensation of pleasure in the brain as food or money…
And it’ll probably make you happier:
Researchers… found that happy people are ten times more likely to be other-oriented than self-centered. This suggests that happiness is a by-product of helping others rather than the result of its pursuit.
I know what the super-anxious are wondering right now: But how do I reply? I might say something stupid.
Allow me to “reappraise” this for you and “make it a game.” Below is the empathy scale researchers use to score replies. More points are better.
Via The Art of Conversation: A Guided Tour of a Neglected Pleasure:
6: Shared feeling/experience 5: Confirmation of an emotion’s legitimacy 4: Pursuit of the topic 3: Acknowledgment 2: Implicit recognition (but changing the topic) 1: Perfunctory recognition (autopilot) 0: Denial/contradiction
Aim for 5’s and 6’s.
5’s give people emotional validation. And we all crave that. When they talk about feeling scared, you respond, “That sounds terrifying.”
And 6’s are what turn acquaintances into close friends. Sharing feelings. “Same thing happened to me. It was awful.”
And that’s how you start to go from ME ME ME to YOU YOU YOU to — finally — US US US.
(To learn how to be loved by everyone, click here.)
We have covered a lot. (And you have been an excellent listener — you didn’t interrupt me once.) Let’s round it all up and learn how even if everything goes completely wrong and you do embarrass yourself, that can be a good thing…
Read more: New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful
Sum Up
Here’s how to overcome social anxiety:
Use yer brain : When you’re thinking more, you’re feeling less.
: When you’re thinking more, you’re feeling less. Note or label : Give the emotion a name and it won’t overwhelm you, Phyllis.
: Give the emotion a name and it won’t overwhelm you, Phyllis. Premeditate : “What’s the worst that could happen?” It won’t. And it’s not that bad.
: “What’s the worst that could happen?” It won’t. And it’s not that bad. Reappraise : Change the story and your feelings change. Stress can be a challenge. Adversity can be a game.
: Change the story and your feelings change. Stress can be a challenge. Adversity can be a game. Don’t be an opera singer: Me Me Me to You You You to Us Us Us.
In a classic study, researchers had subjects evaluate three job candidates. One had lousy scores, the other was nearly perfect, and the third had the same rankings as the perfect one but during the interview he spilled coffee all over his suit. Guess who they thought most highly of?
The fumbler. Why? He seemed more approachable. He wasn’t so perfect as to make people envious. Being too impressive can backfire. Perfect is too perfect.
So put your brain to work fighting that fear. And get out of your head and into their head. You’re not the only one who feels socially awkward. Help others feel relaxed and you’ll find you relax too. And stop trying to impress…
You don’t need to be interesting. You need to be interested.
Join over 275,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.
This article originally appeared on Barking Up The Wrong Tree.
Contact us at editors@time.com.The so-called “White Student Union” created at the University of California, Santa Barbara has released a list of demands parodying the aggressive demands made by Black Lives Matter activists around the country.
Although it identifies itself with UCSB, the school’s White Student Union currently only exists as a Facebook page, and is not a school-recognized organization. In fact, it’s not even certain the group was created by a current UCSB student, or that it’s a genuine “group” rather than the work of one person.
Despite its lack of any official (or even physical) presence, on Tuesday night the group released a list of demands for UCSB administrators, which appear to serve as a humorous parody of the demands made by black activists at the University of Missouri, Princeton University, and elsewhere.
“We, students of Europe@n descent at UCSB, refuse to accept the negative social climate created towards our peers of Europe@n descent and other marginalized groups,” the demands open. “We have begun this movement, UCSB White Student Union, in an effort to change the status quo for a more just and inclusive environment within our campus.”
The use of the “Europe@n” label appears to be mocking the “Latin@” label preferred by some Hispanic activists who want to avoid the gendered nature of using “Latino” or “Latina.”
Other demands from the list include:
-Creating four “white-student only rooms” to serve as safe-space housing for “Europe@n” students. The new safe space is to be dubbed the “Hernan Cortes housing commons.”
-Creating a resource center for white students, complete with safe space, dubbed the “Napoleon Bonaparte Resource Center.”
-Hiring two admissions staff members of “non self-hating Europe@n descent” who will oversee an effort to recruit more white students to attend UCSB. This recruitment effort will have the remarkably precise budget of $300,371.
-Equipping campus police to patrol campus and punish those who use offensive phrases such as “OMG, you are so white,” “Wow, I bet you get sunburned really easily!,” “Don’t eat this; it’s too spicy for you,” and “Surrendering like a Frenchman!”
-A ban (under penalty of expulsion) on all of the following party themes which “trigger white identities”:
Charlie Sheen Theme; a France Theme; a Britain Theme; a St. Patrick’s Day Theme; an Irish Theme; a Scotland Theme; a Spain Theme; an Andorra Theme; a Switzerland Theme; a Swiss Theme; a Belgium Theme; a German Theme; an Austria Theme; an Italy Theme; a ‘King and Queen’ Theme; a Catholics vs. Protestants Theme; a George Washington Theme; a Colonial Theme; a Pirate Theme; a Denmark Theme; a Finland Theme; an Iceland Theme; a Portugal Theme; an Oktoberfest Theme; a Ukraine Theme; a Belarus Theme; a Hungary Theme; a Slovakia Theme; a Czech Republic Theme; a Norway Theme; a Croatia Theme; a Bulgaria Theme; a Russia Theme; a Serbia Theme; a Greece Theme; a Netherlands Theme; a Luxembourg Theme; an Albania Theme (especially as relates to the movie ‘Taken’); and so forth.
-The creation of mandatory White Cultural Competency Training to train students and staff not to accidentally offend white students.
-A written apology form UCSB’s faculty and staff for not doing enough to create a “safe space” for whites on campus.
WSU demands that UCSB meet its demands by the second week of the winter school term, or else “we will organize and respond by respectfully complaining.”
Despite the clearly satirical tone the group has generally been taking, some UCSB students aren’t laughing.
“‘White’ heritage is racism,” student Trina Lazzara told the Santa Barbara Independent. “The concept of ‘whiteness’ was created by and for self-proclaimed ‘white’ people for the sole purpose of enslaving, oppressing, killing, and excluding people of color in America and elsewhere. If you disagree, read a few history books.”
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.WWF's report, Climate Change: Faster, stronger, sooner, has updated all the scientific data and concluded that global warming is accelerating far beyond the IPCC's forecasts.
As an example it says the first 'tipping point' may have already been reached in the Arctic, where sea ice is disappearing up to 30 years ahead of IPCC predictions and may be gone completely within five years - something that hasn't occurred for a million years.
The findings include:
* Global sea level rise could more than double from the IPCC's estimate of 0.59m by the end of the century.
* Natural carbon sinks, such as forests and oceans, are losing their ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere faster than expected.
The Telegraph
Sumgayit used to be the New Jersey of the Soviet Union—the town was the nation’s center of chemical and pesticide production. Today, it is still feeling the aftereffects of years of untreated, mercury-contaminated waste dumped directly into streams feeding the Caspian Sea. Cancer rates in the city of 275,000 are sky-high.
PopSci
The WWF is learning all about how non-linear systems work:Nature, and complex non-linear systems, work like the mouse you use on your desktop: the farther you move it, the faster it accelerates.This accomodates big changes in position without forcing you to move slooowly, constantly for too long, because that's less likely to happen.The downside is that the environment hippies of the 1970s were right -- we were screwing it up then and if we didn't stop, the problem was going to get out of hand. We're inheriting a past mess and since we haven't turned around in time, we now have at least another decade of making it worse before we get our act together.Of course, the environment hippies were wrong in that they thought "education" and some songs about peace strummed on acoustic guitars could convince people. That's not so. You need to force the average person to face reality, because they enjoy avoiding reality as much as possible.When you look at humanity from that view, you can see how persecuting drug users is a result of our hypocrisy. Our entire society is stoned on illusion. Let's go beat up some junkies.Just for fun and seeing the human consequences of our oblivion, here's a link to a slide show about polluted cities. Check out the diversity, breadth and sheer mass of our pollution. We really are #1 in this area. Take that, fish!Has anyone else noticed how Social Media Week has quickly become Content Week? Like the Napoleon of marketing buzzwords, content is consuming every other discipline: social, inbound, and – heck – even programmatic. All the more reason for you to be up on the latest trends with The Content Strategist. (Also because it’s my job to attract more readers, and you guys want me to excel at my job, right? Right?!)
Wired‘s Evan Hansen. Newsweek’s Dan Lyons and Melissa Lafsky Wall. PandoDaily’s Hamish McKenzie. USA Today’s Michelle Kessler. The list of big-name journalists jumping ship to brands just keeps growing. The Strategist‘s Natalie Burg takes a deep dive into the driving forces behind the trend.
If Mark Zuckerberg is a landlord, then Upworthy, one of his most popular publishing tenants, just got kicked to the curb. But like any feisty New Yorker, they’re fighting back. Understanding the driving forces behind Facebook’s recent algorithm changes is crucial for any content strategist.
Contently co-founder Shane Snow reveals the 9 startup habits that will make you twice as successful, not to mention employable. You don’t want to miss this one. Trust me.
Like an expert craftsperson, Zady, the 8-month-old site that sells “clothes with a conscience,” has storytelling woven into everything it does—literally every item on the site includes the in-depth story behind it.
This week, Zady launched the Objects With Meaning (#omw) campaign, which encourages the Zady community to share the “few pieces so intertwined with our personal narratives that they are truly cherished,” via Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, or Pinterest, using the #OWM hashtag. The campaign is becoming a case study in how to spark user-generated content that forges emotional connections.
CPG marketers find themselves at a crossroads, cognizant that they must adopt non-traditional methods to reach modern consumers who increasingly ignore coupon books and TV ads. Deciding what type of content to create, though, is a difficult task. Faced with a dizzying array of options, successful CPG brand publishers have tried a little bit of everything to figure out what works best.
A select few have broken through and achieved wild success.
Contently arms brands with the tools and talent to become great content creators. Learn more.This past Sunday workers demolishing a former telescope factory in Pittsburgh were surprised to find a 19th century time capsule in the cornerstone. Now the demolition company is claiming that it has every right to keep the capsule — along with the incredibly cool telescope artifacts that they found inside.
Image courtesy of Al Paslow
The time capsule included the photo above dated August 1894, apparently showing workers from the Brashear Telescope Factory. The Brashear Company, founded by astronomer Dr. John A. Brashear, manufactured not only telescopes but other scientific equipment from the 1880s until the early 20th century. By the 1940s the building was being used to make bombsights for the U.S. military.
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While most time capsules have little more than a few newspapers, some photographs, and maybe a book or two, this one also contains some pretty unique items from the 1890s. Items like the piece of optical glass seen below, which the demolition company would now like to call their own.
Photo by Al Paslow
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Jadell Minniefield Construction Services is the company that was hired by the city to destroy the building at a cost of $235,000. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, but was condemned shortly thereafter. The city issued an emergency order to destroy the building last week after one of its walls collapsed onto an apartment building next door.
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But now Jadell Minniefield doesn't want to hand over the time capsule that it found to the city of Pittsburgh. And it claims that it has no legal obligation to do so.
"We have a contract, and it basically states that any salvage belongs to the contractor," Odell Minniefield Jr. told the Post-Gazette. Minniefield says that the 10-person demolition and construction company received a call from the city's legal department that "wasn't courteous."
But the city of Pittsburgh insists that the company's claims are nonsense, and that it's the rightful owners of the time capsule — which includes the optical glass which has writing on it proclaiming it to be, "one of the first pieces of optical glass made in America." The rest of the writing has been too smudged to make out clearly.
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"The city is reviewing its legal options and will do all it can to preserve this artifact for its rightful owners, the people of Pittsburgh," Tim McNulty, a spokesman for Pittsburgh's mayor told the Post-Gazette. "Pittsburgh already suffered one heartbreaking blow when the historic Brashear building had to come down for safety reasons, and it is sad that someone would consider taking economic advantage of this tragic situation."
The city wants to preserve the capsule and claims it would like to put its contents on display — pretty standard stuff for time capsules. But the Minniefiled company says that for now the capsule will remain in its control under lock and key. We probably haven't heard the last of this time capsule tug-of-war. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]The new Netflix sitcom Atypical has been billed as a sensitive look at the problems autistic people face in the dating scene. The eight-episode series centers on a middle-class, suburban family with two kids—one of whom, Sam, is smart, nerdy, autistic teenager dipping his toes into romance for the first time.
That sounds like a good set-up for a show that questions our cultural ideas of what’s “normal” and what’s not. But instead, Atypical portrays autism through a series of tired male nerd stereotypes. The result is a show that mires everyone—autistic and neurotypical—in the same dreary gender roles as ever.
In real life, women, queer people, and people of color can be autistic. But as Matthew Rozsca writes at Salon, an autistic individual onscreen is “nearly always as a white, heterosexual male.” Often, autism is effectively treated as a kind of accentuation of (white, heterosexual) male traits. In The Accountant, for example, Ben Affleck plays a hyper-intelligent, emotionless assassin. His autism just makes him a more James Bond-y James Bond.
Sam’s autism makes him hyper-male in slightly different ways. His difficulty in reading emotional cues means that he has trouble connecting with and understanding women. The result is a heightened play on Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Why does that girl at school ask Sam to study with her when they’re both getting A’s? When his therapist teaches him to dance, does that mean that she loves him? In the show’s reading, Sam isn’t atypical. He’s everyman, struggling to interpret the bizarre signals put out there by those confusingly emotional women.
As autistic blogger K. Gallagher told me, in media it is almost always men who are shown as having trouble with social cues and communication. “Women,” she says, “can never have social difficulties of our own.” Instead women’s problems boil down to “just not getting how hard it is for men to talk to us.” It becomes women’s job to initiate lovably clueless men into social norms. Thus, in Atypical, a black woman stripper gives Sam some sage words of advice and expose her breasts to him for free while she’s on break because she finds his honest ignorance so adorable. Her only purpose in the story is to use her sexuality to help Sam self-actualize.
Sam’s autism is presented in gendered terms as an inability to read women. So any time he treats women badly, the show presents his actions as a symptom of his autism. Sam goes to one girl’s room to have sex, then panics and hits her. He tells his girlfriend that he doesn’t love her and breaks up with her in front of her entire family, right before prom. He sneaks into his therapist’s apartment—but when she is upset and confronts him, the show portrays her |
When thousands of iPhone owners descended on Austin, Tex., in March during South by Southwest, an annual technology and music conference, attendees were unable to send text messages, check their e-mail or make calls until AT&T installed temporary cell sites to amplify the service.
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AT&T’s right to be the exclusive carrier for iPhone in the United States has been a golden ticket for the wireless company. The average iPhone owner pays AT&T $2,000 during his two-year contract — roughly twice the amount of the average mobile phone customer.
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But at the same time the iPhone has become an Achilles’ heel for the company.
“It’s been a challenging year for us,” said John Donovan, the chief technology officer of AT&T. “Overnight we’re seeing a radical shift in how people are using their phones,” he said. “There’s just no parallel for the demand.”
AT&T says that the majority of the nearly $18 billion it will spend this year on its networks will be diverted into upgrades and expansions to meet the surging demands on the 3G network. The company intends to erect an additional 2,100 cell towers to fill out patchy coverage, upgrade existing cell sites by adding fiber optic connectivity to deliver data faster and add other technology to provide stronger cell signals.
As fast as AT&T wants to go, many cities require lengthy filing processes to erect new cell towers. Even after towers are installed, it can take several months for software upgrades to begin operating at faster speeds.
Photo
The company has also delayed bandwidth-heavy features like multimedia messaging, or text messages containing pictures, audio or video. It is also postponing “tethering,” which allows the iPhone to share its Internet connection with a computer, a standard feature on many rival smartphones. AT&T says it has no intention of capping how much data iPhone owners use.
The upgrades are expected to be completed by next year and the company has said it is already seeing improvements.
But AT&T faces another cost — to its reputation. AT&T’s deal with Apple is said to expire as early as next year, at which point other carriers in the United States would be able to sell the popular Apple phones. Indeed, a recent survey by Pricegrabber.com found that 34 percent of respondents pinpointed AT&T as the primary reason for not buying an iPhone.
“It’s a P.R. nightmare,” said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
AT&T might be in the spotlight now, analysts say, but other carriers will face similar problems as they sell more smartphones, laptop cards and eventually tablets that encourage high data usage.
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Globally, mobile data traffic is expected to double every year through 2013, according to Cisco Systems, which makes network gear. “Whether an iPhone, a Storm or a Gphone, the world is changing.” Mr. Munster said. “We’re just starting to scratch the surface of these issues that AT&T is facing.”
In preparation for the next wave of smartphones and data demands, all the carriers are rushing to introduce the next-generation of wireless networks, called 4G.
Analysts expect that in a year or so, AT&T’s network will have improved significantly — but it may not be soon enough for some iPhone owners paying for the higher-priced data plans, like Mr. Sbicca, who says he plans to switch carriers as soon as the iPhone becomes available on other networks.
“What good is having all those applications if you don’t have the speed to run them?” he said. “It’s not exactly rocket science here. It’s pretty standard stuff to be able to make a phone call.”Get the biggest football 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
Chancel Mbemba has vowed to keep wearing his famous tuxedo for Newcastle games.
The suit and bow tie combo — hastily bought from a Next store after manager Steve McClaren ordered his players to turn up at St James’ Park looking smart — has been a huge hit.
The Congolese defender strolled up for his debut not afraid to stand out from the crowd, just like his refreshing attitude to life.
This is a £8million buy who sends 10 per cent of his earnings back home —singling out the sick for help.
“Back home, if you don’t have any money [for treatment in hospitals] you will simply die,” he said. “That is why I give money to help people, because I can’t let that happen.”
(Image: Stu Forster)
This is a qualified sparky who loves to buy cables and electrical goods to practice his trade at home.
It has been a long journey from the “suffering” he saw as a child in Kinshasa, DR Congo’s capital, to being a multi-million pound new summer recruit for Newcastle.
But despite the slick James Bond-esque look he hasn’t forgotten his roots — or the little boy he was, aged three, playing street football.
First, THAT tuxedo, which made worldwide news after he rocked up for Sunday's season-opening draw with Southampton.
He said: “Every player needs to look smart before the game, we were told. So I bought the first suit I saw and it was the one I wanted to wear.
“That is the only suit I have, so I might have to wear it all season! I saw that other players wear ties. I don’t really like them, so I though I’d wear a dicky bow. And that suits me.
“I have seen that picture, pretending I’m James Bond, but that wasn’t the reason why I did it. I did it because the manager said, 'Look sharp on match days' — so I did!”
Mbemba speaks with emotion about helping his family — four sisters and four brothers — and friends back home.
He revealed: “As long as I am here, I will try my very best to send some money each month. When you grow up in Kinshasa, you see the suffering people go through. I know because I lived there and I have seen it hurts, because I have lived it myself.
“I am here to do my job, and to do my the best I can to help these people. When I give to them, their prayers are answered. It helps me to know I have helped someone else. I just want a nice quiet life and give to my family and give to those who need it most.”
In pictures — Newcastle 2-2 Southampton:
When he arrived in Belgium three years ago, he spoke only his local dialect, Lingala, and learned to read and write in French from scratch.
In case his football career didn’t work out, he also came armed with a trade.
He said: “Before I started playing football you had to study. I liked doing electrician jobs. We had to get basic skills and it interested me.
“I did it for fun at home, too! I would buy light bulbs and cables and work to learn. If I move to a flat this week, I can install all the electrical things myself.”
But there wasn’t much doubt that he’d come good, because he refused to take a day off training.
Mbemba explained: “If we had training on a Monday and a Tuesday, and we were off on a Wednesday, I wasn’t just going to sit around at home doing nothing.
“I wanted to work hard. You have a choice in life, and if you work hard it pays off. The reason I am here now is because of that.
"I started out kicking a ball in the streets, like everyone does around the world. I was playing with friends and one said I was playing well and to come to the local team, La Grace.
“They liked me after a trial and I went to train with them.
(Image: Reuters)
"What is important is to make sure football is a leisure activity. You never know where it is going to lead.
“People would say it is a God-given gift, playing football, and I didn’t understand. I kept asking, 'Why? Why?' They said if you want to be one of the great African players this is how it works, you have to go out and play for fun.
“I spent two years at a third division team, the next year at the next division and after 15 matches they said, 'You will play for Anderlecht'. I thought, 'Three years [with the Brussels club], then get in a very big league' — no disrespect to Belgium.
“Now I want to help improve the team and improve myself. I am not one of the best players in the world, there are better. I am learning from senior players at Newcastle who are teaching me every day on the pitch.
“It is great to be included by them. Everyone, the team and staff are working together to make progress and get up the league.”For investors worried about the health of emerging economies, India's gross domestic product data for April-June should supply some cheer on Monday - the country is expected to remain the fastest growing major economy for a second straight quarter.
The median estimate from a Reuters poll of economists put GDP annual growth at 7.4 % in the quarter, just below 7.5 % in January-March.
If the number is that high, it will be a boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose image as the country's economic saviour has taken a beating after his struggle to pass his legislative agenda.
But doubts persist over India's new way of calculating GDP, introduced early this year, even though the method gained an endorsement from the World Bank's chief economist. With the changed method, India's growth topped that of China in the first quarter this year.
Still, India's robust headline growth does not square with the not-so-rosy ground reality.
"Growth momentum has improved in the last two years," said Kaushik Das, an economist with Deutsche Bank. "But the pace of recovery has been frustratingly slow."
Monday's data is expected to fuel hopes in New Delhi of taking the baton of global growth as China's economic slowdown deepens.
New investment commitments
However, with an economy only one-fifth the size of China's, India is in no position to support the global economy as its northern neighbour has.
Blessed with a huge domestic market and a large cheap workforce, Asia's third-largest economy has an opportunity to get more investment.
Lured by its prospects, iPhone maker Foxconn this month announced a $5 billion investment in India.
The announcement came days after Sony Corp. shipped its first made-in-India television sets, and General Motors <GM.N> unveiled a plan to spend $1 billion to expand its main plant.
"It is India's moment," junior finance minister Jayant Sinha said.
But very few believe it can seize the moment without making land, labour, bank and tax reforms.
Modi swept to power in last year's general election on a promise of speedier growth creating millions of manufacturing jobs.
But just 15 months after that electoral triumph, disenchantment has set in. Businesses are getting restless with slow progress in removing the hurdles that have stymied growth.
Parliamentary paralysis
Political acrimony, meanwhile, has left parliament paralysed. The last session ended without passage of a single reform legislation.
Shilan Shah, India economist at Capital Economics, described the washout session as a "missed opportunity".
Yet India is on mend. Robust growth in indirect tax receipts points to a nascent revival in manufacturing sector. Foreign direct investments are up 30 % from a year earlier.
However, the improvement in the economy is in large measure due to a crash in global commodity prices, which has cooled inflation and helped narrow the fiscal and current account deficits.
Sure, urban consumption demand is picking up, but rural consumers remain glum. With capacity utilisation rates showing no signs of improvement, firms are not in a hurry to invest in new plants and machinery.
Festering problem of bad loans, meanwhile, has impeded credit flow and delayed full transmission of interest rate cuts. The Reserve Bank of India has cut the policy repo rate by 75 basis points since January, but banks, in response, have lowered lending rates by just 30 basis points.
"Key structural reforms remain crucial for a sustained pickup in economic growth," analysts at Yes Bank said in a note.
First Published: Aug 31, 2015 09:51 ISTStable Nougat for OnePlus 3 and Nougat Open Beta 1 for OnePlus 3T Are Here
OnePlus fulfills its last promise of 2016
OnePlus promised we’d see Android Nougat hit the OnePlus 3 before the end of the year, and that the OnePlus 3T would see an Android Nougat beta when the OnePlus 3 received its stable release. With just a few hours left on the clock and barely two days after the last beta release, OnePlus delivered.
Carl Pei took to twitter to announce that they’d be releasing the Open Beta 1 for the OnePlus 3T, which is already live on their forums, and the Android N stable OTA for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T, surprisingly. Carl Pei also claimed that many members of their R&D are not taking time off to celebrate New Year.
If you are interested in the OxygenOS Open Beta 1 for the OnePlus 3T, you should visit this thread on the official OnePlus forums. If you want to jump right in, here is a direct link to the ROM — you need to sideload this through ADB. The list of changes are what you’d expect:
Upgraded to Android 7.0 Nougat New Notifications Design New Settings Menu Design Multi-Window View Notification Direct Reply Custom DPI Support
Added Status Bar Icon Options
Added Quick Launch For 3rd Party Applications
Improved Shelf Customization
Keep in mind that flashing the Open Beta will allow you to receive Open Beta OTA updates, but you will need to manually flash the stable release should you decide to change. If you are wanting to check out the stable releases for both the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T, you will have to wait for the OTA to hit your device. It’s an incremental rollout, but it’s likely that the OTA will be captured by someone in our forums, so stay tuned!
We must commend OnePlus for staying true to their promise once again; by waiting until the very last day, hype levels went through the roof among OnePlus users, but negativity was also abound as many thought it’d be odd for them to release both the stable OnePlus 3 Nougat update and the beta on the same day. Luckily, OnePlus 3 and 3T owners get to wrap up 2016 with a neat new update, or at the very least, knowledge that it’ll hit their devices very shortly.
What do you think about Android Nougat for the OnePlus 3 and 3T? Let us know your thoughts below!Republican Senator Thom Tillis leapt to the defense of multi-millionaires at Goldman Sachs, while inexplicably describing them as "little guys."
During the confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) expressed his concern for the “little guys” at the multinational financial services conglomerate Goldman Sachs.
Clayton is a Wall Street lawyer who has done work for Goldman Sachs. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pointed out during the hearing that if he secures his nomination, Clayton would have to recuse himself from SEC enforcement decisions involving Goldman Sachs. The proposition is not trivial, because as Huffington Post points out, “Goldman Sachs has faced a long list of charges that it’s run afoul of the law.”
Tillis apparently objected to this line of discussion, and when it was his turn to ask questions, he took Goldman Sachs’ side. Tillis complained about people in Congress who “want to just beat down job creators and employers” like Goldman Sachs where “there’s probably a lot of little guys.”
TILLIS: Something else that — I feel like sometimes I’m living in a reality TV version of Atlas Shrugged. There are a lot of people in this Congress that want to just beat down job creators and employers. And I just decided just on the fly — and I’m glad my staff’s able to respond to my random request — but just take a look at Goldman Sachs. People want to demonize Goldman Sachs. That’s an easy thing to do, right? Just beat up on a financial services institution. An institution that’s committed to — let me look at the general numbers here — they have 36,500 employees. There’s probably a lot of little guys in there. They’ve contributed billions of dollars to nonprofits. They’ve got a commitment to producing 150 billion — am I right? — between now and 2025, that are either capital formation for nonprofits or directly into nonprofits. Demonizing employers that employ the little guy isn’t looking out for the little guy.
Goldman Sachs is a blue-chip company that is publicly traded on the stock market, and has assets worth $860 billion. In its most recent year of revenue, it took in $37.71 billion. Multiple key government officials have come from Goldman Sachs, including former Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Hank Paulson, along with current Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Despite Trump’s rhetoric slamming the company during the campaign, four former Goldman Sachs executives serve in the Trump administration.
Describing the company, with its vast wealth and influence, as anything remotely resembling the “little guys” is a testament to the distorted view espoused by Republicans in Congress, and a stunning commentary on where the party truly stands.Paul Nehlen, who is opposing House Speaker Paul Ryan in the Wisconsin Republican primary, joined SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon on Tuesday’s Breitbart News Daily, with just hours to go before voters headed to the polls. Polls portray Ryan as the heavy favorite in the race.
Nehlen said he was in high spirits, and his campaign “war rooms” were “alive until going on four o’clock this morning.”
“I just got some great news, that I am gonna have a smile on my face all day over,” he announced. “One of the town halls that Ryan went to was A&E Tool’s, and that happened to be one of the many companies that one of my warriors was out – I don’t know if he’d be okay with me saying his name, so I’m not gonna say it, I’ll talk to him later, I’ll give you that if he’s okay with it – he blanketed that parking lot before Ryan got there with all of my door hangers. Every car, just a couple days before Ryan got there, had my door hanger under every windshield wiper in that parking lot.”
“And so Ryan showed up, and every one of those people had touched Nehlen documentation,” he said happily. “So Ryan went into that factory, and basically admitted to the world that he didn’t know how to create jobs, and started with the wonky talk to these factory guys.”
Nehlen said all of Breitbart News Daily’s “awesome listeners” should be aware he spent his entire life in factories. “People smell B.S. in a factory faster than they smell it on the farm a lot of times.”
Nehlen described Ryan’s factory appearance, and its aftermath:
So he’s up there jibber-jabbering, and they’re hitting him with questions on TPP [the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal], and as we spoke the other day, Ryan’s already trying to back away from TPP. Yesterday, when I was out in front of his office giving a presser, the first question that I was asked, and I took two questions afterwards, was, ‘Well, we just were with Paul Ryan at a factory, and one of the questions he was asked was about TPP, and he says he doesn’t support it.’ So the reporter, she said to me, ‘What do you have to say to that?’ I said, ‘I have a question for you, and you have to ask yourself this: if Paul Ryan, who is the mercenary champion, who personally whipped the votes for fast-track trade promotion authority, didn’t read it, who read it for him, and told him he needed to vote for this? The answer is, either his donors, or – I think I might have said the Obama Administration, Hillary Clinton. But I said, my answer to that is, we don’t pay Paul Ryan enough to vote for Wisconsin, or for America. His donors pay way better. So that’s who he was working on behalf of. That just goes to show you that this guy is, in fact, a soulless globalist – that he will stand in front of manufacturing workers, in front of anybody, in front of the world – and admit that he was bent, by the arc of our pressure, he was bent away from a trade plan that gives up U.S. sovereignty. I actually said that to the reporter, I said, so you mean to tell me he didn’t read something that gives away U.S. sovereignty, and brings foreign workers to our shores?
Nehlen dismissed polls that show Ryan over 60 points ahead of him as “ridiculous.”
“If you believe polls, then Great Britain’s still in the E.U.,” he recalled telling a reporter at his press appearance outside Paul Ryan’s office.
Nehlen described himself as a great fan of Breitbart News Daily, telling Bannon he listens to the show “on my phone, in my truck — when I’m riding the motorcycle, I’ve got you guys on blast, tearing through the district, or wherever I’m at. You guys are great listeners. If you listen to the listeners of your show — versus any show, really — great in-depth questions and analysis by the folks who love this country.”
Bannon noted that under pressure, Paul Ryan “turns into Paul Nehlen” by adopting his stances on issues like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“There’s one thing that sticks in my craw — he says, hey, these guys that want to do this, they don’t understand the importance of international trade, we have to have trade,” said Bannon, arguing that Nehlen manufacturing background gives him a keen understanding that “we’re part of a global system,” so it was absurd for Ryan to portray him as being completely against international trade.
“That’s right. We have the biggest market. Anybody who argues against bilateral trade agreements and a scaled tariff doesn’t get it,” said Nehlen. He offered an example from the beef industry of how poorly-negotiated trade deals turn into weapons pointed at American business owners and workers:
This country was founded on tariffs that worked for America. We roll over with things like NAFTA – which, you can’t even mark beef ‘Made in the USA beef’ any more, because we were sued under NAFTA. In my second rally in Kenosha this weekend, I pointed out to everybody that we have, now, $900 million in beef headed this direction. Why? Because Paul Ryan – who is in charge of, he is the head of the House of Representatives, the people’s house, Congress is in charge of the Commerce Clause. I mean, I quoted chapter and verse of Paul Ryan’s job description, standing up on that stage. Paul Ryan waves the Constitution around, he doesn’t even know his own job description. They are doing an end-around on TPP right now to get $900 million in beef from Brazil! I mean, they’ve got cows washing up on the shores in Rio de Janeiro right now. Of course, they’re not showing those on the Olympics, but you can see these conditions that country is under right now. God bless those people, I hope they get it turned around. But why subject Americans to eating that beef, when we’ve got great beef in this country? And we’ve got the Bureau of Land Management, and other government agencies, working against our ranchers, working against our farmers – I mean, we are under siege in almost every industry, I would argue every industry, by government overreach.
“We’ve got to get back to the 10th Amendment,” he urged. “Why do I send a dollar to Washington, in order to get 70 cents in education back, Paul Ryan? Why shouldn’t I send my money directly to Madison, 70 cents to Madison, for my education, and keep 30 cents in my pocket? I’ll tell you what, Madison, Wisconsin: I’ll give you a ten cent raise. I’ll give you a 14 percent raise, and take you from 70 cents to 80 cents, and I’ll keep 20 cents in my pocket. Let’s not send any of it to the federal government.”
Bannon noted that Nehlen had “zero name recognition 90 days ago,” but now his race against Ryan has turned into a “global media event,” because Nehlen’s campaign served to “smoke Ryan out” on trade and sovereignty issues.
“I thought that when I got on stage to debate him, I thought, ‘I am going to own him,’” Nehlen recalled. “I knew in my heart that if I got the chance to debate him, I would own him. I would strip him naked in front of everyone. And you know what? He played a smart move. I think it was smart on his part to not debate me, because I would have owned him, and he knew it.”
“But it’s sad, the level of just disdain our elected representatives have for their voters,” he said. “The Wisconsin GOP does not want – and the ‘payroll pundits,’ as your last caller mentioned – they don’t my campaign to see the light of day.”
“This campaign isn’t about me. I’ve said this over, and over, and over again. The same thing Mr. Trump has said. This campaign isn’t about Mr. Trump. It isn’t about Paul Nehlen. It isn’t. It’s about this country. And it’s about making an immigration policy that works for America first. It’s about putting together a security policy that works for America First. This isn’t about a security policy, or an economic policy, or a manufacturing policy, or a health care policy that’s, you know, TrumpCare or NehlenCare, or any of those things. It’s about America first. It’s a message that resonates with voters, and that’s why they’re trying to squelch him,” Nehlen argued.
“They’re using identity politics against Mr. Trump. They used it against me. These guys will do anything other than focus on the issue of this terrible trade deal that gives up U.S. sovereignty, or open borders that kills Spencer Golvach, that kills the Wilkersons, that kills the thousands of Kate Steinles around the world,” said Nehlen, referring to several victims of criminal assault by illegal aliens.
“The level of dishonesty, and just personal politics — Paul Ryan is the Candidate of Me,” he said. “He is all about his run in 2020.”
Nehlen recalled distributing handbills in Ryan’s voter “stronghold,” and being told by many of his constituents, “Oh, yeah, we’re going to give you a shot, we’ve had enough of this,” accompanied by the occasional hug.
“There were two negative reactions out of — there had to be 300 people there,” he said of his experience canvassing at a concert event. “One was a guy that was helping deconstruct the stage area. I handbilled it to him. He was apoplectic. He was literally about to come out of his shoes. He said, ‘Paul Ryan is a personal friend of mine. I can’t believe you’re handbilling me out here. Paul Ryan is going to be the President of the United States in 2020.’ And I laughed the deepest laugh you’ve ever heard.”
“At the same time, a buddy of mine waded into a group of bluebloods and they said, ‘We’re all Paul Ryan fans.’” Nehlen continued. “And my guy said to them, ‘So you’re for open borders, and amnesty, and giving our sovereignty away?’ And the guy says, ‘Get outta here, you D-bag!’ to my guy. And I heard it, and I started laughing again, and so did he. It was so brilliant.”
Nehlen recommended supporters visit his campaign website, ElectNehlen.com, on this final day of the primary campaign.
“It’s not too late to sign up for our phone bank,” he said. “Listen, share every good article you see, everything on your Facebook. Blast out to all your friends. Call into the district. If you have friends who you think might have friends in Wisconsin, call them. Get them out here. It’s not too late. It’s not too late to sign up, and get on that phone system, and blast this district today, to get my name out there.”
“That’s how we’re winning this. If people know there’s a choice, and they’re upset with Paul Ryan, then they’ll take a look at it,” he argued. “We’ve gotta get ‘em out to vote today. It’s critical.”
“He is definitely not a badger. He is definitely not a wolverine,” Nehlen said of Paul Ryan, denying him identification with two of the region’s more formidable animals. “He is not a badger. He is not a Wisconsin badger. He’s a snake. He’s a soulless, globalist snake, and we smoked him out of the snake hole.”
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
LISTEN:
https://soundcloud.com/breitbart/breitbart-news-daily-paul-nehlen-august-9-2016A captain needs the respect of his players for the way he has played, how he has reacted to pressure in the past and his attitude to the game. Dealing with pressure and deflecting it away from the players is one of the captain’s main roles.
Over the last two or three years Joe Root has dealt with pressure out on the field with the bat in his hand as well as anybody so the first box is ticked in terms of respect from his team-mates.
The tactical side of the job is an unknown. But Joe will think outside the box. He will be a guy who tries to be proactive out in the middle and out-think the batsman who is performing against his side.
He has in abundance that inner drive to win and achieve. You can see that from the way he plays. He does not need to change his mentality. Whacking his bat, effing and blinding when dismissed might have to go because Joe will have to understand the captain has a camera on him all the time. But you do not want to take the passion and emotion out of someone. It worked for Nasser Hussain. Virat Kohli is very in your face and does not hide out in the middle. I do not mind that at all.ES Football Newsletter Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
Sol Campbell has revealed his frustration in attempting to carve out a career for himself after football, blaming broadcasters and his former club Arsenal.
The former England and Gunners defender told Standard Sport that his efforts to both work as a TV pundit and break into coaching had been blocked. He was a pundit for Arsenal's Champions League qualifier against Besiktas in August but has since struggled to find media work and believes he is too outspoken for the industry.
Campbell, 40, said: "Sometimes they [broadcasters] don't want people to be straight with the viewers - they want people to beat around the bush and if you don't do that they don't want you.
"They want monotone, easy on the eye, be-careful-what-you-say type of pundits," he said.
"They want'magnolia' pundits. You know that bland colour of paint they use to paint walls when you rent a place out. Bland, so you don't offend anyone."
Campbell, who helped lead the club to two Premier League titles and three FA Cup crowns from 2001-2006, has also tried to take his coaching badges and sought help from Arsenal but said his requests for help from those at Emirates Stadium have fallen on deaf ears.
He claimed the Gunners had failed to respond to and is considering contacting another of his former clubs for help.
He added: "I've tried to do my coaching badges at Arsenal but they've not got back to me. I asked if I could do some of my badges there and I've had a few texts, but they've not got back to me with a firm offer to return. I'm disappointed.
"I talked to the other coaches and they're fine, but I went out to Andries Jonker [Arsenal academy coach] and he hasn't got back to me. Is it rude? I don't know.
"He's the head guy, the other coaches are fine but he's the head guy and I've got to go through him to make sure I don't tread on anyone toes but I haven't heard back.
"I'm talking about going to Arsenal once or twice a week for a couple of hours just to learn a bit about a coaching role - that's all - but I've heard nothing.
He added: "It's a shame. Look at the way they failed to utilise people like Patrick Vieira in the past. I'm disappointed but you just have to get on with it. I would have loved to do my badges at Arsenal but it looks like I'll have to go to another club to do them. Maybe I should get myself down to Portsmouth and do them there."
An Arsenal spokesman said: "We are more than happy to help Sol in gaining his qualifications and will provide him with coaching time when we can organise convenient dates."
Campbell was speaking on behalf of football addicts. Visit www.footballaddicts.com for more information on the free-to-use Forza Football and Forza 90' apps which are revolutionising the way fans engage with the sport they love.
Layth Yousif is the author of Arsene Wenger: 50 Defining Fixtures. Buy it here.Atrioc Profile Joined December 2007 United States 92 Posts Last Edited: 2013-09-21 18:21:08 September 20 2013 23:39 GMT #1
Introduction It's been five days since the Season 3 League of Legends World Championships have kicked off and already almost every popular conception about how the games would play out has been shattered. I don't think anyone expected just how much of a contest this would be right from the start - and barring a few exceptions - every single team that qualified has come out swinging with the type of skill that demands that every opponent, no matter the region, give them their full respect, analysis, and preparation to stay in the game.
So, without further ado, let's get into some of the most exciting trends we've been seeing unfold on and off of the Rift during the start of the year's biggest tournament:
The Top 5 Storylines of the Group Stage at Worlds 5 Koreans are Mortal
Cut them they bleed. Gank them they die. (Except maybe Faker!)
All throughout the League community, but especially here on TeamLiquid (where a StarCraft background has given us of opportunities to witness Korean domination) there was the very pervasive belief that Korea was going to crush this tournament and that every other region - with the possible exception of China - would be fighting for scraps.
To give an idea of the general consensus: Ozone's jungler DanDy now infamously said
By Day 1, only a few hours into the tournament, that very idea had been fractured. By Day 2, it was smashed to bits, and by now on Day 5 it's not really a surprise at all to see what was considered the strongest team in the world going into the group stage locked in a seriously contested battle against TSM. Korean teams - in a quite surprising show of arrogance - did not really give other teams the preparation and respect they deserved and are only now starting to swing back to the level of preparation we expect from them. For SKT T1, this may be the kick they needed to get started and show off their true skill. While they remain a strong favorite to make a big showing later in the tournament, for the Korean representative in Group B, Samsung Ozone, this may be a case of too-little-too-late.
Only time will tell which NaJin Black Sword will arrive - they remain a mystery even in the Korean scene, but if their coaches have any sense they are giving their upcoming quarterfinals match the utmost practice knowing now that there will be no easy games - even for Korea - at this Worlds stage.
Chinese Might Not Be 4
Let's rewind our minds to the period right after IPL5, when it suddenly became "common knowledge" that China was now the powerhouse region to watch and were soon going to dominate everyone with the strength of their unstoppable aggressive death squad meta. It wasn't until All-Stars when the cracks in this line of thinking started to show and everyone jumped off of the bandwagon, but looking back it seems like the community really may have overreacted to Korea's victory when comparing the two scenes. Any advantage that the boys from Seoul had in terms of meta/adaptation seems to have been quickly made up between then and now.
It was mentioned during one of the casts that OMG is considered the hardest working team in China, practicing insane hours and so far not falling into Korea's trap of overconfidence - and they aren't even the first seed out of the region. Royal Club and their incredibly lethal Fizz/Annie support combo are waiting in the wings with a lineup that could potentially be even deadlier than OMG. If these early groups have done any one thing, its erase the gigantic question mark "?" we had about China's potential and make it perfectly clear they are world class in all aspects of their play.
- TSM TheOddOne
Obviously it's too early to tell whether China is going to be the unstoppable powerhouse in Worlds that we all expected from Korea, but its definitely worth noting that they didn't just surprise teams for wins. OMG completely demolished them. Nobody from Group A has stood up to OMG's onslaught so far, and their dismantling of small-fry teams like GG.eu was so fast, crisp, and methodical that they looked incredibly scary even against teams they were favored to beat. At this point, it seems like their upcoming second match against SKT T1 may be the only chance of them dropping a single game in this entire group stage.
"No one is watching us, so we can continue to grow under the radar" - OMG Gogoing
While nobody may have |
as "hardy to zone 10" means that the Plant can withstand a minimum temperature of -1 C(30 F). Amore resilient plant that is "Hardy to zone 9" can tolerate a minimum temprature of -7 C(19 F). More>>
Growth Rate Fast Medium Slow
Soil Light(sandy) Medium(Loam) Heavy Heavy Clay Poor Soil
pH Very Acid Acid Neutral Base/Alkaline Very Alkaline Saline
Shade Full Semi None
Full Shade: deep woodland, a north-facing wall etc; Semi Shade: light woodland, a position that is shaded for part of the day etc; No Shade: is unshaded positions.
Moisture Dry Soil Moist Soil Wet or Boggy Soil Water Plants Well-drained Tolerates Drought
Wind Tolerates Maritime Exposure Tolerates Strong Winds Not Wind Tolerant
Tolerates Pollution Y N
Frost Tender Y N
Flowering times and types Month : Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
In Leaf : Flowering time: Seed ripens:
Flower Type Hermaphrodite Monoecious Dioecious Self-fertileMark Millar is about as on top of the world as any creator can be. The writer has a lineup of "Millarworld" comicbook titles that range from superhero to spy thriller, from viciously violent to campy fun, but all seem to share incredible success in common. He works with artists at the top of their game, and several of his properties have been made into, or are being made into, feature films, like Kingsman, starting work on a sequel now, the Kick-Ass franchise, and upcoming works-in-progress like Huck, Empress, and Starlight.
But Millar knows how hard it was to get to where he is now, and he wants to help others do it. That's what made him decide to open up his portfolio of characters to brand-new writers and artists, giving them the opportunity to get into the business. Thus, Millarworld Annual was born, a new anthology collection of short stories set in the worlds of Millar's creation, completely written and drawn by thirteen new creators looking to get into the business of comicbooks.
"The number one thing was to try and have a ladder from enthusiasm to a job," Millar told Comicbook.com in an interview about the project. "It’s a weird thing; you might be good on the guitar, but you don’t know how to form a band. It’s the same with comics. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, thousands of miles from where comics seemed to be being made, but I really, really wanted to be a part of it. There was a bit of a path [in the UK] then, with the weekly magazine 2000 AD, where Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, all the UK creators sort of cracked in through it. They had an apprentice program where new writers could pitch and get in, and from there that led to work at Marvel and DC for everyone."
While Millar admits that there are some great opportunities with "loads of companies" putting out comics independently, and web space for budding creators to put their work on the internet, it's also "nice to get paid!" he said with a laugh. He put out a call for samples, written and drawn, and received hundreds of entries from around the world. The diversity of people and locations surprised him, in fact, with "only about twenty percent of them coming form the USA. They came from Asia, from Africa, from so many countries that I really didn't know had a strong following for the books," Millar said.
"The goal," added editor Rachael Fulton, "was to make an awesome comic book annual wiht a group of talented, hard-working and enthusiastic people. Once we found those people, making the annual awesome was easy." But first came the finding. Millar and a select group of friends got together for two weeks, giving their own time "out of the goodness of their hearts" to comb through the entries, scrutinize the art, and "find the best people" out of the bunch.
"I think it would’ve been really embarrassing if I’d put six stories together and they were all rubbish," he said with a laugh. Luckily, that doesn't seem to be the case, here. "I really think all of these people can have professional careers, and I think some of them will, three or four, I think will very quickly, within a matter of weeks, be picked up by Marvel or DC. They’re really good. I think all of them are really good, professional-standard." Of course, that could mean Millar is creating competition for himself. "I never actually though of that! I'm going to have to mess these guys up before it ships!" he joked.
One thing that really blew Millar away was the quality of stories that came out of creators who not only hadn't done professional work before, but were often working completely separately, from nations far from one another, all coordinated by Fulton.
"They are an incredibly talented group of creators from all different countries and walks of life. We have a 22-year-old painter from India, a medic-turned-writer that was born in the Phillipines and lives in Brooklyn, a Nigerian artist who delivers fantastic pages despite a patchy internet connection and a Kiwi writer and beer rep based in Dumfries, Scotland - to reference just a few of the gang," Fulton said. She was shocked by the "staggering wealth of talent" that came out of the "diverse range of personalities, background, and circumstances." Many of the writers haven't seen the finished pages by the artists, and might not until Millarworld Annual is released on July 13, 2016. "We just can't wait" for the reveal, she said.
Millar, meanwhile, said it was "slightly scary" to put his own characters and creations up to these brand-new creators, as it was a definite creative risk. That fear went away when he started reading the stories, though.
"I don’t want to pick favorites, but the guy who did the Hit-Girl story (Mark Abnett, out of Scotland by way of New Zealand), I actually though, ‘this is better than mine!’ (laughs) It’s slightly scary but also made me proud as well. It must be how Stan Lee feels when he reads a really good Marvel Comic or something. It’s a lovely feeling, actually, to see your stuff done really well. I’ve never let anyone else write or draw these characters except the creators, and I think the standard has been great," Millar intimated. He also specifically called out Deniz Camp, a resident of Brooklyn born in the Phillippines' work on Starlight as "inspiring," saying he "would've been proud to have written it myself." While they're anxious for the first Millarworld Annual to get out in July, both Millar and Fulton are already looking to the future, as well, and plan to "have this public platform to get new creators out there" every year, he said. "We'll be casting our net out in October," Fulton added, "so if any budding writers or artists are reading this thinking 'That could be me next year' you are correct, and you should enter. I can't wait to be inundated with entries!" In addition to helping new creators, the Annual will also help older creators who are in need, as all profits from the book will go to the Hero Initiative. "I’d like the people to buy it for a few reasons," Millar concluded. "1, it’s really good. 2, I think these characters do really well here. 3, getting to see this new talent do a great job. And 4, the profits go to the Hero Initiative and help creators who need it. There’s something quite poignant as well, about young creators just starting out doing something that’s helping people who need the cash that did the books they loved growing up." Millarworld Annual will be in stores July 13, 2016. Full creator bios and a gallery follow.
Satine Zillah [Cover]
Born in 1991, I come from Slovakia but I'm currently living in the Czech Republic.
I spend most of my days working on comic interiors and covers but mostly comissions. Besides that I'm a lecturer of comic and drawing courses at an art school.
Previous Work:
-Dangerous Game comic written by James Mascia (will be released this year)
-Covers for Only Human comic horror series
-Currently working on my own comic book Havoc
Complete portfolio can be seen here:
http://satinezillah.weebly.com/
Mark Abnett [Writer, Hit Girl]
A New Zealander living with a South African in the south of Scotland.
With a background in PR and Advertising, Mark has travelled the globe with stints in Australia, Canada and England tending bars, selling magical elixirs and marketing said elixirs to the lucky public.
The Millarworld community gave me the confidence to share my creative work and begin a journey that has allowed those juices to start flowing again.
Ozgur Yildirim [Artist, Hit Girl]
Ozgur lives in Istanbul and has been drawing comic characters since he was five years old. He's also an industrial designer; and since 2002 has worked as a graphic and concept designer as well as a storyboard artist. Now, thanks to The Millarworld competition, he's been given the opportunity to show his work. He hopes this will be the start of his comic career.
https://www.instagram.com/ozguryildirim_/
https://www.facebook.com/Ozgur-Yildirim-140816892635991/?ref=br_rs
https://www.behance.net/ozguryildirim
http://ozgur-yildirim.blogspot.com.tr/"
Cliff Bumgardner [Writer, American Jesus]
Cliff Bumgardner is a writer, filmmaker, and Co-Founder of InternetPicnic.com — the biggest little website you’ve never heard of. HIs other work includes numerous screenplays, short stories, and the upcoming original comic series Gearslammer. He’s still waiting to be shaken awake and told he has to get a real job.
Also available at www.cliffbumgardner.com
Steve Beach [Artist, American Jesus]
Lives with three dudes in a house in Philly. His first published work was for the Vertigo Horror Anthology the Witching Hour. For the past year he has been drawing the web comic, The Lost Boys of the U-boat Bremen with writer Phillip Johnson.
stevebeach.tumblr.com
twitter.com@stevebeach
Myron [Artist, Kingsman]
Myron Macklin does design, makes comics and uses the same language to do both. He gets most excited when connecting the dots. Myron wrote and drew The Zoo Act, an original crime comic (thezooact.com) and is co-writer/producer of The Midnight Show: a story, talk and commentary podcast (midnightshowradio.com). He dates his wife and walks his dog in Charlotte, NC.
Philip Huxley, [Writer, Kingsman]
Philip Huxley hails from South East London where he grew up on a steady diet of John Carpenter films, arcade machines and heavy metal. As well as developing a career as a portrait artist and painter, Philip’s passion for writing has led to him gaining several video game writing credits on major titles including the Killzone franchise and most recently Batman: Arkham Knight, which won Best British Game at this years BAFTAs. He is also developing several film projects with his brother Neil Huxley, an LA based director.
Deniz Camp, [Writer, Starlight]
Baby Deniz Camp was rocketed away from the Philippines and raised in the American heartland. After a lifetime of study in science and medicine, he abruptly changed directions and became the writer of such comics as MURDER ONE, WAR INTELLIGENCE, and MAXWELL’S DEMONS, which can be found on his website at www.denizcamp.com. He currently lives with his girlfriend and 13 chickens in Brooklyn, NY and can be reached on twitter at @mdesaad.
Pracheta Banerjee, [Artist, Starlight]
Pracheta Banerjee, from India, was born on Sep 20 1994. She is currently studying at St. Xavier's College. She is a self-taught artist who decided to take up painting seriously at the age of 11. She moved from traditional to digital painting five years later. She is influenced by a wide range of styles, especially those from the East. Her first book was published in November 2014, Project Cirrus.
She was featured among 101 Top Female Illustrators From India and is among India's leading illustrators.
Ifesinachi Orjiekwe [Artist, Kick Ass]
My name is Ifesinachi Anthony Orjiekwe Adrian, I am 23 years old and I live in Nigeria. I am an aspiring comic illustrator, and a freelance storyboard artist. I started drawing when I was little and always loved watching cartoons. I would also create my own characters and make my own comics, and hope to one day make my own animated TV show. My creativity is fueled by things happening around me, my work focuses a lot on storyline, I enjoy creating art that has a lot of visual story telling,also because I am largely influenced by animation. You can check out more of my works athttp://ifesinachi.deviantart.com/ http://ifesinachiadrian.tumblr.com/ or on facebook as Ifesinachi Adrian Orjiekwe.
Ricardo Mo [Writer, Kick Ass]
Ricardo lives with his family in Bournemouth, UK. He writes while you sleep. Twitter: @RicardoMoTron
The first issue of Propeller, his series with Alberto Muriel, is available for free download here: https://gum.co/prop1
Shaun Brill [Writer, Chrononauts]
Shaun lives in Bristol in the UK. Raised on The Beano and Simpsons comic books as a child, it was reading Watchmen while studying for his degree in Creative Writing that rekindled his love of comics, and he has been reading and writing them ever since. He can be found on twitter at @ShaunDBrill.
Conor Hughes [Artist, Chrononauts]
Conor Hughes is an graduate of the School of Visual Arts with several published pieces and has worked in the cartooning, illustration and design field. He draws from a wide range of influences and loves effective story telling. He's always happy to hear from people and can be reached via conortheartist@gmail.com
cnrhus.com
cnrhus.tumblr.comPrelude
To my friends, hello! It’s been a long time since I’ve done a legit blog article and I wanted to share some new items I received in the mail. It’s from an online vendor called Originative!
Now, before you guys start drooling over your keyboards, I’d like to just take a moment to say “thank you” to Sherryton for providing some early access to new keyboard merchandise. All of you should be expecting some big things from Sherry. He has come a long way in the mechanical keyboarding realm and it goes to show you, hard work always yields something good. And in this case, something original too! (I know, I’m very creative) (Get it? Original, creative…Originative!)
• • Originative American • •
Back in the GOOD Geekhack days (pre-Asia Mod Team), only a few select people sported rare merchandise. Other people, like me back then, only had access to things like KBC/KBT keycaps (engraved, lasered, PBT, thin!*!*@*!, etc., rainbow wtf) and a few select SP novelty keys. Ah damn, those were the days when I spent hours on sixty’s old website. Anyway, all you new people got it good. You should be happy!
Originative is an online vendor that sells Mechanical Keyboards and their accessories. They specialize in rare and custom items such as Cherry reproduction keycaps (ABS and now dyesub!), Korean custom weight springs, switch stickers, and a lot of other stuff. If you haven’t checked them out, click the link above and take a look. Don’t worry, I won’t be mad that you went to another website while reading this.
Now, by definition I think of “Originative” as a combination of two words: original and creative.
o·rig·i·nal: Used or produced at the creation or earliest stage of something.
cre·a·tive: Relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas.
When you start offering items as unique as they do, it all makes sense. So what did I get? Well let’s take a look…
First up, the BSP/Cherry PBT dyesub keycaps. These are a collector’s dream items and are normally very hard to come by, not to mention pricey. I’m talking like $300+ sometimes. Anyway, I bought a red and black set for a little over for $100 each. Good price, and seemingly better quality than other PBT sets from imsto. On the KMAC above, I’ve mixed in a few keys from the original DESKO set. Yes, I know my Insert/Delete and Home/End keys are in the wrong place!!!!
The Red KMAC above has all the standard keys that come out of the box with the exception of the spacebar. You’ll notice a few key (word play bonus+1) differences between the set above and the original Cherry set (if they made a red version):
Print Screen and Pause/Break have different legends
F5-F8 use white base
F and J have nipples instead of scoops
Tilde is also a different legend
and If you spot any others, lets me know!
But that’s not all I got. I don’t normally like blue all that much, but one day I decided that to try out the “Olivetti” set since it was easy enough to buy one. What do YOU think?
Now these next keycaps I’ve had for a while, but it gave me an opportunity to take more pics of my LZ SE. As you’ll see, I’m still a big time noob at taking pictures. Without a dedicated light system at home, I have to depend on the sunlight…and well…it’s not always dependable. The pictures didn’t come out as good as I hoped, but maybe you guys will like them. These keycaps are called the “Sanctuary” set, a custom project with SP. While the base color looks black, it’s actually a very dark charcoal with red legends.
Annnnnnd lastly, I also snagged a set of BSP RGB dyesubs (in B-profile) to fit on my LZ MX SE. Since the Dolch set uses B-profile, I wasn’t able to fit it with my DESKO RGBs, so this was just perfect.
Suffice it to say, I’m very happy with all the stuff I bought. I’ve finally reach a collector’s dream of owning Cherry dyesubs. If you haven’t tried them yet, or any form of PBT dyesubs, I’d HIGLY recommend them. This is no bandwagon, this is simply the epitome of quality.
• • • •
More pictures below: (or http://imgur.com/a/BsIdO)
AdvertisementsMany giant Ice Age species have gone extinct by a perfect storm of a rapidly warming climate as well as humans. These species included elephant-sized sloths and massive sabre-toothed cats that roamed the windswept plains of Patagonia, southern South America.
Research led by the Australian centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) at the University of Adelaide published their complete study in Science Advances journal. Their study revealed that it was only when the climate began to warm that the megafauna suddenly began to die off about 12,300 years ago. This was long after humans made their way to the area.
Both the exact timing and specific cause has long remained a mystery for centuries. Study leader, Professor Alan Cooper the ACAD Director, says Patagonia turns out to be the Rosetta Stone. It shows us that human colonization did not result in the extinction but only as long as it stayed cold. Instead, over 1,000 years of human occupation passed before a rapid warming event began to take place, and then the megafauna were extinct within less than a hundred years.
Researchers studied DNA that had been extracted from radiocarbon-dated bones and teeth that were discovered in caves across Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The findings were used to trace the genetic history of the populations. Species including the South American horse, giant jaguar, sabre-toothed cat and the massive one-ton short-faced bear were found widely across Patagonia but seemed to disappear a short period after humans began exploring the area.
The pattern of increasingly fast human colonization through the Americas, coinciding with contrasting temperature trends in each continent, allowed the researchers to disentangle the relative impact of human arrival and climate change.
Professor Chris Turney from the University of New South Wales says the America’s are unique in that humans moved through two continents, from Alaska to Patagonia, in a mere 1,500 years. As they did this, they passed through distinctly different climate states (warm in the norm and cold in the south). Because of this, we can contrast human impacts under the different climatic conditions.
The only big species that was able to survive were the ancestors of today’s llama and alpaca (known as the guanaco and vicuna) and even these species almost went extinct during the time period.
Lead author of the study Dr. Jessica Metcalf from the University of Colorado Boulder says the ancient genetic data shows that only the late arrival in Patagonia of a population of guanacos from the north saved the species, all other populations became extinct.
Dr. Fabiana Martin from the University of Magallanes says in 1936 Fell’s cave, a small rock shelter in Patagonia, was the first site in the world to show that humans had hunted Ice Age megafauna. It seems appropriate that we are now using the bones from that area to reveal the key role of climate warming, and humans, in the megafaunal extinctions.BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Michel Temer elevated his infrastructure investment secretary to a ministry-level position on Thursday, granting a degree of legal protection to a trusted confidant implicated in a sweeping corruption investigation.
Brazil's Vice President Michel Temer (L) listens to Moreira Franco during a meeting with members of the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB) in Brasilia May 7, 2015. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
Wellington Moreira Franco, a close adviser to the president, will also be responsible for communications and ceremonies, the presidential spokesman told journalists. He will retain his infrastructure role at Cabinet level.
The promotion highlighted Temer’s confidence in Moreira Franco, who, according to a source, had drafted a resignation letter in December after plea bargain testimony in a major graft probe implicated him in illegal campaign fundraising.
Moreira Franco denied any wrongdoing or intentions to quit. His new position in Temer’s Cabinet means any case against him must be tried by the Supreme Court, which has a long backlog of cases.
Temer’s spokesman also said the president was appointing lawmaker Antonio Imbassahy as his minister in charge of relations with Congress, replacing Geddel Vieira Lima, who stepped down in November amid allegations of influence peddling.
The appointment of Imbassahy, one of five ministers now from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, or PSDB, in Temer’s Cabinet, reflects the president’s growing dependence on the allied party to pass economic reforms aimed at closing a huge budget deficit.
The PSDB has pledged to support the government through 2018, when both they and Temer’s own Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, plan to field their own presidential candidates.
Given the tensions in some corners of the two parties, Temer waited to announce Imbassahy’s appointment until an ideological ally of his was confirmed as speaker of the lower house of Congress earlier on Thursday.
Temer’s spokesman also said the president was recreating a Ministry of Human Rights, reversing his decision last year to shutter the ministry and pass its responsibilities to his justice minister.
Temer appointed as human rights minister Luislinda Valois, another member of the PSDB and the first black woman to serve as a judge in Brazil.0 SHARES Share Tweet
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Valencia-based producers of a Star Trek themed fan film settled a lawsuit filed by owners of the science fiction franchise’s intellectual property. The crowdsource-funded film and a planned sequel expand on a story line from the original 1960s NBC television series created by Gene Roddenbury. In late 2015, Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios sued Axanar Productions and its owner, Alec Peters, over the short film, “Prelude to Axanar.” According to a joint announcement of the settlement, “Axanar and Mr. Peters acknowledge that both films were not approved by Paramount or CBS, and that both works crossed boundaries acceptable to CBS and Paramount relating to copyright law.” In early January, U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled in favor of Paramount and CBS, and said “the Axanar Works have objective substantial similarity to the Star Trek Copyrighted Works.” The settlement means the case won’t go to a jury trial. As part of the settlement, “Axanar and Mr. Peters have agreed to make substantial changes to Axanar to resolve this litigation.” They also said that any future Star Trek fan films produced by Axanar or Mr. Peters will abide by fan film guidelines that CBS and Paramount released last June. Paramount and CBS will not object to, or take legal action against, Star Trek fan productions that are non-professional, amateur, and otherwise meet those guidelines. The settlement allows Axanar to split the planned feature film into two fifteen-minute segments, and to show them and “Prelude to Axanar” commercial-free on YouTube. Peters first produced the documentary-style “Prelude to Axanar” by raising $101,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. It first appeared on YouTube in 2014 Peters is an unabashed Star Trek fan. When the lawsuit was filed, he said that independent fan film made for non-commercial purposes were part of a long and rich relationship between fans and studios. He plays Captain Elvar Garth in “Prelude to Axanar” and played Garth of Izar in two episodes of the fan-based web series “Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II.” He has also written for the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Blog and in 2008 created Propworx Inc., which sells costumes and set pieces through high-end auctions for the movie and TV industry. In a separate statement, Axanar said it was pleased to resolve the lawsuit. “We have expressed our desire to address the concerns of the studios, and our willingness to make necessary changes, as long as we could reasonably meet our commitments to Axanar’s over 14,000 donors, fans and supporters. We are now able to do exactly that.” In its fan guidelines, CBS and Paramount said they are “big believers in reasonable fan fiction and fan creativity” within certain limits. Productions must be less than 15 minutes for a single story with no more than two segments. Additional seasons, episodes, parts, sequels or remakes are not allowed. The name “Star Trek” can’t be in the title, and productions must be subtitled “a Star Trek Fan Production.” Content must be original, props must be licensed merchandise, fundraising can’t exceed $50,000, and producers can’t charge for viewing or sell ads. Fan videos can’t include profanity, nudity, obscenity, pornography, depictions of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or any harmful or illegal activity.Crowdfunding for an anime short based on Kyoto's subway system's promotional campaign, Chikatetsu ni Noru ("Ride the Subway"), has been achieved, with 1.84 million yen (US$16,438) currently raised through the website Makuake. This is enough money for an anime between 30 seconds and one minute; the length will expand to two minutes if 2 million yen (US$17,868) are raised. The crowdfunding sponsors, Gyorai Eizō, suggest further expansion if they can get 3 million yen (US$26,801), though what exactly that might be is not yet specified.
Chikatetsu ni Noru will feature the three high school girls that have acted as Kyoto's subway mascots since 2011: Moe Uzumasa (Nana Hasegawa), the cheerful, level-headed main character; Saki Matsuga (Yui Tsukada), the sporty, frank one; and Misa Ono (Mimori Tanigake), the guitar-playing, "cool, straight woman." If the goal of 2 million yen is achieved, the anime will also introduce Rei Uzumasa, Moe's cool big sister, who works as a curator and likes pickles and drinking.
The anime-style characters were first unveiled in 2011 as an effort by the Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau to boost ridership and offset its staggering budget deficit (Kyoto must survey its subway tunnels extensively to preserve the city's numerous historical remains). After an art upgrade in 2013 thanks to local artist Kamogawa, the girls caught on both within Kyoto and around Japan. Their images are now plastered all over the Kyoto subway system — as posters, videos, fare cards, and even standees. They have helped bring attention to Kyoto attractions and cooperated with the Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair and Kyoto Gakuen University (Moe has a cousin, Sono, who studies there). They have even inspired a novel.
Unfortunately, Kyoto's subway continues to face budget deficits, and the project was forced to turn to crowdfunding to support the animation. Gyorai Eizō is hopeful that its characters stand out in the crowded field of moe characters in Japan ("so many that they need to be swept up and thrown away," according to them), and hopes for a longer anime if its crowdfunding meets with success.
The crowdfunding will last until April 25. Prizes include thank-you letters, QuickTime files of the completed anime, a DVD including interviews with the voice actors, and badges (depending on the amount given). The completed anime will be screened in Kyoto at the subway system's 35th anniversary event, "Subway Day," on May 29, as well as in Tokyo. It will also be posted on the Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau's YouTube channel in early June.
The voice actresses are all high schoolers who auditioned for their parts at the Kyoto International Manga & Anime Fair in 2014.
The Nagoya suburb of Kariya has a similar project in the works.
Moe and Sono
[Via Makuake and Rocket News 24; Images from Naver Matome, Kyoto City Zoo, Gigazine and B.B.L.T]The Los Angeles Chargers recently reached out to free-agent cornerback Darrelle Revis, league sources told ESPN.
Editor's Picks Chargers lose Verrett again due to knee woes Chargers cornerback Jason Verrett, who played 63 snaps in the opener before experiencing soreness in his left knee, will have surgery and is out for the season.
The Chargers were one of a handful of teams, according to league sources, that have contacted the seven-time Pro Bowler, who played for the New York Jets in 2016 before being released in the offseason.
One person close to Revis said this weekend that the cornerback is still expected to play in 2017, even though he has not visited any teams yet. Revis has been training in Florida and is still interested in a return to the NFL.
The Chargers made contact with Revis before they placed Jason Verrett on injured reserve Saturday, which made it official that they are in need of help at cornerback. Verrett decided to undergo season-ending surgery on his left knee, a source told Schefter.
Revis has 29 interceptions over his 10-year career, including three touchdown returns. He also has made 483 tackles, two sacks, six forced fumbles and 11 fumble recoveries.Ben Carson endorsed Donald Trump in March. | Getty Carson warns Trump of'moral descent' on judge attacks
Ben Carson has a moral lesson for Donald Trump: Don't forget that people are individuals first.
"Every human being is an individual first rather than a member of an identity group. The moment we forget that is the moment we enter into a phase of moral descent," Carson told POLITICO in a statement through business manager Armstrong Williams.
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The comment comes as the presumptive Republican nominee faces scrutiny from members of his own party over comments that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, born in Indiana to Mexican parents, should not be allowed to preside over Trump University cases. Trump has said Curiel has an "inherent conflict of interest" due to the billionaire's proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and he has similarly suggested a Muslim judge could be disqualified by virtue of his call to temporarily ban Muslim immigration.
The retired neurosurgeon and former primary opponent endorsed Trump in March.This is part of the most complete fasting series you’ll ever find online. If you’re new to fasting, get the full background on what fasting is, its benefits, and more below. Access all my articles on fasting: The Fasting Series.
“The most vehement objections to fasting are made by those who have never missed a meal in their lives.” – Dr. Herbert Shelton (1895-1985)
In the past couple of days, I’ve been reading up about fasting with much interest. I intend to try a water fasting experiment myself starting 4 Feb, 2011 (Fri) and will be updating daily with a journal of my experience.
Disclaimer: This guide is only provided for informational purposes. I’m not a fasting expert or medical doctor and I’m only sharing my experience with fasting. Fasting has its risks. You agree that you use this resource at your own risk.
What’s Water Fasting?
Fasting is the process where you abstain from food and/or water for a period of time. In water fasting, you don’t eat but you are free to drink as much plain water as you want. A popular form of fasting is juice fasting, where you consume nothing but juices (such as greens or fruit juice).
Fasting should not be confused with starving, where one suffers from a severe lack of nutrition, vitamins, and minerals. During fasting, your body burns your fat reserves (adipose) for energy. The person does not suffer any deficiency of protein, vitamins, minerals or fatty acids. Starving happens when a body has no fat reserves to burn (happens for anyone with body fat from 7-10%; I will elaborate further below) and starts using its own muscles and organs for energy instead. Carrington (Physical Culture, 1915) put it well in these words:
“Fasting is a scientific method of ridding the system of diseased tissue, and morbid matter, and is invariably accompanied by beneficial results. Starving is the deprivation of the tissues from nutriment which they require, and is invariably accompanied by disastrous consequences.”
Starving happens when fasting ends. The amount of time one can fast without going into starvation mode depends on the individual, such as their percentage of body fat, their body, body condition and so on. Believe it or not, the average person can last 40 days (!!) just by drinking water alone (please do not attempt to do this yourself without doing due research).
According to A. J. Carlson, who was a Professor of Physiology at the University of Chicago, he stated that a healthy, well-nourished man can live from 50 to 75 days without food, provided he is not exposed to harsh elements or emotional stress. Loren Lockman, the founder of Tangle Wood Fasting Center, has been supervising people through fasts in the past 10 years, from fasts as short as a few days to as long as 10 weeks. If you do a simple search on Youtube for “water fasting log”, you’ll find vlogs of different people who have completed 10-day, 25-day, and 40-day fasts.
Why Fast? (Benefits of Fasting)
Why fast? That’s a perfectly valid question.
I first heard about fasting when I was young, in primary school. Every year, there would be mentions about fasting. For example, during the Physical Education classes, the teachers would exempt the Malays from doing sports because they were fasting. These students would also not eat during recess breaks. I later found out that this is a practice followed by Muslims, whereby they refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset every day, for a month (Ramadan). This happens every year.
At that time I never thought much about it. I thought that it must be an act that required a lot of discipline and self-control so I was respectful of those who followed that. I didn’t think I would be able to go without food for a day, from morning to night. I thought I’d probably die or become nutritionally deprived.
Fast forward to today and things have changed.
Natural Way To Heal
In the past few days, I’ve been reading up about fasting. I’m quite intrigued to learn about the practice of fasting and its many purported benefits.
Apparently there is a small but actively growing interest in fasting as a holistic form of wellness and therapy. I won’t turn this article into a fasting thesis but suffice to say there have been many accounts about how fasting is a natural way for the body to heal. (I’ll include links and resources at the end of this post where you can check them out.) When left to its own, our body is capable of healing itself of many ailments and illnesses. Eating and taking medication interfere with our body’s natural ability to heal. This is why we rarely have an appetite when we’re sick — it’s because our body does not want to ingest anything and wants to go through the self-healing process. Check out this excerpt by Loren:
…Virtually all symptoms that we experience are evidence that the body is attempting to heal itself. Sinus congestion, fever, swelling, even pain, are created by the body on purpose, and are nothing more than evidence that the body is working to address some problem and restore balance, or homeostasis. When the body is given an opportunity to cleanse and heal, all manner of symptoms may arise, and they often do. Sometimes, those who don’t understand this will believe that the fast has made them sick. In fact, by ceasing to squander the body’s energy on unnecessary activities (including, temporarily, eating!), much more energy is available to cleanse and heal. The appearance of symptoms simply indicates that these processes have begun. It is always the body that heals itself. Remedies of all kinds generally treat symptoms, not causes, and it is only by |
"I’m still in, still trying. I’ve always been hard-headed," Roemer replies, chuckling.
When he’s done here, Buddy’s flying back up to New York for a taping of Morning Joe. "We’ve been on four or five times and we raise large sums of money every time, $25, $50 a gift," Roemer says. The best shows for fundraising, though, are The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, where the candidate has appeared to critique the campaign finance system. We are walking under prefab thatched huts, on a little footpath under rustling palms in the hotel courtyard, to a small, musty hotel room the ACLU has given him to rest before the speech. He promises his ACLU host we’ll only be thirty minutes, but the interview takes more than an hour. In his first answer he touches on almost all of my questions, hop-scotching from issue to issue with the enthusiasm of a breathless child.
He declares pretty much everything—his support base, the Occupy movement, a speech he gave in front of the Chinese Embassy, to be awesome. ("It’s awesome!" or "It was awesome!" or "Just awesome!") He is sitting on the edge of his seat, blue eyes flashing, his greying eyebrows arched high above his wire-framed glasses, so emphatic that every quote ends in exclamation. His breadth is both exhaustive and exhausting, and we continue on like this, unspooling bits of information as we go.
On Romney: "The one percent!" And Gingrich: "The lobbyist for the one percent!"
On his first legislative priorities as president: "HB 1 campaign reform, HB 2 fair trade, HB 3 energy independence, HB 4 tax reform!"
On his cabinet: "It’d be white and black, man and woman. It’d look like America—it’s young and old, people who know how to tweet, people who don’t know how to spell it!"
On the Occupy Wall Street movement: "I love young people, I learn so much, I went to Occupy Wall Street, Occupy DC, Occupy New Hampshire, Occupy Boston—just to listen! I didn’t call them up and say here I come, I just went to listen, and they gathered around. It was awesome!"
We run through a brief biography: born in Shreveport, went to Harvard at age 16, graduated from the business school, ran for Congress without taking PAC money, and won. Then ran for Governor without taking PAC money, and won. Switched mid-term from Democrat to Republican—and lost reelection. Made another go of it in 1995, and lost again. Decided to come out of retirement to protest the massive influence of moneyed interests in Washington.
He snatches the complimentary copy of USA Today and starts drawing a Venn Diagram—Republicans in the right circle and Democrats on the left, a little space overlapping between them. "These are the Dems—I used to be a Dem—these are the Repubs. This is 30 years ago. See this space in here where they overlap? That’s where you pass bills! That’s where you got it done. That’s where Reagan led."
He draws two circles, far apart. "That’s where we are now. The Dems are pulled to the left—no, wait, I got ’em on the wrong side." He scribbles out and redraws. "Dems pulled to the left by this wing, Repubs are pulled to the right. NO ACTION! GRIDLOCK!" he bellows, though I’m only a few feet away, on the hotel room sofa. "That’s all that’s changed. Here’s where I am." He draws himself in the middle. "I’ll have Democrats and Republicans. I’ll have a Democratic running mate. It will be a unity ticket."
He says he used to measure success by his ability to get on the stage and debate his ideas with the other candidates. But he can’t get on stage, so he’s taken to Twitter, where he interacts with journalists and snarks on the other candidates.
"Yay! Newt doesn’t want to bicker. Oh, wait....five seconds passed. He now wants to bicker. sigh" he tweeted during the CNN debate on Thursday. "When Santorum sounds reasonable, you know you’re watching the debate from hell," he wrote.
"I have two ladies—volunteers—who travel with me on debate night, and we go to it," he says, of his Twitter prowess. "They are fast, I am glib, you put those two together, and we have some hell of a tweets, man! We get retweeted more than anybody else running. I don’t know why—maybe because they’re busy debating."
I ask him if it’s frustrating, being left out of debates. "It depends on how many beers I’ve had—I’m joking, don’t you dare put that down!" he says. Sure, it frustrates him, but he doesn’t seem too upset about it. About his Twitter following, he concludes, "it’s awesome!"
There are only 46 people in this canary-walled conference room. But like a rock band that arrives for a show to find a concert hall empty, Roemer plugs in and gives his all anyway. From behind a small podium, his red tie a touch askance, he laments the decline of manufacturing in America, rails against free trade, decries the influence of corporate lobbyists on the tax code, complains that the president took donations from major corporations.
"Two hundred thirty six years after the American revolution we find ourselves in a similar dilemma with the colonists, living in an empire divided into two classes: the elite and everyone else. The majority of America has become colonial plantation labor. Tad by those who don’t pay themselves, put at risk by those who are guaranteed survival. Governed by those immune to the consequences of their actions." Some of the group of ACLU staffers are giggling. But even more are nodding along. "It’s the political elite, with their K Street and Wall Street connections. It’s the tyranny of the big check, and I’ve never seen an election like the one we’re having now."
He wins a strong round of applause as he finishes, and then confesses sheepishly, "I wrote that in a coffee shop on the way in," and gets more laughs and more applause. "Remember that question we got in the third grade—what sound does a tree make if it falls in the forest and no one hears it? Well that’s me! No one hears me!"
One woman near the front of the group gets up and says, "I’m thrilled by your appearance here, and I’m totally charmed, I have to admit." But then the tough questions start coming: How do you keep lobbyists from circumventing the rules? Have you changed your stance on the death penalty? What about abortion?
"It doesn’t make everyone happy. Maybe it makes nobody happy," he says, explaining that he’s pro-life but overturned two abortion bans as a governor. "But that’s what I believe."
That’s Roemer’s other problem, aside from the lack of exposure: free from the confines of money, he’s crafted a platform that’s largely appealing to most people but contains enough apostasies to make him unpalatable to base voters from either party. "I don’t know enough about his positions," said Scott Reiners, standing in the back of the room after the speech. "But I can’t vote for an anti-choice candidate."
As he made his way out of the conference room, I asked Buddy if he thought he’d convinced them. "No!" he guffawed "But we got started. We’ll meet again."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedly urged the United States to attack Iran’s nuclear program and China directed cyberattacks on the United States, according to a vast cache of U.S. diplomatic cables released on Sunday in an embarrassing leak that undermines U.S. diplomacy.
President Barack Obama (R) meets with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington June 29, 2010. REUTERS/Larry Downing
The more than 250,000 documents, given to five media groups by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, provide candid, tart views of foreign leaders and sensitive information on terrorism and nuclear proliferation filed by U.S. diplomats, according to The New York Times.
Among the revelations in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, which also received an advance look at the documents, King Abdullah is reported to have “frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program.”
“Cut off the head of the snake,” the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, quotes the king as saying, according to a report on Abdullah’s meeting with General David Petraeus in April 2008.
The leaked documents, the majority of which are from the last three years, also disclose U.S. allegations that China’s Politburo directed an intrusion into Google’s computer systems, part of a broader coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by Chinese government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws, the Times reported.
The newspaper also said documents report that Saudi donors remain chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like al Qaeda, and that the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the U.S. military for years, was the “worst in the region” in counter-terrorism efforts, according to a State Department cable last December.
The newspaper said many of the cables name diplomats’ confidential sources, from foreign lawmakers and military officers to human rights activists and journalists, often with a warning: “Please protect” or “Strictly protect.”
The White House condemned the release of the documents, saying their release could endanger the lives of people who live under “oppressive regimes” and “deeply impact” the foreign policy interests of the United States and its allies.
“To be clear — such disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
“By releasing stolen and classified documents, WikiLeaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of these individuals,” he said.
Security analysts tended to agree that the release of the documents was a severe blow to U.S. diplomacy, undermining the confidentiality that is vital for foreign leaders and activists to talk candidly to U.S. officials.
“DEVASTATING”
“This is pretty devastating,” Roger Cressey, a partner at Goodharbor Consulting and a former U.S. cyber security and counter-terrorism official, said in an e-mailed comment.
“It will constrain foreign leaders from being upfront and honest in their conversations with American diplomats and it will also make U.S. diplomats hesitant to put in diplomatic cables what they really think, for fear of it being leaked.”
The pending documents release had been widely reported for more than a week and expected on Sunday.
The U.S. government, which was informed in advance of the contents, has contacted governments around the world, including in Russia, Europe and the Middle East, to try to limit damage.
The White House warned readers that the field reporting in the documents is often incomplete and does not necessarily reflect, or even shape, policy decisions.
Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the dramatic revelation that Saudi King Abdullah counseled a U.S. strike on Iran may have been exaggerated for diplomatic effect.
“The concern of the Arab Gulf states on the Iran nuclear program has been very acute since 2002. They’ve had a very difficult time talking about their concerns.
“It’s very possible that the Gulf states have in private adopted very aggressive rhetoric just to stress the urgency of the issue,” Hokayem said. “But I personally doubt that there is an appetite for war as such.”
Among the disclosures reported by The New York Times were:
— suspicions Iran has obtained sophisticated missiles from North Korea capable of hitting western Europe, and the United States is concerned Iran is using those rockets as “building blocks” to build longer-range missiles;
— allegations that Chinese operatives have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002;
— talks between U.S. and South Korean officials about the prospects for a unified Korea should the North’s economic troubles and a political transition lead the state to implode;
— the South Koreans considered commercial inducements to China to “help salve” Chinese concerns about living with a reunified Korea that is in a “benign alliance” with Washington, according to the American ambassador to Seoul;
— reporting that Saudi donors remain chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like al Qaeda, and the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the “worst in the region” in counterterrorism efforts, according to a State Department cable last December;
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— Since 2007, the United States has mounted a secret and so far unsuccessful effort to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani research reactor out of fear it could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device.
WikiLeaks reported earlier its website was under attack, but said media outlets would publish some of the classified documents it had released even if the group’s website crashed. None of the documents were visible on its site late on Sunday.Share
If you recall back in January, the infamous Steele dossier was published by Buzzfeed.com. In it were all sorts of allegations against those within the Trump campaign, including the President himself. The dossier mentioned the word ‘kompromat’, which is the Russian term meaning blackmail material, and it went on to say that Russia had such material on President Trump. This kompromat was allegedly being held over Trump’s head as a way for Russia to have sway over the future President’s decision making.
Following the release of the dossier, many of the allegations within have been somewhat verified, while others have been proven to be inaccurate. We do know that the FBI had been using the 35-page dossier in their own investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, but we do not know how much of it has been verified to date.
While we currently don’t know whether Russia actually has kompromat on the sitting President of the United States, we may be about to find out. The dossier stated that one of the main goals of Russia’s collusion with the Trump campaign was to have sanctions, which the Obama administration placed on the country, eased or possibly removed so that Russia’s energy industry could flourish once more.
Last night, however, the Senate put a dagger into the heart of any plan to ease sanctions on the Russians, and also decided to limit President Trump’s power to act on the sanctions alone. The new bill in the Senate, which passed by a staggering 97-to-2 vote, places additional sanctions on Russia related to malicious cyber activity and the supply of weapons to the Assad regime in Syria. Additionally, it would set up a congressional review process if the executive branch decided to ease or eliminate current sanctions.
The bill, which also includes additional sanctions against Iran, something which Trump clearly favors, will likely pass the House and next would be placed squarely on President Trump’s desk for a signature. This will be a very telling moment, as if there is kompromat on President Trump, this would certainly be a measure which could spark Russia to use such kompromat in a damaging manner. If, on the other hand, there is not any kompromat on the President or any of his staff, there is no rational explanation not to allow such a bill to be signed into law.
Over the next several weeks, it is entirely possible that we may find out if Russia does in fact have the kompromat that the Steele dossier has alleged all along. Early signs have shown, however, that the White House is already beginning to push back. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said today that he wants flexibility as he tries to improve ties with Russia.PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - MARCH 18: Roman Kotrc from Charles Bridge Artists Association removed love padlocks from Charles Bridge, on March 18, 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic. Charles Bridge Artsist Association believe that placing the love padlocks on the historic sight is an act of vandalism and remove approximately 40kg of padlocks each fortnight. The act of fixing a padlock to a historic sight is a growing phenomenon in cities across Europe as couples leave them as a symbol of their love. (Photo by Matej Divizna/Getty Images)
During their travels, couples often attach padlocks to bridges all over the world -- from Paris to Venice to Germany -- as a special way to leave a little piece of their love in the place where they felt it the strongest.
Little do they know there's a good chance somebody is going to rip that lock off one day.
Photos taken this week show men removing love locks from the Charles Bridge in Prague with bolt cutters and pliers. According to the report, the Charles Bridge Artists Association (which aims to "help maintain and restore the bridge"), removes about 30 pounds of locks from the bridge every two weeks.
We don't know what they do with the buckets and buckets of hand-inscribed tokens, but we really, REALLY don't want to imagine them getting thrown in a dumpster. It would be just too sad.
Prague isn't the only city to set limits on love locks: authorities in Paris have discussed removing locks from the Pont des Arts bridge in light of safety concerns, and locks were taken off the Ponte Milvio in Rome after citizens complained they were a form of "vandalism."
But whether they're welcome or not, we've gotta say love padlocks are some of the most endearing things you'll see on your travels.Who are they? The prince of darkness himself and his cronies: the CEO of Eskom and his bumbling buddies. Yes, Eskom is looking for a 9.58% price adjustment for electricity in addition to the already announced 12.69% imposed in the 2015-16 financial year.
The City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee heard that the city had this week received a letter from Eskom “with respect of their reopening of the MYPD 3 (multi-year price) determination in an application to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa”.
If this is allowed to go ahead, it would result in a 22.27% increase in bulk electricity tariffs in one financial year. Who will pay? You, the end user – off course.
News24 quotes Cape Town’s marketing department who said the city was “very concerned” that this application had come so late in the process for the drafting of budgets by municipalities. “Our draft budget to be tabled next week, including the city’s electricity tariffs, is based on the approved 12.69% increase. The size of the proposed increase may be unaffordable to many of our electricity customers, particularly the residential users,” the city said.
“We apologise to our customers in advance that we will have to proceed with a budget announcement on electricity tariffs that will likely increase even more than tabled, but this is not of our own making.”Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
British actor Luke Evans, who played Gaston in this year’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, has said that being gay in Hollywood has not damaged his acting career – and that he will leave the movie industry if it does.
Heartthrob Evans, who rarely discusses his sexuality, said in a wide-ranging interview this week that he keeps his personal and professional life separate.
“There’s a dignity to keeping private,” he told The Jackal magazine.
“I try to keep my personal life and my private life separate…. Not for any reason other than there’s a clue in the title – it’s private.
“As an actor you have to keep some sort of enigma and mystery. There’s a dignity to keeping private.
“I’m trying to keep a bit of dignity to my private life and to protect the people in my life.”
Asked if being gay is a challenge in Hollywood, he said: “That question is difficult to answer.
“I don’t know how “Hollywood” as you call it, thinks. I don’t think about it. I don’t feel they’re connected. Talent, success, what you do in your personal life – I don’t see how one should have an effect on the other.
“I don’t think I’d be in this business if I felt that I was not being employed because of who I am in my personal life.’”
Evans, who also played creepy husband Scott in last year’s The Girl on the Train, came out as gay in 2002 in an interview with The Advocate, but has rarely discussed the topic since.
He said in 2002 that he had no reason to hide his sexuality.
Evans plays villain Gaston in this year’s live-action remake of the classic Disney fairytale Beauty and the Beast.
The film attracted controversy in some parts of the world for being the first major Disney film to feature an unambiguously gay character – Gaston’s sidekick Lefou, who is shown dancing with another man near the end of the film.
In Malaysia, Disney was initially forced to cut all of its screenings of the film due to the minor gay subplot, and in Russia the film – which also stars Harry Potter star Emma Watson – was given an adults-only rating.
Evans himself joined the debate last month, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he sees Gaston and his little helper Lefou as “just friends”.
Evans, the son of a working-class builder from the Welsh valleys, is not the only gay actor in the new Disney film – Sir Ian McKellen plays talking clock Cogsworth, and described the film last month as a “gay extravaganza”I don’t know if I’m ready to live in a world where the Toyota Supra is coming back oh my god I’m hyperventilating please yes I am painfully excited for Toyota’s idea of a world-conquering sports car to return.
These new images of Toyota testing a prototype of the car show what very much looks like a production-ready development of the Toyota FT-1 concept we saw back in 2014. It looks every bit like a big brother to the Toyota GT86, only weirder. Weird is good.
Dual exhausts also seem to support rumors that we’re going to see a V6 rather than a straight six engine in this thing, but my heart refuses to believe what my brain is saying.
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Anyone with a casual interest in the goings on of the car world will probably think ‘oh right, the new Supra—wasn’t that supposed to come out like ten years ago?’
No, it only felt like it.
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Everyone has been expecting a new Supra ever since the old one grew too big and too expensive and too good for this world for Toyota to keep making it. For a while there, the only people buying Corvette-priced sports cars were middle-aged boomers who only bought Corvettes. So Toyota let the turbocharged, straight six, rear-drive Supra die off, to be fantasized and idolized and priced out by Fast and Furious types.
In any case, Toyota itself has been busy with a Supra project in partnership with BMW since at least 2012, again resuscitating the turbocharged six format.
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I can’t wait for people to grow overly familiar with this car, get used to it, and then again wonder aloud why anybody would spend so much on a Toyota when they could just get a BMW instead.I’d forgotten just how much fun ETech is. Not only are the talks some of the most creative and innovative you can hear in the tech community, the room full of people is one of the most congenial, smart and funny you’re likely to encounter anywhere. Tim O’Reilly won’t come out and say that it’s his favorite conference, but he’s willing to declare it the most important that his organization puts on.
I was only able to be in San Diego for one of the days of the conference – long enough to catch several excellent talks, but briefly enough that I’m relying on Ryan Singel of Wired to catch talks that I’m very sorry to miss: Larry Lessig’s plans to change congress; Quinn Norton, who’s now thinking about hacking her brain as well as her body; Joel Selanikio’s celebration of the mobile phone as a tool for transforming Africa.
Singel did an excellent job with my talk as well, The Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism. I was grateful to have the excuse to explore at more length some of the ideas I’ve been writing about for the past year, and was gratified that the talk was well received. There were several requests for me to post the slides – that’s not really realistic, as they were 100MB and rather video-rich – what I’m going to do instead is post my notes, a bunch of links and a few of the slides. This won’t be an accurate picture of what I said – it’s more likely to be a picture of what I meant to say.
Web 1.0 was invented to allow physicists to share research papers.
Web 2.0 was created to allow people to share pictures of cute cats.
I had a front-row seat for this transition, working with Tripod. We sincerely believed that the purpose of the web was to give college graduates helpful information about renting apartments, applying for jobs and investing their money. Our users rapidly told us that what the web was really about was publishing their own information… which left us with the difficult challenge of figuring out how to make money off of people’s collections of cat pictures.
User-generated content, on average, is a lot less interesting than professional content. But there are a lot more people creating their own content for fun than those doing so for a living, and in aggregate, that content is at least as interesting.
Based on my Tripod experience, I’d offer the hypothesis that any sufficiently advanced read/write technology will get used for two purposes: pornography and activism. Porn is a weak test for the success of participatory media – it’s like tapping a mike and asking, “Is it on?” If you’re not getting porn in your system, it doesn’t work. Activism is a stronger test – if activists are using your tools, it’s a pretty good indication that your tools are useful and usable.
In late 1996, we noticed that Tripod was receiving a great deal of traffic from Malaysia. Searching through the server logs, we found lots of pages in Bahasa Malay talking about “Reformasi” and “Anwar Ibrahim”. I had to visit the Political Science department at Williams College to figure out that we were apparently hosting much of the Malaysian opposition political movement, dedicated to helping deposed and imprisoned deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim return to power. Malaysian media was largely closed to opposition voices, but investment in internet infrastructure meant that the opposition was able to access the internet and publish material that couldn’t be disseminated any other way. (Several of these pages still exist on Tripod.)
A more economically rational company would have likely removed the Malaysian content, as we had no way of selling ads to Malaysian advertisers. Economic rationality was never Tripod’s strong suit, and we ended up sponsoring Malaysia’s olympic team instead. (They took the silver in Men’s team badminton.)
With web 2.0, we’ve embarced the idea that people are going to share pictures of their cats, and now we build sophisticated tools to make that easier to do. as a result, we’re creating a wealth of tech that’s extremely helpful for activists. There are twin revolutions going on – the ease of creating content and the ease of sharing it with local and global audiences.
There’s been understandable excitement about use of online video by the Obama campaign. I was in Doha, Qatar, when Larry Lessig showed the above video as an example of the way that remix culture could reinvigorate American political culture. Others have pointed to the video as an example of “user-generated swiftboating“, and the potential for amateur nastiness to be even more evil than our debased professional political culture.
I was sitting next to Tunisian activist Sami ben Gharbia at the meeting in Doha, and he nudged me, saying, “We did this years ago in Tunisia.” I thought he meant the idea of using video to motivate voters. Actually, he meant that Tunisian activists – specifically a friend of his who works under the name “Astrubal” had remixed the 1984 Apple ad for political ends. (See my post “Democrats Invent the Remix, only three years after the Tunisians” for more on this story.)
In the Tunisian video, the guy on the screen is Ben Ali, a major opponent of free speech and a long-serving dictator. No matter how negatively you feel about Hillary, he’s a more Orwellian figure, in part because he’s so skilled at PR. Tunisia is more repressive than many of its Middle Eastern neighbors, but it enjoys widespread tourism and was selected – absurdly – to host the World Summit on the Information Society conference in November 2005. (For more on this absurdity, you may want to refer to my posts from WSIS, perhaps starting with this one.) Because Ben Ali is so good at PR, Sami, Astrubal and others see themselves as an ad agency, making videos designed to embarass the government on an international scale. One of the most amazing of these videos features the peregrinations of the Tunisian presidential aircraft. You wouldn’t expect to see this jet in Europe very often, as Ben Ali is famous for rarely leaving the country. But Sami and Astrubal used planespotter sites – sites like Airliners.net that allow amateur plane enthusiasts to post their photos – to determine that the President’s jet travels a whole lot more than he does. They He used footage from Google Earth and pictures from the plane spotter sites to make a video that shows the power of the participatory web at its best. (Sami has asked me to make it clear that the Tunisian flight video was solely Astrubal’s work – his function was solely to publicize it, on his blog and in talks given about online activism.)
Their video raises all sorts of ethical questions – is it permissable for the country’s first lady to take the Presidential jet, fueled and crewed on taxpayer dollars, for shopping junkets in Europe? Foreign Policy magazine didn’t think so, and ran an article critiquing the first lady. They also published instructions on how you, too, can become a presidential planespotter.
Sami and Astrubal posted the video on their personal blogs… but as known activists, their blogs have been blocked in Tunisia for years. They also posted it on DailyMotion, a video site popular in the French-speaking world. Shortly after, the Tunisian government blocked access to DailyMotion.
This is a good thing if you’re an activist. Most Tunisians don’t identify as activists and might not be engaged with politics. But, like Americans and Europeans, they’re interested in seeing cute cats being adorable online. When the government blocks DailyMotion, it impacts a much wider swath of Tunisians than those who are politicially active. Cute cats are collateral damage when governments block sites. And even those who could care less about presidential shenanigans are made aware that their government fears online speech so much that they’re willing to censor the millions of banal videos on DailyMotion to block a few political ones.
Blocking banal content on the internet is a self-defeating proposition. It teaches people how to become dissidents – they learn to find and use anonymous proxies, which happens to be a key first step in learning how to blog anonymously. Every time you force a government to block a web 2.0 site – cutting off people’s access to cute cats – you spend political capital. Our job as online advocates is to raise that cost of censorship as high as possible.
So why don’t governments block only he offensive speech? Why would governments be stupid enough to close off these tools entirely? It’s a reasonable question and one that’s an active research topic. One answer is that it’s surprisingly difficult to censor the web well. (Pakistan’s recent shutdown of YouTube shows one remarkably stupid and dangerous way to screw up and overblock web traffic.)
If you want to prevent your users from accessing online content, you’ve got four basic options. You can block keywords, block URLs, pollute your DNS or block IPs. It’s surprisingly hard to block keywords – you need to open and examine all the packets crossing your network. China does a bit of this, but mostly blocks keywords within URLs – it’s prohibitively expensive to examine every packet for an entire nation and check against a blocklist. URL blocking simply doesn’t work very well – it’s easy to rewrite a URL and access the same content. DNS blocking is very simple, but it tends to backfire – your smarter users simply switch towards using an unpolluted DNS and you have no way to control their behavior with this technique in the future. And so, most repressive governments block IPs, which limits access to banal as well as sensitive content.
But perhaps this isn’t stupidity on the part of nations. When Pakistan blocks YouTube, it limits traffic to the site. Google notices these sorts of things. Perhaps it’s coincidental that the video named by Pakistan has been removed from YouTube due to a terms of service violation – perhaps not. But while advocates try to raise the price of censorship for governments, smart governments are raising the price for noncompliance for Web 2.0 companies.
My colleagues at the Open Net Initiative began documenting net censorship a bit more than five years ago. At that point, Saudi Arabia and China were censoring widely. Now at least two dozen nations censor the net regularly, and more may be participating in “event-based filtering”, blocking access to political sites before a key election, for instance. My fear, in the medium to long term, is that every nation that constrains freedom of the press will begin filtering the net, realizing that the Internet is where important press takes place these days.
Of course, the activists win sometimes too. When Google Maps became accessible in Bahrain, it let Bahrani activists answer a pressing question in that small, crowded nation – who owns all the land? From the air, it becomes pretty clear that large chunks of the nation are reserved for palaces owned by the royal family.
An anonymous Bahrani activist thought this was pretty interesting, and made a PDF document of screen captures from Google Maps, enhanced with notes comparing crowded communities with spacious palaces. The document flew around the country from mailbox to mailbox. The Bahrani authorities couldn’t block the file – it’s a PDF, and blocking PDFs has nasty consequences for businesspeople. So they blocked Google Maps, which got bloggers like noted free speech advocate Mahmood Al-Youssif up in arms. After a brief block, they simply gave up and let citizens see the site, rather than letting Mahmood and others train people to use proxy sites. (More on this story is available on my blog.)
When governments really want to shut people up, they don’t just block them, they imprison them. Egypt has blocked very few websites – the Muslim Brotherhood site gets blocked occasionally, but most are uncensored. But they’ve jailed Kareem Soliman for his critical remarks about Islam, and they haven’t hesitated to arrest protesters seeking political reform.
This, in turn, has been known to backfire. When Kefaya activist and open-source proponent Alaa Abdel Fateh was one of 700 activists arrested at a protest supporting the independence of the Egyptian judiciary, it was hard for government authorities to know that they were about to have a PR crisis on their hands. Alaa began blogging from prison, passing notes to his wife, Manal, who jointly maintains their blog. These blog posts helped attract international attention to the case, which meant that camera crews from Al Jazeera and CNN covered a situation they normally would have ignored. It probably meant that Alaa spent much more time in jail than he otherwise would have, but it also may have meant that he was safer than if he’d been anonymous in prison.
(A piece of advice I offer at this point in many talks – if you’re planning on being an online activist, marry a blogger. It’s worked very well for me.)
The imprisonment of bloggers has taught activists some interesting lessons about advocacy in the era of Web 2.0. When Global Voices China editor Hao Wu was arrested and detained in Beijing, I and other GV friends wanted to go online immediately and advocate for his release. But that’s not the right way to do things – you’ve got to get permission from the detained person’s family first. And it took Rebecca MacKinnon a month of phonecalls to get his sister, Nina Wu, to agree to let us advocate on Hao’s behalf.
More importantly, Nina began blogging herself. Unsurprisingly, she knew a lot more about her brother than we did, and she wrote much more movingly than we could. Eventually, our campaign focused on translating her posts from Chinese to English and disseminating them as widely as possible. My conclusion from this: good advice for the advocate in a web 2.0 age – “Don’t speak. Point.” (Bruno Giussani explains what I mean by that phrase far more eloquently than I ever have.)
Nina wasn’t a professional activist. She was a successful career woman, a young mother, living the Chinese dream in Shanghai. She became an activist because she was forced to and she reached out for the tools she had access to – which hapened to be MSN spaces. MSN is heavily censored in China – it’s certainly not what we would have chosen for her. But you don’t get to choose the tools – activists use what’s at hand. It’s fine to build tools for activists, but even better to build tools for folks who don’t know they’re activists yet.
(In making this point, I should be very, very careful to point out that I have deep respect for tools that have been developed successfully for activist uses, tools like Martus or FrontlineSMS. My point is simply that there are huge numbers of web users who don’t yet think of themselves as activists who are likely to reach for the tools they have at hand, not to look specifically for tools designed for activists.)
Most activists discover they’re much more effective out of jail. It’s possible that bulk SMS tools – especially Twitter – might be useful in keeping activists out of jail. Alaa now uses Twitter to report on his political activities – this gives friends watching his feed the possibility of relauching the FreeAlaa site, should we see his note that he’s going in to talk to the police, and there’s no message letting us know he’s out of the police station afterwards. (Alaa tells me that tons of people are now subscribing to his Twitter feed and that they should back off because it’s a very boring time right now in Egyptian politics… :-)
Kefaya activists were able to use mobile phone messages, some sent through Twitter, to alert activists to the impending arrest of Malek Moustafa. As activist came to the place where Moustafa was being taken into custody, they attracted a huge crowd of police, who effectively blocked the street and prevented the police car with Moustafa from leaving the street. He was eventually released. Corresponding |
of the people, owning 8.3 per cent of the wealth, had an average estate of $1,800 enough to cover furniture, clothes, a television set and perhaps a run-down car. Most of these had less; many had nothing at all. Another group of 18.4 per cent, adding up to 68.4 per cent of the population, was worth $6,000 on the average, which would probably largely represent participation in life insurance or emergency money in the bank. Perhaps this percentage included some of the selected company of 'people's capitalists' who owned two or three shares in AT&T. "Another 21.80 per cent of adults, bringing into view 92.59 per cent of the population, had $15,000 average gross estates just enough to cover a serious personal illness. This same 92-plus per cent of the population all together owned only 47.8 per cent of all assets." It is concluded that "'top wealth-holders owned 27.4 per cent of gross and 28.3 per cent of net prime wealth in 1953, but increased their share to 30.2 and 32.0 per cent respectively by 1958. These data support Lampman's conclusion that the share of top wealth-holders has been increasing since 1949.'" "... The top 11 per cent of persons in the magin 1 per cent (or 0.11 per cent) held about 45 per cent of the wealth of this particular group while the lower half (or 0.50 per cent) held only 23 per cent..." "This is where the question rests on the basis of the most recent data supplied by the leading authorities in the field: Concentration of wealth in a few hands is intensifying." "By 1975, according to Willard Mueller, chief economist of the Federal Trade Commission, 200 corporations will own two-thirds of all American manufacturing assets compared with the same proportion owned by 500 corporations in 1962." "Experts concede that a 5 per cent ownership stake in a large corporation is sufficient in most cases to give corporate control." 3 IMPOVERISHING INTERNALLY capitalism is driven to expand, to bring new areas under concentration, to open more and more of the world to its trade. The imperial phase of western capitalism creates one crop economies. Colonial countries are totally dependent upon the world market, which is the market of capitalism. Imperialism appropriates the wealth of a country; the country is deprived of the fruits of its labor. The so-called poor countries become poorer; the imperial center more wealthy. Capitalism's presence destroys tribalism, feudalism, slavery, religion, culture transofrming residues of these into commodities, for tourism or the art market. Creating conditions for the rise of capitalism, western imperialism impedes further development in industrially underdeveloped countries. The so-called rule of the generals creates the local conflictual elements against which socialism appears. 4 BUREAUCRATIC STATE capitalism with socialism as ideology as weapon against the imperial phase of western capitalism emerges to continue and finish capitalist development in underdeveloped countries. 'Socialism' is not a transformation of capitalism but a submission to its development, in the absence of a bourgeoisie, as independent class, whose laissez-faire stage of capitalist development could not cannot compete with the imperial formation. 'Socialism' continues the bourgeois project, minus a bourgeoisie. The disappearance of the bourgeoisie in underdeveloped countries begins with the Bolshevik coup. This social upheaval established a centralized state, operated by a bureaucracy, over a proletariat it is helping to create, and in whose name it finds its legitimation. The'socialist' countries maintain world trade, competition, profit, money, commodity relations (and first of all the sale of labor): they enter into relations with them; they extend the universal (global) domination of capitalism. The emphasis of'socialism' upon economic growth is not a revolutionary aberration but the expression of its content. This solution advocated by a myriad of latter day'socialists' is to demand for western capitalist countries the creation of a central bureaucracy prefigured in the elitist party already emergin in control of the state, that is: to advocate that the qualitative transformation of capitalism is simply the direction capitalism takes in preventing such transformation. 5 THE REAL WEALTH of society consists of the useful things that can be produced and not of money which is only a medium of circulation and has become superfluous. Capitalism, impelled by profit, produces socially useless things, commodities. As these commodites recede from any real use value (use value out of which they emerge and which they must continue to be the expression of), every effort is made to reassimilate them to the desirable, the needed, the necessary, until commodity production is production for use. 6 MARKETING DRAWS ON the sexual energy of the individual in order to impart it to the objects. The accident of desexualization reveals the necessity of the commodity spectacle. The objects are not only shown by men and women who look and act horny, the objects are in themselves appealing, attractive, desirable, necessary for one's fulfillment, exactly as a sexual object is. Man, to be, has to be recognized by other: but with commodities whose essence disintegrates with possession, only to reappear in commodities not yet possessed there is no recognition, only pursuit. The labor of men returns to them only in the commodities produced, commodities invested with the real life of the producers: men consume their alienated existence. The end is the Nothing Box the commodity that serves no function other than to be purchased, until you possess it, then it disintegrates. In the passage from 'things to goods' capitalism achieves its huge sleight of hand: life disappears into objects. Life is object: spectacle, show. 7 CAPITALISM HAS uprooted the whole past of social evolution: it has experienced, of itself, its every impulse, and has unleashed in itself forces greater than those of all former developmental stages. It has been ripe for some time now for the realization of its liberatory potential. The retard in the historical consciousness of the necessity for a total transformation of life finds capitalism masking its decay behind the bureaucratization of existence. The formal rationalization of an irrational world, the perpetuation of the struggle for survival, surpassed by the practical movement of capitalism, is the 'rational' project of bureaucracy. 8 HAVING SUCCEEDED in socially concentrating the means of production, and having dominated nature, capitalism strives for a permanent lease on life. Whereas it rose to domination by transforming the world, it now attempts to dominate the world by stabilizing its hold over it. But this corresponds also to the end of capitalism: as the repetitive pursuit of a surpassed goal, as gradual devolution; the institutionalization of total passivity consuming itself as activity, life as show which is only the show of life, survival for life becoming survival as life. Stabilization effective devolution is the priveleged task of bureaucracy. The rise of the occult these days not only means traditional religions have ceased to function, it prefigures the relationship men will have to capitalism as established order, impersonal force, permanent, permanently irrational and untouchable. The ptolomaic cosmology revisited: a fascination with the occult is a fascination with the image of a new enslavement, to change the world in the head, by default of simply changing it. 9 THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES in a social order must find their development before that social order can disappear. New and higher relations of production do not emerge before the material conditions of their existence have gestated in the old society. The old social order resists the emergence of new higher relations by partially appropriating them in order to control them. The introduction of cybernation into the mode of production is to make machines rather than men the principle agents in the process of production. It is to put an end to wage-labor. But if technological development under the bourgeois impetus to profit ceases when it ceases to make a profit, under bureaucracy it ceases where it no longer offers the possibility of control (rationalization). Development then ceases to be bureaucratically rational. For bureaucracy, the project is to extend the rational organization of a world which is irrational and remains irrational. It follows that as the rationalization of existence intensifies, the whole of reality becomes more and more incomprehensible: the road is open for the "meaningful" reintroduction of theology in daily life. Religion reappears, barring life. 10 THE ADJUSTED social relations emerging are an attempt to freeze class relations, create socially unproductive jobs, guarantee income (in order to guarantee a commodity economy) and extend commodity production (in order to perpetuate the spectacle of existence); presided over by a centralized bureaucracy in control of political power and of the means of production by virtue of its priveleged exercise of the power of the state. It is immaterial to note that class relations cannot be frozen, what matters is that the attempt to freeze them impedes the project of liberation. 11 THREE PRINCIPLE characteristics of bureaucracy are: it controls political power, it controls the means of production, it requires for the legitimation of its rule that it rule in the name of a given, established, class. In the west it is in the name of the bourgeoisie, in the east, ushered in by the Bolshevik coup, it already rules in the name of the proletariat. 12 THE BOURGEOISIE assures the loyalty of top bureaucrats presidents, vice presidents, and executive vice presidents, when these are not themselves members of the owning bourgeoisie by making them independently wealthy: by incorporating them into the ruling class. The bourgeoisie cannot run the economy without an army of specialists: a bureaucracy. The bourgeoisie, as a rule, is not equipped to deal with the day to day business of conducting business which involves a multiplicity of independent specializations (i.e., it is not equipped to control the economy). The bourgeoisie generally lets the bureaucrats run the show. As the bureaucracy begins to exercise control especially over the state it begins to conceive of itself as the representative of the 'general interest' and as such finds itself opposed to the special interest of the class in whose name it rules (in the socialist countries of course the bureaucracy already rules in the 'general interest' so that special interests including the proletarian project of liberation take on the mien of retrograde action to the development of'socialism'). Aside from what the state actually owns, its enormous power dwarfing any corporation lies in the budget and deficit spending. 13 SPECIALISTS OF all kinds are the mainstay of bureaucratic organisation. Wherever student opposition does not become aware of itself as total opposition to the present organisation of survival, it merely reflects the conflictual aspects of transforming the bourgeois university into a university for the formation of future bureaucrats. Any opposition which does not aim at the dissolution of the university bourgeois or bureaucratic functions to this end. 14 THE BUREAUCRATIZATION of existence is so at the surface that having devoted so much space to showing how the owners really run the show Lundberg's vision of the future, with a little reservation about the military, is simply lifted from Robert L. Heilbroner's view of how the show will end. "Heilbroner sees something very akin to socialism, or production-for-use in a rationally aspiring society, ushered in by a new class consisting of intellectual elites. The revolutionary potential, in sum, resides in the intellectual middle classes, not in the passive, dependent proletariat, who have no 'historical task.' "These new elites in Heilbroner's view consist of the new military policy-makers, the professional expert from the academic world in the form particularly of specialists in the social and natural sciences, the highly trained new type of government administrator and possibly the administrators that have come into view with the emergence of the big labor unions. These labor administrators are of a type quite different from the old-time ward-boss variety of labor leader. "While few if any of these men are hostile to the existing system of monopoly capitalism, Heilbroner believes (in which belief I concur) that in the long run, over a span of 50 to 150 years, the differences in background, method and objectives of these elites from those of the business elite will generate frictions between them... "The inherent social rationality of the system of production chiefly for private profit, utilizing for the short run the increasingly powerful tools of science and technology, practically guarantees the long-run end of such dominance." The rise of a pacifying bureaucracy is on the order of a fatality. 15 THE PACIFICATION of existence finds its expression in the increasing state interventions in the movement of the economy, in order to stabilize its growth patterns, against crisis. This function displaces the real basis for the existence of the bourgeoisie as independent class and presages the real end of bourgeois (representative) democracy. 16 BOURGEOIS (REPRESENTATIVE) democracy is the appropriation of the political power of individuals, renamed constituencies, by representatives. These, in the name of their contituencies, employ that power for the benefit of the ruling class. The vote is the formal legitimation of the masters, and through that the assurance of the permanence of the separation from themselves as individuals of their political power. Representative democracy follows the course of bourgeois development it passes from one compromiser and arbiter among bourgeois in open conflict with one another, to being the vessel for a centralized state in the hands of bureaucracy exercising power within the fomal husk of representative democracy. 17 BUREAUCRACY, ASIDE FROM the work of stabilizing, establishing the permanence of the economy as separate force, politically levels social classes in order to guarantee their permanence. It rationalizes the reduction of everyone within the economy to variations in the role of consumer. 18 AS BUREACRACY MASKS this blatant life by removing the most blatant signs of a poverty which is no longer necessary, the poverty of existence comes into view; private life is deprived of everything. Bureaucracy strives to remove particular wrongs in order to mask the wrong in general, which is that several centuries of bourgeois development of the economy has the potential for liberation which the bureaucracy is the specific denial of. 19 THE EFFECTIVE NEGATION of this development is the proletarian project: the project of the class that must become visibly what it already is essentially; the project of consciously abolishing capitalism; the project of taking over the whole of existing productive forces; the project of the uninterrupted transformation of life. 20 WHETHER BOURGEOIS or bureaucratic, the ruling strata experiences the parcellization of life as the confirmation of existence: parcellization is its power, and it is that power which accords the ruling strata the appearance of a human existence. The proletariat experiences parcellization as the reality of an inhuman existence and the confirmation of its powerlessness. Is a proletarian one who has no power over his own life and knows it? It takes one to know one. 21 THE POWER OF the proletariat finds expression in direct democracy. The delegate of direct democracy emerges when the political power of the individual is no longer separated from his social power. The delegate, subject to immediate recall, is the voice or the vote of the base (those who keep their power and send out a number from among them, strictly mandated, to express the voice or the vote). No man possesses the social or political power of another. 22 THE WORKERS COUNCIL was the highest organizational form of direct democracy reached by the proletariat for the expression of its own power, at the moment of its setback at the time of the Bolshevik coup, and again, in Spain. Where the setback has been assimilated by the leftist theoreticians to the end (the permanent defeat) of the proletariat, the councils have been abandoned. But the reaffirmation of their negation the proletariat and the expression of the proletariat's own power, the councils. The renewed motion toward emancipation will begin where the old had left off. 23 WHAT DEFINES THE power of the councils? The dissolution of all external (separate) power; direct and total democracy; the practical unification of decision and execution; the delegate, strictly mandated, subject to immediate recall; the abolition of all hierarchies and independent specializations; the management and conscious tranformation of all aspects of liberated life; the creative, permanent participation of individuals; international extension and coordination.Ben Carson Criticizes Young Earth Creationism, Says Earth Could Be Billions of Years Old
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Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson clarified that he believes that God created the world but does not believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old, as young Earth creationists claim. Carson also criticized those who claim there is no way the Earth can be billions of years old, saying that such people put themselves "in the same category as God."
"I certainly believe that God is our Creator. And interestingly enough, if you look at our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, it talks about certain inalienable rights given to us by our Creator," Carson told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in an interview.
The retired neurosurgeon said that people can have their personal beliefs on the possibility of a literal interpretation of the Adam and Eve story in Genesis, but rejected claims that the Earth is only 6,000 years old.
"I don't know how old the Earth is. It says 'In the Beginning, God created the heavens and earth.' And then there's a period there. You don't know how much time elapsed," he continued.
"He's God. If God wanted to create an earth that is billions of years old, he could do it."
Carson criticized people who claim that that is impossible, saying that they "try to put themselves in the same category as God."
In previous interviews, Carson said that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was inspired by "forces of evil," because it fails to acknowledge God's role in the creation of life.
While his original comments stemmed from a 2011 speech, he attempted to clarify his position in an interview with TIME in September.
"Well you wouldn't understand it, no one would understand it unless they believe that there were forces of good and forces of evil. If you don't believe that, then that would be a nonsensical statement to you," Carson said.
The Republican candidate added that he believes in micro evolution, or that species change by adapting to their environment through natural selection.
"I believe in micro evolution. I believe in natural selection. But I have a different take on it. The evolutionists [say] that's proof that the theory of evolution is true. I say that's proof of an intelligent and caring God who gave His creatures the ability to adapt to their environment so He wouldn't have to start over every 50 years," Carson added.
Some creationists, such as Answers in Genesis CEO and President Ken Ham, have said that Christians should not accept the theory that the universe, and the Earth, are billions of years old.
Explaining his position, Ham wrote: "If God used evolution to create, then He used a process of millions of years of death, disease, bloodshed and suffering to create life. He then looked over millions of years of death, bloodshed, suffering, disease, and animal carnivory and called it'very good.' The God who calls death 'the last enemy' (1 Corinthians 15:26) and will eventually destroy it in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14) would not call death and suffering'very good.' This is a major theological problem with evolution and millions of years — and it's just one of many."
The history of mankind and the planet remains a divisive question in America.
A 2014 Gallup poll found that as many as 42 percent of adult respondents in America believe that God created humans in their present form around 10,000 years ago. Thirty-one percent said they believe humans underwent evolution, with God guiding the process, and 19 percent rejected the notion that God was involved in the process at all.FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant led the Los Angeles Lakers with 27 points and 12 rebounds in a February 4, 2016, road win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
It was nine months before the Lakers won another road game.
On Wednesday night in Atlanta, L.A. ended its 16-game losing streak on the road, upsetting the previously undefeated Hawks (3-1), 123-116.
The Lakers (2-3), playing on the second night of a back-to-back after losing to the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday, had fallen behind the Hawks by 12 points early in the third period. A 72-point second-half barrage helped gut out a badly needed road victory.
"We got tired of losing," second-year guard D'Angelo Russell said after the game on the Spectrum SportsNet broadcast. "We fought the previous games. We fought but just didn't finish."
The road monkey's off their backs just in time, because the next big test for these young Lakers is at home.
They draw the Golden State Warriors (4-1), the best team in the Western Conference over the last two years, Friday night at Staples Center. After losing on opening night to the San Antonio Spurs, the Warriors have reeled off four straight victories, including a 122-96 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.
All-Star forward Kevin Durant poured in 39 points during just 31 minutes against his former franchise, hitting seven three-pointers in a rout.
Noah Graham/Getty Images
A Lakers win over the mighty Warriors would be a significant accomplishment, especially for a young team trying to establish itself as a competitor in the West.
The win in Atlanta was an important sign that the group is stepping forward: The Lakers were the first NBA franchise to play four games away from home this season. And in addition to Atlanta, the team had opportunities to win late during each of the previous three losses to the Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers.
"We've been in every single game we've played in and had leads in fourth quarters against good, playoff-caliber teams," head coach Luke Walton said. "I think you just keep learning from the mistakes that you make."
The Lakers are relying on youthful players such as Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Russell. Costly mistakes are an expected part of the process, but the team found some heat Wednesday, shooting 57.1 percent in the fourth quarter.
Outpacing the Hawks 33-22 over that stretch, the small-ball combination of Randle and Nance came up big defensively. Veteran guard Lou Williams helped carry the scoring, pouring in 16 points during the period, but it was Randle's block on Atlanta point guard Dennis Schroder with 38.3 seconds left on the clock that was the play of the game.
Wednesday was a good warm-up to what awaits these young, post-Kobe Bryant, rebuilding Lakers on Friday: Atlanta and Golden State expect to be playing deep into the playoffs.
The Warriors are the league's highest-scoring team at 115.4 points a night. The Lakers will have their hands full trying to both slow down and keep up with the Golden State machine.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Adding Durant to a roster that already featured Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green may seem unfair, but players have the right of free agency, and the Warriors were able to lure Durant away. He is already the team's leading scorer at 30.6 points a game, followed by Curry's 25.2. Naturally, Curry is still a marksman from deep, hitting 43.2 percent from three-point range. Durant (41.7 percent) isn't far behind him, but Thompson (19.4 percent) and Green (26.7 percent) are off to slow starts.
Like the Lakers, the Warriors need some time to come together. Unlike Los Angeles, Golden State can still win four of five while "finding themselves."
Armed with four All-Stars, the Warriors still manage to play an unselfish brand of basketball, one the Lakers aspire to emulate. Walton sat on head coach Steve Kerr's bench for two years and now hopes to bring a similar spirit of team kinship to Lakers culture.
So far, it's working: Russell is the team's highest scorer at 16.6 points a night, but Los Angeles has four others averaging double figures, including Williams (14.6), Clarkson (14.4), Randle (12.6) and Nick Young (12.4).
The Warriors' stars can be a joy to watch offensively, but they are also a serious force defensively, at least over the past two seasons. The Lakers are still a work in progress on both ends, though they have shown impressive flashes so far this season.
Perhaps the Lakers will catch a tired Golden State on Friday after its win over Oklahoma City in Oakland on Thursday.
Coincidentally, the Lakers' last winning streak was in early March of last season, when they upset the Warriors at Staples Center, followed by a win over the Orlando Magic.
After Golden State, the Lakers draw the Phoenix Suns (1-4) and Dallas Mavericks (0-4), two struggling teams. A victory Friday could open the door for L.A. to notch four straight.
Taking down the Warriors may not be likely, but the Lakers have already shown more of a fighting spirit than last year's squad, a team that lost 21 of its first 24 tries and won just 17 on the season.
Lakers Insider Notebook
Timofey Mozgov Ailing
The Lakers took on the Hawks without veteran center Timofey Mozgov, who was injured in the team's loss to the Pacers.
R Brent Smith/Associated Press/Associated Press/Associated Press
First Mozgov took an elbow from Jeff Teague, needing four stitches to close a bloody lip. Soon after, Lavoy Allen poked Mozgov in the eye. But there's good news for the Russian center: A doctor's examination in Los Angeles on Thursday revealed no fracture or concussion.
Mozgov is doubtful against the Warriors as he recovers from what the Lakers are calling a "soft tissue contusion around his left eye."
Rookie Ivica Zubac made his NBA regular-season debut in Atlanta, starting in Mozgov's place. The 32nd overall pick of June's draft scored six points in almost 19 minutes while tallying four fouls. Matching up against former Laker Dwight Howard was a challenge; Howard finished with 31 points and 11 rebounds, but no blocked shots.
Zubac scored the Lakers' first four points against the Hawks, already showing a sweet touch on his hook shot. The 19-year old is a fan favorite in Los Angeles with his innocent and exuberant demeanor. The Lakers will need to work through Zubac's inexperience while Mozgov is sidelined, but the team's front office is excited by his potential.
Tarik Black filled in 16 minutes as the backup center against the Rockets, while power forwards Randle and Nance played together in the frontcourt for roughly 13 minutes.
Before the season, Nance was eager to see if Walton would pair him with Randle in a small-ball lineup.
"I think that would be a really tough tandem to stop," Nance said. "Two athletic, slashing forwards that can really get on it on the defensive end and push the ball...that's pretty scary. I really hope that's a lineup we experiment with."
The two got the job done against Paul Millsap and Howard of the Hawks, especially defensively. They will likely get another opportunity Friday against the Warriors, who also like to go small.
Improvement Is Imperfect
According to NBA.com, the Lakers have averaged 107.2 points a game, ninth in the league. Defensively, the team is 26th overall in points allowed (110.8). The Lakers average 20 points a game off turnovers, tied with the Memphis Grizzlies for fourth in the NBA. Conversely, they give up 23 points off turnovers to their opponents, second-worst overall.
The Lakers can score, and they'll get steals, but they'll also turn it over too often and struggle to stop their opponents.
Los Angeles is seventh in second-chance points at 15.2 but dead last in opponents' scoring at 19.2. The Lakers are tied for ninth with the Detroit Pistons at 15 fast-break points a game but sixth-worst in allowing 15.6. They score 45.2 points in the paint per game (13th-best) but yield 52.8, second-to-last.
Clearly, they have made many positive strides offensively since last season, including improving their shooting as a team to 45.7 percent from the field from 41.4.
Still, the Lakers need to significantly reduce turnovers from their 18 per game. Defensively, the group must do a better job protecting the paint—fewer turnovers would help keep opponents out of transition.
Lakers Locking Up Roster for Long Term
Last week, the Lakers picked up the third-year options on Russell and Nance's contracts, along with the fourth-year option on Randle's.
Scott Cunningham/Getty Images
The decision was a clerical one. Only the first two years of rookie-scale contracts for first-round picks are guaranteed. The third and fourth are separate team options that need to be decided by Halloween. The Lakers are now committed to paying Russell $5.6 million for next season, while Nance will earn $1.3 million and Randle $4.1 million.
According to Basketball Insiders, only six rookie-scale options were declined around the league.
The Lakers now have eight players with fully guaranteed contracts for the 2017-18 season, including Luol Deng, Clarkson, Williams and Mozgov. Both Tarik Black and Marcelo Huertas are signed through 2018, but their contracts are non-guaranteed.
Additionally, Young can opt out of the final year on his contract at $5.7 million.
D-Fenders Open Training Camp
The Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers' NBA Development League affiliate, opened training camp Wednesday. Last season, the team was one win away from the D-League title, falling to the champion Sioux Falls Skyforce.
Casey Owens, who coached the 2015-16 squad, has since been promoted to Walton's bench and works as an advance scout. Coby Karl, son of longtime NBA coach George Karl, was hired to replace Owens with the D-Fenders.
Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images
Karl played with the Lakers during the 2007-08 season.
The D-Fenders will feature Travis Wear and Julian Jacobs, who both went to Lakers training camp last month. The team also has several core players returning, including Josh Magette, Vander Blue and Justin Harper.
Magette, who recently went through training camp with the Hawks, is one of the D-League's top point guards. Blue is a high-volume wing scorer, and Harper is a power forward who can stretch the floor with his jumper. Wear gives the D-Fenders another shooting power forward, while Jacobs is an aggressive on-ball defender at the point.
The Lakers currently have a full roster with 15 players, but if a spot does open, the team may look to the D-Fenders for a call-up.
All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Stats are accurate as of November 3. Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: @EricPincus.BALTIMORE—According to a study published Monday by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, the majority of the nearly 9,000 accidental heroin overdoses that occur in the U.S. each year could easily be prevented if the victim were to take less heroin. “Our data clearly showed that, in more than 95 percent of cases, had the individual used a smaller amount of heroin than they actually did, their chances of overdosing on heroin would have been significantly lowered,” said the study’s co-author Natalie Czerbett, adding that the results were the same regardless of whether a reduced quantity of the drug was snorted, smoked, or injected. “While these findings are by no means a silver bullet, I think it’s fairly conclusive that putting less heroin into your body is a highly effective preventative measure against overdosing on heroin.” Czerbett suggested that further research was needed to determine whether heroin overdoses could be reduced even further by mixing the drug with less cocaine.THE BACKSTORY ON WHAT LED TO TODAY'S GFW VS. HARDYS WAR OF WORDS
As Rebecca "Reby" Hardy stated this afternoon on Twitter, there has been a deal in place between Anthem Media and The Hardys that would allow the Hardys to utilize the "Broken Hardy" gimmick going forward.
In seeking to confirm Hardy's social media claims, PWInsider.com spoke with several sources who, under condition of anonymity, stated that all sides agreed to a deal in principle.
In a deal that it is believed Billy Corgan helped mediate, PWInsider.com has been told that all sides would have released a statement wishing each other well and would have agreed to no longer comment on each other publicly. The Hardys would have been able to utilize the "Broken" gimmick and (one would assume) Anthem Media would have received some sort of payment in exchange.
WWE was not involved in the deal, according to multiple sources.
The deal was then drafted by the Hardys' lawyers and sent to Anthem Media's Ed Nordholm to sign off on, but for whatever reason, several weeks have gone by without a response from Nordholm or any indication that the agreement was actually going to be signed.
One source stated that when Nordholm received the agreement in writing, he claimed that it wasn't what the two sides agreed upon, but confirmed that since that point, there had been no additional communication with the Hardys' side.
The drafted agreement led to Matt Hardy's comments on Twitter that they were close to a resolution on the situation. At the time, Impact sources remained steadfast that the two sides were as far apart as ever.
While Nordholm could still technically sign off on the agreement, Jeff Jarrett's comments during his media conference call today where he explicitly stated that there has been no changes regarding the situation and that Anthem, as producers of Impact Wrestling, hold ownership of the gimmick sparked Rebecca Hardy's latest social media comments.
A number of sources we spoke with today believed that unless Nordholm signs off on the agreement, the Hardys will have no last recourse but to file a lawsuit seeking ownership of the gimmick. We spoke with one source today who believes that decisions made by the company during the time period Dixie Carter owned Impact Wrestling were technically breaches of the Hardys' contracts, which appears to be the strategy the family would use as their strategy.
So, while it appeared last week that things were finally calming down between the two sides, it appears yet another volcano may explode due to Nordholm not signing off on the agreement. Whether the Hardys decide to go on the offensive and actually sue remains to be seen, but it appears that after all attempts at negotiating and all the back and forth sniping on social media, the stage has indeed been set for a legal showdown.
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!Through the past 2 years Unity QA has expanded and built tools, frameworks, and test rigs for internal use, something we have previously blogged about. Through all this work we have done, we have created a lot of value internally in Unity and we want to give our users access to these awesome tools. Today we have released version one of the Unity Test Tools on the Asset Store. Get it here:
Thus we made the decision to make Unity Test Tools available for our users, which we hope will help you attain a high quality in your code while developing your games.
Unit Test
The lowest and most efficient level to do automation is at the unit level. We have decided to use nUnit as the basis for our unit test framework, which is a well known framework for those already writing unit tests.
We have ensured that the integration to the editor is intuitive and simple, with the option of having automatic execution on every recompile, so you have immediate feedback while you write your code. Another important aspect of a test framework is the ability to make a build pipeline where unit tests are executed without a head and the Unity Test Tools give you this option as well.
Integration Test
In order for you to test the integration between components, objects and assets, you need a higher level of tests and for this we have made the Integration Test Framework. Integration tests are also the easiest way of starting to write automation tests on a game in development, since they don’t have requirements on the architecture of the code.
The simplest use of these would be to make a scene, use assets and gameobjects, and set up the conditions you want to verify. The execution is as simple as with the unit tests, where the execution will cycle through the scenes containing tests and execute each test for you. This framework can also be integrated into a build pipeline seamlessly, so you can test all levels of your project from commandline.
Assertion Component
The assertion component is able to monitor the state of gameobjects while in playmode and pause the game if the condition is met. The primary use is debugging, where you can make the game stop in the exact frame the condition is met, thus enabling you to see the entire picture of when it occurs.
To help manage the assertion components, we have added an explorer which is similar to a list of breakpoints in code, so you have an overview of the states and where the components are placed. The component can evaluate complex conditions runtime and thus is more powerful than a normal breakpoint.
In order to enable the build and release pipeline, we have made it possible for you to disable assertion components in release builds, thus making sure you don’t hit them in a released game.
Examples
In the package you download you will find a full set of examples and a comprehensive documentation on how each of the tools work.
The Future
Releasing the tools is just the beginning for us. We will be committed to release tutorials and patterns which will help you structure your projects such that they are testable. We will also continue improving on the tools and increase integration into Unity, all with the aim of making it easy for you to start testing your projects.
Happy testing!Amir al-mu'minin recited the verse:
O thou man! What hath beguiled thee from thy Lord, the Most Gracious One. (Qur'an, 82:6)
Then he said:
ومن كلام له (عليه السلام)
قاله عند تلاوته:
)يَا أَيُّهَا الاْنْسَانُ مَا غَرَّكَ بِرَبِّكَ الكَرِيم(
The addressee (in this verse) is devoid of argument and |
People are getting blockbuster sequel fatigue,” Rosen said. “They’re still looking for quality in any film market.”
As obvious as it seems, the path to success in both China and the US might mean going back to basics. Wolf Warrior 2, a Chinese production that shattered box-office records in the country this year, steals from the Die Hard playbook with its blend of patriotism and rousing action. It's also just a fun, competently made movie. It earned a 70 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, far above The Last Knight’s 15 percent and The Mummy’s 16 percent.
“Go back to the core: story, story, story. Invest time in the blueprint of the film, the script. Pixar, Blumhouse, and Marvel have been consistently delivering solid revenue streams because they incubate their projects and don’t take shortcuts,” Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, said. “Let’s be honest: Hollywood has known this since the dawn of film, but there’s always someone who thinks making a quick buck is the path to riches. It can occasionally work, sure, but it’s not the yellow brick road to box-office salvation.”BALTIMORE (WJZ)–Hurricane Matthew pelted Florida with heavy rains as the deadly storm steamed ever closer to the coast with potentially catastrophic winds of 130 mph Thursday. Two million people across the Southeast were warned to flee inland.
It was the most powerful storm to threaten the U.S. Atlantic coast in more than a decade, and had already left more than 280 dead in its wake across the Caribbean.
“This storm’s a monster,” Gov. Rick Scott warned as it started lashing the state with periodic heavy rains and squalls around nightfall. He added: “I’m going to pray for everybody’s safety.”
As it moved north in the evening, Matthew stayed about 100 miles or more off South Florida, sparing the 4.4 million people in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas from its most punishing effects.
By Thursday night, more than 60,000 homes and businesses were without power. Streets in Vero Beach were partially covered with water, and hotel guests in Orlando were told to stay inside, though a few sneaked out to smoke or watch the rain.
Millions of people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina were told to evacuate their homes, and interstate highways were turned into one-way routes to speed the exodus. Florida alone accounted for about 1.5 million of those told to clear out.
RELATED: FIRST WARNING WX: Slow-Moving Matthew Crawls Toward U.S.
The First Warning Weather team continues to monitor any possible affects from the storm as it nears the Baltimore area.
WHAT RESIDENTS IN BALTIMORE CAN EXPECT:
According to WJZ’s Marty Bass, models show it remaining a Category 2 hurricane through Sunday when the storm could be near the Carolinas.
Bass says at this point the trends are in our favor, which predict the storm could steer further of the coast before it gets past the Carolinas and Virginia due to a frontal boundary.
TIMING:
Hurricane Matthew is forecasted to move northeastward off the South Carolina coast Saturday into Saturday night.
“Right now, the trend for our weather in Baltimore is for a quieter forecast leading into the weekend, but if the forecast track re-adjusts again that could mean implications for more wind and rain–especially east of the Bay,” says Meteorologist Chelsea Ingram.
IMPACTS:
According to the National Weather Service, uncertainty increases as Matthew starts to track east- northeast and away from the coast into Sunday. At this time, coastal areas of the Mid- Atlantic have the best chance to see affects from Matthew.
Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook
(TM and Copyright 2016 CBS and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)Highly rated Gee-Lec Academy of Jos prospect Jerome Philip has inked a professional contract with MLS side New York Red Bulls (NYRB), Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
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Philip impressed during a short trial tournament in Kaduna State in July, where he scored three goals in three games in front of well respected MLS agent Damani Ralph.
18 year old Philip scored a well taken brace in the first game in the tournament, before crowning it up with a brace in the final game, where he also bagged two assist.
Managed by popular Nigerian football intermediary Babawo Mohammed, the agent confirmed his move to NYRB in an exclusive chat with Owngoalnigeria.com in Abuja.
” It wasn’t easy picking a club for Jerome as we had offers from Norway and Czech Republic for him. He did well in various event that was held by agents and scouts in the last few months”, Babawo told Owngoalnigeria.com.
” We settled for New York Red Bulls because of several indices but particularly due to the fact that I have given my word to the agent who brought the deal Damani Ralph.
” The other options would have given us more money than the move to NYRB, but in life money isn’t it all the time. He (Jerome) will join them next year before the start of the next MLS season”, Babawo concluded.
Tall, lanky and deadly with the ball at his feet due to his searing pace, Jerome is heavily tipped to be a part of the next Under-20 team of Nigeria, when they regroup for the qualifiers of the 2019 African Youth Championship.
Osas MahawiSo far only our users with Chrome have been able to revel in the glory of the B shortcut – that helpful ally that lets you open items from Inoreader in a background tab, thus letting you still focus on the reading experience, while keeping webpages you want to visit later.
It’s not like we prefer one browser over the next – and with the latest release of our Firefox extension, you can now use the B shortcut in Firefox, too.
You will have to add the Inoreader Companion for Firefox or, if it’s already installed, you’ll have to upgrade to the newest version, 1.25. Once you have installed the extension, you will have to close any open Inoreader tabs you have and open Inoreader again. If you don’t have the extension installed, you’ll see the following message when pressing B:
When the new Firefox extension is installed, you’ll be able to open any item you’re currently viewing in Inoreader in a background tab. Based on previous comments, this will be of great help for Firefox users. What do you think?This past Friday the world finally got to witness the first teaser trailer from the hotly anticipated new Star Wars movie from director J.J. Abrams and since then it’s been pretty difficult to browse social media without seeing some sort of reference to it, whether it be lame criticism, fangasms or hilarious parodies. It’s now officially stolen the best first week viewings of 2014 from previous titleholder Avengers: Age of Ultron.
In just five days The Force Awakens trailer has already smashed through the 58.2 million view mark on Youtube. Age of Ultron could only rack up 50.6 million in its first week.
According to the whizz kids over at Zefr – the technology firm behind the numbers – The Force Awakens is on course to become the most viewed trailer ever. Despite a close fight from Jurassic World – which hit 53.9 million in it’s first week respectively – the 88 seconds of new Star Wars footage is unlikely to be surpassed any time soon. And to think it’s still over a year away from release.
How many times did you watch it?
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set for release on December 18th 2015 and sees returning stars Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) joined by John Boyega (Attack the Block), Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Domhnall Gleeson (Dredd), Daisy Ridley (Silent Witness), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Miltos Yerolemou (Game of Thrones), Max von Sydow (The Exorcist), Jessica Henwick (Spirit Warriors), Christina Chong (24: Live Another Day) and newcomers Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen.
Listen to the Flickering Myth Podcast review of the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens using the player below:Authorities say a Florida woman admitted that she felt insulted by her boyfriend before she stabbed him.
Catherine Lynn Melvyn, 57, of Umatilla, reported that her boyfriend had stabbed himself in the chest on Friday night, but when deputies arrived, the man told them that Melvyn had stabbed him, according to WESH. The incident occurred across from the large retirement community The Villages in Central Florida, according Villages News.
>> Florida man tells deputies he shot man in groin to ‘scare’ him
When confronted, Melvyn told authorities that she didn’t mean to hurt her boyfriend and only recalled stabbing him in the shoulder once with a steak knife, according to WESH.
Despite her claims, the victim had two stab wounds and needed to be transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition, according to the Villages News.
Melvyn told deputies that her boyfriend, who has been with her for at least 12 years, had insulted her and that she wanted him to stop.
>> Florida man allegedly uses son to steal, ditches him in parking lot
She was arrested and is charged with attempted murder.
Read more at WESH.Somebody's about to bite the dust on Blindspot.
We've heard that a major death is coming to the NBC drama - and the victim is someone you probably won't see coming. Not even star Jaimie Alexander could have predicted this one, and it's going to have major repercussions for Jane & Co.
"There is a very shocking death that's coming up that I just read last week that I didn't know was going to happen," the actress tells us. "It's very sad."
Catch up on all this week's Mega Buzz!
Blindspot is no stranger to killing off characters in jaw-dropping fashion (RIP, Bethany Mayfair), so who will it be this time? And is the fatality an accident, or murder? The big exit is scheduled to take place in Episode 16, which will likely air in February.
Who do you think the victim will be? Start theorizing!
Crave scoop on your favorite TV shows? E-mail questions to mega_scoop@tvguide.com or drop us a line at Twitter.com/TVGuide.Perth Glory FC can confirm it has released former captain and central defender Michael Thwaite.
The club and player agreed to mutually terminate the 32-year old’s contract effective immediately.
Thwaite joined the Western Australian club in season 2012/13 and amassed a total of 85 Hyundai A-League games for Glory, scoring two goals along the way.
He was named captain of Perth Glory FC last year and played in every single Hyundai A-League match of the 2014/15 season, steering the club to its historic maiden FFA Cup final.
Thwaite will explore new opportunities at Chinese Super League football club Liaoning Whowin FC.
Club CEO Peter Filopoulos thanked Thwaite for his service, passion and hard work, on and off the field.
“Michael’s had some ambitions to explore opportunities overseas which we’ve known about for a while and we’re not standing in his way. We wish him the best of luck going forward” he said.
Filopoulos said Glory supporters would have good reason to get excited about with some player announcements expected to be made before the transfer window closed early next month.
Glory hosts Hyundai A-League champions Melbourne Victory at nib Stadium this Saturday night.
Registered Football West players can get two FREE tickets to this weekend's match HERE(CNN) -- When Tom Stuker telephones United Airlines to reserve a flight, all he has to say is "Hi."
The agent on the other end of the line will immediately recognize who is calling and take special care of the traveler United calls its "number one customer."
Meet the man many people have compared to George Clooney's character in "Up in the Air." Over the weekend, Stuker became the first person ever to reach the 10 million mile mark in United's Mileage Plus program.
Stuker, a Chicago-based consultant for the automotive industry, has flown on almost 6,000 United flights since 1982. He travels extensively for business and pleasure, noting that he's taken about 60 honeymoons with "the woman of my dreams" in the last 15 years.
"I love travel. I got hooked a long time ago, whether it's the Louvre in Paris or the pyramids or an African safari, I just really like seeing the world," Stuker said.
"If I go a week or two without flying, I get really jumpy and really antsy because I find so much solace, so much peace when I fly. I'm so relaxed."
He flies first class, of course, and gets VIP treatment as a member of United's exclusive Global Services program for super elite frequent fliers. Membership "comes with many benefits that we actually don't publicize," United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said.
World is small for mileage millionaires
On Saturday, the airline feted Stuker at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, naming a Boeing 747-400 in his honor for the occasion and presenting him with a first-ever Titanium United Mileage Plus card. (Again, United was mum on the exact perks that come with it.)
CNN.com caught up with Stuker on the eve of the party. He was in Los Angeles, where he'd just landed after a trip to see a friend in Australia.
The following is an edited version of that interview.
CNN: Where do you fly the most?
Stuker: I've accumulated probably a good 4 million miles just going back and forth to Australia.
I've been to Hawaii probably about 80 times.
CNN: What sort of perks do you get as a super elite frequent flier?
Stuker: Every time I hit a million mark, United would call me or e-mail me and ask "What would you like this time?" They would e-mail me a list of several different gifts to choose from. The last time, I got quite a generous gift card from an online wine service, which was very nice and kept my wine cellar full of nice champagne for a while.
When the first [Boeing] 777 came out, they put my name on it, and that was quite an honor.
Next week, they're having me throw out the first pitch for a Cubs game, which is a Cubs fan's dream.
They've invited me to suites at the Bears games and to very exclusive chefs' tables in Chicago's nicest restaurants.
But it's the service, not just those little perks. On an international flight, a lot of people might be [worried,] saying, "I'm going to miss my connection." I never, ever worry about it, because they'll be at the gate, and when the door opens, they'll have me booked on another airline, they'll whisk me there. They just take care of me in every single way.
CNN: Have they ever held a plane for you?
Stuker: They've done that a couple of times, yes, which is very, very, very unusual because plane on-time performance is really crucial.
Actually, one time they kicked somebody else off so I could get on there.
CNN: What is your favorite perk?
Stuker: It's a tough call. I like the international first-class lounges, those are really nice. They have all kinds of goodies and anything you want to drink. They spoil me rotten. As a matter of fact, in L.A. in the first-class lounge -- I'm in and out of there when I go to Australia -- they'll take things that aren't even on the regular layout and pack me almost a picnic lunch for the plane.
They have a special brownie I love, they always pack those for me and make me custom sandwiches because they know I'm a real sandwich guy.
It's the daily service that's the biggest perk. I fly so seamlessly, I never worry about anything because they always take care of me in every way.
CNN: What are your favorite airport lounges?
Stuker: Without a doubt, United's first-class lounge in Chicago and the one in L.A., because they treat me like I own the airline.
CNN: What are your least favorite airports?
Stuker: I'm not real big on LaGuardia.
CNN: Since you fly so much, you must be pretty familiar with all the planes and the layouts.
Stuker: I'm so familiar with most of the aircraft that if there are any new flight attendants, I have to inform them how to operate certain things; like how to operate some of the seats and whenever they update the entertainment system.
CNN: For most people, flying is such a nightmare these days because of the fees, the cramped seats. Would you be able to fly in economy?
Stuker: In the early days, I flew almost exclusively in economy. What is the alternative? A bus? Riding a bike?
The average flier is spoiled rotten. The average flier wants to go from New York to L.A. roundtrip for $99, they want triple miles, they want free upgrades and everything free.
The cost of flying, dollar for dollar, is still cheap as hell today.
CNN: A lot of people complain about the lack of civility on planes. Have you seen less civility over the years, even in first class?
Stuker: Yes, people are rude.
Flying, because of the close quarters, will magnify people's rudeness. But I think people in general have less manners over the years.
I think people are more selfish today, and it's just amplified in close quarters.
CNN: Have you personally experienced rudeness in first class?
Stuker: Oh yes.
Once, I put my seat back and this guy [behind me] takes his USA Today and puts it in my hair. He lays it out where it's laying in my hair. That's just a little message saying, "I don't like you putting your seat back." I tell you, grown professional business people turn into third-graders on a plane.
So I took my hands up, took the paper, crumpled it up in a ball and threw it on the floor.
Air rage: Is reclining your seat a right?
CNN: Do you have a favorite meal in first class?
Stuker: First-class food just gets same old, same old. I love it, but it just gets boring. We have so many fillets, chicken cooked 126 ways, I used to just sometimes order a kiddie meal or something just to get something different to eat.Texas Senator Ted Cruz says "Obamcare" is causing more and more people struggling to climb the economic ladder to lose their health care" when addressing hecklers during a "Defund Obamacare" speech.
DALLAS -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's message to Republican lawmakers who won't support defunding "Obamacare" at the risk of shutting down the government? "Don't blink."
And he downplayed the effects of a possible shutdown, telling a Dallas crowd on Tuesday evening that the last time the government experienced "a temporary suspension of non-essential federal government spending," the military kept functioning and Social Security checks were distributed.
Cruz is leading the charge to defund President Barack Obama's health care law at what he calls "the single best time" to get rid of the law. And while Democrats who back the law certainly aren't on his side, Cruz has framed the fight so that they're not his only foes.
"We have to do something that conservatives haven't done in a long time: We've got to stand up and win the argument," Cruz told the crowd of thousands who gathered at the town hall style meeting.
Cruz said that if enough Republicans stand together, it will create an impasse to force the issue.
"A significant amount of Republicans assume, with an impasse, that President Obama will never ever ever give up his principles, so Republicans have to give up theirs," Cruz said. "If you have an impasse, you know -- one side or the other has to blink. How do we win this fight? Don't blink."
The event was one stop of Heritage Action's nine-city tour aimed at building opposition to the law. Former Republican Sen. Jim DeMint now leads the prominent conservative think tank. He also attended Tuesday's meeting.
Cruz and DeMint never appeared together onstage or during a press conference beforehand -- law prevents DeMint from lobbying his former colleagues until two years after his Dec. 2012 resignation from the Senate.
(That didn't stop Cruz from praising the former South Carolina senator's toughness: "Chuck Norris wears Jim DeMint pajamas," Cruz joked.)
What both Cruz and DeMint are describing as the last chance to stop "Obamacare" is the push to use the Senate continuing resolution that funds the government to strip funding for the health care law. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is leading that effort, and 13 senators have signed his letter supporting the move, including possible 2016 presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio.
"Under no circumstances will I vote for a continuing resolution that funds even one penny of 'Obamacare,'" Cruz said Tuesday evening at the town hall.
Thousands of supporters turned out for the event -- though Cruz was interrupted several times by protestors who yelled questions about how uninsured people in Texas would get health care without the president's law.
Cruz engaged one protestor, who told a personal story about getting health care from Mexico. But two others were escorted from the ballroom after the heckling continued.
"Part of the First Amendment is about respecting the views of others," Cruz said.
Cruz's push has drawn opposition from moderate Republicans in the Senate -- the plan has been labeled "silly" and "dangerous" -- who say that the GOP would take the blame for a government shutdown. On top of that, they warn, a shutdown wouldn't even end funding for the health care law.
"I'm for stopping 'Obamacare,' but shutting down the government will not stop 'Obamacare,'" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told a Kentucky town hall meeting earlier this month, according to the local station WYMT.
Cruz's crusade is particularly troublesome for McConnell, who has studiously avoided taking a position on the proposal. He has a Tea Party challenger in his 2014 Senate campaign; at a speech earlier this month, businessman Matt Bevin urged McConnell to "man up" and support defunding the health care law.
But there's vocal opposition among more moderate GOP senators.
"I think it's the dumbest idea I've ever heard of," Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said last month. "Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president, the Affordable Care Act is going to be law."
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., commissioned a Congressional Research Service report that shows that the health care law would get its funding even if the rest of the government shuts down.
Cruz says that the GOP can shift the blame for a government shutdown onto President Obama's shoulders.
"We've got to go out and say look, we don't want to shut the government down. We have voted to fund the government." he said.
This story was originally published onHomicide: Life on the
Best Damn Set on Television
Set Visit - November 12, 1998
Part 1 by Susan M. Garrett "Bones of Contention" aired
January 15th, NBC, 10:00 PM (EST) I - The Auction II - Arrival at the Scene of the Crime III - Girls on Film IV - The Stairs V - The Parade VI - Lunch VII - The Crime VIII - The Camera IX - Not Quite Good-bye X - Location Shooting XI - Home XII - So, I'm on TV? Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Photo 1 Photo 2 I - The Auction Sometimes, you get lucky and you're in the right place at the right time. I attended the Lights, Camera, Auction charity auction in Toronto in October. It's run by The Motion Picture Charitable Alliance--they collect props, scripts, and other items donated by television and movie companies and auction them off for charity. The group was formed by Jon Cassar (director "Forever Knight," and "La Femme Nikita"), Nigel Bennett ("Forever Knight"), and John Kapelos ("Forever Knight") and this year's chosen charities were Covenant House New York and the White Ribbon Campaign: Men Working to End Men's Violence Against Women. You see the "Forever Knight" connection. That's why I was there; I wrote the second "Forever Knight" novel and I've been a fan of the series for a while. The "Forever Knight" connection is also part of the reason why Clark Johnson was there; Clark was a guest star in the "Forever Knight" episode "Can't Run, Can't Hide," directed by Jon Cassar. Clark brought along a few items from "Homicide: Life on the Street" to donate to the auction--a cap, a copy of the 100th episode, the pilot episode script, a crew jacket.... And a set visit, which included a walk-on role as a 'dead body.' I bid. I won. I was going to Baltimore. Clark was great at the auction--he gave me the contact information, told me to call soon, and told me to hope that they got me on set sooner rather than later, because being a body in January was rough (the concrete gets really cold in Baltimore in January in the morning, there could be snow, and it could take up to two hours to get all the shots you need). II - Arrival at the Scene of the Crime As soon as I returned home, I called to set up the set visit--Thursday, November 12th, 1998. Maybe I should have taken notice how close it was to Friday the 13th? Our day started at 4:30 AM--my friend Sharon and I were driving down to Baltimore from Hanover, PA. We planned to make the trip in two hours. There were a few nervous moments, but we arrived at the Baltimore set at 6:45 AM. Our directions had said there were two blue doors, that we should enter the blue door without glass in it. We found the blue door. It said "Casting." We entered. That ramp looked familiar--BOY did that ramp look familiar. We traveled up and up and up and very soon felt like Alice in Wonderland--we could hear people, but we couldn't see them. We tried to go out the way we'd come in, but the door was locked. Then we found Chris. I think he was an electrician--we didn't catch the last name (sorry, Chris)--but he said he knew who we were, that my name was listed on the call sheet, which he showed us. He also offered us a tour around the set, but we really had to check in and let them know we were there (what effort it took to turn THAT down). He saved us and got us out of the building, leading us next door to the Production Staff office. We were assigned to production assistant Chris Barber. Chris led us outside. The center of the building is a garage of sorts, with that great brick arch rising over it. Catering was set up with breakfast and Chris told us to help ourselves--to be honest, I was too excited to eat anything. Television production makes Cecil B. DeMille's cast of thousand epics look like a one-man show; there had to be 50 people milling around--cast, crew, staff, extras, tech people--you name it and they were there. Clark came up to us dressed in the traditional Meldrick trench coat and the brown hat. He checked out my jacket (I was wearing my FK crew jacket) and told me that I'd have to go to wardrobe for something more generic. He said he'd catch up with us later. Chris escorted us to wardrobe, which turned out to be a large trailer in that parking area, beneath the building. Shanna Gold, the set costumer, set me up with a green winter jacket and a gray and green scarf (remember that for later!) which she said would be perfect for a wintry morning in January. Of course, it was early November, but in TV time we were airing in January. Then it was back out to the front of the building to watch the scene. Chris led us over to a little cart--I believe it was manned by Dave Thompson. It contains three monitors, two of which are video monitors and one of which is a film monitor. Unlike many series, "Homicide" uses a shoulder camera instead of a steady or stationary camera to do most of the filming. The video cart, called 'video city,' allows the director to track what is being filmed. The video and film are simultaneous, so when the video is used for playback, they can see exactly what's been shot on film without having to develop the film. Lee Bigelow is in charge of the script--I believe she was keeping track of what lines were omitted or changed during filming so the post-production script would be accurate and items could be matched for continuity later. Susan Ingram was in charge of the film cartridges. She had a little cart where the camera is kept during rehearsal and set-up and where the used and unused film cartridges were stored and marked as they went into or came out of the camera. We were introduced to Miles Perman, the 2nd AD (assistant director). He gave Sharon and I headsets that were hooked up to the sound system. Bruce Litecky was the sound man and he was in charge of another cart--they handled sound with a wireless boom mike and wireless mikes attached to the actors. With those headsets over our ears, we kept scanning between the action 15 feet down the street (on the 'precinct steps') and the video city cart. There were also small handsets through which the director and AD could watch the scene as it progressed--kind of like 'live-action' Gameboys. The episode is #12, "Bones of Contention," which is scheduled for broadcast January 29th. Thursday the 12th was day six of a seven day shoot to complete the episode. Everyone in the cast and crew is given a call sheet--this lists everything about the next day's shoot, from who has to be where and when, to how many hours of daylight are available for filming, to 'life's little instructions' (today's call sheet contained 151. Get acquainted with a good lawyer, accountant and plumber, 152. Fly Old Glory on the Fourth of July, and 153. Stand at attention and put your hand over your heart when singing the national anthem), and to props, transportation required, how many people catering should prepare food for breakfast (75) and lunch (65). Everyone also receives a small packet of pages (8 1/2 X 11 sheets cut in half) which are called'sides.' This contains a photocopy reduction of the call sheet, the shooting schedule for the day (which lists the order in which the scenes are to be filmed, cast required, location, extras, props, vehicles, and set dressing), and photocopy reduced pages of dialogue to be covered that day. This gives the cast a cheat sheet in case they lose a line and allows the tech people to follow along for continuity. The first scene filmed that morning was scene 17, "Lewis meets Munch." There were a couple of other guests there that day, the most prominent of us being Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Lanham, Sr., who was appearing in that scene as himself. The commissioner is retiring and in the middle of the scene he greets Lewis and Munch as they come up the steps into the precinct. Richard Belzer arrived on the set--he was wearing a fabulous black coat, I think it was leather. Really, really nice coat. Clark showed up a few minutes later (in THE coat and THE hat) and checked with us to make certain we were being cared for, then off he went for rehearsal. The headsets allowed up to hear everything as they did the initial setup. Richard Belzer was standing on the police steps. When someone asked him if he could go higher, he said, "If I get any higher, I'm going to jail." Clark Johnson was whistling "The Merry Old Land of Oz" from the "Wizard of Oz" and also gave us a rendition of another song with which I wasn't familiar. There were certain calls we got used to during the day: "speed" indicates that the sound recording is rolling; "rehearsal" means no camera, the main cast are walked through their paces and their lines and they do the major blocking (who moves where and how); "camera rehearsal" means the camera is turned on and the rehearsed scene is viewed by the director (Brad Anderson) and cameraman (D.P. Alex Zakrzewski); "quiet" is called during rehearsal and during filming; "camera" and "shooting" seemed interchangeable throughout the day as people were warned that shooting was about to happen; "background" meant that people in the background would start moving; "action" is the signal for the main cast to being their work. Occasionally, we'd also get a "stop traffic" or "start traffic" during the exterior shots. Working out the shot meant starting Clark closer to the stairs or further down the street, having the police commissioner come out of the building at a certain spot, etc. Once they got the shot the way they wanted it, cameras began to roll. The actors said their lines and walked through the scene. Then the director called cut and they did it again. And again. And again. You'd be amazed at how many times the actors did that scene--first for a general shot which kept both of the main cast (Clark and Richard) in the shot, and Commissioner Lanham. Then they filmed close-ups, doing the scene once with the camera focused on Clark, doing the scene again with the camera focused on Richard. The scene is shot again from the front, and then again from the back (causing cries of "tuck in" which meant 'duck back into the parking area so you won't show up on camera'). During this, you have production people holding up traffic flow at either side of the street, which has to be released between takes, not to mention construction on a building across the street, garbage trucks, school buses... it seemed like everyone in Baltimore was driving near the wharf between 7 and 8 that morning. That's the regular shots--then they have to run another take if a line gets flubbed or missed, if something shows up in the take that's not supposed to be there (like a crew member or a ladder), if a siren goes off, or a seagull comes screaming through. It took an hour to film a scene that was less than a minute long and that was considered 'fast.' It turned out that we were only beginning to learn the ropes. Clark stopped by and told us that we'd probably be in that scene, but as it turned out, no one really seemed to know what to do with us. We were left to our own devices and hung out for a bit, gawking with another group of visitors (the real owner of Falsone's 'car' and some of her friends, who were invited to watch the filming). Clark dropped by to tell us that he was done filming until later that night (he had to come back for a location shoot at 6:00 PM), but that he was going to change into civilian clothes and come out and hang with us for a bit. The gentleman from transportation shepherded us along with the car owner and friends and before we knew it, we were watching them doing the setup for a scene with Jon Seda and Callie Thorne and Falsone's car. I'll mention Jon Seda later on a bit more, but from the first I was impressed with his energy. He was incredibly nice to us and kept making jokes with the woman who owned the car, occasionally ducking out of sight and announcing that someone had scratched it or that the transmission had blown or something. The call sheet says the car was a cavalier, but it was a lot sportier than that--AND a lot smaller. Bruce (the sound mixer) installed sound equipment in the trunk, the camera man and someone else were in the back seat, and Callie and Jon sat up front. They had a bad moment when they realized the car had security on, but the owner called out that they beeper was on the keychain. Jon had a lot of fun turning that security and lock beeper on and off later. Clark approached Sharon and I--it seems like every time we saw him he hugged us and I wasn't about to complain (my nose reached the middle of his coat lapels, so that may give you some idea of his height, since I'm 5'5"). He handed me a copy of the shooting script, with the corrected pages for that day, and had signed it. Then he asked if he could buy us a coffee at the place across the street (can't remember the name, but they go there for coffee and go to Koopers to eat--NOBODY eats at the "Waterfront" except the tourists). He spotted Jon and Callie in the car and told me that I should get them to sign the script. I hate to be pushy and I really hate to disturb people while they're working, so I told Clark that I didn't want to bother them, but he walked me over to the car, then knocked on the window. It took Callie a minute to find the power window controls, but Clark slipped the script inside and said, "Sign this for Susan, okay?" which they did, which was very kind of them. I noted that there wasn't a lot of room left in the car for the script--they were way crowded in there. Just the right mood for a script page of romantic banter. Sharon and I surrendered our headsets to the other set visitors and headed across the street to the coffee shop with Clark. We sat down at a table and Richard Belzer joined us. Clark said they were great friends. Richard Belzer was very subdued, but he recognized Toms River when I mentioned it (our Little League won the World Series for the US for the first time in 7 years). They were both kind enough to sign photos we'd brought with us and Richard Bel |
article in Canada’s Globe and Mail on November 9 performs such an act. The article by a seasoned writer of the newspaper Steven Chase is titled, ‘Pressure builds on Trudeau government to launch Ukraine peacekeeping mission‘. The article makes zero mention of Minsk-2. ‘Poof’, ‘disappeared’, ‘gone’.
The Toronto Star joined the disappearing act in a November 9 article by Ottawa bureau writer Tonda MaCharles. Writing of Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s vain hope to have combat soldiers from Canada and its allies on the ground in eastern Ukraine (they are already there in a ‘training’ mission), she continued, “Canada’s commitment to regional security in Eastern Europe is further demonstrated by its leadership of a NATO battle group in Latvia…” According to this worn ideology (think invasion of Iraq in 2003, ‘war on terrorism’ following the September 2001 attack in New York City), ‘security’ comes from the barrel of a gun, not from promoting social and political rights.
Writers at the state-run Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have long played the game of dismissing the significance of Minsk-2 or making it disappear outright. A September 26, 2017 news report by CBC writer Murray Brewster, for example, dismisses the agreement in these words: “Those accords have remained unfulfilled because each side is making demands and establishing preconditions that are unacceptable to the other.”
An article by the same writer four days earlier makes no mention of Minsk-2. This is old hat; a July 2016 article by him reviewing Canada’s military intervention into Ukraine performs the same disappearing act.
The aforementioned Globe and Mail article voices the wish of the Ukrainian government that a United Nations-endorsed military intervention could be mounted which could ignore Minsk-2 and weaken and undermine the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Those two republics came into existence in 2014 as part of the resistance of Ukrainians and Crimeans to the right-wing coup of February 2014 that overthrew the elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
But there is a hitch in the Ukrainian government’s wish: UN military interventions can only be conducted by the organization’s Security Council. Russia holds a veto there and it says any UN intervention must respect the terms of Minsk-2. Such a novel idea: that the Security Council should respect its own resolution endorsing Minsk-2!
Speaking of the coup of February 2014 in Ukraine and its extremely violent aftermath, these have long been the original ‘disappearing act’ in Ukraine as performed by Western media and governments.
Note:
A Western-biased account of the Battle of Debaltseve in January-February 2015 is here on Wikipedia.
Background :
Ukraine subverts draft Russian resolution to UN Security Council on UN mission to eastern Ukraine, statement by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova in her weekly briefing on Sept 28, 2017, published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
And at the same weblink: Russia’s initiative on protecting the Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE in the south-east of Ukraine, by Dr Alexander Yakovenko, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Oct 2, 2017
For background and up to date news on the conflict in Ukraine as well as news and analysis of the new cold war, follow the website New Cold War: Ukraine and beyond. Roger Annis is an editor of the website.Featured Contributor: Don Manfredi @profmanfredi
I swear that I am not one of those people who are tough to impress. You know the type; yawning at the base of the Great Pyramids. Yet after drinking one of the “Holy Grail” DIPAs I am going to come off as sounding unimpressed. I know right, how could I come away from drinking a Pliny the Elder saying “meh”?
One thing I can say with certainty – my luke warm reaction did not come because the beer was bad or not fresh, (I drank it within a month of bottling, although I am going to blame my amateurish pour that created the gigantic head on my excitement to get it in the glass and across my lips!). I am also not saying that Pliny the Elder is not an excellent beer. Quite the contrary, Pliny the Elder is an absolutely great beer on all levels, so why was I so underwhelmed by it?
I can point to two factors that contributed to my apathy: first there was no way this beer could live up to the hype I had created for it. The demand is infinite for the unobtainable and because this beer is so tough to get, and it scores so high, I expected drinking it to be a transformative experience. Not fair to the fine folks at Russian River who created a fantastic DIPA before DIPAs were that abundant. Which brings me to the second factor influencing my review – there are a lot of amazing DIPAs being brewed today. As I drank Pliny I could not help comparing it to others in its class like Double Trouble from Founders, Chillwave from Great Lakes Brewing Co., or Double Crooked Tree from Dark Horse. All amazing and a lot easier to get. Heck, what about Space Cake from Clown Shoes, or Artic Panzer Wolf from Three Floyds…you get my point. It is really not that Pliny has gotten worse, it is just that everyone else has gotten a lot better. That is great news for those of us that are actively looking for the beers that created the “bitter beer face” guy in the old Keystone Light advertisements.
So at the risk of sounding like an epic beer snob…here is my conclusion: Pliny the Elder is a great DIPA. It is balanced and hoppy and bitter and generally a joy to drink BUT it is not the best DIPA I have ever had by a long shot (which is a good thing if you ask me). Instead of making a 60+ year old salesperson lug Pliny the Elder across the country in his luggage, I could have easily gone down to my local bottle shop and bought one of the exceptional DIPA’s being brewed every day. However I still want to pay homage to Russian River because Pliny the Elder did set the bar for the DIPA category and we probably wouldn’t have so many great DIPAs in the market without it.
Don’s Bio:
Comfort is the enemy of growth. Plymouth, MI
#craftbeer #beer #pliny #plinyelder
Pliny the Elder Factoids:Former Mexican President and outspoken Hillary Clinton supporter Vicente Fox has publicly called for negotiations with the drug cartels that have brought terror to his country.
During a TV interview with Mexican journalist Carlos Marin, Fox said that negotiating with drug cartels would help slow down violence, get marijuana legalized and bring in tax revenue from the sale of drugs.
“It is a priority to come to an agreement with the criminals to get them to stop killing each other and killing our youth,” Fox said in Spanish.
According to the former president, negotiating with cartel members is not important if in the end “peace and harmony” can be achieved.
During his interview with Marin, Fox said that the drug issue was not one of violence and crime but a health problem.
“That is why my proposal has been to take the money,” Fox said. “That money when its legalized it becomes tax money and that money goes into the government’s coffers.”
Fox’s push for negotiating with drug cartels and legalizing marijuana comes just days after he publicly supported Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton calling her a “loving, tending caring mother.”
Breitbart News previously reported on the verbal attacks by Fox towards presidential candidate Donald J. Trump including posing with a photograph giving him the middle finger.
That particular attack came just days after Fox apologized to Trump for his comments during an exclusive interview with Breitbart News and invited him to visit Mexico.
The comments made by Fox have rapidly earned him harsh criticism from Mexican citizens since as Breitbart Texas previously reported, the lack of a comprehensive security strategy by Fox during his term gave Mexican drug cartels six years to grow and expand with little to no opposition from authorities. The lack of action allowed drug cartels to develop and arm large armies of foot soldiers known for their ruthlessness such as the Los Zetas drug cartel.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.Australian artist Tanya Schultz creates immersive wonderlands using the sweetest materials: colorful sugar and candy. But along with the hundreds of pounds of sugar, the miniature worlds, which are reminiscent of mythological lands made from food, often incorporate as many ingredients as there are colors. Working under the pseudonym Pip & Pop, Schultz uses everything from glitter and pipe cleaners to beads and figurines to create her psychedelic installations, which have been exhibited all around the world.
Pip and Pop began as a duo in 2007 but since 2011 Schultz has been working alone, or sometimes collaborating with other artist or creative companies, to create her elaborate installations. Check out what she’s been up to recently and allow yourself to be transported to imaginary worlds where sugar rains from the sky and streets are paved with candies. (via Cross Connect)We’ve been talking a little bit about what we might gain if we begin to conceive of cities, for some limited purposes anyway, as software under active development. So far, we’ve largely positioned such tools as a backstop against the inevitable defaults, breakdowns and ruptures that municipal services are heir to: a way to ensure that when failures arise, they’ll get identified as quickly as possible, assessed as to severity, brought to the attention of the relevant agencies, and flagged for follow-up.
And as useful, and even inspiring, as this might be, to my mind it doesn’t go nearly far enough. It’s essentially the lamination together of some entirely conventional systems, provisions and practices — something that already exists in its component pieces, something, as Bruce points out here, that’s “not even impossible.”
But what if we did take a single step further out? What if we imagined that the citizen-responsiveness system we’ve designed lives in a dense mesh of active, communicating public objects? Then the framework we’ve already deployed becomes something very different. To use another metaphor from the world of information technology, it begins to look a whole lot like an operating system for cities.
Provided that, we can treat the things we encounter in urban environments as system resources, rather than a mute collection of disarticulated buildings, vehicles, sewers and sidewalks. One prospect that seems fairly straightforward is letting these resources report on their own status. Information about failures would propagate not merely to other objects on the network but reach you and me as well, in terms we can relate to, via the provisions we’ve made for issue-tracking.
And because our own human senses are still so much better at spotting emergent situations than their machinic counterparts, and will probably be for quite some time yet to come, there’s no reason to leave this all up to automation. The interface would have to be thoughtfully and carefully designed to account for the inevitable bored teenagers, drunks, and randomly questing fingers of four-year-olds, but what I have in mind is something like, “Tap here to report a problem with this bus shelter.”
In order for anything like this scheme to work, public objects would need to have a few core qualities, qualities I’ve often described as making them “addressable, queryable, and even potentially scriptable.” What does this mean?
– Addressability. In order to bring urban environments fully into the networked fold, we would first need to endow each of the discrete things we’ve defined as public objects with its own unique identifier, or address. It’s an ideal application for IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protocol, which I described in Everyware as opening up truly abyssal reaches of address space. Despite the necessity of reserving nigh-endless blocks of potentially valid addresses for housekeeping, IPv6 still offers us a ludicrous freedom in this regard; we could quite literally assign every cobblestone, traffic light and street sign on the planet a few million addresses.
It’s true that this is overkill if all you need is a unique identifier. If all you’re looking to do is specify the east-facing traffic signal at the northeast corner of 34th Street and Lexington Avenue, you can do that right now, with barcodes or RFID tags or what-have-you. You only need to resort to IPv6 addressability if your intention is to turn such objects into active network nodes. But as I’ve argued in other contexts, the cost of doing this is so low that any potential future ROI whatsoever justifies the effort.
– Queryability. Once you’ve got some method of reliably identifying things and distinguishing them from others, a sensitively-designed API allows us to pull information off of them in a meaningful, structured way, either making use of that information ourselves or passing it on to other systems and services.
We’ve so far confined our discussion to things in the public domain, but by defining open interoperability standards (and mandating the creation of a critical mass of compliant objects), the hope is that people will add resources they own and control to the network, too. This would offer incredibly finely-grained, near-realtime reads on the state of a city and the events unfolding there. Not merely, in other words, to report that this restaurant is open, but which seats at which tables are occupied, and for how long this has been the case; not merely where a private vehicle charging station is, but how long the current waits are.
Mark my words: given only the proper tools, and especially a well-designed software development kit, people will build the most incredible ecology of bespoke services on data like this. If you’re impressed by the sudden blossoming of iPhone apps, wait until you see what people come up with when they can query stadium parking lots and weather stations and bike racks and reservoir levels and wait times at the TKTS stand. You get the idea. (Some of these tools already exist: take a look at Pachube, for example.)
– And finally scriptability, by which I mean the ability to push instructions back to connected resources. This is obviously a delicate matter: depending on the object in question, it’s not always going to be appropriate or desirable to offer open scriptability. You probably want to give emergency-services vehicles the ability to override traffic signals, in other words, but not the spotty kid in the riced-out WRX. It’s also undeniable that connecting pieces of critical infrastructure to an open network increases the system’s overall vulnerability — what hackers call its “attack surface” — many, many times. If every exit is an entrance somewhere else, every aperture through which the network speaks itself is also a way in.
We should all be very clear, right up front, that this is a nontrivial risk. I’ll make it explicit: any such scheme as the one sketched out here presents the specter of warfare by cybersabotage, stealthy infrastructure attrition or subversion, and the depredations of random Saturday-night griefers. It’s also true that connected systems are vulnerable to cascading failures in ways non-coupled systems cannot ever be. Yes, yes and yes. It’s my argument that over anything but the very shortest term, the advantages to be derived from so doing will outweigh the drawbacks and occasional catastrophes — even fatal ones. But as my architect friends say, this is above all something that must be “verified in field,” validated empirically and held up to the most rigorous standards.
What do we get in return for embracing this nontrivial risk? We get a supple, adaptive interface to the urban fabric itself, something that allows us not just to nail down problems, but to identify and exploit opportunities. Armed with that, I can see no upward limit on how creative, vibrant, imaginative and productive twenty-first century urban life can be, even under the horrendous constraints I believe we’re going to face, and are perhaps already beginning to get a taste of.
Stolidly useful, “sustainable,” justifiable on the most gimlet-eyed considerations of ROI, environmental benefit and TCO? Sure. But I think we should be buckling ourselves in, because first and foremost, read/write urbanism is going to be a blast.When you heard the racist remarks of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, what was your reaction?
I wasn’t really shocked or anything. Because of what I saw after the incident after the NFC championship game. You’ve got a lot of racial backlash, and a lot of racist comments that were uncalled for – I can never see a time where racism is called for. So it didn’t shock me as much as it would have had I not experienced that personally, had I not seen those things.
Because it showed me that America still had some progress to make. On equality, and understanding that it doesn’t matter what color you are, you treat people as people. And whether a good person or a bad person, you don’t judge them off the color of their skin. You can know a person is a good person or a bad person by who they are, not by what they look like. In that situation, it just seems like a lot of people gave him a lot of flack, well deserved, but you know – I feel like a lot more people were surprised then they should have been.
That’s why a lot of people shy away from the conversation that I forced on us in January. People want to it to be done, they want that uncomfortable truth to be over with, they want the racism to be done, they want to believe everything is great and hunky-dory. And it’s not. There’s a lot of racism still alive and still active. And it just forced America to rethink it once again. And to really, really understand that racism isn’t gone. We have to actively push it out. And snuff it out.
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NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Donald Sterling for life. Do you think if an NFL owner made similar comments, would commissioner Roger Goodell react in the same way, and do you think an owner would be banned for life?
No I don’t. Because we have an NFL team called the Redskins. I don’t think the NFL really is as concerned as they show. The NFL is more of a bottom line league. If it doesn’t affect their bottom line, they’re not as concerned.
Do you hope the Sterling incident can be a touchstone to force some change on the Redskins issue?
I would hope it would help. It’d help reinitiate the conversation. And at least there would be another discussion. You know, I think the discussion has stopped. And the public has just accepted it. And I think there should be more conversations. But it is what it is.
You’re confident that the NFL would not have reacted like the NBA did because they already have a team name like the Redskins. So to you, that says a lot, right?
It does. It says a whole lot.
Thursday marks the start of the NFL Draft. What was that experience like for you back in 2011? Seattle selected you with its 23rd pick in the 5th round. Did you expect to go higher?
I was excited when I got the call. But I was definitely disappointed, I fell so late. I was told by multiple teams that I would go earlier on the second day [NOTE: when the second and third round selections are announced]. I was called on the second day. And teams said they would bring me. And nothing transpired. So that was disappointing. You feel like teams lie to you. And so it was an emotional roller coaster. During days like that, when you expect to get picked on the second day, the time to wait for the third day feels like you’re waiting years. And when it finally comes, and you don’t get picked the whole fourth round, then it feels like an eternity. Where you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, am I not going to get picked at all? Was it all for naught? It it done?’ Then you finally get picked, and it’s you know, all those worries go away for a second.
Are you surprised the draft has become such a huge live event, where people travel from all over the country to New York City just to hear Roger Goodell read names? Last year, I met a Dolphins fan who flew all the way from Panama to be there.
Yeah, I mean it’s kind of crazy, man. It’s kind of crazy. The amount of coverage and the amount of attention it gets. Because it’s a day where you can watch it at home and see the same results. Probably get a better shot of it. It’s really surreal. And I mean, I really can’t imagine why people would go watch it.
Since everyone seems to have an opinion on Johnny Football (Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel), have to ask: do you think he’ll be a good NFL player?
I have no idea to tell you the truth. I’ve seen him play. I think he’s a great player. And he did a great job in college. You know, it can translate very well into the NFL and you can have the next Brett Favre, the next great quarterback. Or it cannot transfer well. You never know until they put pads on, and step onto an NFL field. We’ve seen a lot of average college players turn into great NFL players. We’ve seen great college players turn into great NFL players. We’ve seen great college players turn into terrible NFL players. So you really never can guess how the game’s going to translate until he goes out there and puts it on tape.
So you’re not one of those guys who’s automatically convinced he’s going to be an overhyped bust?
No. Because I’m one of the guys that believes you’re gonna be who you will yourself to be. So if he believes he’s going to be a great quarterback, and he puts in the work, who’s to stop him? I mean, they say his size. But I’ve sat here and watched Russell Wilson win a Super Bowl.
Do you think college players, particularly big stars like Manziel, should be paid?
I do. I think even if they were paid an hourly wage, it’d be quite an improvement from what they get. And you know, I understand the arguments about they’re getting their education paid for, they’re this that and the other, but there are people on academic scholarships that don’t have to deal with any extra rigors. They get their education paid for. And they don’t have to deal with eight hours a day of football, and you know, if you mess up your knee you’ve got to deal with two hours of rehab everyday. So that’s 10 hours of your day gone, and there’s only 24 in a day. So, if they just gave him an hourly wage, even if they gave him 10 bucks, 12 bucks an hour, that’d be a vast improvement over what they got now.
How do you think an NFL team will react to having Michael Sam, the draft prospect from Missouri who announced he was gay back in February, in its locker room?
I think it’ll play out just fine. I think that’s a big deal being made about nothing. I don’t think guys will make a big deal about it in the locker room. I think he’ll be fine. You know, the thing that’ll hurt him is if he doesn’t play well. If he doesn’t play well, it doesn’t matter if you’re straight, gay, or indifferent. If you can’t play, you can’t play. You can play, you play. And the NFL is a real bottom-line league. And that’s the bottom line.
You attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and got a shoutout from President Obama. What was that like?
I was in awe. It was hilarious after I got past the shock. But it was an incredibly surreal experience for me, to get shouted-out by the president.
How would you characterize these last few months, since your post-game interview, the firestorm it caused, and the Super Bowl win?
It’s been a whirlwind. A lot of apprearances. A lot of attention. A lot of people wanting to get your opinion about things, and it’s just something you’ve got to accept, and something that you have to temper a little bit. You have to temper your emotions and try to stay stable. And also try top stay on your routine.
Did you learn any lessons from that whole experience, being in the media firestorm and sparking a heated national conversation because of the interview?
It showed me how fleeting opinions are. And how opinions and people’s choices and I guess criticisms are rarely based in fact. A lot of times they are knee-jerk reactions, a lot of times they’re based off of media perception, you know, what they can see on the surface. Surface perception. And that a lot of people don’t take time to delve deep into things before they make an opinion, or make a criticism or make a remark. And that’s OK. That’s the society we live in, it is what it is, you have to accept it.
Do you have any regrets about the interview?
I don’t. Because I said exactly what I meant to say. Truthfully, I expected it to get some attention, but I didn’t expect it to overshadow the performances of the game. And us winning the NFC championship. I didn’t think the media would take it that far, but they did. And so once they took it there, we had to change the discourse. But, um, yeah, I was frustrated that a lot of people didn’t acknowledge the great game that [safety] Kam Chancellor played, the great game that [linebacker] Bobby Wagner played, [running back] Marshawn [Lynch] had a good game, [wide receiver] Doug Baldwin had huge catches the whole game, and [wide receiver] Jermaine Kearse made the catch to put us ahead. And you know those are the things that frustrated me a little bit about the incident.
Have you had any contact with Michael Crabtree at all?
I have not.
Has he reached out to you, or you reached out to him, or neither.
Neither.
You’re starring in a new ad campaign for Oberto, the beef jerky brand. One ad touts the athletic training benefits of beef jerky. Gotta say, I’ve never associated beef jerky with athletic training.
(Laughs) Oberto beef jerky is all natural, it’s a great source of protein. I mean we eat all these protein bars, with a bunch of sugar and a bunch of calories. Oberto, it’s just a good, I guess, substitute for that sometimes. You don’t want to always put a bunch of sugar in you. Because your sugar gets high, it gets stuck in your blood, it gets stuck in your system. It makes you tired. You have the ups and downs. So it’s a great substitute to be a little healthier.
But you can understand my reaction?
I definitely could. I definitely could understand your reaction, man. But I also like their slogan. “You Get Out What You Put In.” I mean, that applies to ball, that applies to all walks of life. And thought that that really meshed well with football and what we like to do. But I can definitely see your reaction
(This interview has been condensed and edited)
Write to Sean Gregory at sean.gregory@time.com.The Twitter ban was the latest step, though hundreds of thousands of Turks had been able to circumvent the ban by using text messaging service. Messages posted on Friday rejoiced in creative means of sharing information offline about how Turks can alter Domain Name System settings on their devices to allow them to circumvent the ban. Others had disguised the location of their computers by using programs that redirect traffic to servers outside of Turkey.
“It seems that there is some pivotal information that the government does not wish to spread over the Internet,” said Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. “It’s actually highly irrational when you consider it is impossible to stop social media networks. My son breached the ban in 15 seconds.”
Government officials have also sought to justify the attempted blocking by saying that Twitter had been used to invade privacy. The Turkish telecommunications authority said on Friday that the site had been blocked after citizens complained that their privacy had been breached. After Twitter refused to remove some content, the authority said, “there was no other choice.”
Mr. Gul, despite being an erstwhile close ally of Mr. Erdogan, has in recent months taken a more moderate stance when it comes to personal freedoms, even as he has approved some of the prime minister’s moves to restrict Internet access in the name of assuring privacy.
Opposition groups threatened legal challenges. The Turkish Bar Association took the matter to court on Friday, saying the blocking was unconstitutional and was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We stand with our users in Turkey who rely on Twitter as a vital communications platform,” the company said in a Twitter message on Friday. “We hope to have full access return soon.”
In earlier messages, Twitter urged people to use mobile connections to get access.
In a statement on Friday, the United States State Department said “today’s shutdown of Twitter is contrary to Turkey’s own expressed desire to uphold the highest standards of democracy,” and urged the government to ensure that citizens had free access to all social media platforms.
At the Buster Internet cafe in Istanbul, a student, Engin Alturk, said the prohibition had only encouraged people to post more messages. “We lived without YouTube for a year; we know all the tricks to get around this,” he added. “Erdogan must think us stupid.”Jonathan Waxman’s arms were crossed high as he looked out over the bay from the northern edge of Ghirardelli Square, his hair blowing in all different directions, almost like a tease of the celebrity chef’s brazen personality.
“I’m going to be the pioneer,” the 65-year-old Berkeley native said of his sprawling new Ghirardelli Square restaurant, exuding equal parts fun and bravado. “And I don’t mind that.”
The Tuesday opening of his restaurant, named Waxman’s, will be the culmination of what has been a long — and in some cases, contentious — redevelopment of the historic complex, long dismissed by locals as a tourist attraction. The attempted overhaul began almost a decade ago with the unveiling of the Fairmont Heritage residential boutique hotel, but in the years since, it has seen multiple new landlords, lawsuits, failed leases and massive delays.
Being the pioneer is not a new role for Waxman. He shaped the course of California cuisine in America, first as chef of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse in the late ’70s, and then by bringing the movement to Los Angeles and New York.
Waxman as the anchor tenant of the complex is significant, not only because it represents his homecoming, but also because there’s an underlying pressure for the chef — whose last California success was over two decades ago — to turn the square around and bring both tourists and locals back.
This has been years in the making.
By the time the current restoration began, Ghirardelli Square had already become a shadow of its former self.
Past glory
“When the square was originally curated (in the 1960s and early ’70s), it was pure genius,” said Waxman. It was home to the Mandarin, Cecilia Chiang’s revolutionary Chinese restaurant; Modesto Lanzone, a popular northern Italian spot; Señor Pico, an offshoot of Trader Vic’s; and Magic Pan, which went on to become a successful crepe chain. All are defunct now, including the Magic Pan restaurants, though Magic Pan was reintroduced as a mall crepe stand by Lettuce Entertain You of Chicago in 2005.
“I grew up in the East Bay — the best thing was to jump in the car with my parents and come here,” he said.
“Then at some point it turned into a place for tourists.”
When Jamestown Development brought the property in 2013 for $54 million, the complex had already been through several failed would-be renaissances. Jamestown president Michael Phillips had the task of finding a tenant to fill the 6,000-square-foot Mustard Building space that had just been released by Gary Danko, who had been planning to open a brasserie there. But after dealing with too many headaches surrounding the property, the chef backed out.
“We ended up having legal battles and landlord issues,” Danko explained. “We finally had to move on.”
A well-wisher
Danko, who counts Waxman as a friend, said he carries no hard feelings about the situation. In fact, he seemed downright relieved to be on the other side of it.
“The climate in San Francisco is tough right now; it’s hard to find good help. You’d probably need over 100 people to staff that space,” Danko said. “For me, it was probably a blessing in disguise.”
Still, he said, “I can’t wait to have (Waxman’s) roast chicken.”
Phillips has already brought in some new businesses: Marina bakery Le Marais is currently selling pastries and Stumptown coffee in the old Kara’s Cupcakes space, which now looks like a Parisian patisserie. Bluxome Street Winery brings a modern sensibility to a restored late 19th century brick structure at the center of the square.
But the Mustard Building space was the big one. Phillips polled members of the chef community to find out how to bring some of that history back to the square. Getting Waxman drummed up excitement within the industry, he said, mostly because of his history in the area and his reputation as a passionate American chef.
Waxman came of age in the Alice Waters era — following Jeremiah Tower as the chef at Chez Panisse — and earned his reputation for shaping California cuisine at Michael’s in Santa Monica. He was credited with bringing that style — a blend of rustic European technique and fresh, local ingredients — to New York, where he opened the wildly successful Jams in 1984, at the age of 33.
There, he became a nationally known chef, a role he stepped into easily, especially given his affection for the stage — before moving into the kitchen, Waxman had played the trombone professionally, in jazz and rock bands.
Currently, he and his business partner, Howard Greenstone, operate Barbuto in New York, which is now in its 13th year of business. They also own Brezza Emporia and Pizzeria in Atlanta, as well as Adele’s, named after Waxman’s mom, in Nashville. Just last year, they reopened Jams in New York’s Midtown. This year, he was nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Chef: New York.
“It’s an interesting come-full-circle moment,” said Nancy Oakes, chef-owner of Boulevard and Prospect, who has known Waxman since his early days in the Bay Area. “He was here in such a formative time for the Bay Area food scene and then was a great ambassador, taking this food back to New York.”
Luring the customers
As a celebrity chef making frequent television appearances, Waxman is hoping to reach the tourists as well as the locals, and as Phillips suggested, both are necessary to keep a business alive in this part of town. “Any time you have a successful environment, it has to start with a commitment from the local people, and then the tourists will follow,” said the developer, who has restored other high-profile, food-centric properties like Chelsea Market in New York.
Walking through Ghirardelli Square earlier this month, Waxman was already generating buzz. A couple from Kansas City stopped to take a photo with him on the front patio; elsewhere, he shook hands with one of the Fairmont residents who inquired, in joking impatience, about the restaurant’s opening date.
“Everyone is off-the-charts excited,” said Scott Broccoli, who owns the Pub, a barbecue restaurant and bar on the ground floor of the complex. “Whenever you can get a name like his to be on your block, that’s a good thing. He’ll draw more attention and give us a level of sophistication and maturity that the square has needed for a long time.”
But opening Waxman’s won’t come without its challenges.
This new restaurant — his first in San Francisco — is his largest undertaking to date, and the size alone means something different in the pricey enclave of Russian Hill-Fisherman’s Wharf than it does in Atlanta or Nashville.
He’s divided this 110-seat space into two sections: an upscale restaurant on one side, and a fast casual cafe on the other. The menu showcases Waxman’s current style, a blend of seasonal Italian and Mediterranean cuisines. Dishes are more refined in the restaurant, while scoop-and-serve salads, carved roasts and sheet pan pizzas — think in the style of Ottolenghi and Princi in London, or Gusto in Los Angeles, Waxman said — are featured in the cafe. Both sides offer his famous roast chicken, in different forms.
The dining room — which he designed with the help of some local talent — is grand, light-filled and elegant. It feels like a clean, modern warehouse, complete with impressive cross-sections of walnut and cypress trees and what he hopes will be local art adorning the walls.
Bicoastal life
Waxman will spend the bulk of his time here — he admits that he’s looking for a house — but will also keep roots on the East Coast. His wife and three children are there; his 19-year-old daughter at Princeton and his two sons, 16 and 13, in school in Manhattan.
If the New York Times review panning the recently opened Jams is any indication — Times critic Pete Wells called the restaurant a “zombie... stiff in the joints and short on joie de vivre” — he’ll have his work cut out for him with fickle, sophisticated Bay Area diners. This is not an easy crowd.
Still, he is anxious to be a left-coaster again, and his colleagues and contemporaries are looking forward to his return.
Fellow restaurateur Oakes said it’s nice to have a confident chef coming back to California, and she can’t wait to go back to the square — “we haven’t had a reason to go in a long time” — though she, too, admits he’ll have some catching up to do.
“We have a long growing season here, and it’s different than it used to be,” she explained. “The ingredient list is longer. It’s different in New York.”
But conceivably, Waxman should be poised for some positive noise. And according to Le Marais owner Patrick Ascaso, the new customers are already coming to the square.
“I had a woman walk in the other morning who lives near here. She had walked along the water and wanted a pastry and coffee,” Ascaso said. It’s a good sign, he feels; one that suggests the locals are realizing the allure of such an upscale development in a beautiful location.
“Everything within a square mile of here is fast food,” he said, though he believes there’s a |
White House promptly called “catastrophic.”
Told that Obama had said in 2010 that his greatest worry is a nuclear device exploding in an American city, Trump at first took a dig at the president.
“It’s funny. It’s very interesting. I’m surprised he said that because I heard him recently say that the biggest problem we have is global warming, which I totally disagree with. Okay?” Trump said.
But after mocking, Trump turned solemn on the topic, calling the nuclear threat the “single greatest problem” for global peace. “You look at Hiroshima and multiply it times a thousand,” he said, shaking his head.
Trump said if other countries would agree to do so simultaneously, he would be open to eliminating nuclear weapons held by the United States. “If it’s done on an equal basis, absolutely,” he said.
But Trump added a caveat. He said as much as he supports the idea of eliminating nuclear weapons, it may not be feasible in the current climate and with countries such as Russia and Pakistan perhaps unwilling to relinquish their arms since they are “spending a tremendous amount of money.”
“That’s something that in an ideal world is wonderful, but I think it’s not going to happen very easily. I would love to see a nuclear-free world. Will that happen?” Trump said. “Look, Russia right now is spending a tremendous amount of money on redoing their entire nuclear arsenal.”
Turning to Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, Trump said he continues to appreciate praise from Putin, even though his human-rights record and incursions into Ukraine and elsewhere have alarmed many. “I want Putin to respect our country, okay?” Trump said. “I think he respects strength. Okay? I think Putin respects strength. And I’ve said it before, I think I will get along well with Putin. Now you never know. I don’t say that — only a fool would say, ‘I will,’ but I feel that I will get along well with Putin.”
After talk of Putin and strength, Trump was read a few lines from Jeffrey Goldberg’s interview with Obama in the Atlantic, which quotes Obama as saying, “Real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence.”
Trump listened carefully and said: “Well, I think there’s a certain truth to that. I think there’s a certain truth to that. Real power is through respect. Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word, fear. But you know, our military is very sadly depleted. You look at what’s going on with respect to our military, and it’s depleted from all of the cuts,” Trump said, noting that he frequently sees advertisements for former U.S. military bases being available for purchase.
“I don’t want people to be afraid. I want them to respect our country,” he said. “Right now, they don’t respect our country.”
Trump said the United States should not retreat from the world but should reevaluate its relationships and role in many international groups and alliances, including NATO.
“First of all, it’s obsolete,” he said. “Our big threat today is terrorism. Okay? And NATO’s not really set up for terrorism. NATO is set up for the Soviet Union more than anything else. And now you don’t have the Soviet Union.”
But for Trump, NATO, Putin, nuclear weapons, all of that is for later. For now, against mounting calls from friends, loved ones and fellow Republicans, remains the fight.
“My natural inclination is to win,” Trump said. “And after I win, I will be so presidential that you won’t even recognize me. You’ll be falling asleep, you’ll be so bored.”
Jim Tankersley and Evelyn M. Duffy contributed to this report.cryptogon.com news – analysis – conspiracies
December 10th, 2010
Oh the humanity.
*chortle*
Even more shocked than me would be Daniel Hopsicker, who covers CIA drug running (and the tail number boogie) full time.
Via: AP:
The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.
The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government’s knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files.
About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S. registry have “questionable registration” because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA. In many cases, the FAA cannot say who owns a plane or even whether it is still flying or has been junked.
Already there have been cases of drug traffickers using phony U.S. registration numbers, as well as instances of mistaken identity in which police raided the wrong plane because of faulty record-keeping.
Next year, the FAA will begin canceling the registration certificates of all 357,000 aircraft and require owners to register anew, a move that is causing grumbling among airlines, banks and leasing companies. Notices went out to the first batch of aircraft owners last month.
Related: The Torture Express: CIA Cut Out Operation Busted
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You must be logged in to post a comment.Occupy Wall Street protesters are back inside the lower Manhattan park that has been their home for almost two months, despite losing a tense legal battle with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and the site's owners.
Almost 16 hours after police moved in and cleared Zuccotti Park of the protesters and their tents, a New York supreme court judge ruled that the city had not breached their first amendment rights.
Earlier, the mayor had defended the decision to clear the site on the basis that "health and safety conditions became intolerable".
After a tense day of stand-offs between police and protesters, and mounting criticism of Bloomberg's tactics, judge Michael Stallman ruled that demonstrators did not have the right to erect tents or other structures in the park.
Scores of reporters had gathered outside room 315 at the supreme court to await the ruling, which had been promised for 3.15pm but finally came 90 minutes after that. The news was relayed by a WNYC radio reporter who had managed to read over the shoulder of a lawyer.
The decision will make it increasingly difficult for demonstrators to continue their occupation as winter approaches.
Judge Stallman denied an attempt by the protesters' lawyers to extend a temporary restraining order which had been issued early on Tuesday morning by a different judge, but which had been ignored throughout the day by city authorities and the New York police department, who refused to reopen the park.
Occupy Wall Street "have not demonstrated a first amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators and other installations." Judge Stallman said in his ruling. "Neither have the applicants shown a right to a temporary restraining order that would restrict the city's enforcement of law so as to promote public health and safety."
But the ruling did not prevent the protesters from returning to the park, and within an hour the police opened the gates and allowed them back in, subject to bag searches to ensure they were not carrying tents, sleeping bags or other camping equipment.
Lawyers who support the Occupy movement were dismayed, however. Michael Ratner, president of Centre for Constitutional Rights, said: "This is an incredible denial of our constitutional rights. We have very clear precedents that say people can sleep in the streets of New York as an act of protest."
Ratner said that massive marches were planned for Thursday 17 November. "This movement is ultimately not about what happens in the courts, it's about what happens in the streets."
On the steps of the court, lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild, who represented Occupy protesters, told a waiting crowd of reporters that they would consider an appeal.
Yetta Kurland said: "We're obviously disappointed with the decision by judge Stallman" and equally disappointed that he went the other way from an earlier judge who had granted an emergency order allowing protesters the right to stay in the park with their belongings.
"This has not stopped the movement," she added. "The 99% will continue to show up, continue to express themselves."
Asked if there was anything in the judge's decision that would prevent protesters bringing sleeping bags, Alan Levine, another of the five lawyers representing the protesters said: "There's nothing to prevent them sleeping there tonight. If there's going to be a right to a 24-hour occupation we believe that's protected by the first amendment. That right has along with it the attendant right to be protected from the elements. The judge didn't disagree."
New York police department spokesman Lieutenant John Grimpel said: "It might take a while, but the park is in the process of being re-opened." He said that people would not be allowed back in the park if they were carrying sleeping bags or tents.
Bloomberg's decision to clear the camp came in response to a letter from the owners Brookfield Properties. He said the city had planned to reopen the park on Tuesday morning after the protesters' tents and tarps had been removed and the stone steps had been cleaned.
"This morning we planned to re-open Zuccotti Park to the public, including any protestors, at approximately 8:00am when the cleaning was completed,'' he said in a statement. "The opening of the park was delayed due to legal action taken against the City, but Zuccotti Park is now open to the public.
"The court's ruling vindicates our position that First Amendment rights do not include the right to endanger the public or infringe on the rights of others by taking over a public space with tents and tarps. The City has the ultimate responsibility to protect public health and safety and we will continue to ensure that everyone can express themselves in New York City."
Hi decision was attacked by other New York officials. City comptroller John Liu said: "Going in and forcibly removing the protesters in the dead of night sends the wrong message. City hall should have continued to talk with the protesters in the light of day if it wanted them removed, instead of evicting them in the middle of the night. There seems to be no compelling reason for this action at this time. The protesters have a right to be heard."
New York City councilman Ydanis Rodríguez was one of the nearly 200 people arrested – 142 in the park and 50 to 60 in the streets nearby, according to police. New York authorities attempted to impose a media blackout on the raid, banning helicopters from airspace above the park and cordoning off media. Several members of the press were arrested despite having official accreditation, while others had their accreditation confiscated.
By Tuesday evening, several hundred protesters were back in the park, minus sleeping bags or tents. Lee Debo, who lives in the Bronx, said he was happy to be back. "It is a compromise but I woke up this morning hearing bad news and took the day off to come down," he said. "I was expecting the worst but here we are. You take what you can get."
Megan Hanley, a student and actress, said the park was a symbol but the movement was bigger. "The movement has outgrown this space anyway," she said.People who live in glass greenhouses shouldn’t throw stones.
A Democrat-led congressional investigation into the funding sources of scientists they deride as climate-change “deniers” has triggered another scientific law — to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva’s investigation into the funding sources of seven professors has triggered a round of Freedom of Information Act requests by two free market think tanks in an effort to learn more about the financial backings of climate professors aligned with the “consensus” or “warmist” school of thought.
At the same time, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has filed a FOIA request with the Environmental Protection Agency asking for correspondence related to climate change from Mr. Grijalva, Arizona Democrat, and three Democratic senators — the same three investigating whether 100 fossil fuel companies and trade associations have funded climate research.
Mr. Grijalva’s probe into academic research funding has been likened to McCarthyism, but Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Christopher Horner said the point of the latest round of requests isn’t that one good witch-hunt deserves another.
Rather, the inquiries are aimed at “reminding those who think it’s a one-way street that, since the congressman seeks only information from people who dare disagree with him, we can do what they do,” said Mr. Horner, who also filed the Grijalva-inspired FOIAs on behalf of the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic and the Energy & Environment Legal Institute.
“You believe information is necessary for the public to properly assess claims, then so do we,” said Mr. Horner. “We are even using laws enacted for the purpose, unlike the gentleman sailing in under the flag of congressional letterhead and whatever that implies, but not even a pretense at citing any authority that I can see.”
The parallel investigations mark the latest example of bias hunting in climate science, a field coming under increased political scrutiny as the stakes surrounding the global warming debate soar.
Four years ago, meteorologist Anthony Watts coined the term “foilball” to refer to efforts to beat back FOIA requests aimed at rooting out institutional bias stemming from high-profile conflicts at the University of East Anglia and the University of Virginia.
The UVA brouhaha erupted after Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II and the American Tradition Institute began digging into the research funding of professor Michael Mann, a leading “warmist” and creator of the “hockey stick” theory of climate change.
The Virginia Supreme Court squelched Mr. Cuccinelli’s investigation in 2012, and the university reportedly spent $600,000 to fight the American Tradition Institute’s FOIA requests in the name of academic freedom. Less noticed was that Greenpeace had asked UVA for funding-related information about climate professor Patrick Michaels, a well-known “skeptic.”
Greenpeace also requested records on professor David Legates at the University of Delaware, and astrophysicist Sallie Baliunas and aerospace engineer Wei-Hock “Willie” Soon at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Still, the outrage from environmental and science groups centered on the Mann probe.
“[T]he hypocrisy is breathtaking when it comes to similar actions against former UVA faculty member Dr. Patrick Michaels,” Mr. Watts said in a post on his blog Watts Up With That.
In fact, Mr. Grijalva’s investigation was prompted by documents obtained and released by Greenpeace showing that Mr. Soon had received $1.2 million in research funding since 2008 from fossil fuel interests, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.
“For years, we at Greenpeace have been working to make public the secret paper trails that show what everyone already knows: climate science deniers — #Fakexperts — are few and far between, and most of them are paid by companies most responsible for global warming to downplay the problem,” Greenpeace said in a Feb. 25 blog post on Mr. Soon.
Mr. Soon, who has become a target of the climate change movement for positing that the past century’s rise in solar output was largely responsible for warming temperatures, acknowledged as recently as 2013 that he receives fossil fuel funding while countering that he is not motivated by money.
Elsewhere, reports are seeping out about funding of climate research by pro-“warmist” nonprofits such as the Park Foundation in Ithaca, New York.
The foundation began funding Cornell marine biologist Robert Howarth after approaching him in 2010 to write an “academic article that would make a case that shale gas was a dangerous, polluting fuel,” according to a Summer 2014 article in Philanthropy magazine.
“By simultaneously funding an interlocking triangle of sympathetic scientists, anti-fracking nonprofits, and media outlets, Park helped move the idea that natural gas is environmentally unfriendly from the activist fringe to the mainstream,” said the article by Jon Entine, senior fellow at the World Food Center Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy at the University of California-Davis.
“The foundation has continued to provide numerous grants (in the range of $50,000 to $60,000) directly to Howarth and his research colleagues,” Mr. Entine wrote.
Mr. Howarth said his research is not motivated by financial considerations. The report also points to Ithaca College biologist Sandra Steingraber, a recipient of Park Foundation funding who was active in the anti-fracking fight in New York as a co-founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking — which also has received Park funding, according to the pro-industry website Energy in Depth.
In addition, Ms. Steingraber was a peer reviewer on a research paper cited by the Cuomo administration in New York when enacting its statewide fracking ban last year, although she told a reporter afterward that she was “absolutely objective about the data.”
The largest source of research dollars, of course, is the federal government, which spent $32.5 billion on climate research from 1989 to 2009, according to the Science and Public Policy Institute.
The White House has placed itself firmly the “warmist” camp with President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and declarations on the website such as “Due to climate change, the weather is getting more extreme.”
“Billions of dollars have been poured into studies supporting climate alarm, and trillions of dollars have been involved in overthrowing the energy economy,” Richard Lindzen, a retired professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the “Grijalva Seven,” said in a March 4 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. “So it is unsurprising that great efforts have been made to ramp up hysteria, even as the case for climate alarm is disintegrating.”
Still, it’s tough to prove that a federal grant into climate research, even one from the Obama administration, is somehow evidence of bias, and Mr. Horner isn’t trying.
Instead, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s FOIA requests ask the EPA for any communications between Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and four staffers in the EPA’s office of congressional and governmental relations.
Specifically, the FOIAs seek communications dating from Jan. 1, 2013, that mention Tom Steyer, founder of the left-wing advocacy group NextGen Climate, as well as the terms “denier,” “denial” and “deniers,” and liberal groups including the Climate Investigations Center, Greenpeace, the Energy Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Sierra Club.
Mr. Horner’s FOIAs asking for funding information on four climate professors were sent to the University of Arizona, the University of Colorado, the University of Delaware and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Mr. Grijalva sent letters to three of those universities, as well as Arizona State University, Pepperdine University, MIT and the University of Alabama, focusing on professors who had testified to Congress about climate issues.
The House Natural Resources Committee minority delegation responded in a statement, “We continue to pursue necessary information that sheds light on financial conflicts of interest in the preparation of testimony and policy recommendations to lawmakers.”
Mr. Grijalva has asked universities to respond to his letters no later than Monday, and the Senate Democrats’ deadline is April 3. Already, however, Koch Industries general counsel Mark Holden has told the senators that the company will not comply with the request, citing in a March 5 letter their “apparent efforts to infringe upon and potentially stifle fundamental First Amendment activities.”
The University of Colorado’s Roger Pielke Jr. apparently has had enough of the controversy. He said in a blog post shortly after the letters were issued that he would be moving his focus away from climate science.
“The incessant attacks and smears are effective, no doubt,” Mr. Pielke said. “I have already shifted all of my academic work away from climate issues. I am simply not initiating any new research or papers on the topic and I have ring-fenced my slowly diminishing blogging on the subject.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Across the Pacific is a 1942 American spy film set on the eve of the entry of the United States into World War II. The film was directed first by John Huston, then by Vincent Sherman after Huston joined the United States Army Signal Corps. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet. Despite the title, the action of the film never progresses across the Pacific, concluding in Panama.
The title had been used before by Warner Brothers for a 1926 silent adventure film by the same name starring Monte Blue, who also has a small role in this film. However, the plots of the two films bear no resemblance to each other. Indeed, the plot of the talkie is more like a remake of the silent film-era spy thriller "The Silent Command!"
Initially, it was planned that the film would portray an attempt to avert a Japanese plan to bomb Pearl Harbor. When the real-life Pearl Harbor bombing occurred, the script was quickly rewritten to change the location of the planned attack to Panama.[3]
Director John Huston was called up to military service during filming; he claimed he left at the point near the end of the film in which Bogart is trapped in a house at gun-point. Vincent Sherman finished directing the film, minus the script which Huston took with him, explaining "Bogie will know how to get out". An implausible escape and plot wrap-up was shot, which Huston declared "lacked credibility".[4]
Plot [ edit ]
In late 1941, Captain Rick Leland (Humphrey Bogart) is court-martialed and discharged from the U.S. Coast Artillery after he is caught stealing. He tries to join the Canadian Army, but is coldly rebuffed. He subsequently boards a Japanese ship, the Genoa Maru, in Halifax, apparently to make his way to China via the Panama Canal to fight for Chiang Kai-shek.
On board, he meets Canadian Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor) and Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet), a professor of sociology who makes no secret of his admiration of the Japanese and is thus not popular in the Philippines, where he resides. Leland, in his turn, makes it clear to Lorenz that he has no loyalty toward his country and would fight for anyone willing to pay him.
During a stop in New York, Leland, revealed as a secret agent trailing Lorenz, reports to Colonel Hart (Paul Stanton), an undercover Army Intelligence officer. Lorenz is a known enemy spy, but Hart and Leland are uncertain about Marlow. Upon returning to the ship, Leland surprises a Filipino man (Rudy Robles) who is about to shoot Lorenz, thus gaining Lorenz's confidence. Second-generation Japanese-American Joe Totsuiko (Victor Sen Yung) embarks as a passenger. Lorenz attempts to gather details from Leland concerning the military installations guarding the Panama Canal. Meanwhile, Marlow and Leland engage in a light-hearted romance.
As they arrive in Panama, the captain announces that the ship has been denied passage through the strategically vital canal and will be forced to take a long detour around Cape Horn. Leland, Marlow and Lorenz disembark to wait for another ship. Several crates are unloaded addressed to a Dan Morton at the Bountiful Plantation. Lorenz asks Leland, who was once stationed in the area, to procure up-to-date schedules for the American planes that patrol the canal. Leland meets with his local contact, A. V. Smith (Charles Halton), and convinces him to provide the real schedules, as Lorenz could easily find out if he were given fake ones. The date is December 6, 1941 – the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Having delivered the schedules after haggling with Lorenz over their price, Leland is knocked out. He wakes up several hours later and finds out that both Lorenz and Marlow have left the hotel. He immediately calls Smith and warns him to change the patrol schedule, then, on a tip from an informer (Philip Ahn) inside a movie theatre, heads out to the Bountiful Plantation, where he sees a torpedo bomber being prepared. He is captured, however, and brought inside to Lorenz, Marlow, and Totsuiko. Marlow turns out to be the daughter of the plantation's owner, Dan Morton (Monte Blue), a drunk whose weakness was exploited to provide a base for espionage activities. To Leland's relief, Marlow's only stake in the affair is concern for her father.
Lorenz reveals that they killed Smith before he could have the schedule changed, and that they are planning to torpedo the Panama Canal Locks. After Lorenz leaves for the landing field, Leland overpowers Totsuiko after the latter shoots Morton. Leland makes his way to the field where he takes over a machine gun and shoots down the bomber aircraft, piloted by no less than an Imperial Japanese prince, as it is about to take off. Leland dispatches Lorenz's men in the ensuing firefight. Returning to the house, he finds a defeated Lorenz attempting to commit seppuku, but his nerve fails him and he begs Leland to shoot him in the head. Leland refuses, saying his prisoner has "a date with Army intelligence".
Cast [ edit ]
Genoa Maru. Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor) and Rick Leland (Humphrey Bogart) aboard the
Radio adaptation [ edit ]
Across the Pacific was adapted as a radio play on The Screen Guild Theater's January 25, 1943, broadcast with Bogart, Astor, and Greenstreet reprising their film roles.
Real unit [ edit ]
The opening scene shows 198th Coast Artillery Command at Governors Island, New York City. In fact the 198th Coast Artillery Regiment was stationed at Wilmington, Delaware.[5]Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Sep. 15, 2017, 2:58 PM GMT / Updated Sep. 16, 2017, 4:48 PM GMT By Corky Siemaszko and Phil McCausland
Police in St. Louis used tear gas to disperse protesters who threw rocks and broke a window in the mayor's home Friday night — hours after a white former officer was acquitted in the 2011 shooting death of a black man.
At least 32 people were arrested and nine city officers were injured as hundreds took to the streets in largely peaceful demonstrations against the verdict, Interim St. Louis Police Chief Lawrence O'Toole said early Saturday. In addition, a St. Louis County police officer and a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper were hurt.
Some of the officers were harmed by thrown bricks, police said, and they had to use tear gas and pepper balls on the crowd.
Former officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges by St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson, who presided over the racially charged case.
Stockley escaped what could have been a lengthy prison sentence despite the fact that he was recorded on an internal video camera during the pursuit apparently saying he intended to kill Anthony Lamar Smith.
Demonstrators took to the streets shortly after Stockley was acquitted and protests continued throughout the day and into the night. Friday night hundreds marched downtown and a group tried to march onto an interstate but were thwarted by police who blocked their path.
PHOTOS: Protests Turn Violent in St. Louis Following Not Guilty Verdict
"Many of the demonstrators were peaceful," O’Toole said in a video message early Saturday. “However, after dark many agitators began to destroy property and assault police officers."
He said injuries to police officers include a possible broken jaw and a dislocated shoulder. Officials also said they had recovered a firearm from the demonstration.
St. Louis police said on Twitter shortly before 10 p.m. local time that "agitators have converged on Mayor Krewson's house. Throwing rocks and breaking windows, despite being instructed not to." Protesters broke a window and splattered paint on Mayor Lyda Krewson's house. The assembly was declared unlawful and tear gas was used, police said.
Earlier some sections of downtown were closed off and there was sporadic violence as protesters pelted police officers with water bottles and rocks and ignored repeated orders to disperse, St. Louis police reported.
Jason Stockley, an ex-St.Louis police officer in an undated police booking photo. Harris County Sheriff's Office / Reuters
Wells Fargo, Stifel, Nestle and some of St. Louis' other big employers sent thousands of workers home early as a precaution. Krewson earlier urged St. Louis residents to "show each other compassion."
"My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Anthony Lamar Smith, our police, judge, prosecutor, our citizens who find no comfort or justice, and everyone involved in this difficult case," Krewson said in a statement. "I am appalled by what happened to Anthony Lamar Smith. I am sobered by this outcome."
Related: St. Louis Officer 'Executed' Suspect, Planted Gun in His Car, Prosecutor Says
The Stockley case rekindled racial tensions not seen in the St. Louis-area since 2014 when sometimes violent unrest erupted in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. Activists backed by many of St. Louis' black clergy had vowed to stage protests if Wilson acquitted Stockley.
Smith was 24, a new dad and engaged to be married when he was killed. But in his ruling, the judge called him an "urban heroin dealer" while noting that Stockley was a West Point graduate who had served in Iraq and suffered a back injury during a Baghdad hotel bombing.
In their initial report, police said Smith was doing a drug deal behind a fried chicken restaurant north of downtown St. Louis when he took off in a silver Buick, twice crashing into a police vehicle.
In Wilson's ruling and in documents obtained by NBC affiliate KSDK, Stockley could be heard saying "we're killing this (expletive), don't you know."
But the judge said this was not proof Stockley wanted to kill Smith, calling the remark "ambiguous."
"People say all kinds of things in the heat of the moment or while in stressful situations," he wrote.
Wilson also wrote that Stockley "did not approach the Buick and immediately shoot Smith multiple times."
Instead, the judge said Stockley "ordered Smith to open the door and to show his hands."
"The defense does not deny that Stockley shot and killed Smith," the judge wrote. "Rather, the defense contends Stockley acted in self-defense."
In May 2016, when Stockley was charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors said that a gun found in Smith's car had only Stockley's DNA on it.
Wilson also said there was no evidence to suggest Stockley "planted the handgun found in the Buick." He said the state's own witnesses "testified that the absence of a person's DNA on a gun does not mean that person did not touch the gun."
"Finally, the Court observes, based on its nearly 30 years on the bench, that an urban heroin dealer not in possession of a firearm would be an anomaly," Wilson wrote.
The prosecutor, Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, said she was "disappointed with the court's decision."
"In light of the verdict, it’s time to take a harder look at how officer-involved shootings are addressed in our city," she said.
Protesters gather on Sept. 15, 2017 in St. Louis, after a judge found former St. Louis police officer, Jason Stockley, not guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Anthony Lamar Smith. Jeff Roberson / AP
Gardner said she understands and appreciates "the many challenges that face our city’s police officers."
"It’s very noble work," she said. "However, we need further examination and clarity in the laws that govern the use of deadly force by police officers.”
After the Smith killing, homicide detectives from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department deemed it justifiable. But Stockley resigned from the force in 2013, the same year that the Board of Police Commissioners settled a wrongful death suit with Smith's family for $900,000.
When Stockley was charged with premeditated murder, he opted for a bench trial rather than take his chances with a jury.
After Friday night's protests, further public rallies were expected Saturday. Irish rockers U2 announced their Saturday night concert in St. Louis was canceled and would be offering refunds after police said they were "not in a position to provide the standard protection for our audience as would be expected for an event of this size."
CORRECTION (Sept. 16, 12:50 p.m.):An earlier version of this article misstated the first name of the man killed by police. His name is Anthony Lamar Smith, not Adam Lamar Smith.Members of UK activist group London Palestine Action (LPA) gathered outside Radiohead’s “corporate office” (the office of Hardwick & Morris, their accounting firm) to protest the band’s upcoming concert in Tel Aviv. Donning cut-out Thom Yorke masks and holding signs reading “Radiohead: don’t leave Palestinians high and dry” and “Karma police, arrest this man for his crimes against solidarity,” the group sang some of Radiohead’s biggest songs with edited lyrics to criticize the group. (Their version of “Creep” went, “When we got the call, Saw dollars in my eyes/We're supporting apartheid, But the pay's really high.”) Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Radiohead for comment.
In April, the band were petitioned to pull out of their Tel Aviv concert by numerous artists, including Thurston Moore, Roger Waters, and more. Earlier this month, Yorke said in a statement to Rolling Stone that he disagreed with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel, calling the backlash against the band “patronizing” and “offensive.” More pro-Palestine groups subsequently came out against the band.Sherie & Allister, New Orleans, LA. 2016 © Michael Joseph, Courtesy Daniel Cooney Fine Art, NY
They are on the move across the United States, and sometimes the world, catching rides wherever they can, by freight train or by car, living by their own set of rules. They are known as Travelers, people who call the open road their home, guided by wanderlust. Boston photographer Michael Joseph has devoted nearly six years of his life to documenting Travelers through intimate portraiture.
Joseph calls his series, Lost and Found, “an American project.” The heritage of the Traveler stretches back to the Dirty Thirties, to the Dust Bowl migration and to the tenant farmers who left their lives behind in search of something better.
Today’s Traveler might draw inspiration from The Beat Generation of the 1950s, the hippie movement of Greenwich Village and the Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, and the Crust Punk Squatter subculture of the 1980s and 1990s.
“Evidence of each of these eras is sewn into the appearance of the modern Traveler,” Joseph says.
“I encountered my first Traveler in Las Vegas while working on a different project,” he continues, “Photographing this particular stranger, knows as ‘Knuckles’ set me on a different course that takes me around the country to this day. I have amassed a large body of work that includes portraits of Travelers, audio, and writings, and I will continue.”
Joseph lost track of “Knuckles” after they parted ways in Las Vegas. But, by some twist of fate, he ran into the Traveler in Chicago three years later, then again in New York City. The two of them have kept in touch since.
“Everyone’s story is different,” Joseph says, “but they’re all searching for the same things – an escape from a prescribed life society has set out for them. They’re searching for freedom.”
The life of a Traveler is complicated, and Joseph avoids idealizing or romanticizing it. Train hopping and hitchhiking come with real risks of physical harm, drug abuse, violence, and accidents. But Travelers also have the rare the opportunity to witness the hidden corners of the United States: open fields with the most beautiful sunsets and clearest star-lit skies.
“I have nothing, but I have everything at the same time,” a Traveler once told Joseph.
For most of us, the world rushes past in a blur, but for these people, time slows down. “If you engage a Traveler in conversation,” the photographer says, “They will open up to you. They have time for you. And that’s rare today, when people hide behind screens and don’t look each other in the eye.”
And the eye contact is crucial. In New Orleans, for instance, Joseph met a tall Traveler, and in order for the artist to photograph him eye-to-eye, two travelers kindly stacked their belongings on the sidewalk so he could climb on top.
“Direct intimacy allows us to absorb the intricate details of hand-made clothing, imperfect tattoos and layers of dirt from being on the road,” Joseph tells us. His portraits are not staged, and they are made on the street, using only available backgrounds and light.
For this project, Joseph isn’t interested in showing us the Travelers’ environments. The setting doesn’t define the subjects, because tomorrow, they might be somewhere new.
The friendships formed within the Traveler community run deep because each of these people relies on one another for companionship and for survival.
Multiple Travelers have told Joseph, “These people are my family.” The artist continues, “In their formative years, they have time to create bonds that adult friendships often lack because a conventional life gets in the way.”
Joseph too has forged friendships, and he’s seen bits and pieces of the private world of the Travelers. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, a former Traveler showed him where people gather and wait to catch trains.
“It’s just an underpass,” Joseph explains. “Most people just drive by, but there’s so much history here.” On the wall, he saw the tags, or inscriptions, left by many Travelers he had met over the years.
The photographer is sensitive to the wishes of each and every individual he meets, and there are some portraits and stories the world will never see or hear because we don’t have permission from the subject. He keeps his promises, and he keeps their secrets.
Five years after that first meeting in Las Vegas, the photographer found himself sitting down to dinner with Knuckles’s family in North Carolina. “But Knuckles wasn’t at the table,” Joseph says, “He had set off to travel the entire world.”
Since embarking on Lost and Found and listening to those he’s met on the road, Joseph tries not to take his own life for granted. He’s stepped foot |
don’t have an underwire and they act by compressing the breast tissue back against the ribcage. Many women prefer the encapsulation style since each breast gets an individualized level of support. The separation helps reduce discomfort when you get sweaty while working out.
This sports bra style gives a very flattering shape and profile. One would not know that you are wearing a sports bra if you have a top on. Even when viewed from the side, the bra gives a lot of lift and a rounded profile. Another feature of this sports bra is that it has padded comfort straps. The straps have a racerback clips that you can hook or unhook as you prefer. The wings are very sturdy and supportive. The bra has a moisture wicking fabric which again is fantastic. The colors are great and the looks are sporty.
Panache Sports bra rated at high impact level which is great because that means it’s going to work for women who are involved in play activities like jogging, basketball or tennis where there’s a lot of bounce movement. It claims to reduce bounce by up to 83 percent.
Enell High Impact Sports Bra
The Enell sports bra is also widely used as a medical bra or a post-surgery bra because of the way the Enell has the ability to compress your breasts and allow zero movement. It is widely regarded as an excellent and highly recommended medical bra.
The Enell sports bra has been around since 1993. There is one more Enell sports bra, the Enell Lite, which is a lighter impact bra. The Enell is definitely a compression style sports bra and it is pretty much the maximum compression style sports bra. There are a lot of hooks on the front (up to 15 hooks) on Enell sports bra, but it does have a lot of advantages.
Number one, it is the ultimate compression sports bra which means it presses you in and down. Number two, there are very few front closure sports bras out there. Some women feel they can’t wear a sports bra because they have limited range of movement with their shoulders. The Enell is essentially a cure to that because they put it on front closure style. The other advantage that it has is the very wide straps with a wide back. The support in the back is a double layer high wicking moisture material. Because of the straps and back with the front closure also relieves pressure from the back. There are women out there who enjoyed just wearing their Enell sports bra as a bra.
The one drawback is that the Enell has a lot more visibility than other bras do. That is something that you do have to keep in mind. Many users have reviewed saying that this is the least sexy sports bra they own and it’s the only sports bra they will wear. That is because of that limited movement which makes you feel so much better when you work out.
The Enell has a different sizing system as well. It starts from a double zero and goes to an eight. Each number of incorporates a range of sizes and you do want to see the sizing chart before you order. It comes in several different colors.
Glamorise Women’s Sport Bra
If you are a part of the big bust club then you know that finding the perfect sports bra is like gold. You are always looking for new brands or styles out there that you are comfortable in and which don’t look like a huge contraption giving you a constricted feeling. If you like underwire sports bras then you should definitely check out the Glamorise Women’s Plus Size High Impact Underwire Sport Bra.
The support in this bra will make you wish that it was a regular bra. You will feel super supported during your workouts. This sports bra comes in different color combinations with super comfortable straps. The straps have a five hook closure at the back for extra support and lift. At the same time you will not feel restricted doing all types of workouts whether it’s jogging, lifting weights, dance, elliptical, etc.
If you don’t like an underwire in your sports bra then you should have a look at Glamorise Women’s Double-Layer Custom-Control Sport Bra. This will definitely change your outlook – that you don’t need an underwire in your bra for added support. Initially it almost looks like one of those vintage bras, but once you put it on, you realize that there is an extra layer for support at the front that you can adjust according to the intensity of your workout. You get to choose the level of support you need and it is like any workout bra.
The lowest adjustable strap setting is ideal for low impact sports such as yoga or walking. The middle two settings give medium bounce control and are suitable for cycling, step aerobics or spinning. The highest setting offers maximum bounce control and is ideal for high impact sports such as running or tennis.
Freya Women’s Epic Underwire Crop Top Sports Bra
Freya underwire crop top sports bra has a newer design that is actually designed to reduce up to ninety seven percent of breast pain associated with working out. Freya is the one brand that is known for their regular bras in addition to their Freya Active Collection that includes not only sports bras but performance tops and sports swimwear. So this model sports bra comes in a 28 to 40 band size and a B to an H cup. Freya actually makes sports bras in up to a K cup and that is UK sizing. In the US sizing, it’s a different range.
This crop top bra can also be called an encapsulated sports bra which takes each breast individually rather than compressing them together which is the other style and probably what you think of when you think of a sports bra which is called the compression style. You get the underwire design with a moisture wicking material and a cool smooth fabric to give you absolutely maximum support. There is an inner support side sling as well on the interior and comfort straps.
One of the best features with the Freya model is the J-hook. The J-hook is a simple clip that gives you a racerback design. It can be worn of course as a leotard back but the simple clip of the straps gives you the racerback. Yes, it does give you a lot more options with tops; however, there are larger benefits to that. You get more support with the racerback and those that have narrow or sloping shoulders get that better fit that they need. You kind of can’t go wrong with the Freya sports bra. It is an absolutely wonderful design and designed specifically for large cups.
Goddess Sports Bra
Goddess sports bra is a compression style sports bra which goes up to a 48 band and a US I size cup which is roughly equivalent to the UK G size cup. Sometimes it becomes very challenging to find a sports bra if you are wearing a 42 or 44 plus band and Goddess does a good job to fill that market gap. Many customers who bought this bra usually sized up, as the band does run a little firm
The compression style bras typically function by compressing the breast tissue back against the rib cage and holding it in place while you move. They are also associated most closely with the sports bra uniboob look where you have this non separated giant smooshed mess. This maybe very effective for working out but is not the most pleasant profile to have like when going from gym to the grocery store. However the Goddess sports bra does a very nice job of sidestepping that a little bit.
This sports bra does not have any separation in the middle since it does not have any underwire. Nevertheless it does give a good lift. If you look from the sides it gives a rounded look and does not appear flattened out. It does have a little bit of that inbuilt shape to it. That is because they have built in a little bit more depth to the cups of the bra. It’s not a sort of a uniform garment but it’s actually got space for breast tissue to come forward and be projected into the cups. This enables the bra to give you a little bit more shape than what you would normally find with a compression style sports bra.
The fabric on this bra is really soft and this can be used like a weekend bra. The interior fabric has a lightweight breathable mesh that’s moisture wicking so it will pull the sweat away from the body. There is a longer banded part on the underneath that smoothes out the sides and keeps the entire fit of the bra anchored to the body. The wings on the sides are wider so that they can encapsulate both side breast tissue and also the side of the ribcage. The stretchiness factor of the cups also allows a little bit more flexibility for the cup size and you are less likely to have an overflow.
The lovely straps are padded to cushion the shoulders which increase the comfort level. The Goddess sports bra shoulder straps are extremely inset and they don’t have the normal J-hook option that we see on most sports bras. Therefore you can’t convert it to a racerback option. Some women find that the racerbacks can actually put pressure on the back of their neck and without it they don’t have the ability to tighten the straps enough to really pull inward. So, Goddess has these very short restricted stretch straps. These are also fantastic if you have very narrow or slope shoulders and you are finding you have trouble getting the straps of the bras to stay put. It’s also nice if you are on the petite side and have issues with a non-fully adjustable strap not being tight enough for you.
They also added four hook and eye closures in the back and it’s really important to have that just to make sure that you have that extra bit of anchorage to the body. Since you don’t want to be bouncing around while exercising, so having extra hooks does help. Unlike the Panache sports bra, which is like a piece of armor, the Goddess sports bra itself is very lightweight. It does not have a molded cup or an encapsulated underwire. You can just put it on for your yoga sessions, lounging around, gardening or for everyday household work. It’s a nice supplementary piece to have in your bra wardrobe if you do many light impact exercises.
Tips and Tricks to Find the Right Sized Sports Bra
No matter how good your sports bra is, if it doesn’t fit you correctly, then it wouldn’t provide you with the right support whilst you’re exercising. On average more than half of women experience breast pain during exercise with the main cause being inadequate support. So making sure your sports bra fits properly is really important.
Sports bras are designed to contain breast bounce during various activities. Ligaments in your chest known as Cooper’s ligaments hold your breasts in place. They are only slightly elastic and can become overstretched and contribute to breast sagging. Constant downward breast movement no matter what your breast size stretches these ligaments and is painful. Sports bras reduce this ligament stretch and have been instrumental in helping large breasted women participate in sports without concern of breast pain.
All sports bras are categorized by design type, features and impact levels. The two design types are compression and encapsulation. Compression style is most popular in A and B cup sized women. Larger cup size women tend not to like full compression sports bras because they feel too tight. In encapsulation style sports bra, the cups have seaming and special support features that individually encase each breast to reduce bounce. Larger breasted women find this design more comfortable and encapsulation provides more support than compression alone. They can also come with under wires for even more support.0
It appears that the Hot Tub Time Machine sequel will be hitting theaters sooner rather than later. Production on Hot Tub Time Machine 2 took place this past summer with Steve Pink returning to direct and Clark Duke, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Chevy Chase reprising their roles from the 2010 time travel comedy, but Adam Scott took over the lead role from John Cusack, playing the grown-up son of Cusack’s character. While the film was expected to be in theaters sometime next year, we recently interviewed Scott and Clark in anticipation of the release of the comedy A.C.O.D., and the duo revealed that Hot Tub Time Machine 2 may be in theaters by March 2014.
“I think Hot Tub comes out in the spring,” said Scott, after which Duke chimed in and clarified, “In March.” A specific date is unclear, but the first film hit theaters on March 26, 2010 and became a modest box office hit. Look for our full interview with Scott and Duke on Collider soon.Exclusive: UK home secretary named as having been director of two Bahamas firms, while a co-director at another company was jailed over a false statement
Amber Rudd’s business career has come under scrutiny following a Guardian investigation that reveals her involvement with two companies in an offshore tax haven, and another where her co-director was jailed for fraud.
A fresh leak of tax haven data names the home secretary as having been a director of two companies in the Bahamas – a fact she did not refer to earlier this year when defending David Cameron over his father’s investment fund in the same country.
Ex-EU commissioner Neelie Kroes failed to declare directorship of offshore firm Read more
The Guardian has also discovered new details about her previous career in venture capital during the boom and bust 1990s. One enterprise led her to become a co-director of Monticello, a company that was at the centre of a share ramping investigation.
She was also involved in a company prospecting for diamonds in Siberia that was traded on a notoriously unregulated stock exchange.
Rudd said that her career in business prior to politics was public knowledge but declined to answer questions, including whether she had invested in the Bahamas companies or whether either company had paid tax in the UK.
A rising star of the Conservative party, Rudd has provided scant details about her career before she became an MP in 2010.
Though there is no suggestion she was involved in any wrongdoing, the disclosures may cause her some embarrassment, particularly as pressure grows to crack down on tax avoidance and governments demand more transparency from offshore regimes.
Amber Rudd and Monticello: an ill-fated step in a complicated career Read more
The home secretary’s name appears in a cache of company data from the Bahamas, a Caribbean tax haven that imposes no income, corporate or wealth taxes on individuals investing in offshore companies.
The data, leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, constitutes a list of directors of 175,000 Bahamas registered companies.
The files name Rudd as having been a director of two Bahamas companies, Advanced Asset Allocation Fund and Advanced Asset Allocation Management, between 1998 and 2000.
Records at Companies House also identify her as a director of Monticello plc, which became the centre of an investigation into share ramping after one of her co-directors, Mark O’Hanlon, gave an interview in January 2000 in which he made false claims about the company’s prospects.
Leaked Bahamas files expose politicians' offshore links Read more
Monticello’s share price subsequently skyrocketed and trading on its shares was suspended. Rudd resigned as a board member five months later, two days before she also resigned as director of Advanced Asset Allocation Management.
The episode led the Department of Trade and Industry to investigate, and in 2007 O’Hanlon was convicted of making a false statement and sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. He was jailed again in June 2013 following an unrelated fraud conviction.
Prior to Monticello, Rudd was involved in a number of other ventures. The Guardian can disclose she was:
The executive director of Kensington Resources, a company headquartered in Mayfair in London that financed diamond prospecting in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Appointed president in 1994 of another mining company, Siberian Pacific Resources Inc. Rudd raised 500,000 Canadian dollars for a joint venture with a group of Russian geologists searching for diamonds in Siberia.
A director of The Zinc Corporation plc, a company exploring a new technique for zinc extraction. In 1997 the company hoped to go public on the lightly regulated stock exchange Ofex. However, the plans were dropped after it misplaced a cheque for £12,500, according to an interview in which Rudd was quoted. Shortly after the company was bought by Monticello.
Shares in both Kensington and Siberian were traded on the Vancouver Stock Exchange, which prior to its closure in 1999 had a reputation for being poorly regulated. A report commissioned by the finance ministry of British Columbia described a small number of successful enterprises “overshadowed by the continuing occurrence of shams, swindles and market manipulations”.
How to contact the Guardian securely Read more
Rudd supported Cameron earlier this year after the Panama Papers revealed the inner workings of his father’s Blairmore fund, which was run from the Bahamas and incorporated in Panama. Although legal, the unorthodox structure resulted in the fund paying no tax in Britain for three decades.
When interviewed on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show after Cameron admitted he had previously held shares in Blairmore, Rudd said: “I think the key thing is here that the prime minister and his family paid the correct amount of tax that they were due.”
When asked if she had money in any offshore trusts herself, Rudd replied: “I don’t, no. But I’m pleased to say that all MPs have a very transparent system. They have to disclose their funds, their income, and of course famously a very clear expenses regulatory system.” She did not mention her previous role running a Bahamas fund.
A spokesperson for the home secretary said: “It is a matter of public record that Amber had a career in business before entering politics. Monticello was thoroughly investigated 16 years ago and those who acted wrongly were identified and prosecuted.”Get the biggest football 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
Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris simply wants wantaway winger Gareth Bale to be happy, and understands that the Welshman is finding himself in a tricky situation.
But the France keeper also reckons that it's nothing to do with the players and that they'll just keep focusing on this weekend's clash with Crystal Palace.
"Me, I just want him to be happy," Lloris told L'Equipe when asked if he wanted the Real Madrid target to stay.
"After that, it is nothing to do with us.
"A player, whoever they may be, belongs to a club, an institution. In this situation, it is necessary that everyone finds an agreement.
Lloris had a rough start to his Spurs career after finding himself as Andre Villas-Boas' number two.
The former Lyon man also had a fairly protracted exit from Lyon, and shared his sympathies for Bale's plight and how it might affect the team.
"It's a difficult situation. Firstly for the player because in this kind of situation, you lose a lot of energy.
"It's not easy to plan for the coming season. But we players ignore it.
"We prepare the best we can for the start of the championship next Sunday against Crystal Palace."by
The Constitution‘s Impeachment Clause regarding the president and all civil officers of the United States is in Article II and reads:
“The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The Constitution’s Article II defines the criteria for removal of the president and other officials of the United States. Article I defines the Congress and its powers. Congress conducts impeachments and Article I defines the process.
Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5–“The House of Representatives... shall have the sole power of impeachment.”
Article 1, Section 3, Clause 6–“The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.”
Article 1, Section 3, Clause 7–“Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.”
Impeachment Applies to All Federal Officers, Not Just Presidents
Public discussion of “impeachment” typically involves how application to presidents. Only two presidents have been impeached by the House and neither Andrew Johnson, nor Bill Clinton was removed from office. President Clinton’s impeachment and trial in 1998 is familiar to most. Few are aware that two federal judges have been impeached more recently
The House has begun impeachment proceedings 62 times, and voted Articles of Impeachment 19 times, including once against a Supreme Court Justice. Impeachment was among the “good government” provisions the Framers wrote into the Constitution.
In 2009 Judge Samuel B. Kent was impeached after being sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for obstruction of justice and lying to investigators who were investigating him for sex crimes. Judge Kent resigned from office before the Senate trial was complete.
In 2010, the House impeached and the Senate convicted federal Judge Thomas Porteous. Judge Porteous had lied on financial disclosure forms and concealed income that would have revealed payments from lawyers who had been in his court room. Judge Porteous was not only removed from office, but forever barred from holding any federal office and lost his Louisiana law license.
Impeachment v. Assassination
The 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia was concerned about a president that should be removed from office. On July 20, 1787, in the course of a lengthy debate regarding possible presidential impeachment, Benjamin Franklin brought history to the convention’s attention in supporting a provision to make the president impeachable.
“History furnishes one example only of a first Magistrate being formally brought to public Justice.[1] Every body cried out agst this as unconstitutional. What was the practice before this in cases where the chief Magistrate rendered himself obnoxious? Why recourse was had to assassination in wch. he was not only deprived of his life but of the opportunity of vindicating his character. It wd. be the best way therefore to provide in the Constitution for the regular punishment of the Executive when his misconduct should deserve it, and for his honorable acquittal when he should be unjustly accused.”
Franklin recognized that presidents at some point might “render [themselves] obnoxious.” He pointed out the inevitable alternative to impeachment: assassination.[2] Through history, there had been only one sure way to remove a chief executive that had rendered himself obnoxious. In 1787, Julius Caesar was likely the world’s best known assassination victim.[3] Caesar provides an example of how top government leaders were removed from office prior to the United States Constitution.[4]
Constitutional provisions for the impeachment of the head of government were an American contribution to the world. The phrase “American exceptionalism” is properly applied to many of the Constitution’s political innovations. It was novel to the world that a country’s leader could be removed without being killed.
The Impeachment Process
While the Constitution provides the basic of the impeachment process, the House and Senate by virtue of the Rule Making Clause have developed the following procedures:
The House Judiciary Committee[5] considers the initiation of an impeachment investigation. The Judiciary Committee agrees to a resolution to request authority from the whole House of Representatives to begin an investigation. Approval requires a majority vote of the House. If the House grants authority then the Judiciary Committee conducts an impeachment inquiry, often with public hearings. Following the inquiry, a committee vote on proposed articles of impeachment takes place. Approval requires a committee majority. Approved articles of impeachment are referred to the entire House for consideration. Passage of each article requires a separate House majority. Once an article is approved, the federal official involved is “impeached”. Approved articles are referred to the Senate for trial. The House of Representatives appoints impeachment “managers”. These managers act as prosecutors at the impeachment trial, presenting the evidence to the Senate. During the trial of a federal official other than the president, the Vice-President is the presiding officer.[6] In the case of the president, the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice presides. At the trial’s conclusion, the Senate votes on whether to remove the official from office. Approval of removal requires a two-thirds vote by the Senators present. Should the Senate vote to convict and remove, the official’s termination from office is immediate.
CommentsThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was one of the best-selling video games of the fall, with more than 10 million units shipped in the first month it was on sale. A big part of its success was superior marketing.
For sure, developers make great games. Marketing can’t do much to dress up a pig. But bad marketing can hurt a great game’s sales and outstanding marketing can push it into mass market awareness. Today at the Game Marketing Summit, the marketing team from Bethesda Softworks talked about the behind-the-scenes effort to make Skyrim a mass market hit.
The conventional wisdom is that fantasy-oriented games are not mass market titles. Role-playing games (RPGs) tend to be so geeky and elaborate that they appeal to small, fanatical audiences, said Pete Hines (pictured right), vice president of marketing and communications at Bethesda Softworks. Ideally, you start with a great game so you don’t have to trick anyone into buying it. Skyrim was a game world of enormous scope and an incredible amount of detail. Some gamers are turned on by that, others turned off.
One key to getting marketing and development to work together is co-location. The developer, Bethesda Game Studios, is in Rockville, Md., and the publisher, Bethesda Softworks, is located downstairs in the same building. AKQA, the digital agency, has an office 15 miles to the south. The team can meet with development chief Todd Howard as needed. Hines and Howard have worked together for 13 years.
“We just walk upstairs and have a chat with Todd,” Hines said.
The team spent six months or so together pulling together ideas before they presented to Howard, who wound up liking many of the marketing proposals, Hines said.
Ed Davis (pictured left), account lead at AKQA, said it was rare for his team to have so much advance knowledge, developer relationships, and immersion in the Skyrim franchise as his people did. They were able to portray the game as a modern, cinematic take on fantasy. It was almost movie-like in its marketing imagery and commercials, Davis said. And that wasn’t lying or cheating.
“We didn’t apologize for what it is,” Hines said. “It is a single-player fantasy game with elves and dwarves. There is a way to present that in a way that is true to the game.”
Erin Losi (pictured middle), a marketer at Bethesda, said the approach wasn’t to give a list of features on the RPG.
“It was about creating a vibe and mood that matches the experiences in the game,” she said.
Davis said, “We wanted to show that detail, from every stitch in the armor, every dent, every scratch” in the game’s marketing materials.
Those materials had to match the game, Losi said, since everyone knew the fans would scrutinize the details in the ads. AKQA created logos that had the dented metal look of the actual emblems and swords in the game. The first trailer had pulse-pounding music and dramatic narration, as well as the dented metal carvings on a wall.
“It was extremely cinematic and exciting for fans,” Davis said. “About 800,000 people who came to the site spent time exploring the details of the wall. Consumers respond to it and respect it.”
The ad material conveyed the realism of the game experience and used the same visual language.
“That level of detail lends itself to the series as a whole,” Hines said.
The first audience marketers should try to sell on a game’s marketing material is the development team itself. If you create marketing materials and the developers start using them, then you know you are on the right track, Hines said.
Lastly, one of the most important things for marketers to remember is to show restraint in their promotion of the game, Davis said. In the first 11 months of the campaign, Bethesda only released three video trailers. Toward the end, they ratcheted it up.
“We wanted to keep people hungry for more content,” Losi said.
Hacker group LulzSec tried to extort the company into releasing more assets. But everything, including the conservative game cover, was based on the idea that less is more — and that gamers are intelligent.
The game turned out to be a big hit. Most people played it for 80 hours, and 30 percent played it for more than 100 hours. It was the No. 2 grossing title of 2011 and was named Game of the Year by a variety of publications.x50px x50pxx50pxx50pxx50px
January 1, 2014
There really isn't any deep meaning to it, we just wanted to make a character that would appear in various forms in all the games. I guess I've always had a soft spot for that kind of character. Cid is like Yoda from the Star Wars series—very intelligent and wise. Hironobu Sakaguchi in EGM2 August 1997.
Cid (シド, Shido?) is a character that has appeared, or been mentioned, in almost all Final Fantasy-related media; the main series, spinoffs, film and anime. Cid has become a Final Fantasy trademark, as with chocobos and moogles. He leads the list of recurring characters, which include Biggs and Wedge and Gilgamesh. However, each installment features a different Cid character, and his roles in the series range widely from a party member to an NPC to an antagonist.
In Final Fantasy tradition, Cid characters often have a group of distinct traits fans have come to expect. They are often mechanically minded and frequently portrayed as engineers or inventors. Cids are often the source of the airships the player uses toward the game's end, as its captain or its creator.
The Cid characters are sometimes partially responsible for the main conflict within the game as a result of his inventions or research being abused. If this is the case, he will often seek redemption by assisting the party. Cid is usually older than the main cast, sometimes by several decades, and they are thus portrayed as fatherly figures, sometimes as the biological, adoptive, or surrogate father of one of the main characters.
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Appearances Edit
Cid does not appear in the original NES version. He is mentioned briefly in remakes, a retcon designed to extend the presence of Cid into every game of the core Final Fantasy series. Cid is described as the ancient Lufenian creator of the airship the Warriors of Light use.
The original Cid. He began his career as one of Fynn's knights, but later acquired an airship and left Fynn's service to seek out his own fortune. Based out of Poft, Cid offers taxi service with his airship to Firion and the party. His airship is taken (with Princess Hilda aboard) by the Palamecian Empire's Dreadnought, but Firion and his friends rescue them, and the Dreadnought is destroyed. Later, Cid dies and gives his airship to Firion.
In the Dawn of Souls and later remakes, Cid shows up in the city of Machanon, a city in the afterlife.
Cid Haze is a creator of airships on the floating continent, from the village of Canaan. He transforms the sailing ship into an airship and in the short time he accompanies the party and will occasionally attack with a hammer or use a Fire spell on all the enemies. Later, he helps save the Light Warriors from Xande.
In the 3D remake version, Cid is involved in the Legendary Smith sidequest.
Cid Pollendina is a playable character and the first playable Cid in the series. The head of Baron's corps of engineers, Cid is a friend and mentor of both Cecil and Rosa. He designs the airships used by Baron's elite Red Wings corps, but develops misgivings about the King of Baron's methods. Cecil and Kain's exile, and the use of the Red Wings to destroy Damcyan, prove more than Cid can tolerate: he rebels against the King and is imprisoned for his treason. He is later freed by Cecil, joining his party.
Cid is a temporary character who doesn't make it into the final party.
Cid is a playable character at the ripe old age of 71. He fights alongside Cecil and Rosa to repel Baron's invasion and later accompanies Ceodore for the last portion of his journey.
Cid Previa and his grandson, Mid Previa, are engineers from Karnak who invented the machine which amplifies the power of the Crystals. In particular, they used the Fire Crystal to build the Fire-Powered Ship for Queen Karnak. The two later remodel an airship found in the Catapult.
Cid Previa reappears in Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals.
Cid Del Norte Marquez is a non-player character who invented Magitek technology for the Empire, a broad technological category that includes powered armor, weapons, and even pseudo-genetic engineering, all stemming from the extraction of magical essence from espers. He raised Celes as if she were his own daughter. Depending on the actions of the player, Cid either lives or dies.
Cid Highwind is a playable character. A gifted mechanic and pilot, he constructs several of the vehicles used by the party in Final Fantasy VII, including the Tiny Bronco and his eponymous airship, the Highwind. Cid dreams of going into space; the player first encounters him in Rocket Town, a city built around Shinra's abandoned space program (of which Cid was a part).
He reappears as a non-playable character in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, in the CGI-movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and is mentioned off-hand in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-. He also appears in the Kingdom Hearts series, making him the "Cid" of that game series as well.
Cid Kramer is the Balamb Garden headmaster, where Squall Leonhart is a student. Cid provides Squall and his SeeD companions the training they need to defeat a powerful sorceress.
Cid reveals to Squall that Balamb Garden is capable of flight, fulfilling his traditional duty as a Cid to provide the player with a flying form of transportation.
Cid Fabool IX is briefly playable during a non-battle sequence. He is the Regent of the city-state of Lindblum—appropriately, a city of accomplished engineers, mechanics, and airship pilots. A fight with his wife, Hilda, over his issues of infidelity ended with his being transformed into an oglop.
Despite this handicap, Cid remains Lindblum's ruler, and his skill at designing airships has led the city to become the world's preeminent air power. He is transformed into a frog when the party attempts to cure him, but returns to his human form after his dispute with Hilda is resolved.
At the end of the game, Cid and Hilda adopt Eiko.
Cid is the Al Bhed's leader, the father of Rikku and Brother, and Yuna's uncle. With the help of the other Al Bhed, he unearths an ancient airship at the Al Bhed excavation near Baaj Temple. Cid repairs and christens the ship Fahrenheit. The airship is made available to the player as a mode of transportation, and is employed in battle with Evrae and Sin. Cid is voiced by Kōichi Sakaguchi in the Japanese version and Mike McShane in the English version.
Cid returns as a non-playable character. He appears at the Zanarkand Ruins, selling clues to sphere hunters, coming into conflict with Yuna's misgivings about the area becoming a tourist attraction. He later appears on the Thunder Plains, before getting lost in a cave and being rescued by the Gullwings. He is then brought on their airship Celsius.
Cid is a non-player character in the nation of Bastok. He is a Hume and the most prominent engineer and inventor on the world of Vana'diel. He is found in the Bastok Metalworks in "Cid's Workshop". Cid has a close relationship with the owner of the Steaming Sheep Tavern, the bar in Bastok.
Cid is responsible for much of Bastok's success and prosperity in recent years, and as such has grown influential in the Republic. It is implied that one of the key factors behind President Hrichter Karst's election to office was Cid's backing. Player characters who come from Bastok can expect to do a few quests to help Cid acquire items to make his inventions.
Later, in the Seekers of Adoulin expansion, it is revealed that Cid has an adopted son named Midras. Midras is assisting the Inventor's Coalition of Adoulin, attempting to find alternate methods for agriculture in the face of a looming food shortage crisis.
Doctor Cidolfus Demen Bunansa is a non-playable character and, for the first time in the series, an antagonist and a boss battle. He is Archadia's chief researcher who leads the study of nethicite. Cid is the creator of most of Archadia's airships, including Sky Fortress Bahamut. Cid shares his surname with Mustadio and Besrudio from Final Fantasy Tactics.
There is another character with the name Cid, Al-Cid Margrace, a member of the Rozarrian ruling family. Unlike Dr Cid, Al-Cid is on the player team's side; however, he isn't the "Cid" of Final Fantasy XII, as only Doctor Cid has been confirmed by Akitoshi Kawazu and Yasumi Matsuno in interviews as being the game's "official" Cid.
Cid Raines is a Brigadier General in command of the Wide-area Response Brigade division of the Sanctum Guardian Corps, commanding the airship Lindblum. He is younger than previous Cids and initially prevents the player party from being arrested by the Sanctum, but his more complex role and motivations are revealed later.
A soul trapped in the Sea of Chaos takes form of Cid and acts as the advocate of the souls of the dead. Cid reveals to Lightning the true nature of Chaos and hints at Bhunivelze's true intentions.
Cid nan Garlond is the lead of the Garlond Ironworks, a group of Garlean engineers in disagreement with the Garlean Empire's warmongering policies and allied to the Eorzean City States.
In the ChocoGo April's Fool 2016 joke video, a character called Cid Shipman appeared as the CEO of the ChocoGo company.
Cid Sophiar is an elderly man and the head mechanic of the Hammerhead service station that looks after Noctis's car. His granddaughter, Cindy Aurum, helps him |
13% on materials, and 24% shared in cash or spent on other things. When asked about their own investments two years after the distribution, treatment group members reported 340 more hours of vocational training than controls, most of which was in tailoring, carpentry, metalwork, or hairstyling. On average, treatment group members also reported $219 more in business assets than controls two years after the disbursement, although this difference was reduced to $130 after four years.
What were the overall effects of YOP?
Labor supply. Program participants worked 4.1 more hours per week than controls in 2010 and 5.5 more hours per week in 2012. In general, participants increased the hours that they spent working in skilled trades to supplement their agricultural income but continued to spend the same amount of time working in agriculture as controls.
Program participants worked 4.1 more hours per week than controls in 2010 and 5.5 more hours per week in 2012. In general, participants increased the hours that they spent working in skilled trades to supplement their agricultural income but continued to spend the same amount of time working in agriculture as controls. Return on investment. There is fairly strong evidence that YOP participants received large returns on their investments, leading to higher income than controls in the long-run. Members of treatment groups earned $8.50 more per month than controls in 2010 and $10.50 more per month in 2012. Blattman, Fiala, and Martinez 2013 estimate that the increased earnings in 2010 and 2013 represent average annual returns on the original grant of 30% and 39% respectively. There is no evidence that treatment group members earned more per hour than control group members, so the return probably comes from increased opportunities to do profitable work.
There is fairly strong evidence that YOP participants received large returns on their investments, leading to higher income than controls in the long-run. Members of treatment groups earned $8.50 more per month than controls in 2010 and $10.50 more per month in 2012. Blattman, Fiala, and Martinez 2013 estimate that the increased earnings in 2010 and 2013 represent average annual returns on the original grant of 30% and 39% respectively. There is no evidence that treatment group members earned more per hour than control group members, so the return probably comes from increased opportunities to do profitable work. Other impacts. Participation in YOP also lead to increased durable assets, non-durable consumption, and subjective well-being. There was no evidence that YOP affected non-economic factors such as kin integration, community participation, community and public good contributions, anti-social behavior, and protest attitudes and participation.
Limitations
There are some limitations that lead us to exercise caution when applying results from YOP to GiveDirectly’s program.
Group structure. The group structure of YOP may have acted as a commitment device, leading recipients to invest a greater portion of their grants than recipients of unconditional transfers directly to individuals, like GiveDirectly.
The group structure of YOP may have acted as a commitment device, leading recipients to invest a greater portion of their grants than recipients of unconditional transfers directly to individuals, like GiveDirectly. Application process. Groups had to apply for grants with a proposal for investing in skilled trades. Motivated, patient, or talented individuals may have been more likely to apply and less likely to be screened out, which could have increased the propensity to invest or returns on investment. The application process could also have led to more investment through a mental accounting mechanism, by framing the grant in terms of business.
Groups had to apply for grants with a proposal for investing in skilled trades. Motivated, patient, or talented individuals may have been more likely to apply and less likely to be screened out, which could have increased the propensity to invest or returns on investment. The application process could also have led to more investment through a mental accounting mechanism, by framing the grant in terms of business. Size of grant. YOP grants were, on average, $382 per group member. Like GiveDirectly, YOP’s grants are one-time unconditional wealth transfers. However, YOP’s grants are less than 40% of the size of GiveDirectly’s. We do not have a strong intuition about whether this would lead GiveDirectly recipients to invest a larger or smaller portion of their transfers. However, GiveDirectly participants may have lower ROIs if recipients experience diminishing returns on investment.
YOP grants were, on average, $382 per group member. Like GiveDirectly, YOP’s grants are one-time unconditional wealth transfers. However, YOP’s grants are less than 40% of the size of GiveDirectly’s. We do not have a strong intuition about whether this would lead GiveDirectly recipients to invest a larger or smaller portion of their transfers. However, GiveDirectly participants may have lower ROIs if recipients experience diminishing returns on investment. Long-run effects and divestment. Treatment members' increased earnings can only be interpreted as return on investment if they are expected to be maintained in the long-run. There is evidence that some recipients divested from their grant over time, which could mean that earning gains were not permanent.
Treatment members' increased earnings can only be interpreted as return on investment if they are expected to be maintained in the long-run. There is evidence that some recipients divested from their grant over time, which could mean that earning gains were not permanent. Demographic limitations. Program participants were mostly young adults. The effects on business assets and earnings largely disappear if the data is reweighted to reflect the demographic distribution of the entire population.
The Women’s Income Generating Support (WINGS) Program in Northern Uganda
How the program worked
Villages in WINGS were randomly assigned to one of two phases. Participants assigned to phase one entered WINGS in mid-2009 and received five days of business skills training, a $150 startup grant (once they had a business plan approved), and follow up visits and advice from AVSI staff. Half of phase 1 participants were also randomly assigned to receive business networking training. An end-line survey in November 2010 allowed Blattman et al 2013 to estimate the medium-term effects of the full WINGS program by comparing phase 1 villages to phase 2 villages (who had not yet entered the program).
Phase 2 villages (which served as controls during phase 1) entered WINGS in early 2011. To disentangle the effects of the cash grants from the effects of follow-up, researchers randomly assigned one-third of these villages to receive no follow-up.
In all, 1,800 of the most vulnerable 14-30 year olds in 120 villages in two districts were selected by AVSI and community leaders to participate in WINGS’ two phases. “[T]he typical WINGS candidate was a young woman between the ages of 20 and 35, with little or no formal education, low income and limited access to credit.”
How did WINGS recipients spend the transfers?
Over half of all participants proposed selling mixed items in their AVSI-approved business plans. The vast majority of other business involved the selling of livestock, fish, and farm products.
When participants themselves estimated the proportion of the grant they spent on different categories, those recipients who did not receive follow up from AVSI staff reported that 27% of the grant was spent on business, 15% was spent on long-term consumption, 2% was spent on short-term consumption, and 54% was saved. However, when recipients were asked to estimate the cash amount that they spent on their businesses, they reported an average of just $14.50 of business expenditures, suggesting that they spent less than 10% of the grant on business expenditures.
What were the overall effects of WINGS 18 months after the grants were distributed?
Phase 1 and phase 2 villages were surveyed eighteen months after phase 1 villages entered WINGS (and before phase 2 villages entered).
Labor supply. Participating in WINGS caused a 61% increase in employment hours, which consisted of a 41% increase in hours spent on subsistence work and a 79% increase in hours spent on market activities.
. Participating in WINGS caused a 61% increase in employment hours, which consisted of a 41% increase in hours spent on subsistence work and a 79% increase in hours spent on market activities. Earnings and return on investment. After subtracting out the effects of follow-up visits by AVSI staff, we estimate that the other components of WINGS increased beneficiaries’ monthly net earnings by an average of about $4.49/month. From these earnings numbers we can estimate a mean monthly return on investment of about 3.0% and a mean annual return on investment of about 35.9% on the original $150 grant. These calculations are an overestimate of the return on the grant itself, however, because they include the benefits but not the (quite high) costs of services like business skills training, targeting and disbursement, and (for some recipients) group dynamics training. We cannot confidently disentangle the effects of the $150 grant from the effects of the add-on services.
After subtracting out the effects of follow-up visits by AVSI staff, we estimate that the other components of WINGS increased beneficiaries’ monthly net earnings by an average of about $4.49/month. From these earnings numbers we can estimate a mean monthly return on investment of about 3.0% and a mean annual return on investment of about 35.9% on the original $150 grant. These calculations are an overestimate of the return on the grant itself, however, because they include the benefits but not the (quite high) costs of services like business skills training, targeting and disbursement, and (for some recipients) group dynamics training. We cannot confidently disentangle the effects of the $150 grant from the effects of the add-on services. Other economic effects. Participation in WINGS increased short-term spending, wealth, and savings.
Participation in WINGS increased short-term spending, wealth, and savings. Inflation, economic externalities, and general equilibrium effects. Researchers surveyed randomly chosen non-participant households in treatment and control villages in order to measure WINGS’ effects on non-participants (who made up 75%-85% of households in treatment villages). By going into trade and increasing the supply of scarce goods, WINGS recipients appear to have created slightly lower prices for all village members. Blattman et al 2013 suggests that WINGS led to decreased profits for existing microentrepreneurs (through enhanced competition) and increased wages and income for non-participating agricultural workers (through reduced supply of agricultural labor as WINGS participants work less on others households’ plots). The published paper on WINGS (Blattman et al 2015) suggests that WINGS had little effect on the incomes or occupational choice of nonparticipating households. We have not attempted to reconcile these findings though it seems like the updated analysis makes a weaker claim about negative effects on nonparticipants than the policy report and it strikes us as reasonable to rely on the updated analysis.
Researchers surveyed randomly chosen non-participant households in treatment and control villages in order to measure WINGS’ effects on non-participants (who made up 75%-85% of households in treatment villages). By going into trade and increasing the supply of scarce goods, WINGS recipients appear to have created slightly lower prices for all village members. Blattman et al 2013 suggests that WINGS led to decreased profits for existing microentrepreneurs (through enhanced competition) and increased wages and income for non-participating agricultural workers (through reduced supply of agricultural labor as WINGS participants work less on others households’ plots). The published paper on WINGS (Blattman et al 2015) suggests that WINGS had little effect on the incomes or occupational choice of nonparticipating households. We have not attempted to reconcile these findings though it seems like the updated analysis makes a weaker claim about negative effects on nonparticipants than the policy report and it strikes us as reasonable to rely on the updated analysis. Hostility towards recipients. Overall, recipients report a low level of hostility from their community (such as serious conflicts, insults, harm, or unprovoked aggression), but they do report 38% more hostility than controls.
Overall, recipients report a low level of hostility from their community (such as serious conflicts, insults, harm, or unprovoked aggression), but they do report 38% more hostility than controls. Health and social impacts. Despite large economic returns, WINGS led to few observable medium-run health and social improvements for participants.
Limitations
There are some limitations that lead us to exercise caution when applying results from WINGS to GiveDirectly’s program.
Business plan requirement. We are unable to determine the extent to which the requirement to have a business plan approved encouraged participants to invest more money at higher returns than they would have in the absence of such a requirement.
We are unable to determine the extent to which the requirement to have a business plan approved encouraged participants to invest more money at higher returns than they would have in the absence of such a requirement. Disentangling program elements. We are unable to determine the extent to which WINGS’ business skills training and group dynamics training may have contributed to positive outcomes. While we were able to adjust estimated returns to subtract out the effects of follow-up by AVSI workers, doing so also increases our uncertainty about the magnitude of returns.
We are unable to determine the extent to which WINGS’ business skills training and group dynamics training may have contributed to positive outcomes. While we were able to adjust estimated returns to subtract out the effects of follow-up by AVSI workers, doing so also increases our uncertainty about the magnitude of returns. Demographics. WINGS participants were chosen as the most vulnerable members of their communities, while GiveDirectly transfers cash to about 40% of the households in a given village. This could lead WINGS to have higher returns than GiveDirectly (if the poorest of the poor have the greatest credit constraints and therefore the greatest returns to capital) or could lead GiveDirectly to have higher returns (if the poorest of the poor have worse spending opportunities or make worse spending decisions).
WINGS participants were chosen as the most vulnerable members of their communities, while GiveDirectly transfers cash to about 40% of the households in a given village. This could lead WINGS to have higher returns than GiveDirectly (if the poorest of the poor have the greatest credit constraints and therefore the greatest returns to capital) or could lead GiveDirectly to have higher returns (if the poorest of the poor have worse spending opportunities or make worse spending decisions). Grant size. WINGS’ grant of $150 is only 15% the size of GiveDirectly’s $1,000 transfers. This could lead to GiveDirectly recipients achieving a higher or lower return on their transfers than WINGS recipients. This difference could also lead to differing effects on inflation and on village-wide economies.
WINGS’ grant of $150 is only 15% the size of GiveDirectly’s $1,000 transfers. This could lead to GiveDirectly recipients achieving a higher or lower return on their transfers than WINGS recipients. This difference could also lead to differing effects on inflation and on village-wide economies. Long-run effects and divestment. The longest run effects measured by Blattman et al 2013 were eighteen months. Our return on investment calculations assume that earnings gains sustained over eighteen months are permanent and we would guess that these earnings gains are maintained in the long-term. However, households may gradually divest from their investments, causing temporary earnings gains.
The longest run effects measured by Blattman et al 2013 were eighteen months. Our return on investment calculations assume that earnings gains sustained over eighteen months are permanent and we would guess that these earnings gains are maintained in the long-term. However, households may gradually divest from their investments, causing temporary earnings gains. Conflicting data on investment spending. Blattman et al 2013 measures investment spending in two ways: 1) by asking grant recipients to estimate the portion of their grant that they spent on business expenditures; and 2) by surveying treatment and control households on their expenditures over the course of a month and comparing investment by treatment households against investment by controls. These methods result in very different estimates of investment spending, which leave us very uncertain about the proportion of grants that were invested and also decrease our certainty in the reliability of the study’s (self-reported) survey data on the whole.
Blattman et al 2013 measures investment spending in two ways: 1) by asking grant recipients to estimate the portion of their grant that they spent on business expenditures; and 2) by surveying treatment and control households on their expenditures over the course of a month and comparing investment by treatment households against investment by controls. These methods result in very different estimates of investment spending, which leave us very uncertain about the proportion of grants that were invested and also decrease our certainty in the reliability of the study’s (self-reported) survey data on the whole. Incomplete description of methodology. Blattman et al 2013 is a policy brief and does not contain the complete methodological description that we would ideally like to see in order to evaluate a study. For example, the study does not describe how data on participants’ net earnings or savings are measured. We believe that accurately measuring earnings and savings among the very poor is difficult so our uncertainty about this data somewhat reduces our confidence in our ROI estimates.
Our interpretation of studies of unconditional wealth transfers with features encouraging investment
Together, Blattman, Fiala, and Martinez 2013 and Blattman et al 2013 provide strong evidence that cash grants of about $150 to $600 to groups of poor applicants and to very poor, uneducated women with business training and business plans can lead to high returns in the medium-term. Blattman et al 2013 also provides some of the most relevant evidence we’ve seen suggesting that hostility from neighbors is not a major problem for most recipients of cash transfers and that cash transfers do not cause inflation.
However, Haushofer and Shapiro 2013’s evaluation of GiveDirectly itself found much smaller business returns. We believe that some combination of GiveDirectly’s lack of a business plan requirement, lack of business skills training, and broader age-range of participants is the best explanation for the apparently lower returns earned by its participants. However, it is also possible that the failure to find investment returns was caused by the shorter time horizon of Haushofer and Shapiro 2013 and GiveDirectly participants’ investments may still mature.
Cost-effectiveness of cash transfers
See the most recent version of our cash cost-effectiveness analysis on this page.
In practice, these calculations are sensitive to assumptions, especially regarding:
the investment returns to cash transfers;
the subjective assessment of the relative value of averting child mortality and improving incomes for adults.
We estimate that cash transfer programs are in the same range of cost-effectiveness as our other priority programs.
Note that our cost-effectiveness analyses are simplified models that do not take into account a number of factors. There are limitations to this kind of cost-effectiveness analysis, and we believe that cost-effectiveness estimates such as these should not be taken literally, due to the significant uncertainty around them. We provide these estimates (a) for comparative purposes and (b) because working on them helps us ensure that we are thinking through as many of the relevant issues as possible.
Recommendations and concerns
What are the potential downsides of the intervention?
There are a few potential adverse effects of cash transfers:
Inflation: a sudden injection of cash into an area may cause inflation. We reviewed four randomized controlled trials investigating this issue: In Programa de Apoyo Alimentario, an un-monitored conditional cash transfer program, no significant effect on inflation was found. The researchers used surveys of stores and households to measure prices of goods at baseline and one year after cash transfers began. The reported prices were 2.7% higher in villages receiving cash transfers than in control villages after one year, though the increases were not statistically significant. We do not have a clear understanding of how the authors picked the prices they reported from the larger universe of prices they collected. A randomized study of the Oportunidades conditional cash transfer program finds small increases in prices of 5 of 36 food items for sale in treatment villages immediately following deployment of the cash transfers. Although the authors do not observe meaningful increases in prices, they do find positive externalities of cash transfers on ineligible families in treatment villages, equivalent to ~10% of consumption (which is about 2/3 of the benefits experienced by the eligible families in the treatment villages). Blattman et al 2013, the study of WINGS in Uganda, found evidence of a slight decrease in village-wide prices. Haushofer and Shapiro 2013, the study of a variant of GiveDirectly's program, found no evidence of village-wide impacts on prices, but estimates are imprecise and may not rule out the possibility of substantial inflation.
a sudden injection of cash into an area may cause inflation. We reviewed four randomized controlled trials investigating this issue: Cash transfers could discourage wage-earning work by adults. If adults can control the distribution of their work and leisure time, cash transfers may lead them to substitute some leisure for work, leading to a decrease in wages earned (but most likely not a decrease in overall income). A World Bank review of the evidence on cash transfers (which we have not vetted) examines this question and concludes that transfers "appear to have had, at most, modest disincentives for adult work"; it discusses 5 studies, of which 4 found no impact along this dimension. Blattman, Fiala, and Martinez 2013 and Blattman et al 2013 both found that cash transfers with features encouraging investment increased hours worked by recipients. Haushofer and Shapiro 2013, the study of a variant of GiveDirectly's program, found evidence of a $17/month increase in recipients' total revenue, which suggests that did not decrease their hours worked. Note that there is substantially more evidence suggesting that conditional cash transfer programs lead to reductions in child labor, which may help explain the gap between transfer sizes and observed increases in consumption.
If adults can control the distribution of their work and leisure time, cash transfers may lead them to substitute some leisure for work, leading to a decrease in wages earned (but most likely not a decrease in overall income). A World Bank review of the evidence on cash transfers (which we have not vetted) examines this question and concludes that transfers "appear to have had, at most, modest disincentives for adult work"; it discusses 5 studies, of which 4 found no impact along this dimension. Giving cash to some and not others could possibly cause social unrest. Haushofer and Shapiro 2013, the RCT of a variant of GiveDirectly's program, found no significant effects of transfers on the rate of crime in treatment villages or on instances of physical, sexual, or emotional violence in treatment households as compared to control households in treatment villages. In Blattman et al 2013, recipients reported a low level of hostility from their community (such as serious conflicts, insults, harm, or unprovoked aggression), but they do report 38% more hostility than controls. We have not seen any other rigorous evidence discussing this issue.
Haushofer and Shapiro 2013, the RCT of a variant of GiveDirectly's program, found no significant effects of transfers on the rate of crime in treatment villages or on instances of physical, sexual, or emotional violence in treatment households as compared to control households in treatment villages. In Blattman et al 2013, recipients reported a low level of hostility from their community (such as serious conflicts, insults, harm, or unprovoked aggression), but they do report 38% more hostility than controls. We have not seen any other rigorous evidence discussing this issue. Diversion of transfers to wealthier individuals. It’s not clear to us whether this problem would be more or less of an issue in the case of cash transfers than in-kind transfers, and we would guess that the extent of the problem depends heavily on the method of making transfers. Our review of GiveDirectly discusses the extent to which this appears to have been a problem in their distributions.
Do cash transfers have negative effects on neighbors of recipients?
We revisited the relevant evidence on this question and shared our updated analysis in November 2018. We concluded:
GiveDirectly, one of our top charities, provides cash transfers to extremely low-income households. We wrote in May 2018 about new research on potential “negative spillover” effects of cash transfers: i.e., negative effects that cash transfers might have on people who live nearby transfer recipients. At that time, we wrote that we would reassess this evidence when we had results from GiveDirectly’s “general equilibrium” (GE) study, which we expected to play a major role in our conclusions because it is the largest and highest quality study on spillover effects that we are aware of.
We have now seen private draft results from the GE study. In brief, it did not find negative spillover effects of cash transfers. Considering the GE study alongside other relevant studies of the spillover effects of cash transfers, it appears that the overall evidence base is mixed. Of the five randomised controlled trials (RCTs) which look at the spillover effects of unconditional cash transfers on consumption in sub-Saharan African countries, three RCTs find substantial negative spillover effects, one RCT finds no spillover effects, and the GE study finds no or even a small positive spillover effect.
We attempted to combine the results from these studies and create a model of the magnitude of possible spillover effects. However, we did not feel comfortable relying on this model because we lack basic information on a number of key parameters, such as how many non-recipient households may be affected by spillover effects for each treated household and how the magnitude of spillover effects changes with distance. We would revisit this explicit model if further academic analysis is able to shed light on these parameters.
In the meantime, our best guess is that negative or positive spillover effects of cash are minimal on net. We believe potential negative spillover effects of GiveDirectly’s program are likely to be minimal on net for a number of reasons, including: the largest and highest quality study (the GE study) found no evidence of negative spillovers, and we have not seen strong evidence on the mechanisms for large negative spillover effects. However, given that negative spillover effects via inflation are theoretically plausible, and given that three studies find evidence of negative spillovers, we do include a small negative discount in our cost-effectiveness analysis for this concern. We emphasize that our conclusion at this point is very tentative, and we hope to update our views next year if there is more public discussion or research on the areas of uncertainty highlighted in our analysis.
For more, see our full report on this question.
What versions of the intervention are best?
We have reviewed one RCT comparing physical cash transfers with electronic transfers to a recipient's cell phone. The study found that transferring money to cell phones was cheaper than transferring physical cash to individuals, though the initial cost of the cell phones made the cell phone transfer more expensive than handing out cash. Had the study continued longer, the cheaper ongoing costs of the cell phone transfer mechanism would have made up for the higher initial costs. The study also finds that recipients of the cell phone transfer recipients had to walk less than 25% as far, on average, as those who received physical cash in order to “cash out” their transfers (0.9 vs. 4.04 km). The cell phone transfers also appear to have increased the diversity of crops grown and consumed by people who received them, relative to the “placebo” group that just received physical transfers and a cell phone. The study did not find any adverse effects of using cell phone transfers relative to handing out physical cash.
Our process
2012
Initially, we conducted searches on JSTOR and Google Scholar for terms related to cash transfers, especially seeking out systematic reviews, and tracing citations in order to find randomized trials.
We relied particularly heavily on two major literature reviews in our research on CCTs: a World Bank review and a Cochrane review. Of the literature reviews that we found, we relied on these two because they included a high percentage of RCTs and they presented the data from the studies clearly.
We also searched the World Bank DIME database for relevant studies, discussed with GiveDirectly staff, and added studies as they arose in the process of drafting and updating this report.
2013
Many new studies on cash transfers have been published since December 2012. For this update we have not attempted to thoroughly read all new research published on cash transfers over the course of the last year. We focused on a recently released RCT of a variation on GiveDirectly’s program in Kenya.
We also looked for RCTs with evidence on programs that were unconditional, large, wealth transfers (the approach taken by GiveDirectly) and research that appeared most likely to affect our views of the evidence for this intervention.
We relied heavily on studies and commentary on cash transfers that were sent to us by people who follow GiveWell. We also looked at the abstracts of studies cited by two papers by Chris Blattman, which reported results from experiments involving large, unconditional cash transfers.
In addition, we searched Google Scholar for studies with “cash transfers” in the title from 2011-2013. We listed all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of cash transfers in a spreadsheet and read the abstract for all studies to try to identify studies that might change our views on the intervention. We also looked for evidence on the propensity to invest cash transfers, returns to investment, inflation, economic effects on non-recipients, spending on alcohol and tobacco, and community resentment or hostility toward recipients.
Changes in our views
In general, the additional evidence we reviewed did not substantively change our assessment of the impact of cash transfers. We found little evidence that cash transfers caused inflation, negative economic effects on non-recipients, recipient spending on alcohol and tobacco, and community resentment or hostility toward recipients.
The most significant updates to the evidence are results from a randomized controlled trial of a variant of GiveDirectly's program in Western Kenya. These results are broadly consistent with results measured in other cash transfer programs, but do suggest that GiveDirectly recipients may earn lower investment returns on their transfers than recipients in previously studied cash transfer programs.
These results are particularly significant because they assess GiveDirectly's program itself. We continue to interpret other evidence for cash transfers cautiously, as most research examines programs that differ from GiveDirectly in that: 1) the transfers are conditional or framed heavily in terms of investment; 2) the transfers are 60% to 90% smaller than GiveDirectly’s; 3) trainings or other services are provided alongside the transfers. We are not aware of any other studies of the propensity to invest large wealth transfers that were not framed as business grants, restricted to participants with investment proposals and/or provided alongside some form of business training or technical assistance.
Studies we considered
A list of the studies reviewed for our initial report in 2012 is available above. A list of the research on cash transfers that we have seen between December 2012 and December 2013 is available at this footnote.
This list includes all new RCTs we have seen but does not attempt to comprehensively list every non-RCT that has been published, instead focusing on studies most likely to affect our views.
2014
We reviewed a list of studies and articles on cash transfers that we'd come across or were sent to us throughout the year and conducted an informal search for additional studies that might substantively change our view on cash transfers. We did not find any study that passed that threshold and continue to rely on the studies identified in our last review. We think that (a) studies of large, unrestricted cash transfers or (b) studies that rigorously examine the negative effects of cash transfers could potentially change our view.
2015
We primarily searched for new studies on (a) large, unconditional cash transfers and/or (b) the negative effects of cash transfers because we think these are the types of studies that would be most likely to affect our view of GiveDirectly’s program.
New studies on large, unconditional cash transfers
To find new studies on large, unconditional cash transfers, we (a) searched Google scholar for studies published since 2014 that contained the keywords “Haushofer and Shapiro 2013” (without the quotes) or “GiveDirectly”, (b) reviewed studies mentioned in a section of a World Bank blog post on education and cash transfers and (c) reviewed a list of studies sent to us by Paul Niehaus of GiveDirectly. We identified the following papers as warranting further investigation, but all of the studies differed enough from GiveDirectly’s program that they did not substantively change our view:
Harris 2015 is an observational study comparing households in Ethiopia that received very large cash transfers (5x annual consumption expenditure on average) as compensation for the government taking a substantial portion of their land (70% on average) to households that did not get their land taken away.
Blattman, Jamison and Sheridan 2015 randomly assigned $200 grants (about 3 months wages) to criminally engaged Liberian men (some also received therapy).
Emergency Economies 2014 examined a program that provided cash transfers ($575 USD per household over 5 months) to Syrian refugees in Lebanon during the winter.
We also found a published paper on WINGS (Blattman et al 2015) whereas we previously relied on the policy report (Blattman et al 2013). The updated analysis did not substantively change our view, but we have added a small update from the new analysis about the effects of WINGS on non-participating households in the relevant section above.
Finally, we examined a pilot study run by GiveDirectly, which they had previously sent to us, that randomized young women to receive large, unconditional transfers. This pilot study did not substantively change our view because it had a very small sample size, differed from GiveDirectly’s core program, and did not seem to analyze return on investment of transfers.
New studies on the negative effects of cash transfers
To find new studies on the negative effects of cash transfers, we searched Google scholar for studies published since 2014 with “cash randomized”, “cash randomised”, “cash experimental”, or “cash experiment” (all without the quotes) in the title. We culled the studies based on their titles. We skimmed the 5 remaining studies for discussion on any negative effects of the transfer programs. We identified one of the studies (White and Basu 2014) as warranting further investigation (based on a cursory look, none of the other studies reported negative effects). White and Basu 2014, which examined the effect of change in payment schedule for a cash transfer program in Peru on expenditures on temptation goods, did not substantively change our view because it did not, in our view, find meaningfully negative effects (see following footnote for details).
We also looked for discussion of negative effects in the new studies of large, unconditional transfers that we identified as warranting further investigation. None of the studies reported findings on negative effects that substantively changed our view because either (a) they did not find meaningfully negative effects of transfers, or (b) the potential negative effects seemed to be unlikely to apply to GiveDirectly’s program.
Haushofer, Reisinger and Shapiro 2015 was released after we finished the search described above. We wrote up our view of the study.
For more information on our search for studies, see this spreadsheet.
Other studies
We de-prioritized further investigation of two RCTs examining the effect of cash transfers on cognitive development (Barham, Macours and Maluccio 2013 and Gilligan and Roy 2014), because it seemed that the conditionality (or perceived conditionality) of the transfers in both studies played a key role in the outcomes, which makes these studies less relevant to GiveDirectly’s unconditional transfer program.
2017
Throughout the year we tracked new literature that might be relevant to assessing the impact of GiveDirectly's cash transfer program by:
Setting up alerts so that we were notified whenever new studies cited key studies such as Haushofer and Shapiro 2013.
Reviewing papers that were sent to us or that were discussed by various development economics blogs and social media accounts that we follow.
We did not find any studies that we thought warranted deeper investigation at this time. We would conduct a deeper investigation of a cash transfer study if, based on the abstract, it seemed that it might provide high-quality information about the humanitarian impacts of unconditional cash transfers in contexts similar to those in which GiveDirectly operates.
We did not deeply review studies of other kinds of cash transfer programs because we believed that if a study was not highly relevant to the core parameters driving our cost-effectiveness analysis of GiveDirectly then it was unlikely to affect our decision making in 2017. We also believe that our cost-effectiveness analysis of GiveDirectly is relatively robust since we estimate that a large portion of the humanitarian benefit of the intervention comes from temporarily raising recipients' consumption.
We expect to reevaluate our views on cash transfers when results from a large, new study of GiveDirectly's program are released; this study will assess the general equilibrium effects of cash transfers: see General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers in Kenya, AEA RCT Registry.
We also edited the negative spillovers section of this report because we believe that the previous version of this section provided too many speculative caveats on the findings of potential negative effects. We plan to revisit this evidence in the future alongside the evidence from the general equilibrium study mentioned above to consider whether we should directly factor in negative effects to our cost-effectiveness analysis.
2018
In this May 2018 post, we explained that we were aware of recently released research which suggested that cash transfers may be less effective than we previously believed in two ways:
Cash may have negative spillovers on non-recipient households who live close to recipient households. The benefits of cash for recipients may fade quickly over time.
We conducted a more thorough literature review on the spillover effects of cash transfers and shared our updated conclusions in November 2018. We concluded that our best guess is that negative or positive spillover effects of cash are minimal on net. For more, see the full report.
We plan to address the concern about the duration of benefits at a later date because we believe it has less potential to substantially affect our cost-effectiveness analysis for cash transfers, for reasons that are explained in this post.
Sources
Supplemental sourcesThe Story behind IPA is an interesting one. To understand IPA we first have to understand the hop, the rest will fall into place after we discuss the preservative nature of hops. Hops are composed of two major acids. Alpha Acid, and Beta Acid. Alpha acid is slightly responsible for preventing bacterial growth in the beer, such as bacteria that comes from lactic acid. Alpha acid is also responsible for adding the bitter component to beer. The beta acid does not add initial bitterness but does aid in the fermentation and aging of the beer adding the bitter components slowly over time. What does Alpha acid in hops have to do with IPA? Alcohol |
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136 Blackstone St., Boston; bostonpublicmarket.org.Thanks guys! Maybe I should try a catchier subject heading to make more people look? They are made from fibreglass. They are quite light, they have a stem at the back of the neck that leads down to the waist where there is a back brace so all the weight is on their hips. The wigs are heavier than the heads, especially the geisha style one. They used dancers instead of models cause they thought they might have more strength and balance. If anyone wants to know the process I can go into more detail for them.
Okay, this was a joint project between my boyfriend and I but he's not on Craftster so I have to post on his behalf as well.This was one of the most mammoth, complicated, annoying, crazy things I've ever had to make. And I've made a few strange things. I'll spare you the trials and tribulations and just give you the pretty pictures of the finished products. I learned SO MUCH during the process of of making these....so many mistakes! We were just about in tears sometimes, but I think, in the end, they look great. Phew!I almost forgot to explain that we made these for a hair show. The hair/wigs was done by a hairdresser. We made the heads. The wigs are AMAZING. There were 6 heads made in total, each had it's own style.Rapping “I’m not afraid of my sponsor,” a three-minute music video in Arabic has gone viral by putting a comedic spin on the daily challenges many migrant labourers face in Saudi Arabia. The video opens on a mustachioed man reading a newspaper on a mattress on the floor of a cramped room.
The rap video was produced by Telfaz11, an online video network based in Saudi Arabia. ( Youtube screengrab )
“Oh, sure, we brought you from Pakistan so you could read the newspaper and watch TV,” says another man, suddenly standing over the worker, and wearing a thobe — a flowing white robe — and red-and-white checkered keffiyeh, a look common among locals in the Gulf region. Angered by the encounter with his employer, the worker goes on to rap “I carry everything on my back,” while singing and dancing with two other rappers in a vacant building. “Think I’m afraid? Everything you do, I see,” he says defiantly into the camera.
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The video was created by Saudi-based Telfaz11, which says it is the first Arabic online video network. It has amassed almost 500,000 views since it was posted on YouTube Tuesday. “Who makes the intersections? Who made the sewage system? Who carries the trash? Who works at the convenience store? All Saudis forget who drives the taxis,” another man raps, referring to the varied jobs migrant workers fill across the country. It’s not clear if the rappers are actors or real migrant workers. More than nine million foreign workers are currently employed in Saudi Arabia, constituting more than half of the local workforce, according to Amnesty International.
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Most migrant workers in Saudi Arabia come from India and Pakistan. Under the country’s kafala system, workers’ residency permits are bound to their employers, who must provide written consent to allow them to change jobs or leave the country.
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Human rights groups have documented widespread abuse of migrant workers in the Gulf, including forced labour, the confiscation of passports and withholding wages. The restrictive employment system is also used in several neighboring countries, including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman.
Read more about:ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has barred actor Hamza Ali Abbasi and TV show host Shabbir Abu Talib from hosting their Ramazan shows on Aaj TV and News One respectively.
Know more: Ahmadi persecution, blasphemy law and other things Hamza Ali Abbasi will discuss on his bold Ramazan show
In a statement issued on Friday, Pemra said that it had received 1,133 complaints through Whatsapp, Twitter and telephone calls regarding the transmissions.
The complainants said both shows had aired provocative content.
"During these transmissions, ratings remain the focus under the guise of Ramazan shows," read the Pemra statement, adding that "provocative conversations took place during the shows which has led to much anger and sadness".
The regulatory body asked Aaj TV and TV One to implement the decision by 7pm on June 17, 2016.
"Even after clear instructions from Pemra, unfortunately TV channel owners, anchors and audience indulged in non-serious and irresponsible conversations," added the statement.
The Pemra notification further adds if the hosts Hamza Ali Abbasi, Shabbir Abu Talib and religious preacher Maulana Kokab Noorani appear on any other channel and discuss this particular controversial issue or any other such topic, then that programme will also be banned.
The regulatory authority has notified the concerned individuals in this regard and has asked them to appear before the Complaints Council Karachi and record their statements on June 20, after which Pemra will announce its decision.
Hamza, co-host of Aaj TV's post-Iftar transmission, Ramzan Hamara Emaan with Aisha Khan for Aaj TV, was holding discussions on the Ahmadi community and blasphemy laws during his show.
"Why is Ahmadi such a taboo word? Ideological stances aside, my only goal is that when an Ahmadi is killed or persecuted, the media shouldn't be scared to talk about it," he had said.
Past bans
Earlier, the regulatory authority announced a ban on shows dramatising crimes such as rape, murder, robberies and suicide.
Addressing a press conference, Pemra chairman Absar Alam had said that the authority has decided to ban such shows which re-enact crimes such as murders and suicide, and those that raid places in the name of investigative journalism.
The authority had stated it was forming a code of conduct and rules and regulations, which will soon be issued to the channels.
Pemra had also directed TV and Radio channels to "immediately stop" airing advertisements marketing contraceptives and family planning products, according to a notification issued to all media organisations in May.
The ban on contraceptives and family planning products was lifted a day later.
Geo Entertainment channel had received a show cause notice earlier this week for airing inappropriate content including ‘suicide scenes’ during its programme and has ordered the channel to explain its position before the authority on June 21.
Hum TV's child abuse drama 'Udaari' was also served a notice by Pemra, which asked for explanation of a couple of scenes in the May 8 episode of the drama series.The Cineplex at Edmonton’s South Edmonton Common will soon be home to The Rec Room.
A Canadian first, this Rec Room will feature state of the art simulation games, redemption gaming for prizes, and a variety of recreational games that may include luxury bowling, billiards, shuffleboard and ping pong.
There will be an auditorium-style venue offering live entertainment — musical acts, bands and comedians — and a theatre-sized, high definition screen for catching the game or other entertainment programming.
The Rec Room will also offer a dining environment, featuring an open kitchen and a contemporary menu, as well as an "eatertainment-style" concept in the games area. A large centre bar area will include digital displays.
The first location to open in late 2015 at South Edmonton Common will be adjacent to Cineplex’s existing theatre.
Additional locations will open nationally over the course of the next several years.
"While variations of this concept have been rolled out on a wider scale in the US, our research shows a significant opportunity to develop and grow this business on a national scale in Canada," said Ellis Jacob, president and CEO, Cineplex Entertainment.
"Cineplex is well-positioned to leverage existing entertainment, gaming, food service, digital media, and operational capabilities to bring this concept to life."New Gorillaz album is finished, live rehearsals underway
In a surprise interaction with a lucky fan, Damon Albarn revealed that Gorillaz‘ new album is in the bag. After waiting outside the venue where he works, Jack Winstanley was lucky enough to score an audience with the multi talented musician. According to a series of tweets he posted following the encounter, Albarn disclosed that the album was ‘finished’ and live tour rehearsals are already underway.
@_JackWinstanley he told me he’d got a new hat for the gorillaz tour and started dancing I’m literally crying — Jack (@_JackWinstanley) February 22, 2017
@sidneyphlegm he says they’ve just finished the album and they’re rehearsing right now!! :) — Jack (@_JackWinstanley) February 23, 2017
The band have been drumming up publicity for their first LP since 2011’s “The Fall” with a string of appearances and a single, “Hallelujah Money“, released last month, but have yet to release any album specifics. Though tour dates have yet to be announced either, there’s at least one high profile vacancy for fans to be hopeful about.
Via: NME
Read More:
Gorillaz finally make their return with the politically charged ‘Hallelujah Money’
Gorillaz share 15-track playlist to build album hype
Categories: MusicJohn Piper Accidentally Punches Self, Knocks Teeth Out While Preaching
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—Gesticulating wildly while preaching on Romans 8:17 Thursday, John Piper accidentally struck himself in the face with a powerful blow, bloodying his mouth and knocking at least two of his front teeth out, sources at Desiring God confirmed.
The vigorous gesture responsible for the injury reportedly came as Piper was beseeching his audience to glorify God in the midst of their sufferings by holding Jesus as their highest treasure. With his arms twisting violently as he spoke, his right hand solidly impacted his open mouth instead of sailing past his face as he likely intended. After absorbing the blow, Piper spit an unconfirmed number of teeth into his hand and laid them on the pulpit next to his sermon notes. Refusing medical care and warding off concerned audience members with furious tornado-like arm and torso movements, he continued on until his sermon was finished.
Desiring God staffer Tony Reinke was present and witnessed the injury. “At DG we’ve been quietly wondering for years what would happen if John ever accidentally nailed himself with one of those gestures,” he told reporters. “It was brutal, but in a weird way, it made the sermon even more powerful—he was preaching about ‘suffering with Christ,’ with blood pouring out of his mouth.”
“I’d say God was glorified in the midst of Piper’s suffering,” Reinke added. “He definitely didn’t waste his lost teeth.”Black Mirror season 3 premieres on Netflix 14 October 2016. But insight of that premiere date let’s take a look back at this fantastic series Netflix couldn’t help but revive. For those who not familiar (mild spoilers ahead), Black Mirror is an anthology series which examines modern society and how it would react to unanticipated consequences of new technologies. Each episode features stand-alone episodes, with new stories and a different cast each episode. These technology themed stories are emotional, sometimes thrilling, sometimes introspective and often times dark.
Every episode of Black Mirror is unique yet criticizes the same absurd society we’re living in. The resulting mix of bleak sci-fi, drama, satire and black comedy makes for highly intelligent Television and ranks among the most original and entertaining shows I’ve ever come across. The writing is clever, innovative, and the directing is fantastic. The visuals/cinematography are stunning and even though each episode tells a different story, they often share a similar dark, chilling tone.
Only 7 episodes of Black Mirror has been released since 2011. Season 1 which consisted of 3 episodes aired in 2011, followed by season 2 also 3 episodes in 2013, followed by a Christmas special in 2014. Since being added to Netflix near the end of 2014, Black Mirror has begun gaining popularity and with its upcoming 6-episode season 3, it is definitely one of the most anticipated shows of 2016. But before season 3 hits us, lets take a look back at the previous Black Mirror episodes, starting from the good ones to the best ones:
Ranking Black Mirror Episodes:
7. The Waldo Moment (s02e03)
This episode focuses on comedian Jamie Salter, who has created the blue cartoon bear ‘Waldo’ and provides voice and movements to the character. Waldo is the host of a satire night show where he interviews politicians to humiliate them. “The Waldo Moment” is a slight deviation from other Black Mirror episodes in that it takes place in the world of politics. It is also slightly more comedic in tone than other episodes, due partly to the profane cartoon bear who is the centerpiece of the episode. “The Waldo Moment” is still a solid hour of television, but when placed next to the rest of Black Mirror, it lacks the emotional punch and sharp satire of the rest of the series.
Rating: 7.3/10
6. The National Anthem (s01e01)
This episode focuses on Prime minister Micheal Callow as he is awoken by news of Princess Susannah’s kidnapping. The kidnappers demand that Prime Minister Micheal Callow has sex with a pig or they would kill her. “The National Anthem” is the promising beginning of the Black Mirror series, with a realistic and sick story of terrorism. The plot is comedic, tense and the attempt to find the responsible in short time is still impressive. The story shows the power of Internet and how unethical and destructive the press can be in certain situations seeking for a scoop. The conclusion is very ironic.
Rating: 7.5/10
5. White Bear (s02e02)
“White Bear” is easily the most disturbing episode of Black Mirror, which is saying something for a show that specializes in being unsettling. The episode focuses on a woman named Victoria, who wakes up with no memory, and soon finds that no one will speak to her or come near her; they only record her with their cell phones. Victoria is then suddenly chased by what appears to be masked lunatics throughout the town, all the while the voyeurs continue recording her. The episode initially plays out like a fast-paced action film, but if we know anything about Black Mirror, it’s that nothing is ever that simple. A plot twist is pulled off to perfection about 3/4 of the way through, and the last scene is powerful enough to make one reevaluate the way we seem to exploit others’ tragedy as our entertainment.
Rating: 8.1/10
4. White Christmas (Special)
“White Christmas” features three different stories intertwined into one. This one-off episode that breaks away from the show’s traditional format to tell three interlinked stories, ‘White Christmas’ falters a little in its odd second act, starring Oona Chaplin as an artificial intelligence forced into submission. But it opens strong with a terrifying excursion into what the future might hold for ‘dating apps’ and wraps with a devastating climax exploring how ‘blocking’ someone might translate from social media to the real world. This is definitely is the most chilling episode of the series.
Rating: 8.5/10
3. Fifteen Million Merits (s01e02)
“Fifteen Million Merits” is just an absolute masterpiece from start to finish. I would not expect to find a deeper, more thought-provoking hour of television anywhere or ever again in this lifetime. This episode explores themes such as love, loss, loneliness, idolatry, and conformity, and it hits each nail on the head with impeccable precision. The story is set in a completely indoor, claustrophobic, dystopian world where one can only escape by earning fifteen million points called “merits” and exchanging them for a chance to impress on the fictional talent show “Hot Shots”. The episode focuses primarily on a man named Bing and his attempt to “fight” this system. This episode is brilliant, not even just because of the near future sci-fi world it got so perfect but mostly because of how believable each character was. We advanced to this great technology level but human emotions such as greed, jealousy, fear, ambition are all still being exploited in the same ways as they are today. This one hit close to home because you didn’t even have to imagine the future world to see how humans would be exploited by it, the methods exist today. One of the bleakest Black Mirror episode in my opinion because of how naturally today’s world could evolve to that.
Rating: 8.8/10
2. Be Right Back (s02e01)
This emotional episode of Black Mirror is centered around Martha and her husband Ash, a man who is obsessed with social media and his online profiles. Ash is killed in a car accident, and Martha is left a widow. Martha’s friend informs her of a new technology, one that allows a virtual person to be created based off of one’s social media profiles and online interactions. Although she is reluctant at first, Martha eventually gives in, and a synthetic substitute of Ash is created. Martha is desperate to recreate what she had before – but all the android can offer, all it can be, is a heartless replica. A near-perfect fusion of techno-paranoia and heartfelt drama, ‘Be Right Back’ explores the lengths we might go to if it meant having a departed loved one back in our lives. ‘Be Right Back’ is romantic yet disturbing, sad and dark.
Rating: 9.1/10
The Entire History of You (s01e03)
In the world created for “The Entire History of You”, every human has received an implant inside their head which allows them to record and watch everything they have ever done in their life. The plot here focuses a relationship in trouble as the guy, Liam, obsessively replays specific moments in his life because he’s suspicious of his wife cheating on him. The central character clearly not at his most comfortable and then continues wriggle and squirm and slide downwards into an unhealthy mindset before finishing up with a real gut punch of a final scene. Liam’s ability to replay life take his relationship down a ugly path. This episode is almost entirely dialogue and character driven, and the result is excellent. The closing sequence is so well done that it could easily induce tears in many a viewer. This is definitely one of the most thought-provoking and devastating episodes of Black Mirror and the best overall in my opinion. At its core, Black Mirror is about how technology has the power to shape, and even destroy human relationships. Which makes ‘The Entire History of You’ the purest example of the form charting the complete disintegration of one man’s life in a little under an hour.
Rating: 9.3/10
Advertisements'Responsive' websites fit screens big and small
"The website was built for a desktop-computer screen, but everyone is on their cellphones or tablets these days," said 28-year-old Sanders. "When you read it on an iPhone, the text was too small. You had to scroll all over the place to see the content because it didn't fit on the small screen. It didn't represent who we were as a growing church."
Matt Sanders, pastor of family ministries at Journey Christian Church in Apopka, said navigating the church's old website on his iPhone and iPad was an ordeal.
Church leaders looking to grow their 1,800-member congregation in innovative ways turned to Ocoee-based Trighton Interactive Web-development agency for a solution. The company built the church what's known as a responsive website, which shapes itself to the screens of all personal computers and mobile devices.
"The new website is more enjoyable," Sanders said. "There's less clutter, and it's easier to see on a phone without having to fight to get to it."
As the shift toward mobile continues to fuel the development of hundreds of smartphones and tablets of varying screen sizes, Web designers in Central Florida and across the world are working to craft websites that fit perfectly on any device.
At first glance, responsive websites look much like traditional websites. But when they are displayed on devices of different screen sizes, they seamlessly shrink or expand to fit that screen size.
Responsive websites also control the amount of content visible from one device to another. Smartphone versions sometimes have larger fonts and less content because there is less space. But when accessed on the larger screen of a tablet or personal computer, the site expands with more features.
Good examples of responsive websites include those launched by The Boston Globe and Starbucks. Some Orlando-area Web developers, including Treehouse and Envy Labs, also have responsive websites to promote their businesses.
"I strongly believe it's the future of the Internet," said 35-year-old Web developer Jody Resnick, founder of Trighton Interactive. "I think apps have a shelf life of a couple more years because they are so fragmented. It's also easier for most companies to address all devices at once with a responsive website instead of an app for every platform."
Research shows more people are using mobile devices to connect online.
A September 2012 report by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that 45 percent of American adults own smartphones, compared with 35 percent in 2011. About one in four owns a tablet.
Resnick said that more than 25 percent of the traffic Journey Christian receives on its website comes from tablet users.
"The church has a lot of graphics and video content on their website that was being viewed on mobile devices,'' he said. "They had an urgent need to make sure mobile users had access to that content in the best format possible."
Jodi Dinnan, business director at Journey Christian, said the church wanted to update the site to specifically target mobile users.
"Since many of our members found our church by searching online on their tablets, iPhones and Android phones, we wanted a website that would look good no matter the device," Dinnan said. "It's the most effective and appealing way we can get our message and branding out, and welcome them to our church."SAN ANTONIO -- Police say a physician is dead after her husband, a Dallas businessman, killed her and turned the gun on himself.
In the quiet gated neighborhood in northern San Antonio, the shock was resounding. For hours, police combed for evidence at a home on Ivory Creek after finding David Thomas Ross dead in a hallway. His wife, Dr. Casey Drawert, was found shot in the head.
Casey was an anesthesiologist who worked in a private practice, relatives confirmed to News 8’s sister station in San Antonio, KENS 5.
Casey Drawert Mitchell and her children. Photo: Courtesy
The South Texas Veterans Health Care System also said she worked as a contractor in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, in addition to working as a part-time professor for the UT School of Medicine.
Casey has two children, ages 7 and 10. Relatives say they were already at school. Fellow classmates are thankful they weren't at home as Friday was the last day before Spring Break.
David Thomas Ross
Ross, 46, worked for Tolleson Wealth Management out of Dallas. He most recently worked as a Philanthropy Consultant, according to the company.
"We have been stunned to learn of the tragic deaths of David and Casey Ross," read a statement from Tolleson Wealth Management. "The entire firm wishes to express our profound sorrow and deepest sympathy to the families and all others that may be impacted."
Neighbors told KENS 5 they had no idea what led up to the shooting and that the couple was very involved in church and philanthropic activities.
Circumstances surrounding the shooting were not yet made clear.
A GoFundMe page has since been set up in Casey's name, and more than $50,000 has been raised.
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Copyright 2016 WFAAVia Daily Transformations
I’m told happiness is a choice.
Unfortunately we complicate our lives to the point of being unable to recognize happiness when it appears before our eyes.
So how to clear the slate? Here are 10 things you’ll need to give up in exchange for your happiness.
1. Give up caring what other people think of you. I know it seems counter intuitive as we humans are primal pack animals that don’t want to be cast from the village, but spending time worrying what others think, is a waste of energy. You’ll never please everyone and it’s none of your business what others think of you.
2. Give up trying to please everyone. Unless you’re living life to the beat of your own drum, your tribe won’t be able to find you. Be the best version of you you can be, and you’ll naturally attract in the people that are supposed to surround you.
3. Give up participating in gossip. 100 percent of the time, those sharing gossip with you will gossip about you. Believing gossip is like gambling everything on a horse sight unseen. It’s naive.
4. Quit worrying. Where thoughts go, energy flows. Worry is investing time and energy in something you don’t want to have happen. Learn to let go and trust.
5. Let go of insecurity. When we take ourselves too seriously, we think everyone else does too. There is one version of you on the planet. Be it, own it and quit worrying about it. No one really cares or watches you that closely.
6. Stop taking everything personally. Truth is, most people are too consumed with their own life to really consider what you’re doing. As my first boss said so well: “The world doesn’t revolve around you. Most people’s reactions have nothing to do with you, so let it go.”
7. Give up the past. We’ve all been hurt, we all had parents that made mistakes and we’ve all been through hell. You didn’t listen to your parents when you were younger, so why are you still listening to their voices in your head now? Every experience in life has taught you something or made you stronger.
8. Give up spending money on what you don’t need in effort to buy happiness. Living simply allows the space for life to flow. We complicate our lives by spending too much money and filling our home with “things.” Less is truly more.
9. Give up anger. Anger burns a hole in the hand of the person still holding on to it. Move it out once and for all.
10. Give up control. Control is an illusion. We live in an out of control world. Learn to embrace the new and welcome change; otherwise you’ll grow old through your own rigidity. Learn to let go.
Like The Mindful Life on Facebook.New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos. said Tuesday it plans to sell its nine television stations, including WRTV-TV Channel 6 in Indianapolis.
The company owns four ABC affiliates, located in Indianapolis, Denver, San Diego and Bakersfield, Calif., and five smaller and less-valuable Azteca America-affiliated stations in San Diego, Bakersfield, Denver and Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, Colo. It isn’t clear whether McGraw-Hill intends to sell the stations as a package or piecemeal. It hired Morgan Stanley & Co. to pursue the divestiture of its broadcasting group.
WRTV employees were informed of the planned sale Tuesday morning. WRTV General Manager Larry Blackerby, who took over for the retiring Don Lundy in January, referred questions to McGraw-Hill’s New York office.
“The planned divestiture is part of a continuing portfolio review that McGraw-Hill is undertaking across the enterprise to re-evaluate its strategic core and ensure it is appropriately allocating capital to generate shareholder value,” the company said in a news release.
Even though the value of network affiliates has dropped in recent years and WRTV has lagged its major competitors in local TV news ratings—a major revenue generator for stations—industry sources don’t think McGraw-Hill will have any difficulty selling the local ABC station.
“Indianapolis [has been] a Top 25 market,” said Bruce Bryant, president of Indianapolis-based Promotus Advertising. “There’s still tremendous value in the station.”
Bryant said the sale will have little impact on ad agencies, media buyers and other marketers that may look to Channel 6 for ad placement.
“McGraw-Hill has historically been very conservative with its TV stations,” Bryant said. “They haven’t always invested in their TV product the way other [TV] companies have. If anything, this change could be a blessing for WRTV. It could free up WRTV to be more aggressive in programming, marketing and community outreach. I know the management there wants to do that, but I think McGraw-Hill has held them back.”
Founded in 1888, McGraw-Hill is far better known—and makes far more money—as a book publisher than a TV station operator. With leading brands including Standard & Poor’s, McGraw-Hill Education, Platts energy information services and J.D. Power and Associates, McGraw-Hill has about 21,000 employees in more than 280 offices in 40 countries.
Sales in 2010 were $6.2 billion. The company said broadcasting-division revenue amounted to $100 million, less than 2 percent of the total.
“Part of the problem is McGraw-Hill just doesn’t have the focus on TV that it needs to at this time to make it work,” Bryant said. “It’s the same problem Emmis had. TV is a business that you have to be all in or not at all. Frankly, I’m surprised McGraw-Hill stayed in television as long as they did.”
Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp. in 2005 started selling off its TV stations to concentrate on its core business, radio. Its 16 stations sold for $40 million to $217.5 million each. The least expensive station was located in Hawaii; the most expensive was in Orlando, the nation's 20th-largest television market. Indianapolis ranks 27th.
The impact the sale will have on WRTV's operations isn’t clear, said Bill Cahoe, director of Ball State University Teleplex, which operates public station WIPB-TV Channel 49 in Muncie.
“It’s really impossible to say what will happen locally until we know who the buyer is,” Cahoe said. “I’m sure it’s a bit unsettling to the employees there.
"Some jobs could be lost if a conglomerate buys the station and centralizes certain operations. And there’s always the possibility that a new owner will want its own management. You’d think reporters, engineers and many of those in sales would be safe.”
So far this year, WRTV has hired a new general manager, news director and sales manager.Need to find the best FM frequency for your SiriusXM Satellite Radio? Use our FM Channel Finder to help you to get the best listening experience from your radio.
SiriusXM FM Channel Finder searches a FCC-provided database of licensed FM broadcasters to determine the best FM frequencies to use in your car and around your home for your SiriusXM Satellite Radio.
SiriusXM FM Channel Finder is a free resource that you can use any time to find one or more potentially vacant FM frequencies. In most areas, we will give you a choice of up to five frequencies to try, ranked by how far away they are from other radio stations. SiriusXM FM Channel Finder can be used in the 48 contiguous states served by SIRIUS Satellite Radio.
Try It Now!Yet in spite of tough gun laws in Mexico, the proportion of killings committed with firearms skyrocketed from around 20 percent in the mid-1990s to 50 percent in the past few years. What explains the sudden rise in gun violence?
A big part of the problem resides not in Mexico, but in the U.S. In an economic study conducted by the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute and the Brazil-based Igarapé Institute, we estimated the volume of firearms annually trafficked across the US-Mexico border. Drawing on data from the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, we hypothesized that if the volume of the trade was significant, it would contribute to the total demand for firearms (and retailers) near the U.S.-Mexico border.
We conservatively estimate that about 2.2 percent of total demand for U.S.-sold firearms originated south of the border between 2010 and 2012. These weapons are often bought in the U.S. through "straw man" purchases, who acquire arms on behalf of others with the intention of being trafficked to Mexico. This translates into at least $127 million dollars in revenue for gun retailers and weapons manufacturers who are literally making a killing. More importantly, it is the equivalent of an annual average of 252,000 guns crossing the border, far above previous estimates based on seizure data. In other words, the roughly 37,000 guns seized at the border by U.S. and Mexican authorities in 2009 probably represents less than 15 per cent of total traffic.
What this means is that the U.S. is a significant, albeit unintentional, contributor to the global black market in arms and ammunition in Mexico. One of the reasons for this is the sheer scale of production in the US. Mexico has a relatively small production capacity for firearms and ammunition and virtually no exports. According to economist Jurgen Brauer, however, U.S.-based firearms manufacturers produced more than 98 million handguns and shotguns for domestic sale since the mid-1980s. This amounts to more than 4 million guns per year.
Our study demonstrates that the U.S. is negligent in preventing illegal gun trafficking. Mexico's legislature recently called on the U.S. to introduce gun registries in southern states. Mexican police have also confiscated tens of thousands more firearms crossing the border than their American counterparts. In other words, they are trying to do their part. If the U.S. is going to get serious about stopping the havoc south of the border, it needs to invest in responsible gun control at home.
In the wake of the spate of mass shootings in the U.S., there are signs that reason might yet might prevail. Vice President Biden proposed the criminalization of straw purchases, which is a step in the right direction. But smarter solutions are also necessary. At a minimum, robust background checks are needed to scan for likely straw purchaser "profiles." Cash transactions for gun purchases along the border could also be prohibited. Likewise, detailed data on domestic arms sales is needed in order to detect suspicious purchases. Since conservative U.S. politicians are reluctant to create a border states gun registry, they could instead help the Mexican government establish their own database of seized weapons so they stand a fighting chance of tracking errant US dealers.A man has been seriously injured by a toilet that exploded in his face.
Michel Pierre needed 30 stitches on his face after he checked the water pressure in his New York apartment and shards of porcelain blasted from the lavatory, hitting his head, arms and legs, and knocking him unconscious.
The 58-year-old is now forced to hide behind his bathroom door and flush the toilet with a rope because he is so scared it will burst again.
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.
“Obviously there is a serious problem in the building,” his lawyer Sanford Rubenstein said.
“Clearly toilets are supposed to flush, not explode.”
Three other toilets also exploded that day. It is suspected that the water had been turned off in the block on the day of the accident, causing a build-up of air pressure that was pushed through the pipes when the supply was switched back on.
Mr Pierre is now seeking compensation for the incident from the agency that runs the 16-storey, 275 flat complex that was built in 1964.
Theresa Racht, a lawyer representing the building's board, said: “This is a horrific incident. Everybody feels terrible that such a thing could have happened.
”It certainly makes me think twice about flushing the toilet when the water's been turned off. This could very well be what we call a true accident.“
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 nowNot every chess legend has "GM" before his name. IM Emory Tate used an uncompromising style and indefatigable h-pawn throughout his multi-continental career.
His energy on and of the board finally came to an end Saturday, dying in the middle of a game at a chess tournament near San Jose, CA. The news was confirmed by Chess.com late Saturday night by GM Cristian Chirila.
[Image right courtesy Panthena Open]
Tate was many things -- a trailblazing African-American player, a decorated U.S. Air Force champion, a gambler, a boaster, a fearsome attacker, and a loving dad.
He is survived by two sons and one daughter: Andrew, 28, Tristan, 27, and Janine, 25. Andrew Tate, a professional kickboxer, told Chess.com, "My dad taught me everything. Absolutely everything. And |
. I learned, as a boy, who were my enemies.
The inability to grasp the pathology of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults. We have been blinded to the depravity of our ruling elite by the relentless propaganda of public relations firms that work on behalf of corporations and the rich. Compliant politicians, clueless entertainers and our vapid, corporate-funded popular culture, which holds up the rich as leaders to emulate and assures us that through diligence and hard work we can join them, keep us from seeing the truth.
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy,” Fitzgerald wrote of the wealthy couple at the center of Gatsby’s life. “They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx all began from the premise there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the masses. “Those who have too much of the goods of fortune, strength, wealth, friends, and the like, are neither willing nor able to submit to authority,” Aristotle wrote in “Politics.” “The evil begins at home; for when they are boys, by reason of the luxury in which they are brought up, they never learn, even at school, the habit of obedience.” Oligarchs, these philosophers knew, are schooled in the mechanisms of manipulation, subtle and overt repression and exploitation to protect their wealth and power at our expense. Foremost among their mechanisms of control is the control of ideas. Ruling elites ensure that the established intellectual class is subservient to an ideology — in this case free market capitalism and globalization — that justifies their greed. “The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships,” Marx wrote, “the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.”
The blanket dissemination of the ideology of free market capitalism through the media and the purging, especially in academia, of critical voices have permitted our oligarchs to orchestrate the largest income inequality gap in the industrialized world. The top 1 percent in the United States own 40 percent of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 80 percent own only 7 percent, as Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in “The Price of Inequality.” For every dollar that the wealthiest 0.1 percent amassed in 1980 they had an additional $3 in yearly income in 2008, David Cay Johnston explained in the article “9 Things the Rich Don’t Want You to Know About Taxes.” The bottom 90 percent, Johnson said, in the same period added only one cent. Half of the country is now classified as poor or low-income. The real value of the minimum wage has fallen by $2.77 since 1968. Oligarchs do not believe in self-sacrifice for the common good. They never have. They never will. They are the cancer of democracy.”We Americans are not usually thought to be a submissive people, but of course we are,” Wendell Berry writes. “Why else would we allow our country to be destroyed? Why else would we be rewarding its destroyers? Why else would we all — by proxies we have given to greedy corporations and corrupt politicians — be participating in its destruction? Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and we reward them for it. We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cistern are wealthier than the rest of us. How do we submit? By not being radical enough. Or by not being thorough enough, which is the same thing.”
The rise of an oligarchic state offers a nation two routes, according to Aristotle. The impoverished masses either revolt to rectify the imbalance of wealth and power or the oligarchs establish a brutal tyranny to keep the masses forcibly enslaved. We have chosen the second of Aristotle’s options. The slow advances we made in the early 20th century through unions, government regulation, the New Deal, the courts, an alternative press and mass movements have been reversed. The oligarchs are turning us — as they did in the 19th century steel and textile factories — into disposable human beings. They are building the most pervasive security and surveillance apparatus in human history to keep us submissive.
This imbalance would not have disturbed most of our Founding Fathers. The Founding Fathers, largely wealthy slaveholders, feared direct democracy. They rigged our political process to thwart popular rule and protect the property rights of the native aristocracy. The masses were to be kept at bay. The Electoral College, the original power of the states to appoint senators, the disenfranchisement of women, Native Americans, African-Americans and men without property locked most people out of the democratic process at the beginning of the republic. We had to fight for our voice. Hundreds of workers were killed and thousands were wounded in our labor wars. The violence dwarfed the labor battles in any other industrialized nation. The democratic openings we achieved were fought for and paid for with the blood of abolitionists, African-Americans, suffragists, workers and those in the anti-war and civil rights movements. Our radical movements, repressed and ruthlessly dismantled in the name of anti-communism, were the real engines of equality and social justice. The squalor and suffering inflicted on workers by the oligarchic class in the 19th century is mirrored in the present, now that we have been stripped of protection. Dissent is once again a criminal act. The Mellons, Rockefellers and Carnegies at the turn of the last century sought to create a nation of masters and serfs. The modern corporate incarnation of this 19th century oligarchic elite has created a worldwide neofeudalism, where workers across the planet toil in misery while corporate oligarchs amass hundreds of millions in personal wealth.
Class struggle defines most of human history. Marx got this right. The sooner we realize that we are locked in deadly warfare with our ruling, corporate elite, the sooner we will realize that these elites must be overthrown. The corporate oligarchs have now seized all institutional systems of power in the United States. Electoral politics, internal security, the judiciary, our universities, the arts and finance, along with nearly all forms of communication, are in corporate hands. Our democracy, with faux debates between two corporate parties, is meaningless political theater. There is no way within the system to defy the demands of Wall Street, the fossil fuel industry or war profiteers. The only route left to us, as Aristotle knew, is revolt.
It is not a new story. The rich, throughout history, have found ways to subjugate and re-subjugate the masses. And the masses, throughout history, have cyclically awoken to throw off their chains. The ceaseless fight in human societies between the despotic power of the rich and the struggle for justice and equality lies at the heart of Fitzgerald’s novel, which uses the story of Gatsby to carry out a fierce indictment of capitalism. Fitzgerald was reading Oswald Spengler’s “The Decline of the West” as he was writing “The Great Gatsby.” Spengler predicted that, as Western democracies calcified and died, a class of “monied thugs” would replace the traditional political elites. Spengler was right about that.
“There are only two or three human stories,” Willa Cather wrote, “and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”
The seesaw of history has thrust the oligarchs once again into the sky. We sit humiliated and broken on the ground. It is an old battle. It has been fought over and over in human history. We never seem to learn. It is time to grab our pitchforks.A man flying from Dallas to Chicago on Southwest Airlines was denied reboarding in St. Louis allegedly over vulgar language on his t-shirt. Daniel Podolsky was flying home after spending the week at Austin’s SXSW festival. He was dressed in a dark souvenir t-shirt with bold white lettering that he was given at the festival promoting the Comedy Central sketch-comedy show ‘Broad City‘, the shirt read BROAD F****** CITY.When Podolsky went to get back on the plane, the gate attendant allegedly stopped him over the language displayed on the t-shirt he was wearing. Podolsky cited his ‘freedom of speech’, but was told it would be against Southwest’s rules by wearing an offensive shirt, so he couldn’t get back on the aircraft. Podolsky refused to comply with the request to take it off or cover it up and was ultimately left stranded in St. Louis as the flight left for Chicago. He was later allowed to board a flight to New York, his ultimate destination, after changing his shirt.Ever since we first drove the Subaru BRZ way back in 2012, we’ve longed for a more aggressive, faster and more exciting version. That’s a set of attributes that Subaru’s high-performance division, STI (Subaru Tecnica International), has become known for. Unfortunately for us, it seems we'll have to wait for a full-fat STI model. Despite a recent teaser image showing a BRZ's spoiler with the letters 'STI' tellingly picked out on the side, it seems that the new model is in fact the Subaru BRZ tS.
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tS stands for 'tuned by STI', but don't let that get you too excited about the prospect of a hotter BRZ. In fact, the changes STI have made don't touch the engine, and it remains the same 197bhp 2.0-litre 4cyl boxer unit as before. Instead, STI has been let loose on the suspension and aerodynamics of the car, with an end result that promises to be more controlled and stable.
> Find out what the Subaru WRX STI is like to drive
New dampers and coil springs are fitted at the front, while flexible V-struts sit in the engine compartment. The chassis has also been tweaked with new draw stiffeners. The tS's cabin gets special leather and alcantara upholstery with red accents.
On the outside, it's impossible to miss the enormous (and misleading!) rear wing, which is built from carbon fibre. The tS also gets a set of rather tasty 18-inch lightweight alloy wheels, with Brembo brakes behind. The wheels are shod in Michelin Pilot Sport 4 rubber, which could be one of the most interesting changes - we found in previous tests that a set of serious tyres improve the BRZ no end over the standard eco-focused tyres.
The worst thing about the tS, though? It's not coming to the UK. INstead, its being launched in the US in 2018 alongside a special WRX STI model, and will be limited to just 500 units.
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Subaru has been teasing us with the prospect of a hotter BRZ for some time. In 2013 the Japanese brand released pictures of an STI concept for the coupe and then, at the 2015 New York auto show, it showed an even more aggressive looking show car, resplendent in blue with wide arches, twin central-exit exhaust pipes, lightweight wheels and a huge wing.
> Read our full review of the Subaru BRZ
Spy shots appeared to confirm this, but it seems they were simply pictures of the BRZ tS. While we can't form a full judgement on the tS without going for a drive, it's difficult not to be disappointed when we expected a full-fat, STI-tuned model. We can but live in hope that such a car is in Subaru's pipeline.I Kill, I Molest, I Blog: Joseph Duncan's Frightening Weblog
Joseph Duncan is the registered sex-offender who murdered the family of Shasta Groene before abducting her. In addition to being a murderer, a rapist, and a pedophile, it seems that (warning, a reader tells me that Duncan's site has a virus: click with caution) Joseph Duncan is also a blogger (via Ace of Spades HQ and Conservative Thinking). His website was started to advocate the rights of sex-offenders, something I'm sure the ACLU would be proud of. From what I gather, he had a personal blog and a corresponding advocacy site.
Duncan's Fifth Nail website has been taken down, but thanks to Google's cache many things become apparent. The subtitle of the blog was: The daily thoughts and activities of a 'Level 3 Sex Offender'
Warning: In light of what we now know about Joseph Duncan, many of his twisted writings become grotesque and sickening. The faint at heart should not read on.
From the 'Mission' statement page of Joseph Duncan's now defunct Fifth Nail blog:
The mission of The Fifth Nail is to help in the fight against official propaganda that supports discrimination against classes of people defined by mistakes they made in the past, or might make in the future. It is our position that State Sanctioned Discrimination serves no public interest and in fact creates an even more dangerous class of criminals by denying x-convicts a place in our society, forcing them to feel like outcasts with little to loose. To this end we strive to educate individuals of their roles in a dynamic and intertwined society and to accept responsiblity for that society.
Discrimination against rapists, murderers, and child molesters? Sickening, indeed. Frightening, though, when you think that this is the official line of the ACLU
Timeline:
July 3rd 2004: Duncan was recently accused of attempting to molest a child in Detroit Lakes on this day. Here is what he wrote on that day. It is both an admission that he was at the lakes and probably a cryptic confesssion to the crime:
Dream Prophecy
¶ 7:45 PM I had a very explicit dream last night. I dreamed that I was scuba diving and ran out of air but I could still breath, I just didn't know for how long. I was going to dive today, and actually started to, but when I got to the lake I turned around and came back. I just hope the dream was for today.
March 2005: Duncan molests a boy sometime in early March.
March 1 Duncan realizes that there's nothing wrong with his sick behavior:
I love my life, and I love the world, and I believe genuinely that God does not make mistakes, so there is nothing âwrongâ about the way things are. I know from ongoing personal experience that my struggle to know the Truth is Gods gift to me!
March 5th: Arrest warrent issued for Joseph Duncan
March 21 has this cryptic message. He seems to believe he is being controlled by outside forces that he has no control over. 'Jet' is his prison alter-ego:
When you can see the strings that control your life, you tend to wonder." -- Jet (McNiel Island State Penitentiary, 1987)
March 23More'revelations' from God on :
Each time I re-read what I wrote in Key West I understand a little more, and realize more what God has been trying to tell me for the longest time, and what I have been wanting to know for just as long. For instance, just now I realized the answer to a question I've been asking myself for years: What can I do to get people to realize how everything is connected? Well, I just found the answer hidden in my own ponderings from that Sunny Sunday morning: Any attempt to make the world a better place imediately and directly interfers with God's Harmonic intentions. All answers must come in there own time, and God has the timing already figured out according to reasons infinitely beyond my own ability to reason. So, there is nothing that I "can do," but instead I must continue to strive to give-in to God's Will, because it is through this "non-doing" that his Will can be seen. I'm growing a lot lately faster than I want at times.
April 5th Initial hearing and bail of $15,000 posted to Becker County District Court
April 10 Joseph Duncan writes:
Bohemian Underground is Concieved As I watch history unfold, I am compelled to help keep it on course.
April 11 checks in with probation officer
April 15th Joseph Duncan writes this. Are his demons compelling him to act?:
So, I've been accused of molesting a little boy. Those close to me know I didn't do it of course, how could I, I'm not even a pedophile. Well, I'm not a psychopath either, I feel the full force and pain of everyone I have ever hurt, but that doesn't stop me from doing what I need to do. Ultimately my feelings don't matter, I learned that in prison. I have to carry out my orders or a lot worse than just me dying could happen.
April 24th Duncan's weblog reveals that he is sinking into dementia and giving in to his murderous tendencies:
Yes, I am still alive. I honestly wish not, I just donât know how to kill myself so it makes sense. Nothing makes sense to me right now. Last night I realized I was âscared and alone.â Being scared doesnât bother me as much as being alone, but it is a fate that I probably chose sometime before I was ever born because Iâve been making the decision to fight my battles alone since I was a small child. The current battle is of epic proportions (I do not make this claim idly either). It is a battle between me and my demons. Only two people in the world have a clue as to the power and nature of my demons (besides me) and they will probably never read this. But just the same, these demons are stronger than even I gave them credit for, and now they are taking my best blows and not even staggering. Iâm afraid, very afraid. If they win then a lot of people will be badly hurt, and theyâve had their way before, so I know what they can do. Iâve been praying a lot and asking God for help. Iâve asked him to step in and intercede directly, because I see no other way at this point that I can win. If you are reading this, and you believe in God, please pray for God to help me defeat my demons. God has shown me the right choice, but my demons have me tied to a spit and the fire has already been lit. I donât know if the right choice is even an option any more!
April 27 -- License plates stolen in Newton County, Mo.
May 4 -- 2005 red Jeep Grand Cherokee stolen in St. Paul, Minn.
May 6 -- A warrant is issued in Fargo, N.D., for convicted sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, who has failed to stay in touch with his probation agent. Duncan, considered a high-risk offender, was released by Minnesota authoritues in April on a $15,000 bond.
May 11th, four days before the last time two members of the Groene family and friend Mark McKenzie are seen alive, at a barbecue with others in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. This entry revels that Duncan had committed other unnamed crimes, one assumes of a grotesque and sexual nature, and had not been caught. It is interesting to note that Duncan's demons lead him to question the existence of God--demons, on the other hand, are much easier to believe in.
Thanks for the comments. As far as letting God take care of the Demons, too late. They've locked up the "Happy Joe" person in the same dungeon that "Happy Joe" kept them in for so many years. Now they are loose and I am very afraid. From now on I may refer to "Happy Joe" as "Jet" (me) and the demons as "The Bogeyman." If you are familiar with me or even my fifthnail website then you will understand the names (see www.fifthnail.com). I have been asking God to help defeat the demons. In fact, last night I was on my knees begging him, crying out loud to him, to help me. He didn't answer, again. The problem is I am loosing my religion. I don't accept anything at face value, not even my own thoughts. So when I start having religious convictions I question the source. And in my current situation I figure I am under a lot of stress, and there are perfectly natural human mechanisms that account for all religious experiences. The demons (if that's what they/it are/is--I use the term for mere convenience) have convinced me that I should at least question my religious beliefs, (this makes sense, otherwise I would believe anything) and that is how they got the key to the dungeon, and trapped me inside.
To be more specific, I am scared, alone, and confused, and my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society. My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die. As for the "Happy Joe" (Jet), well he was just a dream. The bogeyman was alive and happy long before Happy Joe. I was in prison for over 18 years, since the age of 17. As an adult all I knew was the oppression of incarceration. All those years I dreamed of getting out...And getting even. Instead, I got out and I got even, but did not get caught. So, I got even again, and again did not get caught. So, I figured, well, I got even twice (actually more, but that's here nor there), even if I'm the only one who knows, so now what? Well that was when the "Happy Joe" dream started. I met a bunch of really great people, the kind of people I didn't even know existed, but here they were, bunches of them, my neighbors, my landlords, my professors, my coworkers, and they were all good people, who were willing to give me a chance despite my past. They were willing to accept me and be my friend, something that was new for me, having been betrayed by many "friends" and even my own family.
So, I tried to make it work. But the problem was those demons. The ones who "got even" for me. They kept reminding me that if my new "friends" knew about them (and what they, I, had done to even), then so much for their friendship. So, "Happy Joe" was just dreaming, or pretending to be happy.
This ought to be a warning to all those who believe evil men such as Joseph Duncan can be reformed. They cannot. Such men must be destroyed. Death is the only way for them to beat the demons that haunt them. If they are released after serving time, they will be compelled by their own psychotic obsessions to repeat their disgusting offenses.
May 13th: The last entry. Two days later Joseph Duncan will murder Brenda Kay Groene, 40; her son Slade, 13; and Brenda's boyfriend McKenzie, 37. Duncan also abducts Dylan Groene, 9, who he later murders and his sister Shasta, 8. This entry is troubling and reveals that Duncan had a plan in mind. It's also troubling given the fact that a warrant for Duncan's arrest had been out since May 6th. What were the police doing in the meantime? It's obvious that Duncan was at home--he was blogging for God's sake!:
My blog entries lately are erratic and full of a lot of B.S., for that I apologize. I am just trying to put down what is in my head, regardless. As far as "taking people with me" well, I don't know if that is right or wrong. In fact, I don't know much any more what right and wrong even is. My view is either everything is right (in some regard) or everything is wrong (in some other regard). The question (one I am struggling with at this point) is, "Does it matter?"
Does anything matter? My mother is crying right now, because her son is in trouble again. She tried to raise a good son, and she knows her son has a good heart, so why does he do these things? She is probably more hurt and confused than me. Does it matter? It hurts me to know these things, but DOES IT MATTER??? A hundred years from now, all my mothers pain will be forgotten, and other mothers will cry for there sons. A million years from now there probably won't be any mothers (at least not like we know). I have feelings, in fact I think I must be more sensitive than most people because I seem to feel more than they do, at least more than what they openly express. I feel for the starving children and families in the world, others say, "Oh, that's too bad, but I can't do anything so..." I wish I could be more honest about my feelings, but those demons made sure I'd never be able to do that. I might not know if it matters, but just in case, I am working on an encrypted journal that is hundreds of times more frank than this blog could ever be (that's why I keep it encrypted). I figure in 30 years or more we will have the technology to easily crack the encryption (currently very un-crackable, PGP) and then the world will know who I really was, and what I really did, and what I really thought. Also, maybe then they will understand that despite my actions, I'm not a bad person, I just have a disease contracted from society, and it hurts a lot. I hope to complete this journal before I die (soon) or turn myself in (I still might do that, I think it is the right thing, but of course, I'm not sure). Speak of being sure; I wish I could be sure about my thoughts. But right now the only thing I'm sure about is that I'm sure about nothing. It is not a good position to be in considering my circumstances (being a felony fugitive and all).
Many believe that the problems in society start with unloved children with little self-esteem. Duncan seems to have felt loved so we can rule that out. But Duncan, like most mass-murderers before him, was not suffering from too little self-esteem but too much. Maslow, you bastard idiot, the problems of humanity stem more from selfishness than from lack of self regard.
More from his site:
Here is a disgustingly ironic piece of advice from this piece of human shit in an earlier post:
[In response to comments in a forum on castrating sex offenders...] if someone attacked my wife or child I would at least try to forgive them (I'm not perfect, or holier than anyone), and I would likely get even more upset when I hear people talk about fighting crime with more crime. It is one of those vicious cycles and the only way out is, you guessed it, Love. Christ tried to teach us, love your enemy; not love your loved ones (thatâs a given). Not because God wants us to, but because our ultimate happiness depends on it.
As long as we keep attacking the symptoms of social disease--the so called offenders--then our problems will keep getting worse. Some day (soon I hope) society will be forced to "wake up" and recognize how it propagates its own misery by denying the truth that criminals are victims too.
Just found out that a five year old girl went missing from Chisholm MN on June 14, 2003 (this year). I did not even know until today that this happened. So, I tried to figure out what I was doing that day, since I'm always afraid of getting accused when something like this happens. According to my Quicken entries that was the day that I went to watch a couple of my co-workers jump out of an airplane (tandem jumps). I had purchased a package of depends (adult diapers) as a joke, and some 8mm tapes for my camcorder that morning. I also Went shopping that day at Cashwise and bought over a $100 worth of food, (a major grocery shopping trip) but when I checked my file for these receipts to see what time I was at Cash Wise (the grocery store) I discovered the receipts were missing. Makes me wonder. I'm going to have to look for them some more. You might say that finding out about the girl missing is the proverbial last straw. Because of all the other recent incidents in the news lately, especially regarding missing people and the resulting intensification of the persecution of sex offenders, I've decided to start this blog as a sort of check and balance of where I am. This is for my own safety. I figure it is just a matter of time before I am falsely accused of some crime or another. I already had the police at my door telling me some women down town were waving my picture around (that they printed from the internet) accusing me of harassing them for a date (a part of town Iâve never been to and women I never heard of, but the police acted as if they knew it was me). The visit was very intimidating and not friendly. I was "warned" that I was being watched as a known sex offender. The visit made me consult an attorney for advice; he told me there was nothing I could do unless charges were filed. I feel like a southern black man, just wondering when the lynch mob is going to show at my door accusing me of raping a white girl. Today (yesterday actually, right now it is 1:23 am Sunday) I stayed home mostly, played Delta Force on-line and dinked around. I went to Hornbauckerâs and bought a few groceries and some B-day cards for some friends (Dave and Dee). I got a call from my boss at 4:40. He wanted to tell me about a new technology he'd been playing around with that could make several of the projects I've been involved with simpler to implement (MS ISA). I had a chef salad for lunch and cheese and summer sausage later for a snack in leu of dinner.
More advice. It's like this guy was taking a Sociology class:Here is his first post which I've reproduced below. It reads to me like he may have started his blog to manufacture an alliby for a crime. Could the crime mentioned be one of those for which he admits he got away with? It appears that the girl in question is Leanna 'Beaner' Warner Read the rest of the guy's posts at your own risk.American businessman Louis Pargiolas Castaño made a good impression when he moved to Colombia 10 years ago. He spoke fluent English and very good Spanish, and he boasted of connections in the international financial world, including real estate mogul Donald Trump.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had a different view of Pargiolas. One ICE agent tracked him for years, and a U.S. federal court in Miami eventually convicted the businessman of investing in shipments of Colombian cocaine.
His Trump connection was made public when Pargiolas appeared in court during a preliminary hearing following his arrest in April 2009. Defense attorney Norman Moscowitz declared that he had invested in the Trump Ocean Club and been involved in the project “for several years.” The lawyer also noted that Pargiolas had invested $5 million in the Hard Rock Hotel in Panama.
All of Pargiolas' public biographies, still available online, highlight his participation in the Trump Ocean Club, the Trump Organization's flagship project in Panama, as evidence of his “vast experience developing national and international businesses.”
One of the biographies says Pargiolas “has held executive positions in connection with the development of major projects” since 2002 and mentions the Trump Ocean Club, the Hard Rock Hotel and the El Retiro shopping mall in Bogota, Colombia.
Documents obtained by Univision show Pargiolas, the son of an Italian American father and Colombian mother, was one of several investors in the company that developed the Trump Ocean Club.
Trump lawyers who have responded to Univision's questions in the past did not reply to questions about this story. The president, answering similar reports published by USA Today, said that he's not responsible for investors because he merely franchises his name for projects. The Panama project also required Trump to operate the club.
Money laundering expert Alberto Avila said that while Trump is right to deny legal responsibility, he should be more careful about his investors “because at the end of the day it's his name or his brand that is at play. … His lawyers at least should be telling him how to be careful.”
Pargiolas led a busy social life in Bogota. As vice president of The American Society, which promotes U.S.-Colombian understanding, from 2006 to 2009, he rubbed elbows with officials of the U.S. embassy in the Colombian capital.
Colombian businessman Rodrigo Serna Londoño initially joined Pargiolas in the company that was to develop the Trump Ocean Club. He said Pargiolas was initially “considered to be an impeccable businessman, up and coming and respected in Colombia as well as the United States, with contacts at the top levels of both countries.” But he told Univision Investiga that his company cut off all links with Pargiolas after learning of his legal problems in the U.S.
Serna and his brother, Carlos Alberto, persuaded Trump to invest in Panama in 2005 after the mogul's daughter, Ivanka, showed a lack of enthusiasm for the project. The Colombian newspaper El Espectador reported the brothers went to New York and persuaded Trump of “the virtues of Panamanian real estate.”
The newspaper added that Trump named Ivanka and his oldest son, Donald, to head the negotiations, which lasted five months. Trump was to lend his name to the project and administer the hotel and casino, while the Colombians were to administer the construction project, design and sales.
Neither Trump nor any members of his family, and none of his companies, are members of the Trump Ocean Club, Rodrigo Serna said.
The ownership structure of the Trump Club is complicated. The condo and hotel complex, which cost $300 million, was developed by Newland International Properties Corp., which is in turn owned by the Panama Ocean Point Development Corp., both based in Panama. Ocean Point is owned by Arias Serna y Saravia (SAS) and Espacios Urbanos, both Colombian firms, which invested 30 percent of the total through a Costa Rican firm, Upper Deck Properties. Serna said the remaining 70 percent came from Panama businessman Roger Khafif.
The Colombian companies needed to find more investors, Serna said, and that's where Pargiolas came into the picture. During one of his U.S. court sessions, his lawyer said he also helped to sell Trump Ocean Club properties to others, which required that he travel to Colombia, Venezuela, Spain and Switzerland.
The Trump venture appeared to have a fatal attraction for shady characters.
Khafif partnered with Alexandré Ventura Nogueira, a Brazilian businessman who was under investigation in Spain for money laundering and wound up facing fraud lawsuits from several buyers of Ocean Club apartments. Ventura was partners with David Murcia, a Colombian who was arrested in Panama in 2008, deported to Colombia and then extradited to the United States, where he was convicted of laundering drug money.
The double life
The problems for Pargiolas, who was born in Chicago, started when he met convicted drug trafficker Gabriel Afanador Solano in 2002. Pargiolas had been selling oil drilling equipment to Colombian companies and was introduced to Afanador by Gustavo Martelo Smith, another convicted drug trafficker.
ICE agent Christopher Ciccione declared that when Pargiolas found out Afanador was a drug trafficker, he offered to make a $110,000 investment in one drug shipment. The businessman paid through the Remy Capital company and his account in the Colpatria Bank in the Cayman Islands. The money went into an Afanador account in the First Union Bank.
Afanador, then living in Aventura, Florida, came to the attention of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) some weeks later, after an informant identified him as a powerful trafficker who sent drug-laden ships from the Colombian port of Cartagena to Jamaica and from there to Mexico, where his partners smuggled the drugs into the United States.
Ciccione then staged a sting operation with the help of Carl Hedrick, a ship's captain who met with Afanador to coordinate a shipment of about 600 kilos of cocaine. ICE learned that a Chicago investor of Italian descent would be involved. They soon learned it was Pargiolas. His phone number was in Afanador's cell phone.
Federal agents followed Pargiolas when he landed in Miami aboard an American Airlines flight on Feb. 4, 2003. He rented a Jaguar and drove to Afanador's building in Aventura.
He went back and played again
Colombian officials intercepted the vessel Valentine with 480 kilos of cocaine on board, hidden in sacks of coffee. They also found telephone numbers and radio frequencies for Afanador.
Pressured by Pargiolas, Afanador returned $15,000 to his account in the Burlington Bank of Chicago. But the partnership did not stop. Afanador offered Pargiolas to invest the balance of his money in a second drug shipment that would leave Colombia in September.
The drug shipment was again intercepted, this time 120 miles south of Jamaica. Afanador was arrested in Colombia, and U.S. prosecutors hit about 20 members of his organization with drug trafficking and other charges.
Afanador pleaded guilty and identified Pargiolas as an accomplice. He said the businessman had invested a total of $125,000 in the cocaine shipments. Police searching Afanador's apartment in the Colombian city of Medellin found electronic money transfers with Pargiolas' name.
Marco Gomez Hurtado, accused in the second drug shipment, declared that he worked as a bodyguard for Pargiolas in Bogota. He added that the businessman at one point gave $600,000 to Martelo Smith, also accused in the shipment, to invest in a cocaine shipment.
It's not clear why ICE and DEA then waited five years to arrest Pargiolas. The delay led his defense lawyers to ask the judge to drop the charges because of the statute of limitations and the lost opportunities to question witnesses.
Prosecutors argued that the delay was the result of the ongoing investigations of co-conspirators in the same case, William Alvarado Saavedra and Ulis Howard. They added the lead prosecutor Joseph Cooley then took time off to care for his sick mother, and was later assigned to Afghanistan.
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inspection of a 1000-square foot or 100-square meter bungalow than of Buckingham Palace. However, given that some of these large, complex products are the core underpinning of many critical systems, does it make sense to ignore them because it’s not “rapid, repeatable and objective” to evaluate even a core part of their functionality? These classes of products are heavily used in the core market sectors the national schemes serve: all the more reason the schemes should not preclude evaluation of them. Worse, given that customers subject to these CC schemes still want evaluated products, a lack of mutual recognition of these evaluations (thus breaking the CCRA) or negation of the ability to evaluate merely drives costs up. Demand for inefficient and ineffective ad hoc security assurances continues to increase and will explode if vendors are precluded from evaluating entire classes of products that are widely-used and highly security relevant. No national scheme, despite good intentions, can successfully control its national marketplace, or the global marketplace for information technology. Innovation One of the downsides of rapid, basic, vanilla evaluations is that it stifles the uptake of innovative security features in a customer base that has a lot to protect. Most security-aware customers (like defense and intelligence customers) want new and innovative approaches to security to support their mission. They also want the new innovations vetted properly (via a CC evaluation). Typically, a community Protection Profile (cPP) defines the set of minimum security functions that a product in category X does. Add-ons can in theory be done via an extended package (EP) – if the community agrees to it and the schemes allow it. The vendor and customer community should encourage the ability to evaluate innovative solutions through an EP, as long as the EP does not specify a particular approach to a threat to the exclusion of other ways to address the threat. This would continue to advance the state of the security art in particular product categories without waiting until absolutely everyone has Security Feature Y. It’s almost always a good thing to build a better mousetrap: there are always more mice to fend off. Rapid adoption of EPs would enable security-aware customers, many of whom are required to use evaluated products, to adopt new features readily, without waiting for: a) every vendor to have a solution addressing that problem (especially since some vendors may never develop similar functionality) b) the cPP to have been modified, and c) all vendors to have evaluated against the new cPP (that includes the new security feature) Given the increasing focus of governments on improvements to security (in some cases by legislation), national schemes should be the first in line to support “faster innovation/faster evaluation,” to support the customer base they are purportedly serving. Last but really first, in the absence of the ability to rapidly evaluate new, innovative security features, customers who would most benefit from using those features may be unable or unwilling to use them, or may only use them at the expense of “one-off” assurance validation. Is it really in anyone’s interest to ask vendors to do repeated one-off assurance fire-drills for multiple system integrators? Conclusion The Common Criteria – and in particular, the Common Criteria recognition – form a valuable, proven foundation for assurance in a digital world that is increasingly in need of it. That strong foundation can nonetheless be strengthened by: 1) recognizing and supporting the legitimate need for higher assurance evaluations in some classes of product 2) enabling faster innovation in security and the ability to evaluate it 3) continuing to evaluate core products that have historically had and continue to have broad usage and market demand (e.g., databases and operating systems) 4) embracing, where apropos, repeatable testing and validation, while recognizing the limitations thereof that apply in some cases to entire classes of products and ensuring that such testing is not unnecessarily prescriptive. [1] https://www.niap-ccevs.org/Documents_and_Guidance/ccevs/DBMS%20Position%20Statement.pdfSydney has a massive problem with illegal firearms and gangland shootings, that much we already know. What's interesting, however, is that the NSW Police Force has downloaded the 3D printable weapon known as The Liberator to print for themselves, and they're terrified of the thing. In the words of the Police Commissioner: "they are truly undetectedable, truly untraceable, cheap, easy to make". Welcome to the new Wild West.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione called a press conference today after the NSW Police Force concluded its experiments with 3D printable weapons, including The Liberator. The boffins over at the NSW Police bought themselves a 3D printer for $1700 and decided to test how easy it would be to build their own gun. They downloaded the blueprints for The Liberator from the internet and printed out two weapons to test fire.
All in all, they printed the 15 parts required to assemble The Liberator in 27 hours and assembled it within 60 seconds with a firing pin fashioned out of a steel nail. The two guns were test fired into a block of resin designed to simulate human muscle, and the first bullet penetrated the resin block up to 17 centimetres. NSW Police Ballistics division confirm that it would be a fatal wound if pointed at someone.
What's interesting about the second device they tested, however, was the "catastrophic failure" of the weapon. Translation? It exploded. The plastic gave way to the brutal force of an exploding.38 caliber bullet and the barrel exploded.
Police printed a second one to bring it along to the press conference to show people with a simple message: don't print guns.
It seems like a simple message: the Police don't want you killing people (duh), but moreso, Police don't want you to kill yourself.
An incredibly sobered Police Commissioner took to the podium and told people about the dangers of a 3D printed gun, and clearly it's something that frightens him.
"[3D-printed weapons] are truly undetectable, truly untraceable, cheap, easy to make. [This] weapon cost us $35 to make. We made that on a base entry level 3D printer. That printer cost us $1700. It truly is a home printer for so many people to make untraceable weapons. It is an emerging threat.
"They will kill."
The Commissioner added that he thought the name, The Liberator, was incredibly ironic, explaining that the last gun to be called The Liberator was dropped behind enemy lines during World War II so that French Resistance soldiers could kill Nazis and steal their guns in order to keep fighting. It's a one-shot weapon that was incredibly dangerous to use back then, too. Nothing changes.
So what can the Police do to stop the dissemination and construction of 3D-printed guns? Not a damn thing...yet.
The Police Service will be raising their extreme concerns with the Federal Government, as well as other Police Commissioners at upcoming meetings to try and make the download and construction of 3D printed guns illegal in Australia.
The NSW Commissioner said that the realist in him believes that you can never stop the spread of The Liberator — and he's right — but at least they can tell people how dangerous they are.
"My greater concern is that someone would do this, make one, and then suffer the consequences and kill themselves [after a catastrophic failure]. They don't want to shoot someone, they're just fascinated [by 3D printing]. If we didn't alert someone to what happened to us, we would be considered negligent.
"Don't try it, no matter what end of this gun you can be on, you could die. Do not download, do not manufacture The Liberator," the Commissioner concluded.Image caption Foreign staff are being pulled out while there is uncertainty over the security situation
France and Germany are following the US and Britain in withdrawing civilian staff from Afghan government institutions in the wake of the killing of two senior US Nato officers.
Afghan authorities are hunting a 25-year-old Afghan policeman believed to have shot the officers dead at the interior ministry in Kabul on Saturday.
France and Germany said they were acting on security concerns.
Afghans saw new violence on Sunday at protests over a Koran-burning incident.
Several American troops were injured in a grenade attack in Afghanistan, hours after President Karzai went on national television to appeal for calm amid anger at the burning of copies of the Koran at a US military base.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said tensions were "running very high", adding that he thought "we need to let things calm down, return to a more normal atmosphere, and then get on with business".
"This is not the time to decide that we're done here. We have got to redouble our efforts. We've got to create a situation in which al-Qaeda is not coming back," he told CNN.
Main suspect hunted
Image caption Mr Karzai called for the US soldiers responsible for burning the Koran to be brought to justice
France's foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday that its embassy in Kabul was temporarily withdrawing all French civilian mentors and advisors from Afghan government institutions.
The move, thought to affect several dozen staff, could be rescinded once "conditions permitted", the statement added.
Germany ordered its "German and international experts in agencies and ministries to be withdrawn".
Afghan officials earlier named police intelligence officer Abdul Saboor from Parwan province as the main suspect behind Saturday's attack.
The identities of the dead Nato officers have not been confirmed, but they are believed to have been an American colonel and major.
Reports said the gunman opened fire in a secure room in the ministry - one of the highest security buildings in the capital - at close range.
Mr Saboor had served in several Afghan ministries and had worked at the interior ministry for some time, with responsibilities for security arrangements and access to top level intelligence briefings and secure radio communication channels.
His family home in the Salang valley area of Parwan province, north-east Afghanistan, was raided overnight and his relatives in Kabul detained, said officials.
Nato withdrew all its personnel from Afghan ministries after the shooting. Britain and the US withdrew civilian advisors from the ministries on Saturday.
'Enemies of peace'
The crisis comes amid deadly protests in the country over the burnings of copies of the Koran by US soldiers.
More than 30 people have been killed in the past five days, and further violence broke out on Sunday.
A grenade was thrown into a Nato base in northern Kunduz province during a protest on Sunday, but Nato said none of its people had been killed. However several Nato personnel were injured and reports quoting Afghan officials put the casualties at a total of seven.
At least one demonstrator was killed and others wounded in the Iman Sahib district of Kunduz, as protesters tried to enter the main city, reports quoting Afghan officials said.
Some 4,000 people took to the streets in Aybal, northern Samangan province, attacking a police station and a US base.
Provincial governor Khairullah Anooash told the BBC several protesters had been hurt, one critically. Other officials said one person had died.
President Hamid Karzai appealed for calm in a speech on Sunday.
The protests had proved that Afghans were prepared to die for their religion, the president said, adding that they could not allow "enemies of peace" to misuse the strong sentiment.
The BBC's Orla Guerin, in Kabul, says many feel Mr Karzai should have called for calm days ago.
The critical damage done by Saturday's killings remain - the Nato military advisers - and now international civilian staff - are out of all the government ministries where they had been trying to assist and train Afghan officials and it is not clear how long that will continue, our correspondent adds.
The withdrawals of the military advisors will paralyse important areas, such as technical support, intelligence sharing and many ongoing security operations, says the BBC's Bilal Sarwary, in Kabul.
It disconnects the co-ordination of the Afghan government with Isaf, says our correspondent, and could not have come at a worse time, with attacks taking place on police and army positions across several provinces.She threw herself in front of the gunman to save her students: Astonishing story of the brave teacher who died protecting children from 'deeply disturbed' killer
Victoria Soto, 27, sacrificed herself to save her first grade students by throwing her body in front of gunman Adam Lanza
She was a highly regarded member of staff, popular with students and known for chewing gum in class
Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach were also killed execution-style after confronting Lanza
A fourth teacher has been named as Lauren Rousseau, 30
A young teacher displayed astonishing bravery and sacrificed her life saving as many children in her first grade class as she could after she came face-to-face with gunman Adam Lanza.
Victoria Soto, 27, had worked at Sandy Hook Elementary for five years. Her final moments were spent ushering her students into a closet when Lanza entered her classroom and she tried her best to shield the children from the evil gunman.
Soto was a highly regarded young teacher who was popular with her pupils. One young student, Jacob Riley, told Mailonline that Soto was known for chewing gum in class - something not usually allowed for teachers. He said he had often teased her about her habit and she had playfully teased him back.
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Passion: Victoria Soto had a passion for education and always knew she wanted to teach
Hero: Vicki Soto, 27, was trying to shield her first grade students from the gunman when she was shot
VIDEO: 'Incredible acts of heroism': Superintendent praises teachers' bravery...
VIDEO: Vicki Soto's cousin, Jim Wiltsie, tells ABC News about her courage... Murderer: Adam Lanza, killed himself after murdering more than two dozen others, including 20 school children They ran into the hallway to confront the danger and were murdered execution-style as a result.
Little did she know that Adam had already killed his mother at the home they shared nearby. He took three of her guns and used her car to drive to the school. Diane Day, a school therapist, told the Wall Street Journal that she and several other teachers were in a meeting with Mrs Hochsprung and Mrs Sherlach when the shooting began.
'We were there for about five minutes chatting and we heard, "pop pop pop,"' she said. 'I went under the table.' The principal and the school psychologist had other ideas. They jumped out of their seats and ran toward the sound of the gunfire.
'They didn’t think twice about confronting or seeing what was going on,' Ms Day said.
Rabbi Shaul Praver told MSNBC that Mrs Hochsprung and Mrs Sherlach were killed execution-style.
Tributes for all educators poured in on Friday night. Former school superintendent John Reed told the Connecticut Post that Mrs Sherlach was warm and cared deeply for her students. 'If there ever was a person, by qualifications and personality, to work with children, to be a school psychologist, it was Mary,' he said. She was married with two grown daughters in their 20s and enjoyed gardening, reading and the theater, according to her school biography.
Murdered: Principal Dawn Hochsprung, left, and school psychologist March Sherlach, right, were killed after confronting the Connecticut school gunman
Murdered teacher Lauren Rousseau and Nancy Lanza, the mother and first victim of killer Adam Lanza
Devastation: Sandy Hook Elementary School, home to 700 students, was attacked by a crazed gunman on Friday
Friends and neighbors said it was immediately clear to everyone she knew that she loved her students and her school.
'I don’t think you could find a more positive place to bring students to every day,' she had recently told a local newspaper.
Another tale of heroism came from an eight-year-old student who said a teacher pulled him from the hallway as bullets rang out.
'I saw some of the bullets going down the hall that I was right next to and then a teacher pulled me into her classroom,' the boy told CBS News.
'It sounded like someone was kicking a door,' he said of the piercing sound of the gunfire.
His relieved mother agreed, saying that the teacher saved her son's life.
Mourning: Newtown residents turned out for memorial ceremonies on Friday night across the city - including at Lima Roman Catholic Churchclick to enlarge Oakland Police Deputy Chief David Downing at last week's public safety committee meeting.
In September, the US Department of Justice announced that it was awarding a $1.875 million grant to Oakland to help hire fifteen new police officers. But newly released documents show that the grant comes with a hefty price: It requires Oakland to spend $10.25 million of its own money on the officers' salaries, departmental overhead costs, and other expenses. And the matching funds that the DOJ is requiring the city to spend has some questioning whether it’s a good deal.During the city council’s public safety committee meeting last week, Deputy Chief David Downing said the grant will help grow the department by fifteen sworn police officers. Downing said this is Oakland’s fifth Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant from the federal government in six years. The city’s “matching funds” will pay for 85 percent of the total cost of hiring the new officers, while the grant only covers 15 percent.“I am deeply concerned about this grant. I don’t understand why we would spend $10 million to get $1.8 million,” said Councilmember Desley Brooks, who is also chair of the public safety committee. Brooks voted against accepting the grant. The extra $10.25 million that OPD wants from the city's general fund for the grant was not included in the 2015-17 biennial budget. As a result, accepting the grant will require the city to allocate an additional $3,734,233 to the department’s current budget, and another $6,520,531 in the 2017-2019 budget, which hasn’t yet been drafted. This money would come out of Oakland's general fund, meaning there would be less to spend on other departments and programs, including parks, libraries, and affordable housing.Councilmember Dan Kalb supported the grant and additional city spending to hire new officers. “I’ve said since before I took office that I want our police force to get up to, and stabilize at eight hundred sworn officers, if not go over that number,” said Kalb. Kalb added that growing the police force isn’t cheap, but that it’s a “worthwhile obligation.”In 2014, the Oakland City Council unanimously accepted a similar COPS grant from the US Department of Justice. The 2014 grant was also for $1.85 million and required Oakland to match the grant with $8,774,944 in city money from the general purpose fund. Previous COPS grants provided much more federal support and required fewer matching city funds. For example, in 2013, the DOJ provided Oakland with a $4.5 million COPS grant, and required the city to only match it with $85,000.Causa Justa, a community organization focused on affordable housing and development policy, sent an email this morning criticizing the proposed COPS grant as a poor use of Oakland’s budget resources. The group wrote that its staff members are often told by city officials that there simply isn’t enough money to pay for affordable housing programs or to enforce code complaints against problem landlords.“Why can't the City use this hidden fund for deeply affordable housing?” the group wrote. “Why can't the City use this fund to pay for staffing to enforce tenants rights, or to repair dilapidated housing? Why can't the City borrow $7-8 million from the next budget cycle to address the housing crisis?”Oakland spent $200 million from its general fund on its police in 2014, an increase of $13 million over 2013. The city’s increased police spending was primarily driven by the cost of four police academies. Police overtime spending has also driven OPD’s expenditures upward. The 2015-17 city budget funded five more police academies, bringing OPD’s share of Oakland’s total general fund dollars to 43 percent.The full city council will vote on the federal grant at its meeting tomorrow night.[Updated at 5:44 p.m., July 12] Three people - not six, as police initially said - are dead after Monday's shooting at a business in Albuquerque, according to Police Chief Ray Schultz.
The three dead include the shooter, who turned a gun on himself, according to police.
[Updated at 2:58 p.m., July 12] A former employee shot and killed five people at a business Monday in Albuquerque before turning the gun on herself, New Mexico authorities said.
Police said officers responded to a 911 call at 9:26 a.m. (11:26 a.m. ET) that multiple shots had been fired. When officers entered the building, they found a total of 10 people shot: four were dead, including a man believed to be the shooter, officials said. CNN mistakenly reported earlier that the shooter was believed to be a woman.
Are you there? Please send your pictures, videos and stories to CNN's iReport.com
Two people have died as a result of gunshot wounds, two are in stable condition, and two others are receiving emergency medical attention, police said.
"We believe this incident to be a domestic-violence workplace situation," Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said.
One of the victims, Schultz said, is believed to be the wife or girlfriend of the shooter, who was a current employee at Emcore Coporation.
According to CNN affiliate KRQE, police said the shooter had been involved in a past domestic violence incident.
FULL STORYImage copyright Sony Image caption Look who's squawking: a scene from the upcoming Angry Birds film, out on 13 May
From Star Wars to Spectre to Jurassic World, the box-office tills in 2015 have rarely stopped a-chinging.
Records tumbled like ninepins as cinemas bruised by 2014's lacklustre takings got the perfect pick-me-up: namely, one must-see blockbuster after another.
There's little doubt this year will be the most lucrative on record in terms of grosses and ticket sales. The question now is whether 2016 has enough in its locker to match it.
The answer? Probably not - though there are still more than enough so-called "tentpole" releases to keep exhibitors, distributors and cinema chains comfortably out of the poorhouse.
In terms of box-office behemoths, it's hard to look beyond 25 March and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the eagerly anticipated, long-delayed face-off between the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Director Zack Snyder with the 'Batmobile' from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
With Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor also along for the ride, Zack Snyder's film is a powerful statement of intent from DC Comics, who also have Suicide Squad - a vehicle for its potent stable of comic-book villains - lined up for a 5 August release.
Marvel Entertainment, DC's fiercest rival, will be hoping its lucky streak continues with Captain America: Civil War (29 April), especially with the new Spider-Man - teenaged Brit Tom Holland - joining the ranks of the all-conquering Avengers.
They will also be hoping the same audiences who flocked to see Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man will be just as happy to watch Benedict Cumberbatch cast spells in Doctor Strange (28 November) in the Sherlock star's new guise as the so-called "Sorcerer Supreme".
With additional outings for vigilante Deadpool (4 February), mutant card-sharp Gambit (7 October) and the rest of the latter's brethren in X-Men: Apocalypse (19 May), comic-book aficionados will be more than sated over the next 12 months.
As this year's Fantastic Four reboot showed, though, superhero films are no longer a sure thing - especially in a marketplace where they are increasingly becoming the rule rather than the exception.
Image copyright Fox Image caption Mask no questions: Ryan Reynolds (right) with Brianna Hildebrand in Deadpool
On the subject of the fantastic, you might already be aware of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (18 November), a return to the Harry Potter universe that will introduce Eddie Redmayne as curious wizard Newt Scamander.
Warner Bros are so confident of the spin-off's success that it has already green-lit two sequels, set for release in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
Star Wars will have a spin-off of its own in December with the release of Rogue One, a prequel of sorts that will dramatise events briefly referred to in the 1977 film that started the franchise.
For those who prefer their sequels a little less brain-taxing, the year will also see returns for Ben Stiller's Derek Zoolander (19 February), Renee Zellweger's Bridget Jones (16 September), Matt Damon's Jason Bourne (29 July), and the crew of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek Beyond (22 July).
Sequels, it appears, come in all shapes and sizes, be they pugilistic (Rocky continuation Creed, 15 January), dystopian (The Divergent Series: Allegiant, 11 March), phantasmagorical (Alice Through the Looking Glass, 27 May) or belated (Independence Day: Resurgence, 24 June).
Image copyright Disney Image caption The Jungle Book sees Mowgli (Neel Sethi, left) interact with computer-generated animals
The world of animation, meanwhile, has sequels of its own in the form of Kung Fu Panda 3 (11 March), Ice Age: Collision Course (15 July) and Pixar's Finding Dory (29 July).
This will be a year, in short, in which pretty much every multiplex-bound title seeking to separate us from our hard-earned will have some form of brand awareness or pre-existing cultural association.
These days you can make a movie out of anything, from a computer game (Angry Birds, Assassin's Creed) to a TV series (Absolutely Fabulous, Dad's Army) to - whatever next? - a classic or best-selling novel (The Jungle Book, The Girl on the Train).
You can even make a new movie by re-tooling an old one. Witness the conspicuously Keanu Reeves-less Point Break (12 February), the all-female Ghostbusters (15 July) and Disney's new version of Pete's Dragon (12 August).
Then again, if they can remake Ben Hur (12 August) and The Magnificent Seven (23 September), they can virtually remake anything.Now it has emerged that an anniversary mass is scheduled to be held tomorrow at St Mary's Church in Castlerahan, Co Cavan for the killer.
Clodagh (39) and her children Liam (14), Niall (11) and Ryan (6) were brutally murdered by Alan Hawe in their home near Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, exactly a year ago today. Hawe then took his own life.
The family of Clodagh Hawe have been left devastated after plans were revealed for a church service in memory of her husband - who murdered her and their three sons.
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A close friend of Clodagh's family insisted that they had no idea who organised the service which is scheduled to take place just 9km from where the tragic murder suicide took place in Ballyjamesduff.
"We don't know who organised it - it's just down as 'Alan Hawe' for Wednesday evening mass. We feel it's disrespectful to Clodagh, Liam, Niall and Ryan considering their killer was moved away from them in May.
"Whoever booked that mass are seen by the family to condone what he did, he took their lives, no amount of prayers will save him from the fires of hell."
3 Killer Alan Hawe
Clodagh's family were unavailable for comment and the friend said they "just need to be left in peace" today.
Independent.ie contacted St Mary's church in Castlerahan but a spokesman replied "no comment" when asked about the service.
At the weekend Clodagh's heartbroken mother Mary Coll spoke for the first time about the circumstances surrounding the horrific death of her eldest daughter and three grandsons.
The Coll family believe that school vice-principal Hawe's actions were coldly planned, premeditated, and not the actions of someone who just suddenly had a breakdown.
After killing his wife with a knife and a hatchet, and then taking the lives of their sons, Alan Hawe used a computer to transfer money from the couple's joint account to his own account.
He then laid out details of all the couple's bank accounts and financial affairs to be found by whoever came into the house. He also placed all of Clodagh's jewellery neatly on the bed. Before he killed himself, he wrote a note and stuck it to the back door. "Don't come in. Call the gardaí," it said,
Clodagh's family said that the beautiful mum-of-three was clearly unaware of her husband's plan and had been innocently researching a family holiday online, according to the computer history.
They believe the walls were closing in on Hawe - that he was about to suffer a fall from grace.
The Colls said the man who was excessively "controlling" of Clodagh was seeing a counsellor and having difficulty at work when he murdered his wife, their three sons, and then took his own life.
"He looked like the ideal husband, but he was a controlling kind of person," Mary said. "I would ask Clodagh if she would like to go shopping in Dublin she would have to run it by him first. He could be as controlling with his silence as he could be with his words."
Mary Coll and Jacqueline Connolly are fundraising for 'Cavan Lighthouse', which they hope will provide for family aid refuge for victims of domestic violence. Donations can be made here
Samaritans 24 hr Freephone Helpline: 116123 www.samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.org.
Online EditorsAs the Texas coast prepares for Hurricane Harvey, the reliability of your wireless device is never more important than now. That’s when a simple call or text message can mean the difference between life and death.
Verizon builds reliability into every aspect of its wireless network to keep customers connected when they need it most.
“A disaster can strike at any time,” said Nicola Palmer, chief network officer of Verizon Wireless. “Our networks are designed from the ground up with reliability in mind – for individuals, businesses, emergency responders and everyone who needs to stay connected.”
Reliability starts when Verizon chooses the safest, most secure locations for its wireless equipment. The likelihood of hurricanes, earthquakes, and risk from wildfires, mudslides, floods and more are all considered.
The company has a number of “switch” network processing centers across Texas. With hardened shells, these facilities also feature large-scale on-site power generation, various redundant operations and technologies, and other back-up systems to ensure the company’s network remains strong, running and reliable. These switches also serve as Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs) for Verizon teams, as well as local first-responders.
Additional measures the company takes to deliver on its reliability promise include:
Backup batteries at cell sites and switching centers keep the network running and customers connected when commercial power fails.
Backup generators keep batteries charged during extended power outages.
Pre-arranged fuel deliveries in case of a storm, with tankers poised and in position to quickly respond to hard-hit areas.
A fleet of portable emergency equipment that can be deployed quickly to keep customers connected or restore damaged connections as soon as possible.
And when disaster strikes, Verizon coordinates with first responders and can mobilize charging stations, special equipment, emergency vehicles and more to support local, state and federal agencies in all 50 states.
Being crisis-ready and crisis-proven is central to Verizon Wireless. “Reliability is earned and we will continue to work 24x7 to ensure our customers can count on us to stay connected.”Survey: Majority of Slovaks support life partnerships
FOR the first time in Slovak history the majority of citizens have indicated that they support "life partnerships" which would be officially approved by the state for people who cannot or do not want to marry.
“It seems that the majority of the public is already convinced,” said Martin Macko of the Otherness Initiative supporting LGBTI rights in a press release. “This applies to supporters of the vast majority of political parties.”
Read also:
Read also: LGBTI introduces new platform
The survey was conducted by the Focus polling agency on 1,017 respondents in August, 2015. The question was: “Do you agree that couples who don’t want to or cannot be married could have the possibility of having a life partnership approved by the state which would regulate the practical questions of their coexistence (particularly their shared rights and responsibilities) as several other European countries offer,” with 50.4 percent of respondents saying yes.
The survey was ordered by the Life Partnership Platform consisting of 39 NGOs who promote this idea.
8. Oct 2015 at 23:14 | Compiled by Spectator staffCloser, faster, and more affordable, Redbox is the convenient alternative to the video store. Renting more than 2 billion discs to date, Redbox is America's destination for movies and video games.
Found at leading grocery chains, convenience stores and chains including McDonald's, Walmart, and Walgreens, Redbox kiosks offer customers a chance to rent one of up to 200 titles with a quick swipe of their credit card. Taking only the 12-foot space of a vending machine, the Redbox kiosk presents an easy way to rent the latest new release movies on DVD or Blu-ray Disc as well as the top new release and family video games at over 34,600 locations nationwide.
Online and from their free app, members can read synopses of titles, see film previews, and avoid disappointment by reserving their desired rentals in advance. Use of the website or app is often required to claim one of their many promotions for free rentals.
Use code: 2XFUN at a Redbox kiosk located at Safeway to receive a free DVD rental. Offer expires February 8, 2015.
This offer is only valid for residents of:
United StatesRosalie Bradford (August 27, 1943 – November 29, 2006) was an American woman who held the Guinness World Record as the world's heaviest woman.
Story [ edit ]
Weight Gain [ edit ]
In her early twenties she met a man whom she married. The couple eventually had a son. Bradford found herself staying home with their son and cooking a lot. Her weight continued to accelerate uncontrollably, as did her appetite. She eventually tried several diets and joined Weight Watchers with little success.
Finally, after a blood infection landed her in the hospital, Bradford gave up on exercise altogether when the necessary bed rest allowed for her weight gain to accelerate. She remained immobile for eight years. She measured at 1,053 pounds (478 kg) in January 1987. In 1988, she became so depressed and frustrated that she attempted to commit suicide with painkillers, although, due to her weight, these only made her sleep for a couple of days.[1]
Weight Loss [ edit ]
A concerned friend contacted Richard Simmons,[2] a familiar face in the weight-loss industry. Simmons then contacted Bradford and spoke to her at length. She recalled Simmons saying “God doesn’t make junk and you are worth the effort.” After the phone call she received a package from him containing some exercise tapes and an eating plan.[3]
She started small by clapping her hands along to the videos. “It was the only movement I could do,” she explained.[2] She focused on her diet and stuck to Simmons’ plan. After a year she had dropped 420 pounds (190 kg). Eventually she got some more outside help from a physiotherapist and soon her weight dropped to 500 pounds (230 kg), a total weight loss of 553 pounds (251 kg). Bradford persisted with her weight-loss plan and eventually reduced her weight to under 300 pounds (140 kg), claiming a total weight loss of 768 pounds (348 kg).[4] The lymphatic system in her legs was damaged in one of five surgeries to remove excess skin left by her weight loss.[3]
Bradford appeared on the Channel 4 television programme BodyShock giving advice to Patrick Deuel.[5] The episode was first broadcast in August 2007.
Death [ edit ]
Rosalie Bradford died on November 29, 2006 at a hospital in Lakeland[2] (near her Auburndale, Florida home). She was 63 years old, and was survived by her husband Bob Bradford and son Robbie.[4] She lost the world record of having lost the most weight by a woman to Mayra Rosales in 2013.
Statistics [ edit ]
Weight: 1,053 pounds (478 kg)
BMI: 169
Height: 5 foot 6 inches (1.68 m)
Sources [ edit ]Today I wish to talk about food. Ever since I took a leap and went on a vegan diet things have changed, it’s been really hard actually. Everything I used to crave doesn’t fit anymore. In fact me clinging on to the old lifestyle I once had has caused a lot of pain and it’s making me torn apart within. Eating in a whole new way hit me like a bunch of bricks. From junk food, oily foods, dairy and meat, to all of a sudden an expensive vegan diet with a bunch of organic options.
Being on my technology used to be one of the biggest joys in my life, now it’s god damn draining to stare at a screen. I used to love watching shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. I couldn’t finish watching this last season of thrones though. The television just makes me fearful now. I used to love fried foods but hell now I feel like I’m committing a crime just eating the mock fried burgers at veggie grill.
Now what does all even mean am I just too OCD, a very picky person? Well I wish it was that simple but it’s far from it. I now see everything is connected, and the world is like a subconcious mind. Going vegan showed me the old way wasn’t working, it actually didn’t have my best interest at hand. This diet has started making me think “what am I exactly worth?”
What I believe now will piss off so many people, in fact it even pisses me off to the point I want to throw it off to the side and just close my eyes. I can’t though. What’s happening in the world right now is fucked up. So many people are currently living lives that aren’t even giving anything back to them and don’t know it.
We are all so occupied with this illusion we’ve created that anything in the mainstream is promoting our well being. If the mainstream represents a stream of water it’d one filled with piss,crap and blood.
This is because we don’t stop to question what we are consuming, what’s in the water, what’s the news showing us |
Martin (82) avoids a tackle during Sunday's game against Dallas. (Photo: Jose Yau / AP)
KESHAWN MARTIN, Houston - The receiver had a catch for 7 yards and three punt returns for 30 yards in the Texans' 20-17 overtime loss to Dallas.
Season stats: 2 catches, 23 yards; 6 punt returns, 40 yards
DOMATA PEKO, Cincinnati - The veteran defensive lineman had a season-high eight tackles in the Bengals' 43-17 loss to New England.
Season stats: 18 tackles
TRENTON ROBINSON, Washington - The strong safety, who suffered a high left ankle sprain against the Giants last week, was inactive for the Redskins' 27-17 loss to Seattle.
Season stats: 12 tackles
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton (5) throws against the Denver Broncos during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey) (Photo: Jack Dempsey / AP)
DREW STANTON, Arizona - The veteran made his third start under center and completed 11 of 26 passes for 118 yards before exiting a 41-20 loss to Denver in the third quarter due to a concussion.
Season stats: 43-88 passing for 529 yards, 2 TDs
KEVIN VICKERSON, Kansas City - The veteran had one tackle in the Chiefs' 22-17 loss to San Francisco.
Season stats: 3 tackles
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Read or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/1xhBgCBIn the rarefied world of space travellers, NASA’s new astronaut class—seven men and five women, picked from a record-breaking eighteen thousand applicants—includes one, nicknamed “Jaws,” who played basketball at M.I.T., is a Marine Corps major, and was decorated for flying Cobra gunships on a hundred and fifty combat missions in Afghanistan. The astronaut candidate is also an immigrant—an Iranian-American, the only one with roots in the Middle East since the first class of astronauts was selected, in 1959. Most striking, Jaws is a woman. Her name is Jasmin Moghbeli, and she wears her black hair pulled back, accentuating the elegant Persian nose on her long, oval face.
Moghbeli’s family fled Iran after the 1979 revolution and stayed for four years in Germany, where she was born, before coming to the United States. She remembers making brownies for her second-grade class to celebrate when she became an American citizen. She’s wanted to become an astronaut since at least the sixth grade, when she and her classmates at Lenox Elementary School in North Baldwin, New York, were assigned to write book reports about someone they admired—and then deliver the report in an appropriate costume in class. She chose Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut who was also the first woman in space. Moghbeli made a space suit out of white windbreakers and used a plastic container for the helmet.
“In my memory, I thought it was a lot cooler,” she told me with a chuckle. “Now that I’ve looked back at the pictures, it looks more like a beekeeper’s outfit.”
In high school, Moghbeli went to the Advanced Space Academy, a camp with simulations of space launchings, flights, and emergencies, in Huntsville, Alabama. Students wore royal-blue flight suits, replicas of the ones real astronauts wear. (She took hers home and wore it on Halloween.) By then, she knew that she wanted to fly. At M.I.T., she studied aeronautic engineering. At a career fair, in her junior year, a Marines recruiter guaranteed Moghbeli that she could become a pilot. A career in military aviation, she told me, was one of the best routes for a woman to qualify as an astronaut. She enlisted.
Moghbeli has since been deployed into war zones three times. She flew Cobras loaded with multi-barrel cannons and deadly hellfire missiles. In Afghanistan, she picked up the nickname Jaws, a nickname etched on the chopper she flew. In her latest post, she has served as a test pilot on new technology, flying in Arizona.
Moghbeli wants to go into the unknown of deep space. “The adventurous side of me thinks it is certainly cool to go farther into the solar system than we’ve ever been before,” she told me. Or to Mars, she added quickly. The first flights with humans to Mars are projected for sometime in the twenty-thirties. “That’s only fifteen, twenty years away, so it’s not too far off,” she said.
Moghbeli’s appointment comes at a time of unprecedented controversy over immigration, especially immigration from any of the six predominantly Muslim countries that have been named in President Trump’s travel ban. Iran is one of them. Of the more than three hundred and sixty Americans selected to be astronauts since 1959, a dozen were immigrants, from countries like Argentina and Australia, India and Peru—all countries with which the United States had relations. Iran does not fall in that category.
Born into the Shiite faith, the Moghbeli family became Lutherans when Jasmin was a child. They still celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on the spring equinox, a tradition that predates Islam. And, though she’s never been to Iran, she speaks Farsi and identifies with the land of her ancestors.
In 2013, Moghbeli reacted vehemently to a derogatory post on social media suggesting that Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, had “infiltrated” the U.S. government, noting, among other things, that Jarrett was born in Iran. I found Moghbeli’s response on her Facebook page. “Born in Iran”—Why is that so important? Is my mind supposed to immediately associate that with something? Perhaps with being a terrorist? It does not. My parents (along with most of my extended family) were born in Iran,” she wrote. “Turns out, they are not terrorists. And when I looked up why she [Jarrett] was born in Iran, because I could tell from the picture that she was clearly not of Iranian descent, it turns out she was born there because her (American) father was running a children’s hospital.” An African-American, he worked in Shiraz, in the late nineteen-fifties, during the pro-American monarchy.
At the end of the seven-hundred-word post, Moghbeli said that Jarrett’s place of birth should not be the way to judge her. “She might be a very smart, patriotic, and accomplished lady,” Moghbeli reproached the writer of the original post. “Just remember, when I'm successful from all my hard work, that I was born in Germany (that's where Nazis come from) and my parents are both from Iran (that's where terrorists come from). Please don’t mention that I'm a United States Marine, it may make me sound patriotic.”
I asked her about the Facebook message—and her public pride in her heritage.
“That’s part of what’s so great about America, right? You have all these people, from different backgrounds, and we share some of the same values as Americans generally, but then there is so much tradition and culture behind each one of our different backgrounds,” she said.
“I read Mike Massimino’s book, ‘Spaceman,’ and he talks about looking back on Earth, and you see it without any boundaries. That’s really cool,” she told me. “When you are in the States, and you maybe didn’t grow up with that perspective, and maybe your family has gone back several generations here, you maybe lost sight of what it was that made America America in the first place. Maybe I have a fresher perspective on it because my family did come over here.” Since we spoke last week, however, Moghbeli’s Facebook comment appears to have been removed.
Moghbeli wore her NASA uniform for the first time on June 7th, for the announcement of NASA’s new class. As the July 4th weekend approached, she was reflective about her adopted country. “I have family across the world,” she told me. “That just helps me remember how grateful we should be to live in this country. Yeah, it’s got flaws, just like any other country. And there are things we can improve on, that we should absolutely work on improving. But, at the end of the day, we have amazing opportunities here. And the fact that I can be a female, Iranian, in the Marine Corps, and now becoming an astronaut—it’s incredible.”Following the announcement by top US diplomats that Washington will no longer pursue regime change in Syria, Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham condemned the administration’s shift in priorities, saying it would empower ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the future of President Bashar Assad “will be decided by the Syrian people.” Earlier in the day, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Washington’s “priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.”
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“There is a political reality that we have to accept in terms of where we are right now,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Friday, explaining that the current administration “lost a lot of opportunity the last administration had with respect to Assad.”
“We believe that there’s a need to de-escalate violence and to have a political process through which Syrians will decide their own political future, consistent with the principles that have been enshrined in the UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” Spicer added.
Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), said he was “deeply disturbed” by Haley and Tillerson’s pronouncements, adding that their “suggestion that Assad can stay in power appears to be just as devoid of strategy as President Obama's pronouncements that ‘Assad must go’.”
Syrian people can’t decide the future of their country “when they are being slaughtered by Assad's barrel bombs, Putin's aircraft, and Iran's terrorist proxies,”McCain said in a statement.
He also said a “Faustian bargain with Assad and Putin” would betray US allies and partners and “empower ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other radical Islamist terrorists as the only alternative to the dictator that the Syrian people have fought for six years to remove.”
Fellow committee member Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) joined McCain in denouncing the policy shift, calling it “crushing news to the Syrian opposition and to our allies throughout the Middle East.”
“I fear it is a grave mistake,” Graham said, adding that the Syrian people want Assad gone and that leaving him in power would be “a great reward for Russia and Iran.”
‘Declaration of war?’ N. Korea enraged after McCain calls Kim Jong-un ‘crazy fat kid’ https://t.co/LCi5iLwGjjpic.twitter.com/FCkqKrFI42 — RT (@RT_com) March 30, 2017
McCain and Graham have been vocal critics of President Donald Trump throughout the 2016 campaign, and have since become two of the most prominently featured Republicans in the mainstream US media. Both have a reputation for being foreign policy hawks, championing US military interventions from the Balkans and Ukraine to the Middle East.
When McCain ran for president in 2008, a recording emerged of him singing “Bomb, bomb Iran” to a tune of a 1960s pop song. Earlier this month, he accused Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) of “working for Vladimir Putin,” for expressing reservations about NATO’s expansion to Montenegro. Most recently, he called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a “crazy fat kid.”The decision to be a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) is personal and might be in the best interest of the children and the family. Although a majority of women in the United States work, at least part-time, still, a large percentage of working women opt out of their jobs, every year, to take care of their children and participate actively in their formative years. While for some women, taking care of children can bring a lot of satisfaction, for others, it can get highly cumbersome and chaotic.
SAHM also face a plethora of other challenges such as financial insecurities, identity crisis, emotional turmoil, loneliness, feeling a lack of accomplishment, housekeeping, etc. Sadly, many women consider SAHM status as a difficult phase of life, bringing in a lot of anxiety and depression. Clearly, a long-term exposure to such negative attitudes and depression can lead to harmful consequences, further deteriorating the condition.
Curbing depression to lead a happy life
Managing the daily challenges of life can give rise to frustrations, but, when it comes to SAHM, handling emotional challenges of caring for children full time can be a formidable task. Here are a few coping strategies that can help stay-at-home moms remain calm, while effectively parenting her tiny tots:
Getting up early: It is always helpful to get up a bit earlier than the kids and utilize the tranquility for activities such as exercise, meditation, reading, walking, etc., which can help in reviving mental peace and renew the spirits.
Planning ahead: An unplanned day can cause a lot of distress. One should plan a night before, or even better during the weekends, for the schedule of the entire week. For example, one can prepare a list of all the snacks and meals that have to be prepared and arrange the grocery accordingly. Clearly, a well-planned schedule can help to churn a lot more from a day.
Getting company: One does not need to spend the entire day running after the kids and feel lost. One can meet other SAHMs and their kids to have some fun time together. This will ensure that the kids have a play date and they are busy, and enable the mothers to interact with each other.
Keeping the big picture in mind: One must never forget the purpose of becoming a SAHM. While one can always get back to part-time or full-time work, the moments spent with the children can never be relived again. One must never forget that as a homemaker, a woman gets to play an active role in the first few years of her child’s growth.
Seeking professional support: Sometimes, even when one is very efficient in doing all the chores of providing for children, taking care of home and managing additional responsibilities, it can get overwhelming and one can easily get depressed and disoriented. Therefore, before the situation gets out of control, one must seek professional support to reverse the condition.
Road to recovery
Motherhood is a great responsibility that demands a lot of patience and love. A woman can breeze through this phase smoothly if she lives each day as it comes and celebrates the everyday victories of her child’s growth, rather than lamenting over a failed parenting skill.
If you or your loved one is battling some form of mental disorder, get in touch with the 24/7 Mental Health Helpline to learn about the best mental health programs in the U.S. Call us at our 24/7 helpline number 855-653-8178 or chat online to know more about mental health and mental disorders. Our treatment experts can help you get access to the best mental health rehabilitation centers in your vicinity.The more time you spend on Facebook, the unhappier you become. That’s the not-so-astounding finding of the first study measuring the social network’s impact on users’ psychological well-being.
And (surprise, surprise) the survey finds that interacting with people “directly” – you know, face-to-face, or over the phone – actually makes you happier.
A team of researchers from the University of Michigan studied 82 young adults who had smartphones with Facebook accounts. Scientists texted the participants five times per day for two weeks to examine how Facebook use influences how people feel moment-to-moment, and how satisfied they are with their lives.
Each text message contained a link to an online survey with five questions: “How do you feel right now?”; “How worried are you right now?”; “How lonely do you feel right now?”; “How much have you used Facebook since the last time we asked?”; and “How much have you interacted with other people ‘directly’ since the last time we asked?”
The authors of the study, published in the scientific journal PLOS, said they used experience-sampling, the most reliable method for measuring in-vivo behavior and psychological experience.
It turned out that the more people used Facebook, the worse they felt the next time researchers texted them. And the more people used Facebook over the two weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time.
Meanwhile, interacting with other people “directly,” via phone or face-to-face, did not produce these negative outcomes, the researchers found. In fact, the scientists came to the conclusion that direct interactions with other people actually led people to feel better over time.
"On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection,” the lead author of the study, University of Michigan social psychologist Ethan Kross said. "Rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use produces the opposite result – it undermines it," he added.
Over 1 billion people use Facebook, and over half of them log in daily. No research has examined how interacting with Facebook influences subjective well-being over time.
The researchers found no evidence for two possible alternative interpretations for their findings. Young and active Facebook users were not more likely to use Facebook when they felt bad. In addition, although people were more likely to use Facebook when they were lonely, "it was not the case that Facebook use served as a proxy for feeling bad or lonely," Kross said.
"We concentrated on young adults in this study because they represent a core Facebook user demographic," the authors said. "However, examining whether these findings generalize to additional age groups is important. Future research should also examine whether these findings generalize to other online social networks."
The study came a week after British researchers published a report concluding that sharing photographs on Facebook is the “safest” way to lose friends and damage relationships with friends and colleagues who don't "relate well to those who constantly share photos of themselves."
"This is because people, other than very close friends and relatives, do not seem to relate well to those who constantly share photos of themselves," Dr David Houghton, of the University of Birmingham, said.
"It is worth remembering the information we post to our 'friends' on Facebook, actually gets viewed by lots of different categories of people, partners, friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances and each group seems to take a different view of the information shared," he added.Editor’s note: Today we’re excited to share an exclusive announcement and cover reveal of Nick Offerman’s next book, Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop (available October 2016, Dutton).
While it’s been a little over a year since the series finale of Parks and Recreation, fans of Nick Offerman have no shortage of ways to get a fix of their favorite deadpan funnyman — from streaming old episodes of the show (or his 2014 comedy special, “American Ham”) on Netflix and paging through his two books (New York Times bestsellers Gumption and Paddle Your Own Canoe) to perusing his hardwood handiwork as part of the collaborative East Los Angeles furniture building outfit, Offerman Woodshop. As of this fall, you can add one more activity to that list: tackling a DIY woodworking project from Offerman’s new book, Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop.
Good Clean Fun, out October 18, 2016, is more than just a manual for making brawny bottle openers and three-legged stools. In addition to beginner, intermediate, and advanced projects with detailed instructions and step-by-step photos, the book, a group effort from all the members of Offerman’s shop, also includes comic book-style guides to woodworking-relevant tasks (such as felling trees), profiles of woodworking heroes, and other unexpected extras.
Read on for a glimpse of the book’s cover and an exclusive Q&A with the man behind the mustache.
Of all the making activities you’ve dabbled in over the years, what is it about working with wood that has captivated you the most?
I’m fascinated by the wizardry of the human race and our ability to make things — to take raw materials and make them into useful implements and objects of beauty or practicality. I think that’s our greatest superpower.
I suppose, because my family depends upon the use of tools in many ways — my uncles and my grandfather were talented mechanics, and my dad’s leaning is toward works of carpentry — I was bound to become either a mechanic or a metalworker or a woodworker. My dad and I built a lot of stuff out of wood around our house, including a small barn, and I was taken at an early age with the power of the hammer and nails and the saw. As a kid, being able to understand how a barn could be built felt pretty amazing.
I think that magic stayed with me as I got into theater school and was able to use my hammering ability to work in the scene shop and actually make a living in the theater while I was waiting for my acting skills to improve. And it developed that way organically: Whenever my dreams of artistry as an entertainer were failing me, I was able to fall back upon doing something with wood and tools. Finally, building timber frame structures in people’s yards in Los Angeles, I realized, Holy cow, these are mortise and tenon joints; using this joinery, I just have to shrink it down a little bit, and I can make a table. By god, I’m a woodworker! I sort of tricked myself into it.
What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned from woodworking — whether about woodworking specifically, or life in general?
I’d say patience is the most important thing I’ve learned from woodworking. From the get-go, all my great teachers, many of whom have only communicated with me through the writing that they’ve left behind, have said: Slow down and do this one step at a time. My great teacher Ted Moores, who wrote the seminal canoe building book Canoecraft, says at the beginning of the book, If you look at this canoe, it can be very daunting; you might think there’s no way I can do that. But if you slow down and just learn one step at a time, even with beginner woodworking skills, you might be surprised to find that you can sharpen a chisel, and then you can cut out the patterns for this mold, and then you can apply the strips of the cedar hull to the mold, and before you know it, you’ve achieved these many steps and you’re standing there looking at a finished canoe.
And I love the way that lesson, sort of in Wendell Berry fashion, applies to living a much more full and rich life by slowing down and taking your time achieving whatever your project is, whether it’s raising your kid or building a table or writing a musical composition. If you can shut off the distraction of all the media channels and all the consumer messaging that we’re constantly barraged with and just knit your scarf, the journey of the project is going to be so satisfying, and the end result is hopefully going to be remunerative. That, I find, is just a much more delicious way to live than if I’m, like, checking my social media: How many people like me today? All of that has some impact, but it’s small, so I give it just a small percentage of my time. I try to spend more time sharpening my chisels than I do sharpening my Twitter feed.
Much like your woodshop itself, this book is the result of a group effort, with contributions from several members of your team (and your family). What do you see as some of the joys and benefits of collaboration in a creative enterprise?
I grew up in a big family — I have three siblings — and we all worked on the farm together, we all made our good times together for holidays and weekends, and I grew up learning to make my life with others. That translated easily to my small theater company in Chicago, the Defiant Theater, where all these people were working for little or no pay financially, but incredible spiritual and artistic rewards, to make something for others. Now, in the woodshop, there are seven of us, including me; working together, anytime you get to a tricky part of a project, it’s like the old adage, two heads are better than one, but in our shop, three or four heads are better than one. And practically, it’s great when you need to flip a table or move a slab or unload a truck to have many hands making light work.
But then socially, I just love working together. One of my favorite things about working at the shop is sitting down to lunch every day like a family and keeping up with everybody’s lives. There’s something rewarding about a community and a fellowship and going through this life together, rather than sequestering ourselves in some sort of isolation, which only creates, I think, loneliness and depression. It’s nice to have people to share the wealth with when the wealth arrives, and then those same people will help you bear the hardships when those happen to come your way.
You’ve often pointed out that you’re not a “master woodworker,” but a lifelong student of the craft of woodworking. Do you have a dream woodworking challenge? Something you don’t have the skills to do yet but hope to one day?
As an actor, people often ask me, “What’s your dream role?” or “Do you want to win an Oscar someday?” And I don’t really operate that way, as an actor or as a woodworker. I’m not terribly ambitious, and I’ve been very well served by just following my gut as to whatever the next project should be, whether it’s a play or a movie or a slab table or a canoe.
That said, at the moment, I have all the wood cut out to make a big batch of ukuleles, so I’m going to try to become really good at ukuleles; that’s on my way to making really nice acoustic guitars. If I achieve that goal in the next ten or twelve years — which I know is going to take several tries — then maybe I’ll want to make a violin or a mandolin or a nickelodeon, I don’t know. Something will occur to me, but I can’t worry about that — I just focus on what seems to be the next smart thing to do. And if for some reason they take away my tools or they tell me I can’t perform anymore, I’ll just feel really good about how much I’ve gotten to do so far. I don’t think I’ll ever have regrets like, Dammit, I never got to play a cowboy, or I wish I could have built a wooden Corvette.
What would you say to someone who was interested in getting started with woodworking but who felt intimidated or unqualified?
I personally had the good fortune of having great teachers showing me how to use tools, putting them in my hands, and saying, “Here, here’s how to use a hammer, here’s how to operate a crosscut saw.” I think that is the most important thing by far. And so the best advice I could give, I think, would be to find someone near you — it could be a family member, someone in your neighborhood, someone in a school or a class — who will teach you to use tools in some way. Because once you see how to sharpen a piece of steel, and then see what you can do to wood with that steel, that says, Oh, now my body has a feel for this, I have begun to learn the vernacular of affecting wood with tools.
That’s something I’ll be writing about in Good Clean Fun: celebrating many of the schools I’ve visited around the country that still teach the trades. Something that I consider so incredibly noble, that is constantly removed from schools’ curricula, is that just teaching our population to be able to fix their own back porch is so important to the strength of our national character. The fact that I had Home Ec class, and still to this day take great pride in sewing my own buttons and being able to mend a rip in my clothing with a not-too-shabby whipstitch — I love it. I learned that in sixth grade. The fact that that is no longer considered valuable is so shameful.
I had the good fortune to land this great part on Parks and Rec, and it gave me a big audience. I’m trying to use the opportunity to tell people to get back to the world of Home Ec and Shop Class, because that’s a value of our lives that has been taken away in so much of the population. If everyone would read Wendell Berry, they would learn what I’ve learned, which is that the way to a really happy, fruitful, productive life is to join hands with those in your community and make your life together. And that involves gardening and building and making things.
Not only do you save money and take much better care of your land, you also, at the end of your lifetime, say, “Look at what we’ve done, we’ve made a community — that family made our furniture, that other family made our boots, this other family got together and played at the hoedown every Saturday night.” Nobody’s going to care how many pairs of Nikes you bought or how up-to-date your BMW is, they’re going to care about all those pies that you made and how delicious your blueberry pie was. That’s my soap box: Everybody get together and make blueberry pie for each other.
Preorder your copy of Nick Offerman’s Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust in Offerman Workshop today.Avon schools distribute thousands of laptops to students Copyright by WISH - All rights reserved Avon Community School Corporation leaders will distribute between 2,100 and 2,400 laptops to begins the 2015-2016 school year. (WISH Photo) [ + - ] Video
HENDRICKS COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) - As students in several districts head back to school this week, many in Avon have some new technology in hand. It's all part of the district's STEP-UP program.
School leaders are filtering one grade in each of the intermediate, middle, and high schools into the program this year. Students in 6th and 8th grades will each get a personal laptop, along with the freshman at the high school. Seniors already had laptops.
Eventually all students in 5th through 12th grades will have their own laptop to use at school and at home. That will free up thousands of computers to be used in kindergarten through 4th grade classrooms.
School leaders say the goal of the program is to enhance and expand access to technology for kids in Avon and teach those students how to use tech for learning, not just entertainment.
"A lot of times they've picked it up because they've grown up with it, but they haven't had that direct instruction on how this tool can be used in the learning process," Assistant Superintendent John Atha said.
But that does come at a cost. Families will essentially lease-to-own the laptops paying $53 per year as part of their text book rental fee for four years. Then the laptop is theirs to keep.
Atha said he knows that's an impact on parents, so the district has worked to soften the blow.
"We've done some things in text book rental to try to reduce that impact. And so overall from what text book rental was for each grade level last year, it's not a $53 increase, it's more like half of that," Atha said.
The district is distributing between 2,100 and 2,400 HP Stream laptops. If a students receives one in 5th grade, that child will get a new device once he or she enters high school and still get to keep the first laptop.
[Old Tom Bombadil. Possibly the least liked character in The Lord of the Rings. A childish figure so disliked by fans of the book that few object to his absence from all adaptations of the story. And yet, there is another way of looking at Bombadil, based only on what appears in the book itself, that paints a very different picture of this figure of fun.What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He is fat and jolly and smiles all the time. He is friendly and gregarious and always ready to help travellers in distress.Except that none of that can possibly be true. Consider: By his own account (and by Elrond’s surprisingly sketchy knowledge) Bombadil has lived in the Old Forest since before the hobbits came to the Shire. Since before Elrond was born. Since the earliest days of the First Age.And yet no hobbit has ever heard of him.The guise in which Bombadil appears to Frodo and his companions is much like a hobbit writ large. He loves food and songs and nonsense rhymes and drink and company. Any hobbit who saw such a person would tell tales of him. Any hobbit who was rescued by Tom would sing songs about him and tell everyone else. Yet Merry – who knows all the history of Buckland and has ventured into the Old Forest many times – has never heard of Tom Bombadil. Frodo and Sam – avid readers of old Bilbo’s lore – have no idea that any such being exists, until he appears to them. All the hobbits of the Shire think of the Old Forest as a place of horror – not as the abode of a jolly fat man who is surprisingly generous with his food.If Bombadil has indeed lived in the Old Forest all this time – in a house less than twenty miles from Buckland – then it stands to reason that he has never appeared to a single hobbit traveller before, and has certainly never rescued one from death. In the 1400 years since the Shire was settled.What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He is not what he seems.Elrond, the greatest lore-master of the Third Age, has never heard of Tom Bombadil. Elrond is only vaguely aware that there was once someone called Iarwain Ben-Adar (“Oldest and Fatherless”) who might be the same as Bombadil. And yet, the main road between Rivendell and the Grey Havens passes not 20 miles from Bombadil’s house, which stands beside the most ancient forest in Middle Earth. Has no elf ever wandered in the Old Forest or encountered Bombadil in all these thousands of years? Apparently not.Gandalf seems to know more, but he keeps his knowledge to himself. At the Council of Elrond, when people suggest sending the Ring to Bombadil, Gandalf comes up with a surprisingly varied list of reasons why that should not be done. It is not clear that any of the reasons that he gives are the true one.Now, in his conversation with Frodo, Bombadil implies (but avoids directly stating) that he had heard of their coming from Farmer Maggot and from Gildor’s elves (both of whom Frodo had recently described). But that also makes no sense. Maggot lives west of the Brandywine, remained there when Frodo left, and never even knew that Frodo would be leaving the Shire. And if Elrond knows nothing of Bombadil, how can he be a friend of Gildor’s?What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He lies.A question: what is the most dangerous place in Middle Earth? First place goes to the Mines of Moria, home of the Balrog, but what is the second most dangerous place? Tom Bombadil’s country.By comparison, Mordor is a safe and well-run land, where two lightly-armed hobbits can wander for days without meeting anything more dangerous than themselves. Yet the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs, all part of Tom’s country, are filled with perils that would tax anyone in the Fellowship except perhaps Gandalf.Now, it is canonical in Tolkein that powerful magical beings imprint their nature on their homes. Lorien under Galadriel is a place of peace and light. Moria, after the Balrog awoke, was a place of terror to which lesser evil creatures were drawn. Likewise, when Sauron lived in Mirkwood, it became blighted with evil and a home to monsters.And then, there’s Tom Bombadil’s Country.The hobbits can sense the hatred within all the trees in the Old Forest. Every tree in that place is a malevolent huorn, hating humankind. Every single tree. And the barrows of the ancient kings that lie nearby are defiled and inhabited by Barrow-Wights. Bombadil has the power to control or banish all these creatures, but he does not do so. Instead, he provides a refuge for them against men and other powers. Evil things – and only evil things – flourish in his domain. “Tom Bombadil is the master” Goldberry says. And his subjects are black huorns and barrow wights.What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He is not the benevolent figure that he pretends to be.Tom appears to the Ringbearer in a friendly, happy guise, to question and test him and to give him and his companions swords that can kill the servants of another evil power. But his motives are his own.Consider: it is said more than once that the willows are the most powerful and evil trees in the Forest. Yet, the rhyme that Bombadil teaches the hobbits to use in conjuring up Bombadil himself includes the line, “By the reed and willow.” The willows are a part of Bombadil’s power and a means of calling on him. They draw their strength from the cursed river Withywindle, the centre of all the evil in the Forest.And the springs of the Withywindle are right next to Tom Bombadil’s house.And then there is Goldberry, “the river-daughter”. She is presented as Bombadil’s wife, an improbably beautiful and regal being who charms and beguiles the hobbits. It is implied that she is a water spirit, and she sits combing her long, blonde hair after the manner of a mermaid. (And it is worth remembering that mermaids were originally seen as monsters, beautiful above the water, slimy and hideous below, luring sailors to drown and be eaten.) But I suggest the name means that in her true state, Goldberry is nourished by the River – that is, by the proverbially evil Withywindle.In folklore and legend (as Tolkien would know well) there are many tales of creatures that can take on human form but whose human shape always contains a clue to their true nature. So what might Goldberry be? She is tall and slender - specifically she is “sl |
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Update 11 [Nov 12th @ 5pm New York]: Only one more day to go! We’ll be feeding our TweetClicker and ImageClicker with new tweets and images by 7am London on the 13th. We will phase out operations by 2pm London, so this is the final sprint. The results of all our clicks are displayed here. Thank you for helping and for caring. If the Clickers are empty or offline temporarily, please check back again soon for more clicks. Try different browsers if the tweets/images are not showing up.
Update 12 [Nov 13th @ 9am London]: This is the last stretch, Clickers! We’ve fed our TweetClicker and ImageClicker with new tweets and images. We’ll be refilling them until 2pm London (10pm Manila) and phasing out shortly thereafter. Given that MicroMappers is still under development, we are pleased that this deployment went so well considering. The results of all our clicks are displayed here. Thank you for helping and for caring. If the Clickers are empty or offline temporarily, please check back again soon for more clicks. Try different browsers if the tweets/images are not showing up.
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AdvertisementsIt’s bad enough that roads, bridges, schools and hospitals are built in Alberta with the heavy hand of political interference.
But when politicians start talking about manipulating school curriculum to suit whatever purposes they have in mind, then we have to draw a line on the blackboard.
The NDP government’s $64-million project of reviewing and rewriting courses taught in Alberta’s schools was generally welcomed when it was announced in June 2016. The chair of the Calgary Board of Education noted that some courses hadn’t been updated in 30 years.
Imagine all the changes in science, historical perspectives and technology that have unfolded since the mid-1980s. Math curriculum, in particular, was becoming an issue, as parents, teachers and falling test scores showed a need for revision. On the social side, the growing awareness of diversity in Alberta was emerging as a complex subject in need of further illumination in our schools.
But fears were soon raised that our socialist masters in Edmonton were going to use the new curriculum to brainwash our students into becoming bike-riding vegans. Or worse, the next NDP voters.
This despite the fact the government has enlisted 300 volunteers, mostly teachers, from across the province to modernize curriculum. It’s not in the hands of politicians, whatever the stripe.
As well, the province asked all Albertans for their views on what should be taught in schools, and 25,000 people responded. Sure, some people recommended dropping Shakespeare, but let’s hope all’s well that ends well.
Despite that openness and consultation, the United Conservative Party’s leadership race has revived premature and misinformed debate about the review.
Jason Kenney, the former Harper cabinet minister, fears “social engineering” in a social studies draft outline. He said the proposed curriculum is rife with politically correct themes of colonialism, climate change and oppression. Too late; the curriculum already deals with those themes and many others, and rightfully so.
He also lamented there would be an absence of military history honouring Canada’s war efforts. If Kenney has ever been in any Calgary school around Remembrance Day, he would know that tradition will not end.
More recently, Brian Jean, the former Wildrose leader, has even threatened to cancel the whole thing, after a year of work, as a waste of taxpayers’ money. “We don’t particularly know where they’re going to end up with the curriculum review,” he ominously hinted. “So let’s find out where it is; let’s not waste that money.”
Then he suggests we go back to basics, whatever that is.
For his part, at least Kenney backtracked on his call for halting the project, pending results of the review. But what are the odds that the UCP hopeful will applaud the project under the NDP government?
Let’s let the professionals do their jobs, and stop using the educational system as a political whipping boy.So apparently Levi is possibly officially homosexual. In canon.
Here it is. The question asked to Isayama.
【別マガ感謝祭での諫山先生への質問】Ｑ．リヴァイ兵長の好きな女性のタイプを教えてください Ａ．女性が好きなんですかねえ…？…小さい人って背の高い人を好きになるじゃないですか…。もしかしたら背の高い人が好きかもしれません
Q. Please tell us the type of women Levi-heichou likes
A. Does he like women, though? …Short people usually like tall people, so…it might be that tall people are his type.
Yeah. He just went there.
As you can imagine, his…unexpected answer has caused a lot of debate on Japanese forums and such…it’s rather debatable whether he actually meant what it sounds like he meant.
We all know Isayama is definitely not afraid to put LGBT characters in his manga. And honestly…Levi being gay doesn’t…surprise me that much. Like, it doesn’t clash with the image I have of him at all.
EDIT: It also seems he was asked this question at least twice, and answered the same way. With a sort of hesitant, “…does he like women, though?” then going on to say he likes tall ‘people’ and not ‘women’June 2013, USMNT, World Cup Qualifiers
Jon Levy
I was ready to write about how this match is setting up perfectly for the Yanks, and then Tuesday night in Kingston changed everything.
The US were set to go into Jamaica on the backs of two good offensive performances against top quality European competition, the second of the two matches being a 4-3 victory over FIFA # 2 Germany, who despite not fielding their Bayern or Dortmund players, were still flush with elite talent. The Yanks would take lessons learned and confidence gained over the course of the past week and apply it all to a lethal degree in their World Cup Qualifier in Jamaica on Friday night. Then Jamaica dropped their match to Mexico, and a little more than a seed of doubt was planted in my mind.
Jamaica is now winless through four matches in this final CONCACAF hexagonal round, and they’re hosting a second straight match at home after dropping the first one-nil to Mexico on Tuesday night. That makes the Reggae Boyz a desperate wild animal with its back against the wall. Very dangerous stuff, even before you take into account the treatment the USMNT generally gets from referees in CONCACAF away matches. Let’s just call it fitting that this match is being played on the day The Purge hits theaters. For one night only all crime is legal? Probably the case for Boyz-on-Yanks infractions in Kingston on Friday night.
So how’s it gonna play out? Let’s deal with the usuals, and then kick the particulars.
Series: Twenty-First Meeting. The United States leads 11-1-8. Of course, the one loss was in Kingston last September, where the US looked flat and out of ideas in the final third not to mention out-of-sorts on the back end. Sure, the Americans avenged the loss four days later– but for a few days, there was very genuine and realistic discussion in the United States that the net result of the Jurgen Klinsmann experiment would be a failure to reach the final round Hex. Needless to say, the US enter with a bit more confidence in the bank this time around, but then again, the United States have never won a World Cup qualifier in Jamaica, and have managed only two goals in five qualifier matches. Not the greatest numbers.
Weather: Gorgeous island weather, low eighties with very little chance of rain. Tropical Storm Andrea never threatened Jamaica, doing most its Caribbean damage to the central Cuba before heading out to the Gulf and becoming a radar blanket over the State of Florida.
What to watch for from the Yanks:
Remember that “cultured attacking play” we were promised Jurgen Klinsmann would bring to the team? Well it finally showed up! Klinsmann’s emphasis on possession has been easy to see, almost since his first match in charge, but we’ve been waiting a year and half now for incisive player and ball movement in the final third. The types of plays that would bring chances galore. It seemed unlikely that portion of the program would click into place against a bunch of UEFA Champions League defenders who play for Germany, but that’s exactly what happened on Sunday. Jozy Altidore in particular played brilliantly, and in a match where he was under an immense amount of pressure, both internally and externally, to do so. Jozy was involved both offensively and defensively, but didn’t try to force his involvement (read: track back too deep and get lost when the US got out on the break). He was clever and quick with his passes and confident and thoughtful in his off-ball movements, and his goal and assist were things of beauty. His goal was a perfect example of what can happen when Altidore has teammates in good positions moving forward, he receives service and his movement off the ball is smart (See below). Now can he seize the moment in an international? And can he, you know, get the help (SERVICE…) he needs to stay involved?
So we know the task is to keep making those types of plays against Jamaica. This shouldn’t be impossible either. Remember the last match against Jamaica? The US dominated early, creating chance after chance in the first thirty minutes. Hell, Graham Zusi alone could have had two goals and two assists by halftime. As it was, finishing was the American problem on that day, a problem that was solved by a second half Herculez Gomez free kick sealing a one-nil victory (oh and I wouldn’t worry too much about finishing in general– if that was a chronic problem for Jurgen’s team these guys wouldn’t have made it to the final round of qualifying at all- the overall number of quality chances in the last round was small, but the goals were sufficient because of good finishing).
So the Yanks enter the match against Jamaica having scored six goals in their last two matches, and I think you’re looking at Fabian Johnson starting as a left sided attacking midfielder as he did againt Germany and Slovenia. People forget that the team had another of its rare attacking performances in that foggy friendly against the Slovenians. But to be fair, Slovenia was playing without Anze Kopitar on that day. So Fabian Johnson may be the USMNT left back of the future, but as long as DaMarcus Beasley is stacking breathtaking performances at that position, Fab can move up on the flank and really help the attack. Like most our readers, I like the idea of Brad Davis and his left foot, but Johnson brings a couple different dimensions to the position that Davis doesn’t offer. Johnson also is at his best when he is tasked with playing more narrowly (see: Hoffenheim), which will likely be the case tomorrow night, if Jamaica decides to replicate anything remotely similar to their defensive-minded formation they deployed against Mexico. More on Jamaica’s formation after the break, but essentially, Johnson will be tasked to play more narrowly because Jamaica, seeking cover for the young fullbacks, will likely find themselves 3 v. 1 in the back quite often. This means there should be space in the center of the pitch, and if Johnson is marauding centrally, the US will be in a great position to take advantage.
Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley, of course, will roam the center, and if Johnson frequently joins them, the US will have a distinct advantage- perhaps even being 5 v. 2 at times in the middle of the field. We don’t expect Klinsmann to totally adopt Bradley’s 4-2-2-2 system (it would be shocking if Zusi is very narrow on the other flank, for example), but we do think Rodolph Austin will have a tough time holding up if the Jamaican wingers are constantly dropping back to provide cover for the fullbacks. Remember, Austin just had to grind it out against Mexico Tuesday, is not necessarily in full match shape after injury, etc– so this will be a tall order, especially with Jermaine Jones playing his best soccer in a US shirt of late and Michael Bradley being, well, MB 90 version Roma point 0. Paired with Austin will either be Je-Vaughn Watson of FC Dallas (who played active and sharp football for an hour against El Tri) or Marvin Elliott, who takes less risks than Watson but won’t offer much in the way of attacking initiative if he’s the chosen one. This is a troubling dilemma for Jamaica, and we expect the US to exploit it if Whitmore chooses to repeat the tactics he used Tuesday night. We’d also expect the US to allow either Bradley or Jones to make more runs forward if this is what the Reggae Boyz decide to do, because it is hard to generate attack in the center if you’re constantly concerned with cover on the flank.
We’ve discussed Altidore above, and there’s no reason to believe he isn’t the starter up top with Clint Dempsey tucked behind tomorrow night. Jurgen Klinsmann spent much of Monday praising Dempsey to anyone who would listen, and it’s high time the American got his due from national team fans. He’s paid to score goals. He does score goals. Of course he has his limitations. Only a handful of players in the world don’t. But he has, and the comparison has become fair, a Ruud Van Nistelrooy ability to poach, and he’s one of the Barclay Premier League’s finest players threatening off the ball. And now he has the armband. Heady stuff for a guy who was once a true mystery for his country.
Now as for the American defense, I really don’t know what to tell you. Geoff Cameron will be on the field. DaMarcus Beasley has earned the right to start on the left. Omar Gonzalez is the center half of the future, but he’s had two relatively poor performances in a row. And if you watched the defenders’ conferences that have gone on for the past two games while the ball was out of play, you can’t have too much confidence in this group that’s been rattled recently. Don’t get me wrong, I love the communication, but they’re playing “who’s the boss?” out there, and Tony Danza’s unavailable. If only there was an experienced central defender with acumen enough to tell everyone where they’re supposed to be and what they’re doing wrong rather than engage in theoretical debates mid-match… then we’d have something. We might not need Carlos Bocanegra to captain the team, but it’d sure be nice to have him on the field organizing the defense. There are rumblings about Brad Evans starting, and he played admirably on Sunday, but he needs to stay calm and avoid the mental mistakes that have haunted him in a US shirt. Matt Besler is the Americans best defender in terms of positioning at this point, but his caps too are limited, and this is a big stage. Can he remember his positions and remember to provide Beasley cover on the edge when Jamaica does threaten? Lots of questions, and Tim Howard behind them.
And what will we see out of Jamaica?
Jamaican manager Theo Whitmore has seen the future. That’s all well and good. But for some reason he’s decided that the future is now, and that’s a bit confusing.
Much like the US has mined the military brat Germerican pipeline for guys like Jermaine Jones and Fabian Johnson, Whitmore has decided he wants to use English dudes with Jamaican eligibility. That’s fine, but he’s got two big problems.
Problem #1: Whitmore’s not exactly bringing Premier League quality to the table. These England-based new recruits play for teams like Reading, Huddersfield Town, Leeds, and Bristol City. So yes, he’s bringing English quality to the table in the form of decent players that can in fact hack it in some of the English divisions, but to characterize this English invasion as “quality players arriving from European leagues” is a pretty big misnomer. There was no other better example of this than the real one that occurred Tuesday evening. Pappa Whitmore wants a game-changer, and he calls on Leicester City forward of Everton shame Jermaine Beckford. Chepo looks at his bench, and puts the big finger at Gio Dos Santos, who plays a bit more like Superman for country than his typical Clark Kent for club. It was a tough and sobering moment. It was reminiscent of when the Jamaicans in Cool Runnings qualify for the Olympic Bobsled finals and then on their way to run # 1 they take their unpainted sled up the sledlift and see the Swiss garage, full of beautifully painted, ready sleds. As a strategy, it’s like inviting your buddies over for a Rocky marathon and leading the line with Rocky V. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udS-OcNtSWo
Problem #2: Why the sudden reliance on these players that haven’t done a thing for the Jamaican National Team? It’s one thing to gradually infuse new talent like the Reggae Boyz were doing prior to this round of qualifiers. To cite a recent example, Italy just completely revitalized their national team and reached the Euro 2012 Final by finding the right mix of old reliables and shiny new toys. Montolivo to Balotelli, a thing of beauty. But check the Jamaican roster for the matches against Mexico and the US. No Luton Shelton. No Omar Cummings. No Dane Richards. No Jermaine Taylor. No Demar Phillips. No Shavar Thomas. What the hell man? Sure, some of these dudes are plying their trade for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, but is so much change really the right approach? It just seems like Whitmore got desperate a bit early.
Here’s hoping the US can exploit the internationally inexperienced experimental side that will no doubt be deployed on Friday night. In possession, Jamaica largely relied on long diagonal passes from Austin to a streaking Watson early on for attacking threat. Unfortunately for the Reggae Boyz, Watson had two particularly good balls to the center where his forwards simply hadn’t caught up to the play yet. They’ll need more up front from Ryan Johnson and an incutting Gareth McLeary– see below. While O’Brian Woodbine provided reasonably good support on one flank against El Tri Tuesday, it will be a real test of legs for the former Charleston Battery man Friday night. We also know they need support from Woodbine alone– because they can’t expect much from Alvas Powell, the promising but way too green to be in this spot youngster who was victimized repeatedly by El Tri in the second half earlier this week. What that means, then, is that Jamaica will either need to change what they were doing tactically Tuesday, or risk a situation where they end up with around seven men defending and three attacking, which would really deflate their attack. Simply put, Jamaica can’t end up allowing enormous shortfalls in the midfield simply for the purpose of cover, or the US will overwhelm them in the midfield zone (see diagram below of what that looks like).
If, and this is a big if– and probably the biggest argument for tucking Watson into the center with Austin– they can get support from both fullbacks and manage to keep their central midfielder spacing and avoid overloading certain zones of the field, they can threaten the US, but that is a lot of questions.
The reality is that for whatever reason Whitmore had his Boyz sitting back and playing zero ball pressure against Mexico on Tuesday night, just like he did in the 2011 Gold Cup Quarterfinal against the US at RFK Stadium (where Jamaica utilized so much cover from their wingers that they appeared to be playing a 3-4-3 at times), and that strategy won’t be effective against a US team that literally is begging you to let them play through the center so as to limit their weakness on the flanks. The Yanks carved Jamaica up that Gold Cup day in a beautiful performance still rarely seen out of the USMNT, and unless Whitmore can reinvent the wheel Friday night, another American win seems in the cards, even if we can’t guarantee a sequel to the “Bob Bradley masterclass” match we saw in 2011. Again, I’d be even more optimistic about seeing it if Jamaica had hung on for a draw against El Tri.
Jamaica Player to Watch: Garath McCleary
Reading midfielder/striker/winger McLeary played all ninety plus minutes in the Mexico match, and he exemplifies Saved By Bob Marley: The New Class. Garath is a decent enough attacking player who can hurt you if given time and space. He’s not the best of the newly Jamaican Englishman, that title goes to former Everton and Leeds striker Jermaine Beckford. But Beckford, who could possibly start this match rather than come off the bench as his did on Tuesday, isn’t the type of striker that can create on his own. He’ll be reliant on McCleary and his mates for service.
Stop McCleary (and don’t get outrun by Watson) and you hamstring the Jamaican midfield’s ability to go forward. If the Yanks can do that they’ll win the match… barring any more egregious defensive missteps of course.
US Player to Watch: Jermaine Jones
Y’all were expecting Jozy Altidore huh? And rightfully so. All eyes will be on Jozy after his best performance in the shirt since he hat-tricked Trinidad and Tobago. But as nice as Jozy’s Germany match was, Jermaine Jones is one-upping him for consistency.
“Germany” Jones is quietly stacking wonderful defensive midfield performances for country. Don’t be fooled by the fact that the team’s conceded seven goals in the last two matches, most of those are down to the back four. In fact, Jermaine should be credited with helping the American midfield turn in a much improved performance against Belgium after that position set got clowned in Brussels on Jurgen’s first European match as manager. He was brilliant off the ball in that match, and useful again against Germany, and he’s been quietly playing top quality balls out of the back that seem to find American feet in attacking positions. Right now he’s everything we could want out of our “traditional six” defensive midfielder. Now let’s hope it stays that way. As we know, Jermaine has a habit of disappearing or turning in a stinker once every few matches. For some reason (maybe blind fanboy faith) I have a hunch he’s found a way to put that inconsistency behind him.
Prediction: Jamaica 2 – 2 USA
Jozy finds the back of the net again, but the leaky US defense rears its ugly head. Simply put, all our objects in motion stay in motion. Here’s hoping I’m wrong and we’re all writing Omar Gonzalez redemption pieces on Saturday.
Enjoy the match, and Go USA!
Jon Levy is Co-Founder and Co-Editor of The Yanks are Coming. He can be reached at jon.f.levy@gmail.com and you should follow him on Twitter at @TYAC_Jon.Dismissing reports that BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was overshadowing the party, senior party leader Venkaiah Naidu cited the example of how former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee wanted Modi to resign as Gujarat Chief Minister after the 2002 riots, but he had to give in to the party’s “collective decision” against the move. This is evidence that no individual leader is above the party, said Naidu, who was the BJP president at the time of the Gujarat riots.
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“No BJP leader is afraid of Modi… He is one of our colleagues and the darling of the masses today. In the BJP, the president presides, team decides,” said Naidu, speaking at The Indian Express Idea Exchange programme on Friday.
“Even during Vajpayee’s regime, decisions were taken collectively… Atalji opined that the Gujarat Chief Minister (Modi) should adhere to raj dharma and step down (over the 2002 riots). But the party collectively decided that he should continue, and that decision prevailed. I was the party president, it was a difficult moment for me, but Atalji went along with that (the party’s decision). That is how the the BJP functions,” said Naidu.
“I recorded this only to show that the party functions collectively… which is why Modi continued and he won an election… Vajpayeeji campaigned for him also,” he said.
“There is a clear distinction between the functioning of the BJP and other parties. So, don’t worry, no BJP leader is afraid. We are all proud that one of our colleagues has become the darling of the masses and he is going to become the Prime Minister of the country. Nobody is afraid of him,” said Naidu.
The former BJP president, who hails from Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh, also accused Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar of being “partisan” and facilitating the introduction of the Telangana Bill in the House.
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“The Speaker is wrong. I am saying this on record… she is partisan, she is wrong. I am ready for any debate on this issue,” he said, questioning Kumar’s ruling that the Telangana Bill was introduced while the Opposition parties claimed that it wasn’t. “They have played a very dirty game… Sushmaji (Swaraj) was not aware that the live telecast had been stopped. They claimed a technical problem. Technical or tactical. I said it is neither technical or tactical, it is practical. They planned it, and then did it,” he said.It’s been a week since Firaxis revealed the inevitable but theretofore unannounced Civilization VI. While details remain scant, among the known changes to the storied strategy title are alterations to the technology tree. According to lead designer Ed Beach in an interview with Polygon,
“[Civilization V] had weird problems that arose. You were perfectly free to research sailing and navigation, even if you hadn’t discovered the ocean. We came up with a system where we looked at the tech tree, looked at every node there, and said, ‘What would be a great idea for some activity you could undertake with your cities and your units out in the world that would naturally make your people smarter about that area of science?’ …[T]his is a case of your progression through the game being very much aligned with where you are in the world, what your map is like, and how you play to that map.”
Unlike other historically-themed strategy games such as Age of Empires, Diplomacy 3, Europa Universalis, or Total War, Civilization makes little attempt at simulation. It does not start by asking which processes most significantly determine the direction of human history and attempt to abstract such, each iteration a better representation of the reality it’s replicating. Rather, Civilization is first and foremost a board game, borrowing more from Risk than from Herodotus or Josephus. Firaxis’ primary goal is to create a balanced and engaging sandbox – the global and historical scope is more for flavor. This is reflected in the language Beach and Polygon use to describe the studio’s motivations for altering the tech tree. The changes “discourage players from going into autopilot” by introducing a new gameplay mechanic which rewards more active engagement.
Nevertheless, these mechanically motivated changes also serve to partially address previous entries’ ahistorical caricature of scientific and technological progress as being largely linear, a steady series of inventions and innovations which all inevitably follow from one another. The themes of the series as a whole refute this false historiography, with other critics having praised it for its ability to propose plausible counterfactuals, but the particular implementation of technology offered no meaningful counterfactuals of its own. Every civilization which “stood the test of time” would, in roughly the same order and at approximately the same pace, recapitulate real world breakthroughs and discoveries. Such was a far cry from Civilization’s more fantastical elements of ancient Americans or a genocidal Gandhi.
Of course, it is quite easy to envision mechanics which place an even greater emphasis on the non-linearity of technology and are keeping with the counterfactuality of Civilization. The recent spinoff, Beyond Earth, borrowed the technology web from Endless Space, allowing the player to research an entire branch of the tech tree without pouring any research into another. It also introduced leaf technologies, essentially scientific developments of some specific utility which offered no progress toward any future discoveries. Along with the map-based opportunities outlined by Beach above, such a system could better simulate the process of science.
While technology was a gameplay system which indeed needed improvement, so too is the series’ ahistorical representation of religion as it relates, or rather fails to relate, to the various other systems which steer societal development. In the most recent iteration, Civilization V, religion (introduced in the Gods and Kings expansion) is implemented thus: first, through various mean, a civilization acquires a resource labeled faith. Whereas other resources in Civilization are more transparent in their real world analog (gold represent the wealth of a civilization relative to others’, production represents the available amount of man hours to dedicate towards construction, culture represents all media and its powerful political influence on people), faith is more obtuse. So far as I can tell, it is not the mere numinous sense of the divine but rather the particular piety which motivates specific social engagements, whether charitable giving, missions, penitential warfare, etc.
With a sufficient amount of faith a civilization can begin to select the doctrines of a religion, starting with a pantheon belief and latter including founder beliefs, follower beliefs, and enhancer beliefs. These beliefs confer unique bonuses, and are selected from a pool available initially to all civilizations, with the caveat that each belief can only be selected once. For example, if Rome selects the founder belief “Papal Primacy,” which confers additional influence over City-States following that religion, then France no longer has the opportunity to latter pick Primacy as well (shattering any hopes for an Avignon papacy).
The mutual exclusivity of these religious beliefs is not itself particularly problematic; one could imagine that the French and Roman religions share some unmentioned commonalities such as monotheism, and that the enumerated beliefs are merely those which differentiate their denominations from one another. After all, even real religions are defined primarily by their distinctions. Rather, Civilization’s depiction of religions is particularly problematic in two respects. First, it ignores the systematic nature which any body of sufficiently developed doctrine tends to take on, and second it divorces the development of doctrines from their historical circumstances.
While real religions, particularly Eastern traditions, permit paradoxes, few tolerate outright contradiction between their various dogmas. Such is the very motivation which fueled the adoption of Trinitarianism at Nicaea. The Church’s historical worship of Jesus as God was incompatible with Arius’ formulation that the Son was a created being; to adopt the latter would be to pronounce three centuries of Christians idolaters, and thus the doctrine of consubstantiality was adopted as it was regarded as reconciling the Church’s prior doctrinal commitments to monotheism and the divinity of Christ.
Over time, this process produced numerous pronouncements dividing orthodoxy from heterodoxy and heresy, each new doctrine informed by and (ideally) informing all others. A major project of medieval Scholasticism was the systemization of such, finding its completion in Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. Following the Reformation, Protestantism inherited this program, with major branches such as Lutheranism attempting to produce their own corpus doctrinae to demonstrate the veracity of their views by better explaining the relation of each core article of faith through the inclusion of their own doctrines, such as Sola Scriptura and Sola Fides.
However, the haphazard hodgepodge of beliefs which a civilization is liable to select under the current gameplay mechanics bears no resemblance to the internal consistency for which actual religious communities continuously strive. The player’s founder belief is in no way informed by his choice of a pantheon belief, nor is his enhancer belief informed by his previous choice of a follower belief. This is particularly unfortunate in that it not only fails to simulate the workings of real world doctrinal development (surely low on the list of Firaxis’ priorities), but that it leads to less interesting gameplay choices. For example, if selecting particular founder belief limited the potential pool of latter enhancer beliefs, such would force the player to be more strategic in weighing immediate benefits against his long-term goals. Or, alternatively, the benefits of beliefs could vary based upon which other beliefs are also adopted; a religion’s definition of “Just War” might differ depending on whether their founders are “Peace Loving” or their followers “Holy Warriors.”
Equally problematic is the divorce of some doctrines from the historical circumstances which enable their development, much along the same line as Beach noted with respect to certain civilizations in the game mastering sailing and navigation while remaining landlocked throughout their history. When selecting an enhancer belief, the player is simply free to place their faith in “Messiah.” However, the historical Jesus of Nazareth was not an aberration of his age but rather the product of a culture awash in messianic expectations, motivated in part by the Roman occupation following the overthrow of the independent Hasmonean kingdom within living memory. The book of Acts in the New Testament even alludes to such, with the Pharisee Gamaliel making mention of two Zealots named Theudas and Judas who preceded Jesus and had both “claimed to be somebody.”
There are a select few beliefs which meaningfully intersect with the historical circumstances created by the player. “Religious Texts” spreads religion faster with the discovery of the printing press technology. Oddly enough, however, this technology has no interaction with the religious revolution it had spawned in actual history: the Reformation. Calls to reform the corruption of the Catholic Church and the papacy in particular dated back to the Conciliar movement, championed by thinkers such as William of Occam. Moreover, Luther’s particular brand of ad fontes Biblicism could trace its roots back through John Hus and John Wycliffe before him. The intellectual framework for Protestantism had long been established, but it was only with the advent of Guttenberg’s printing press that the ideology was able to quickly and widely reach the critical mass of followers to establish a lasting movement.
“Religious Texts” is somewhat of a start, but beliefs should be reworked to more intentionally have their availability and effectiveness influenced by the circumstances particular to a given playthrough. Perhaps that means a belief such as “Messiah” is only available to select when a player’s civilization has recently conquered an enemy city and it remains in unrest. Perhaps a belief such as “Papal Primacy” is enhanced for a civilization’s whose capitol repels a barbarian invasion (reflecting the prominence which the Roman See gained when Leo I, in the absence of strong Imperial leadership in the West, negotiated with Attila the Hun to spare the city of Rome from being sacked).
The particulars of how Firaxis implements such mechanics are of secondary concern. As with the above critique of Civilization V’s beliefs failing to reflect real world systematic theology, this is not merely a failure to properly simulate the process of doctrinal development, but rather a lost opportunity to infuse the gameplay with additional depth; to reduce passivity on the player’s part and increase strategic planning, per the name of the genre (turn based strategy). Given that the design goals for Civilization VI expressly seek to address similar problems with past implementations of technological development – with respect to both gameplay and historicity – Firaxis ought to likewise be aware of the ahistorical representation of religion previously in Civilization as well as the means to rectify such in future expansions and entries.
AdvertisementsA fixie is a bike without a freewheel—think: no coasting—that's often ridden without brakes. It's a simple concept that provokes some serious emotion in the cycling world: Bikers either love fixies or loathe them. To help you decide which side you're on, we start here with an ode to the fixie written by Stephen Regenold, editor and founder of GearJunkie.com. Read on for an anti-fixie screed from Outside Online's editor, Scott Rosenfield, an avid cyclist who's not a fan of the hipster's favored ride.
In Praise of Fixies
The first time I rode a fixie, in 2006, it nearly killed me. My legs locked in motion with the wheels, I built some speed to crest a rise.
On top, I gazed ahead down the hill, and started to descend. In an old habit I stopped pedaling and attempted to coast. Bad move. My cranks bucked sharply and the bike swerved, the pedals forcing my feet in circles as the frame cut air on the steep downhill.
The machine was alive! This horse wanted to run, and I wasn’t about to stop it. I felt a rush, the intoxication of riding on the back of something wild, a little dangerous and, most of all just plain fast and fun.
I haven't quit since.
The fixed-gear experience is like nothing else on two wheels. It's a special feeling, an "almost mystical connection," as bicycle mechanic/muse Sheldon Brown puts it in his well-read "Fixed Gear Bicycles for the Road."
Brown, who died in 2008, was no hipster. He was an old guy with a beard who rode regular and fixed-gear bikes, the latter of which he noted feel "like an extension of your body to a greater extent than does a freewheel-equipped machine."
I go further: Freewheel-equipped bikes, to me, feel broken and limp compared to fixed-gear. By stripping a bike down to its basic design—ditching the freewheel, gears, and sometimes even the brake—you gain ultimate control.
Your body and your riding technique stand in for the missing parts. Your legs are your gas and your brakes. You spin hard for speed, and resist the motion of the rotating cranks when you need to slow down. When you get tired, you can’t coast or shift to an easier gear.
Skeptics see fixed-gear bikes as antiquated or dangerous. Freewheels, gears, and (especially) brakes have become |
let's see what you got."
He raised a fist in the air as he declared he would definitely start over. He would make sure that he didn't let down his parentI’ll totally take no for an answer. No? That’s cool, thanks anyway. Like, I was at the deli the other day, I asked for a pound of peppermill turkey and half a pound of jack cheese. I went home to make myself a sandwich and I opened up those cold cuts. It wasn’t what I had ordered at all. Instead of turkey it was some sort of prosciutto, and the cheese, I don’t even know what this stuff was, it looked like army fatigues, you know, if instead of green and brown they used yellow and white and a slightly less yellow-yellow.
So I went back to the deli, I mean normally I wouldn’t even bother, but the deli is only like a block away from my house. Maybe they messed up my order? Maybe somebody elsen accidentally received my stuff? It was all within the realm of possibility. But when I went to the counter guy, when I asked him, “Hey, did you give me the wrong order?” he just looked at me and said, “No.”
And like I said, whatever, I’ll take no for an answer, I’m easygoing like that, I like being easygoing, I like imagining people talking about me, saying stuff like, “Rob’s really easygoing, never causes any problems.” I went home and made myself the weirdest sandwich I’ve ever eaten in my life. Prosciutto, first of all, I’m not like a huge prosciutto guy, but it’s usually sliced very thin.
Really thin, actually, the few times I’ve found myself talking about prosciutto or reading about it, the thinner the better, that’s what I’ve always taken away. But this stuff was thick, like Virginia ham thick. I didn’t even know how to go about building a sandwich out of this stuff. Like, I’ve had prosciutto with melon, prosciutto wrapped around asparagus.
You know, I said that I’m not a huge prosciutto guy, but now that I’m talking about it, I guess I’ve had more experience with prosciutto than I’ve let on. It’s not my go-to deli meat of choice, hardly, but yeah, I guess it’s in a lot more of my diet than I previously admitted. Like when you go to an Italian restaurant, whatever the special is, it’s always something either stuffed with or wrapped in prosciutto. Stuffed veal with prosciutto. Chicken cutlets wrapped in prosciutto with a wine sauce. Always.
I’ve heard you’re only supposed to use one slice, really, because prosciutto has such an intense flavor. But I was hungry, I had planned on making a piled-high turkey sandwich. I went for two, hoping to offset the taste with extra cheese. But even that, the cheese was so weird tasting. It was kind of smoky, but with almost jelly-like overtones. I’d never tasted anything like it.
Finally, I took a bite, and it was like, I couldn’t even chew through the prosciutto, the ribbons of marbled fat proved way too much for my teeth. After sitting there chewing for upwards of a minute, I finally just tried to swallow whatever was in my mouth, and I almost choked.
Kind of defeated, I eventually just went back to the deli to have them make me a sandwich. Yeah, I felt kind of silly just throwing my money away, but hey, I don’t want to cause any problems, there are so many people just trying their best, going about their days. Who am I to cause a problem?
It was the same deli guy, I told him what I wanted, he didn’t say anything, he just went right for the meat, right over to the slicer. “Hey man, you heard me say peppermill turkey, right? Not oven-gold, right?” But there wasn’t any response, he put way too much mayo, even though I said, “Easy mayo, please.”
But it was fine, you’re not going to catch me whining about a sandwich. Maybe I’ll grow to like mayo even more after this sandwich. I’m just waiting to get really hungry before I take that first bite. I mean, right now, it looks a little unpalatable, but I’ll get there, sooner or later I’ll be shaking, everything will look tasty. And is that really such a big deal? So I have to wait a little longer to eat. I should have such problems, right? Because I’m not looking for a fight, I’m trying to be easygoing. Where everyone else causes a stink, just don’t worry about me, I’ll totally take no for an answer.The seventh edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Grand Champions Cup will be held from September 12 to 17 in the cities of Nagoya and Osaka in Japan. The tournament will be contested in a Round-Robin system. Thus, each team will play against each of the five remaining teams. Points are accumulated during the whole tournament, and the final standing is determined by the total points gained.
Schedule
Nagoya Round (All times are in Japan Standard Time UTC + 9) Date Time Match ups 12 Sep 12:40 France Brazil 12 Sep 15:40 Italy Iran 12 Sep 19:15 Japan United States 13 Sep 12:40 Brazil Italy 13 Sep 15:40 United States Iran 13 Sep 19:15 Japan France
Osaka Round (All times are in Japan Standard Time UTC + 9) Date Time Match Ups 15 Sep 12:40 Iran Brazil 15 Sep 15:40 France United States 15 Sep 19:15 Italy Japan 16 Sep 12:40 United States Brazil 16 Sep 15:40 France Italy 16 Sep 19:15 Japan Iran 17 Sep 11:40 Italy United States 17 Sep 14:40 Iran France 17 Sep 18:15 Brazil Japan
Host Cities
Nagoya, with a population of over two million, is Japan’s fourth largest city. It has flourished since the Edo era as one of the country’s leading urban locations. The city is the birthplace of three notable feudal lords, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu and today plays an important role in Japan’s ceramics, textiles and automobiles industries. Nagoya is the sister city of Los Angeles and Sydney and has long been active in hosting international events, including numerous FIVB competitions.
Osaka is Japan’s third largest and second most important city and has been the economic powerhouse of the Kansai region for many centuries. Many volleyball teams of the V-League, the Japanese Volleyball Premier League, are based In the Kansai-area. Osaka hosted the final of the 2003 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Cup as well as matches of the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Cup in 2007 and FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup 2015.
Teams and Extended Rosters
FIVB announced the four best ranked continents in the 2016 Olympic Games were eligible to participate in the tournament. South America, Europe, North America, and Asia confederations were eligible to send representatives. The representatives were determined by their continental rankings at the Olympic tournament. The four teams will join the host team and a wild card team which to compete for the World Grand Champions Cup title.
For a full review of each teams and VolleyMob power rankings, click here.
Brazil
Team USA
France
N° NAME BIRTHDATE HEIGHT WEIGHT SPIKE BLOCK CLUB 1 Jonas Aguenier 28/04/1992 202 92 340 310 Chaumont VB 52 (FRA) 2 Jenia Grebennikov 13/08/1990 188 85 345 330 AS Lube Volley (ITA) 3 Quentin Jouffroy 05/07/1993 202 100 345 325 Tours VB (FRA) 4 Jean Patry 27/12/1996 207 94 337 314 Montpellier VUC (FRA) 5 Trevor Clevenot 28/06/1994 199 89 335 316 Volley Piacenza (ITA) 6 Benjamin Toniutti 30/10/1989 183 73 320 300 Zaksa Kędzierzyn-Koźle (POL) 7 Kevin Tillie 02/11/1990 200 85 345 325 Zaksa Kedzierzyn (POL) 8 Julien Lyneel 15/04/1990 192 87 345 325 Porto Robur Costa Ravenna(ITA) 9 Earvin Ngapeth 12/02/1991 194 101 358 327 Modena Volley (ITA) 10 Kevin Le Roux 11/05/1989 209 98 365 345 Modena Volley (ITA) 11 Antoine Brizard 22/05/1994 196 96 340 310 Toulouse OAC-TUC (FRA) 12 Stephen Boyer 10/04/1996 196 85 335 314 Chaumont VB 52 (FRA) 14 Nicolas Le Goff 15/02/1992 206 105 365 328 Istanbul BBSK (TUR) 16 Daryl Bultor 17/11/1995 197 94 342 317 Montpellier VUC (FRA) 17 Guillaume Quesque 29/04/1989 204 87 350 325 Fenerbahce SK (TUR) 18 Thibault Rossard 28/08/1993 193 85 350 320 Resovia Rzeszow (POL) 19 Meliuahel Takaniko 29/05/1985 194 92 340 330 GFC Ajaccio VB (FRA) 20 Nicolas Rossard 23/05/1990 183 64 315 305 Toulouse OAC-TUC (FRA) 21 Barthélémy Chinenyeze 28/02/1998 200 80 357 332 Toulouse OAC-TUC (FRA) 24 Thomas Nevot 30/04/1995 192 84 320 305 Tours VB (FRA)
Italy
Iran
N° NAME BIRTHDATE HEIGHT WEIGHT SPIKE BLOCK CLUB 1 Farhad Salafzoon 06/12/1992 200 81 320 313 Matin Varna 2 Milad Ebadipour 17/10/1993 196 78 350 310 Shahrdari Urmia 3 Saman Faezi 23/08/1991 204 87 343 335 Paykan 4 Saeid Marouflakrani 20/10/1985 189 81 331 311 Shahrdari Urmia 5 Farhad Ghaemi 28/08/1989 197 73 355 335 Paykan 6 Seyed Eraghi 22/08/1987 203 86 362 344 Sarmayeh Bank 7 Amirhossein Esfandiar 24/01/1999 205 110 330 310 Kalleh Mazandaran 8 Mostafa Heydari 14/12/1991 175 68 263 259 Saipa 10 Amir Ghafour 06/06/1991 202 90 354 334 Paykan 11 Farhad Afshar 22/05/1984 195 93 320 308 Paykan 12 Mojtaba Mirzajanpour 07/10/1991 205 88 355 348 Paykan 13 Javad Karimisouchelmaei 01/03/1998 204 104 330 310 Kalleh Mazandaran 14 M. Manavinezhad 27/11/1995 200 84 340 320 Paykan 15 Amin Esmaeilnezhad 17/12/1996 203 90 343 332 Paykan 16 Ali Shafiei 21/09/1991 190 80 348 345 Bank Keshavarzi 17 Reza Ghara 31/07/1991 200 87 351 331 Kalleh 18 Rahman Zadeh 26/07/1995 205 98 348 328 Parseh 19 Mahdi Marandi 12/05/1986 172 69 295 280 Paykan 20 Masoud Gholami 02/04/1990 204 93 349 331 SAIPA 21 Salim Cheperli 19/12/1996 201 80 340 330 Paykan
JapanThe ladies of ABC’s “The View” have a unique idea for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential election ticket: Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea.
Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and their co-hosts sat down Wednesday with Chelsea Clinton to discuss her new book, “She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World.” The talk covered ways the Clinton family dealt with President Trump’s Election Day victory before broaching the subject of her future political ambitions.
“When your mother didn’t win the election, a lot of people on my team were very upset and devastated — and really surprised,” Ms. Behar said, media watchdog NewsBusters reported Wednesday. “Your mother, too. I mean, I saw her commencement speech and she’s saying, you know, she hit the bottle.”
“Well, [that’s] a little bit of an overstatement,” replied the guest.
Ms. Clinton then spoke about “fake news” and climate change before co-host Sara Haines cornered her on future professional plans.
“You said you’re not interested in running for political office, but your political tweets do give people hope,” Ms. Haines said while holding up a “Clinton-Clinton 2020” bumper sticker. “Is there anything that would change your mind?”
The audience burst into applause and cheers as “Clinton-Clinton 2020” also appeared on a giant television screen.
“As I’ve said before, I don’t think being a citizen is something that just happens on Election Day,” Ms. Clinton said. “I think registering to vote, showing up to vote is hugely important. I also think standing up for what we believe, saying what we believe, saying what we’re both for and against, standing in opposition to and in affirmation of is hugely important. … I hope that we will have more women throwing their hat in the ring, and I look forward to supporting some of those women in the future.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - An Indonesian regency has passed legislation requiring schools to teach boys and girls separately and hopes to follow that up with a ban prohibiting the two sexes from riding motorcycles together.
Aceh, the only province that abides by Islamic sharia law in the Muslim-dominated nation, has over the years passed a series of strict faith-based regulations that has put it at odds with the rest of the country.
North Aceh last week approved the legislation, which also requires the Koran be read every night, and submitted it to the provincial government for approval.
“What we do now will be just like what happens currently in traditional Islamic boarding schools,” said Fauzan Hamzah, a member of the regency’s legislature.
“I hope this policy won’t only be implemented in the North Aceh regency but in the entire province.”
Lawmakers would next begin discussing legislation banning men and women from riding motorcycles together, Hamzah said.
“I believe there won’t be any obstacles (to this proposed law) because the majority of people support it,” he said.
Lawmakers in 2013 banned women from sitting on motorcycles except side-saddle, but the regulation has rarely been enforced.
The province also passed an anti-homosexuality law in October that punishes anyone caught having gay sex with 100 lashes.
Indonesia agreed to allow Aceh to use Islamic sharia law as its legal code as part of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a three-decade-old separatist movement.YEREVAN, JULY 11, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Parliament Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov says the Armenian President’s speech at the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the NATO member and non-member states sent a number of clear messages to the international community. In particular, Serzh Sargsyan emphasized that the Armenian sides are exclusively in favor of peace.
“The President’s speech clearly emphasized that both the Republic of Armenia, and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic are in support of the lasting peace, we should prepare our society to peace, rather than to war. The Armenian sides are not the threats of war in the region, rather Azerbaijan remains the threat of war, I will add Turkey as well”, “Armenpress” reports, Sharmazanov said to journalists.
He said the Armenian President with his speech highlighted that both NATO, and any other international platform are not the place of discussion of Nagorno Karabakh, there is a concrete structure for it. “Contrary to Ilham Aliyev’s statements and the assessments by the Azerbaijani media, the Armenian President clearly stated that NATO is not the platform for the discussion of the Nagorno Karabakh issue, a concrete structure exists for that. To transform the Nagorno Karabakh settlement issue to other platforms including the PACE, NATO, are unacceptable and contradict to the numerous statements of the Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries”, Sharmazanov said.
Sharmazanov said the Armenian President highlighted that the agreements reached in the Vienna and St. Petersburg meetings must be implemented which are constantly not being done by Azerbaijan. “Azerbaijan must install trust, investigative mechanisms, the rights of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office must be expanded”, he said adding that there has been a talk also over the 1994-1995 termless ceasefire agreements.
Eduard Sharmazanov also stated that the Armenian President directly said the status quo is not beneficial for us. Serzh Sargsyan clearly emphasized that no one can reject the right to self-determination of the NKR people. “The NKR people must shape their own fate. The main obstacle of this is Azerbaijan which rejects the NKR people’s right to self-determination. We think that the status quo should be changed, but for that it is necessary to recognize the NKR people’s right to self-determination. There is a need to eliminate the reasons, not the consequences of this conflict”, the Deputy Parliament Speaker said.While online data storage services claim your data is encrypted, there are no guarantees. With recent revelations that the federal government taps into the files of Internet search engines, email and cloud service providers, any myth about data "privacy" on the Internet has been busted.
Experts say there's simply no way to ever be completely sure your data will remain secure once you've moved it to the cloud.
"You have no way of knowing. You can't trust anybody. Everybody is lying to you," said security expert Bruce Schneier. "How do you know which platform to trust? They could even be lying because the U.S. government has forced them to."
While providers of email, chat, social network and cloud services often claim -- even in their service agreements -- that the data they store is encrypted and private, most often they -- not you -- are the ones who hold the keys. That means a rogue employee or any government "legally" requesting encryption keys can decrypt and see your data.
Even when service providers say only customers can generate and maintain their own encryption keys, Schneier said there's no way to be sure others won't be able to gain access.
For example, Apple's SMS/MMS-like communications platform, iMessage, claims both voice and text are encrypted and can't be heard or seen by third parties. But because the product isn't open source, "there's no way for us to know how it works," said Dan Auerbach, a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "It seems because of the way it works on functionality, they do have a way to access it. The same goes for iCloud."
Freedom of Information Act requests by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed earlier this year that the U.S. government claims the right to read personal online data without warrants.
"It is the case everywhere in the world that governments seem to believe that if data is recorded and available, they should be able to access it," said Jay Heiser, an analyst at research firm Gartner. "It's not unique to the U.S., although the United States brags about it to a unique degree."
In addition to the fact that the government has admitted to collecting "metadata" (data that describes your data) on, well, everybody, it's also true that Internet giants such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo have for years been handing over data in response to government requests.
Google regularly gets requests from governments and courts around the world to hand over user data. Last year, it said it received 21,389 government requests for information affecting 33,634 user accounts. And, 66% of the time, Google provided at least some data in response.
During the same period, Microsoft received 70,665 requests affecting 122,015 accounts -- more than three times the number Google received. Only 2.2% of those requests resulted in Microsoft turning over actual content; 1,558 accounts were affected by that activity. Another 79.8% of the requests resulted in disclosure of subscriber or transactional information; that activity affected 56,388 accounts.
A cottage industry is growing up around tools that enable consumers to place virtual padlocks on data they keep in the cloud so the vendors themselves can't get to the information -- even if the government asks for it.
New documents that the ACLU obtained from the FBI and U.S. attorneys' offices revealed startling realities around the government's email surveillance practices. In March, the ACLU also obtained documents showing that the IRS sometimes reads citizens' emails without first obtaining a court order.
Who has your back?
When it comes to using cloud services, Auerbach said there are no black-and-white guidelines regarding what you can and can't trust the service providers to store.
"A lot of people may not mind that the [cloud service] company may pass some of their data to the government," Auerbach said. "Other types of data they may be more concerned about."
For example, if you're a consumer and you're storing photos, videos, digital music or innocuous documents on a cloud storage service, you may not mind that a hacker or the government gets access to your files. And if you're a company that's archiving nonsensitive historical records -- financial statements, presentations, news releases or marketing materials -- again, there may be no concern about who sees it.
But even if you're not concerned about keeping certain types of data private, it's good to know whether a service provider will try to protect your information from government intrusion.
"There are also companies that have friendlier policies... that demonstrate they fight for users and try to push back against unreasonable government requests for data," Auerbach said. "Who's got your back? Does this company require a warrant for customer data? We give companies stars based on whether they meet that criteria."
The EFF, a privacy advocacy group, has filed a lawsuit challenging the NSA's spy program. It has also created a website that rates 19 of largest Internet companies on how hard they try to protect your data. The EFF site "Who Has Your Back" awards companies gold stars based on each of these six criteria:While McDonalds’ entry into the Vietnamese market has been getting a ton of press, another American fast food chain just made its Vietnam debut – Dairy Queen.
After opening their first Saigon location at 346 Hai Bà Trưng last week, the fast food/ice cream parlor currently has stores in 26 countries.
The chain, which hopes to open 60 shops in Vietnam over the next five years, signed a multi-unit deal with QSR Vietnam Trading One Member Company Limited.
Related Articles:
- Vietnam's First McDonald's to Open in HCMC After Tet
- Dunkin’ Donuts Prepares to Open in Saigon
- Harley-Davidson's First Vietnam Dealership is Open for Business
The Dairy Queen franchise has more than 6,400 locations, 1,285 of which are located outside of North America.
Offering much more variation in their stores compared to the fast food big boys, it looks like the company is taking a hyperlocal strategy when constructing their menus, according to Mark Reilly, Managing Editor of the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:
”So what works for Dairy Queen in international markets? Largely the same strategy as at home: Finding a good franchise partner, picking a good location and being savvy enough to market to local tastes — Dairy Queen's Asian stores include flavors like red bean or almond ice cream.”
Red bean ice cream? We’re in.
[QSR Web // Photo via JD Hancock]Chicago resident Itemad “Angel” Almatar, who is accusing Chicago police of racial profiling
A Muslim woman running to catch a train in Chicago last year was tackled and arrested for no reason — and now she’s claiming to be a victim of racial profiling.
CBS Chicago is reporting that Itemad “Angel” Almatar last year was running to make a train at the State/Lake station when she was tackled by several officers who tore off her hijab and opened up a backpack that contained food she had to end her Ramadan fast.
The police arrested her and charged her with reckless conduct and resisting arrest, although this week a judge found her not guilty of these charges. Although prosecutors claimed that the police told her to stop as they chased her up the stairs, video surveillance footage shows that no other passengers climbing the stairs with her turned around as the police charged up the stairs, which makes it hard to believe they were shouting at anyone.
“She was strip searched, videographed, and at the same time men were allowed to see her naked,” said Imam Malick Mujahid, a Muslim community leader in Chicago. “This is the ultimate horror you can do to a Muslim woman.”
“We know a couple things. There’s a Constitution, and the Constitution says you can’t just grab people for no reason whatsoever,” said Aaron Goldstein, an attorney at the Cook County Public Defender’s office.
Check out the full local news report on this case below.Like the fictional parents in the edgy comedy show South Park who blame Canada for all of their woes, environmentals often coalesce around an issue and then come up with a simple but sometimes simplistic narrative to anchor their advocacy.
We've seen that with fracking, which is often blamed for massive groundwater pollution (the EPA has rejected that claim) and methane gas release (rejected by numerous independent researchers). The decades long decline in the global frog population is often blamed on atrazine, although the decline is mostly occurring where atrazine is not used, and recent study by the leading anti-atrazine crusader has now found that exposure to atrazine made zero difference in frog health.
Let's call it the environmental crisis narrative. Empirical evidence rarely stops memes from flooding the Internet, filling up environmental blogs and showing up in letters appealing for donations to support causes built around an impending ecological reckoning. Scare stories work.
This is certainly true in the debate over GMOs, and the emerging poster children for their alleged dangers: birds and bees, pollinators who will supposedly face devastation if the crop biotechnology revolution continues unabated.
In the GMO debate, the focus for years had been on safety concerns. GMOs cause allergies, autism, cancer... almost every major disease has been cited on one site or another. Those claims have been put to rest by hundreds of independent studies. One global science group after another has came out with statements that GM foods are as safe or safer than organic and conventional foods. The science eventually won the minds of the mainstream media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Scientific American and most recently USA Today and Slate, all of which reaffirm the safety of GMOs criticize anti-GMO campaigners for deliberate manipulation of the science and reject singling out GM foods for labeling. The 'GMOs are dangerous' meme door is now closed.
Credit activists for ingenuity. Indefatigable in their opposition to crop biotechnology, they've recently shifted their anti-GMO focus to the back box of 'dangerous' chemicals, which they claim are inextricably tied to GMOs and modern agriculture, and are the real problem. To help emotionalize their campaign, they've come up with an iconic symbol to encapsulate their outrage: the honeybee.
Are honeybees threatened?
It's been estimated that for five years, until 2013, some 30 percent of honeybees in the United States either disappeared or failed to survive winters to pollinate blossoms in the spring. That was about 50% more than the rate expected.
What caused the die-offs and why were bees dying in higher numbers in California and parts of Europe but thriving in other countries in Europe, Western Canada and Australia?
Many advocacy environmental groups and some journalists initially blamed GMOs for bee deaths, and some still make that claim, although there is zero evidence to back it up. When that didn't get traction, their ire switched to a class of pesticides known popularly as neonics.
"It's time to ban dangerous neonicotinoid pesticides," read a headline in Mother Earth News. Highly charged words like "beepocalypse" or "beemageddon" began turning up everywhere on the Internet. As measured a reporter as NPR's Dan Charles characterized bee health in 2013 as "a crisis point for crops."
Those claims proved alarmist. Over the past two winters, the perceived crisis has sharply receded as bee survival rates have improved dramatically, particularly in North America and Europe. But the initial hyperbolic reports had hardened into a mainstream media meme; no amount of field evidence was able to change the arc of scare based reporting to focus on the actual evidence. With the media die cast and op-eds appearing weekly demanding action, regulators--besieged by activist protests--acquiesced to public pressure to 'do something,' whether based on the latest science or not.
Even their sharpest critics among NGOs acknowledge that neonics are extremely effective. Often applied only to the soil or used as a seed treatment, they were introduced in the mid-1990s without incident as a less toxic replacement for the mass spraying of organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides, which are both known to kill bees and wildlife. Organophosphates in particular have been linked to health problems in farm workers. Despite their comparatively benign toxicological profile, however, neonics have emerged as Public Enemy Number 1 in the eyes of anti-pesticide campaigners.
This belief is problematic to farmers and not at all helpful to bees. In 2013, panicked European Commissioners passed a two-year ban on neonics after sketchy reports of higher-than-normal winter deaths. Now the unintended consequences of what seems like a hasty decision are emerging.
The commission's moratorium vote came despite contradictory field evidence--and well before the release of a spate of new studies suggesting that bee health had been improving globally even while neonics have been in use.
According to the latest report from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, world-wide bee populations have been steadily increasing over the past decade and have hit a record high--considerably higher than when neonics first came on the market in the mid 1990s. Both Europe and the US are at or near all time highs.
Sources: USDA and Statistics Canada
The US Department of Agriculture reported bee deaths have dropped nearly 25% over the past two winters and the overall population has increased 17% since 2008. Beehives regenerate quickly in the summer, so normal winter losses don't necessarily translate into declining populations, which is why initial reports should not be taken at face value, as many reporters do. Overwinter losses in the US are now just a few points above the 18.9% average losses considered acceptable by beekeepers, according to USDA's Bee Informed Partnership, which runs the annual survey.
Meanwhile, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a fearful term that invariably finds its way into advocacy scare-o-grams and sympathetic media accounts, has come and gone as a major threat. Dennis van Englesdorp, the University of Maryland Researcher who coined the term, said last year that he had not seen a true case of CCD--a unique phenomenon involving bees abandoning their hives--in more than three years.
The Department of Agriculture announced in March that honey production, which had been disrupted after CCD devastated the bee population nine years ago, continues to improve, up 14 percent. The total number of hives also increased again, by 100,000 or 4 percent, as it had increased the year before and the year before that.
The EU annually catalogues bee health. The recently released Epilobee Survey covering the winter 2013-2014, found overwinter bee losses dramatically down and well within normal ranges, below 15.4%. Considering the improving health of bees, farmers who have been hit hard by the neonics ban are pressing the EU to lift the moratorium. A working paper by the UK's Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture had estimated the EU ban could cost Europe €17 billion over five years if farmers are forced to continue to use to less efficient chemicals and land-use practices. To control pests, European farmers faced with the neonics ban have been forced to turn to more toxic chemicals: organophosphates and pyrethroids, known pollinator destructors that also pose human health hazards.
Field research shows no bee crisis while lab tests over dose bees
The surveys reinforce the latest field research findings: neonics are not a driving cause of bee deaths. Sure, if you feed bees catastrophically high doses of neonics you can kill them--Harvard's Chensheng Lu's controversial studies published in fringe pay-for-play journals showed that. Lu's research has been savaged by the mainstream science community.
A 2014 report in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (ETC) reviewed bee health over multiple years and reached a similar conclusion: "The epidemiological evidence from Europe shows no correlation of honeybee losses to pesticide use and indicates the presence of causal factors other than pesticides."
That ETC also noted the disjunction between controlled experiments in labs and reports from farms. When force-fed or injected with neonics, bees have shown disturbing effects. But most entomologists are cautious about the meaningfulness of such research. In contrast, studies monitoring bees in fields have shown little or no adverse effects where neonics are used. Lab studies that make research so attractive to scientists looking for quick answers often make it impossible to account for the complex activity in hives, which many scientists believe self-regulate, naturally clearing toxins. Neonics, ETC researchers concluded, "do not cause acute toxic effects on foraging honey bees or significant health effects to colonies."
A string of recent studies looking at the relationship of pesticides found in pollen to honey bee colony health to neonics underscored the questionable laboratory research. Independent researchers funded by the USDA, publishing in March in PLOS ONE, politely slammed many past studies that hyped pesticides, neonics in particular, as the likely driving cause of declining bee health.
Sébastien Kessler's lab in Newcastle in the UK confirmed findings in other field studies that bees suffer no observable negative effect even at field relevant doses well more than ten times the concentration one would expect in pollen and nectar. This is consistent with the findings of a four year monitoring study published in 2013 that found no effect on bee mortality, foraging behaviors, colony development and overwintering success following exposure to neonic treated oilseed rape.
Even European scientists whose controlled lab studies prompted the European ban are backtracking from past alarmist claims. According to Mickaël Henry, a researcher at France's government-funded agricultural research institute, "The dose we have used might overestimate the dose on the field." In fact, he said, "We have no real clues of what proper, realistic dose you should use in such an experiment."
Henry's study had found that honeybees exposed to neonics were less able to navigate back to their colonies. But just this spring, non-industry Swedish researchers looking at the impact of the chemicals in realistic agricultural settings, concluded neonics have no impact on honeybees.
A joint report by the Agriculture Department and the EPA issued two years ago concluded that pesticides while a minor contributor were way down the list of likely causes. They cited as the primary drivers: colony management, viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition, genetics and habitat loss. By far the biggest culprit--the report called it "the single most detrimental pest of honeybees"--was identified as the parasitic mite varroa destructor--which along with Nosema parasite are considered the leading threats to bee health.
As it's become increasingly clear that pathogens are the driving problem for honey bees, not neonics, ban advocates have tried to hype the synergy theory: that pesticides. neonicotinoids in particular, work nefariously in tandem with pathogens and parasites--there is a synergistic effect--to weaken bees. But the latest science doesn't agree.
"We show that pesticide exposure and pathogen infection have not yet been found to interact to affect worker survival under field-realistic scenarios," concluded researchers in a study published earlier in July. The synergistic theory, which is attractive to activists in part because it is almost impossible to evaluated, has been fueled by lab studies that overdose bees while field studies do not show an effect. That's exactly what has been the case in prior poorly constructed but well publicized lab studies, notably Lu's work, which turned bees into helpless neonic drunks.
What about wild bees? The great activist pivot
For over four years now, environmental activists have been claiming that we are in the midst of a catastrophic decline in honeybees. Now that bee numbers are hitting records, regulators are left without a rationale for bans or moratoriums on neonics, the advocacy narrative has changed course. Ban proponents have now declared a new crisis. The catastrophic decline isn't with honeybees, they claim; it's with wild bees.
Fuel to that thesis came with the April publication of a new Nature study by Swedish scientist Maj Rundlöf. The study is really in two parts: one for honeybees and one for wild bees. The well-designed honeybee study confirmed findings of multiple other field studies, demonstrating that neonicotinoids have no effect on honeybees--a finding that sent shockwaves through |
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Alan Keyes Is Making Sense [ edit ]
Alan Keyes Is Making Sense was an opinionated news show led by conservative Alan Keyes. MSNBC canceled the program after a few months, citing low ratings; however, the move resulted in a network boycott by many Jewish Americans who claimed Keyes was fired for his pro-Israel political views.[33]
Buchanan & Press [ edit ]
The debate show Buchanan & Press debuted in 2002, and featured conservative Pat Buchanan and liberal Bill Press. It became very intense, but when the Iraq War started in March 2003, both were decidedly against the war, which led to the program's cancellation in 2003.
Donahue [ edit ]
In 2002, liberal and anti-war activist Phil Donahue came back to MSNBC and hosted his own show, Donahue. Donahue's ratings plummeted, from 660,000 households in his first week to just 136,000 households in his sixth week, a drop of 80%.[34] MSNBC publicly proclaimed support for Donahue and moved some shows to try to stabilize his ratings, helping to increase his viewership to 446,000 households.[35] Donahue himself claimed that MSNBC was trying to "out-fox" Fox by removing him and adding Joe Scarborough to the lineup.[36] Donahue's time slot was replaced by Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
The Savage Nation [ edit ]
Conservative Michael Savage was hired by MSNBC president Erik Sorenson to host a one-hour show, The Savage Nation, which debuted on March 8, 2003; Savage's hiring occurred despite his previous criticism of the network in his book, also titled The Savage Nation, and the objections of NBC employees like anchor Tom Brokaw, who asked NBC executives, "Is this the sort of man who embodies the values of NBC?"[37] Sorenson, at the time, called Savage "brash, passionate and smart," and promised that he would provide "compelling opinion and analysis with an edge."[38]
From the very beginning of his stint at MSNBC, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) urged the show's sponsors to stop advertising on the show. Savage did not sue GLAAD, but Talk Radio Network Inc. (TRN), which syndicated his radio show, did sue the owners of three small non-commercial websites that had criticized Savage and endorsed the call for advertisers to withdraw their support for the show: savagestupidity.com, michaelsavagesucks.com, and takebackthemedia.com. The suit alleged that the defendants had caused Savage financial damage by interfering with his relationship with advertisers, had used material from The Michael Savage Show without permission, and had spread "false and malicious" information about Savage.[39]
Savage was eventually fired only a few months later, in the wake of telling a caller to his show, "You should only get AIDS and die, you pig".[40][41]
Scarborough Country [ edit ]
MSNBC hired former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough in 2003, and he became the host of the discussion program Scarborough Country. The show average 300,000 viewers a night at the 9 pm slot. It became one of the very few successful shows, that lasted for four years until its cancellation in 2007.
Jesse Ventura's America [ edit ]
After retiring as Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura got his own show on MSNBC that aired on Saturdays. Jesse Ventura's America was canceled after a few months.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann [ edit ]
The show's logo, used from 2003 to October 19, 2007.
Countdown, originally titled Countdown: Iraq when it premiered on October 7, 2002, was hosted by Lester Holt. The program focused completely on the military and diplomatic actions which would become the Iraq War. Countdown: Iraq aired at 7 pm and replaced a show hosted by Jerry Nachman, which was moved up to 5 pm before its eventual cancellation. In addition, a daytime version of Countdown entitled Countdown: 2002 Election aired from October 25, 2002, to November 2002. On March 28, 2003, MSNBC announced it was (re-)hiring Keith Olbermann to host the 8 pm hour of Countdown. The show dropped the Iraq subtitle and was retitled Countdown with Keith Olbermann. The 7 pm hour of Countdown was replaced by Hardball with Chris Matthews. Holt was reassigned to anchor rolling news coverage during the day.
The show was known for Olbermann's fast-paced rhetorical style, historical and pop culture references, ready interjections, and strong and often scathingly stated opinions. Olbermann melded news stories, both serious and light, with commentary, much of it critical of the Bush administration. The show has been the source of some controversy due to these criticisms, as well as its host's ongoing criticism of MSNBC rival Fox News Channel – which he refers to as "Fixed News", "Fox Noise", "Faux News" and "Fixed Noise" – and his feud with rival commentator Bill O'Reilly of Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor, whose show ran directly opposite Countdown. The show's absence of guests who challenge Olbermann's views was noted by Howard Rosenberg in a commentary published in the Los Angeles Times. "At least O'Reilly invites dissenters to his lair (if only to disembowel them)," wrote Rosenberg, "Whereas Countdown is more or less an echo chamber in which Olbermann and like-minded bobbleheads nod at each other."[42]
The show became the highest-rated and most successful program on MSNBC. In the first quarter of 2008, the show averaged 907,000 viewers a day, compared with about 550,000 viewers for Hardball with Chris Matthews which aired before it.[43] This was an increase of about 230,000 daily viewers from the third quarter of 2007.[44] Countdown has been referred to as the "flagship" MSNBC franchise, so much so that on February 15, 2007, Olbermann received a four-year contract extension, which included two Countdown primetime specials on NBC.
Leadership under President Rick Kaplan (2004–2006) [ edit ]
Former CNN chief Rick Kaplan was hired to run MSNBC, replacing Erik Sorenson as President at the helm of the last-place cable news network. An award-winning producer at ABC News, Kaplan headed CNN's domestic operations from 1997 to 2000. After teaching at Harvard, Kaplan returned to ABC News in 2003 to help plan Iraq war coverage. Under Sorenson, MSNBC averaged 373,000 viewers in prime time, compared with CNN's 927,000 and Fox News's 1.62 million.[45] Rick Kaplan is identified by critics as a liberal because of his friendship with Bill Clinton.[46]
On December 23, 2005, it was announced that NBC Universal would acquire an additional 32% share of the MSNBC network from Microsoft, solidifying its control over television operations and allowing NBC to further consolidate MSNBC's backroom operations with NBC News and its other cable properties. msnbc.com would continue to be 50% owned by both NBC and Microsoft, and its operations would be largely unaffected. The purchase gave NBC the option to buy the remaining 18% share from Microsoft after two years. Rumors circulated that the cable network would eventually be rebranded as NBC News Channel, a name currently used for the network's news service to NBC affiliates.
Programs debuted under Kaplan's leadership [ edit ]
MSNBC's current studio in NYC.
Connected: Coast to Coast [ edit ]
Connected: Coast to Coast was a debate program that was co-hosted by conservative Monica Crowley and liberal Ron Reagan Jr.. The program aired in the 5 pm timeslot. It was canceled a few months later in 2005.
Rita Cosby: Live & Direct [ edit ]
Rita Cosby hosted her own news/talk show called Rita Cosby: Live & Direct in the 10 pm slot against Fox News Channel's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. Live & Direct was canceled a year later in 2006.
The Situation with Tucker Carlson [ edit ]
Kaplan hired libertarian/conservative Tucker Carlson from CNN to host his own show at 6 pm ET, the political talk show The Situation with Tucker Carlson, which debuted in 2005. The program, which was later renamed simply Tucker, lasted for three years until it was replaced in 2008 by Race to the White House and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Leadership under GM Dan Abrams (2006–2008) [ edit ]
A week following the column, Rick Kaplan resigned as president of MSNBC, after holding the post for two years.[47] He said that
We've increased MSNBC's viewership 25% in prime time and 19% in dayside. It is not often in professional life that someone has the opportunity to end his tenure on such a high note.[48]
Following the announcement, it was announced on June 12, 2006, that Dan Abrams, a nine-year veteran of MSNBC and NBC News, had been named general manager of MSNBC, effective immediately. NBC News Senior Vice President Phil Griffin would oversee MSNBC. Griffin would also continue to oversee NBC News' Today, and Abrams would report to Griffin.
On June 29, 2006, Abrams announced a revamp to MSNBC's early evening and primetime schedule. On July 10, Tucker (formerly The Situation with Tucker Carlson) started airing at 4 and 6 pm ET (taking over Abrams' old timeslot), while Rita Cosby's Live & Direct was taken off the schedule. Cosby was instead given the role of primary anchor for MSNBC Investigates at 10 and 11 pm ET, a new program that took over Cosby and Carlson's timeslots. According to the press release, MSNBC Investigates promised to "... complement MSNBC's existing programming by building on [the network's] library of award winning documentaries."[49] The move to taped programming during 10 and 11 pm was likely a result of the success that the network saw with their Friday "experiment" of replacing all primetime programming with taped specials. On April 11, 2007, the television simulcast of Don Imus' radio program Imus in the Morning was canceled after Imus made controversial remarks about the Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's basketball team, referring to some members of the team as "nappy headed hoes".[50] (since October 5, 2009, Imus has aired on the Fox Business Network, previously airing on RFD-TV after being canceled by MSNBC).
On October 22, 2007, MSNBC moved to its new headquarters in New York City at the newly renovated 3rd and 4th floors of 30 Rockefeller Center.[51] Studio 3A debuted that morning when MSNBC's Morning Joe opened its broadcast from the studio at 6 am ET.
Programs debuted under Abrams' leadership [ edit ]
Verdict with Dan Abrams [ edit ]
While serving as general manager of the network, Abrams appointed himself to host his own show following Matthews and Olbermann in the 9 pm timeslot, Verdict with Dan Abrams. The show was a revamped version of Abrams' previous show on MSNBC in 2001, The Abrams Report.
Doc Block [ edit ]
Abrams decided in June 2006 to cancel Rita Cosby's show at the 10 pm slot and replace it with documentary programming.[52]
Race for the White House [ edit ]
Tucker Carlson's program was canceled in March 2008 and replaced at the 6 pm slot with Race for the White House, hosted by David Gregory. The show was later renamed 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in November after the election.A disfiguring tropical disease that had been contained to Syria has now spread across the Middle East as millions are displaced from the war-torn region.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease spread by bites from infected sand flies.
It can lead to severe scarring, often on the face, and regularly goes undiagnosed and untreated.
A disfiguring tropical disease that had been contained to Syria has now spread into its neighbouring countries
This map shows how the disease has spread out of Syria into countries such as Jordan, Iraq and Turkey
This graphic shows the spread of the sand flies across the Middle East that allowed the disease to thrive
The disease had been contained to Syria, particularly to regions under ISIS control such as Raqqa, Deir al-Zour and Hasakah.
The civil war has devastated the country's medical facilities, seen thousands of health workers killed and hospitals destroyed.
Along with the chronic lack of water and bombed out buildings, this created a ripe breeding ground for the sand flies and allowed the disease to thrive.
It had previously been claimed by the Kurdish Red Crescent that the spread of the disease had also been caused by ISIS dumping rotting corpses on the streets. This has been refuted by the scientists at the School of Tropical Medicines.
As more than four million Syrians have fled the region, the disease has now moved into its neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Between 2000 and 2012, there were only six reported cases of the disease in Lebanon.
But in 2013 alone there were 1,033 cases reported, of which 96 per cent occurred among the displaced Syrian refugees, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Turkey, Jordan, Easter Libya and Yemen have also reported hundreds of cases.
With Yeminis migrating to Saudi Arabia, the fear is the disease might spread there too.
There could even be refugees with the disease who have reached Europe.
Scientists have warned about 'ring fencing' the disease or risking another situation like Ebola
WHAT IS LEISHMANIASIS AND HOW IS THIS DEADLY DISEASE SPREAD? According to the World Health Organisation, there are three main forms of the disease and are spread by more than 20 parasites: Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: This is the most common form of the disease and causes ulcers on exposed parts of the body. It can also lead to disfigurement, permanent scarring, stigma and disability. Visceral Leishmaniasis: This is the most severe form of the disease and can be fatal if left untreated. The disease targets the major organs and causes irregular bouts of fever, weight loss as well as enlargement of the liver and spleen. Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis: This is the most destructive form of the disease, eating away at the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth and throat.
Many of the temporary refugee settlements can increase the risk of picking up the disease because of malnutrition, poor housing, deficient medical facilities and overcrowding.
This, coupled with the favourable climate - the sand flies only operate in humid temperatures [a minimum of 27/28 degrees at night] - has created the conditions for the disease to spread.
For instance, refugee settlements in Nizip in southern Turkey have reported several hundred cases.
Speaking to MailOnline, Dr Waleed Al-Salem, one of the authors of the research was carried out in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said: 'It's a very bad situation. The disease has spread dramatically in Syria, but also into countries like Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and even into southern Europe with refugees coming in.
'There are thousands of cases in the region but it is still underestimated because no one can count the exact number of people affected.
'When people are bitten by a sand-fly - which are tiny and smaller than a mosquito - it can take anything between two to six months to have the infection.
'So someone might have picked it up in Syria but then they may have fled into Lebanon or Turkey, or even into Europe as they seek refuge.
'Prior to the outbreak of war there was good control of diseases, parasites and sand flies but when the conflict started no one cared, conditions worsened and the health system broke down, which has created an ideal environment for disease outbreaks.'
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of 17 tropical diseases categorized as 'neglected' by the WHO.
To tackle the disease, scientists have called for early detection and treatment, training for doctors, improving conditions in refugee camps and continued surveillance after containing the outbreak.The boy, 3, who got fed up with trying to pick up a teddy bear in the arcade machine... and crawled inside instead
They say the fun's in the taking part. But someone forgot to explain that to Christopher Air.
And when his mother Elaine took the three-year-old to the games arcade on the family's holiday in Skegness, he just wanted to get his hands on the winnings.
For a while, he had been playing happily on the crane machine, trying to pick up a teddy bear with its mechanical arm. But he wasn't having any success.
Trapped: Little Christopher was stuck in the machine for one and a half hours
And as Mrs Air went to change a £20 note so he could try again, Christopher took matters into his own hands. Rather like a scene in the film Toy Story, he spotted the flap on the machine, from where the prizes are delivered, and squeezed inside.
Mrs Air said: 'My back was only turned for a minute. When I looked around, Christopher was inside.
'He's good at solving problems. He obviously saw getting the teddy bear as a problem and getting inside the machine as the answer.' For Christopher, at last united with the bear, it was the perfect solution... in the short term at least.
Reunited: Christopher Air with Winnie and parents Peter, 33, and Elaine, 33
But it proved more difficult to get out, than in - especially as the arcade owner couldn't locate the keys.
Mrs Air, 33, of Grangetown, Sunderland, added: 'Initially, Christopher was laughing. But then a crowd started to gather and he got upset and started crying.'
After 30 minutes, he was released - and is sure to have learned his lesson.
But, misguided as it was, his ingenuity paid off - the arcade owner gave him the bear to cheer him up.
The toddler is now back at home with Winnie.
Mrs Air added: 'If you mention what happened, he just laughs and he puts a little guilty look on his face.
'You can see he’s a bit embarrassed about it but he’s none the worse for what happened.'The Obama administration isn’t backing down on criticisms of an Israeli plan to build 1600 new homes in East Jerusalem. Israel announced the plan just as Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country.
President Obama’s chief political adviser condemned the move Sunday. “This was an affront, it was an insult,” David Axelrod told NBC’s Tom Brokaw.
“But most importantly, it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region,” he said. “We just now have started proximity talks, shuttle diplomacy between the Palestinians and the Israelis. For this announcement to come at that time was very destructive.”
Fox News’ Bill Kristol responded to Axelrod by defending the Israelis. “No one doubts this is part of Israel. This little apartment building is going to be part of Israel. No different from Palestinians building apartment buildings in Ramallah. It’s ludicrous that it became a big issue,” said Kristol.
The story made international headlines Friday as the Middle East Quartet — the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations — condemned “Israel’s decision to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem.”
“The Quartet reaffirms that unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community,” it added in a statement.
This video is from NBC’s Meet the Press and Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast March 14, 2010.
Download video via RawReplay.comTuesday, August 9, 2016
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - Arizona Coyotes General Manager John Chayka announced today that the Coyotes have signed Jim Playfair and Steve Peters to multi-year contract extensions. As per club policy, terms of the deals were not disclosed.
“We are very pleased to sign Jim to a multi-year extension,” said Chayka. “Jim has done an outstanding job developing our young defensemen and he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our bench. We are thrilled to have him back for several more seasons.”
Playfair
Playfair enters his sixth season as the Coyotes Associate Coach. In his five seasons in Arizona, Playfair has assisted with the development of Coyotes’ defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Connor Murphy and Michael Stone.
Playfair joined the Coyotes on June 7, 2011 from Calgary where he spent 11 years as a coach with the Flames organization. He was named the 14th head coach in franchise history on July 12, 2006. In his only season behind the bench (2006-07), Playfair led Calgary to an impressive 43-29-10 record (96 points) in the Northwest Division. He also served as Calgary’s associate coach (2007-09) and as an assistant coach (2003-06) with the Flames.
Playfair also had two stints as a head coach in the American Hockey League while with the Flames’ organization. He was the head coach of the Abbotsford Heat (AHL) from 2009-2011. In his two seasons at the helm, the Fort St. James, British Columbia native led the Heat to a 77-61-9-13 record (176 points). He was appointed head coach of the Saint John Flames (AHL) on August 10, 2000. During the 2000-01 season, Playfair led Saint John to its first Calder Cup championship and was named the Minor League Professional Coach of the Year by The Hockey News. Over the course of three seasons (2000-01 to 2002-03) in Saint John, Playfair posted a record of 83-77-22-10.
Playfair played nine seasons of professional hockey including 21 games in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks. He was originally drafted by the Oilers in the first round (20th overall) of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft.
Peters
Peters returns for his 20th season with the Coyotes as the team’s Assistant Coach, Video. He joined the Coyotes in 1997-98 after serving as the Executive Director of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, given annually to the top hockey player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
“Steve is one of the best video coaches in the NHL,” said Chayka. “He is extremely knowledgeable and very well-prepared. He’s a valuable member of Dave Tippett’s coaching staff.”
The Bemidji, Minnesota native is responsible for all of the video needs of the Coyotes’ coaching staff. Included in his duties are pre-scouting opponents, breaking down and analyzing game video for motivational and educational purposes, and reviewing game video with Coyotes players. He is also instrumental in assisting the coaching staff on coaches’ challenges. Additionally, Peters will serve as Team North America’s video coach during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Peters, 48, is a graduate of the University of North Dakota where he was a three-time letter winner for the Fighting Sioux hockey team and a member of the 1987 NCAA Division I Championship team.Afghanistan is the only country in the world where American soldiers are still dying. American Major General Harold Greene was killed last week in Kabul and two enlisted men died in Kandahar the week before.
Two-star army general killed in Afghanistan military academy
The killer in Kabul sprayed a group of NATO commanders with bullets at a British-run training facility. Fourteen others were wounded in the attack, including more Americans, some critically.
In July, the U.N. Mission in Afghanistan announced in its annual mid-year report that more than twice as many women and children had already been killed in 2014 than the previous year -- the most since the U.N. began keeping records in 2009.
"The nature of the conflict in Afghanistan is changing," said Jan Kubris, a U.N. special representative. "The impact on civilians is proving to be devastating."
Since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, fighting has spread in civilian areas. More civilians are dying from ground combat than from IEDs, suicide bombs or airstrikes.
John McCain, Lindsey Graham: Rethink Afghanistan in light of Iraq unrest
On July 25 -- the day Muslims around the world marked Eid al-Fitr, the festival at the end of the holy month of Ramadan -- the Taliban's elusive leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued a statement touting the strength of his organization and calling on Afghans to "join the ranks of the Taliban."
He called on policemen and soldiers to "come and wage jihad alongside your own people." The killer in Kabul, and a policeman who shot six of his fellow officers to death at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan on Aug. 6, likely heard the Mullah's call.
The centuries-old social fabric of Afghanistan, where tribes ruled the countryside, protected their people, and where a man's plot of land was safe, "is destroyed," a senior Afghan official lamented to CBS News last week.
"The Americans do not know how to fight a guerrilla war," said the official, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. "They came in with all their military might and their technology and thought, 'How can these people exist against us?' Now, as they leave, it is the rule of the gun."
Kerry headed to Afghanistan amidst election crisis
Secretary of State John Kerry flew back into Kabul last week to stop a figurative and literal fist fight. His shuttle diplomacy has seemingly salvaged the Afghan presidential elections -- the cornerstone of America's effort to introduce democracy in the country.
The presidential elections held in April were to pick a replacement for President Hamid Karzai, a member of Afghanistan's Pashtun ethnic group.
Pashtuns are the majority in Afghanistan. The Taliban are Pashtuns.
Abdullah Abdullah on U.S. role, Afghans' future
Abdullah Abdullah, a candidate with a Tajik heritage, won the most votes. His slightly unclear lineage and his decades-long alliance with the ethnic Tajik and Uzbek "Northern Alliance" mean he has not carried the Pashtun vote. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, whose heritage is 100 percent Pashtun, came second.
While Abdullah won the most votes, he failed to win a clear majority. In keeping with the constitution, a runoff election was held. Ahmadzai won a majority this time; a complete reversal.
But Abdullah's people cried foul, producing evidence they said, that ballot boxes were stuffed and that officials linked to the current administration were complicit in widespread fraud.
Abdullah refused to back down and there was fear of a coup.
With America's long project in democracy in clear jeopardy, Kerry flew to Kabul on July 12 and convinced both sides to agree to a recount of the ballots.
Last week, as the vote recount continued, Abdullah and Ahmadzai supporters got into a fist-fight as they argued over the legitimacy of individual ballots. The nation's ethnic divisions were on display.
On Friday, after Kerry spent 24 hours cajoling the warring candidates to strike a deal, he was able to stand shoulder to shoulder with both men to announce a breakthrough. Abdullah and Ahmadzai agreed to form a national unity government to stop the feud, calling it an Afghan-owned process, supported by the U.S. and the United Nations.
Kerry said both candidates had agreed to stay out of the ongoing audit process -- and to respect its outcome.
Wasted war money? Billions spent on unused equipment in Afghanistan
It was cause for optimism; a sign that reason might prevail over violence. But Afghanistan and its U.S. backers have been down this road before.
After American forces toppled the Taliban leadership in 2001 and forced its al Qaeda allies underground in Afghanistan, officials in Washington didn't know their war was just beginning.
Several years later, to Western minds, the war was winding down. In October 2004, President Karzai won the first true election in Afghan history after city dwellers and villagers ignored Taliban threats and lined up in the rain and mountain snow to vote.
But gradually the Taliban, whose leadership had retreated to Pakistan, came back.
The war was then and is today being fought largely in Pashtun areas, where many are still sympathetic to the Taliban.
CBS News' Sami Yousafzai has covered the Taliban for decades, and says the militants are "in a better position than they have ever been in 13 years."
Current Taliban commanders and former regional officials from the Taliban regime tell Yousafzai that with the withdrawal of U.S. forces imminent, the writing is on the wall.
"The drawdown of the U.S. and NATO forces has already changed the situation in favor of Taliban and it has given breath to the Taliban to come back," Mullah Salam Akhond, a commander for the group in the southern Helmand province.
"The Afghan army does resist, but they are incapable of coping," Akhond told CBS News in a phone interview.
Another senior Taliban member, a former deputy government minister under the pre-2001 regime, boldly predicted that the group, which just a few years ago could only "dream" of reestablishing itself as a serious power in the country, was "eventually going to establish an Islamic state in Afghanistan."
The ex-deputy minister, who is still powerful figure in the group in eastern Afghanistan, told Yousafzai the Taliban was quite pleased with the national election process for exacerbating the ethnic divide in the nation -- reinforcing the divide between the majority Pashtuns and everyone else.
Taliban members are prone to great exaggeration of both their battlefield victories and aspirations, but former Afghan diplomat and political analyst Ahmad Saedi told CBS News the election crisis and the U.S. drawdown both fuel a Taliban resurgence, and have given the group "tonic to fight back."
He said the Afghan government is clearly weakened and lacks a clear strategy to fight the war the U.S. is preparing to leave.
"Even the Afghan Defense Ministry and Afghan intelligence have no single agenda or strategy to fight the Taliban," warned Saedi.Totoro and Kiki are ready to help deliver your letters.
Legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki is widely known to be a bit of a luddite. As such, if you ever need to contact him, he’s probably the type who would greatly appreciate the time and effort it takes to write and mail a letter, as opposed to just slapping some keys and banging out an email.
And if you are going to mail Miyazaki missives, what better way to send them on their way than with Ghibli postage stamps?
Coinciding with the opening of the highly anticipated, recently discounted Ghibli art exhibit at Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills, Japan Post Holdings is releasing a commemorative set of postage stamps featuring art from all 22 Ghibli films, starting with regularly grandfathered-in Topcraft-animated Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and stretching all the way to the upcoming European co-production The Red Turtle.
▼ Ocean Waves, the made-for-TV black sheep of the Ghibli family, didn’t make the cut, although theatrical-feature black sheep Tales from Earthsea is still represented.
While the 22 82-yen stamps only have a collective postal value of 1,804 yen, the set commands a bit of a premium, selling for 2,900 yen. Then again, it’s unlikely anyone who buys this gorgeously illustrated collection is ever going to use any of its component stamps anyway, so the price discrepancy is kind of a moot point.
The Ghibli stamp set goes on sale July 7 at select post offices in Japan, and can also be available for domestic order through the Japan Post online shop. Best of all, it’ll also be offered at the gift shop attached to the Roppongi Hills Ghibli exhibition, meaning that after looking at all the beautiful artwork on display, you’ll be able to take some home with you too.
Event information
Ghibli Exhibition ~ From Nausicaa to their newest work, The Red Turtle ~ / ジブリの大博覧会 ～ナウシカから最新作「レッドタートル」まで～
Location: Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View Observation Deck Sky Gallery
Address: Tokyo-to, Minato-ku, Roppongi 6-10-1, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower 52nd floor
東京都港区六本木6-10-1 六本木ヒルズ森タワー52階
Hours: 10 a.m.–10 p.m. (entry until 9:30 p.m.)
Dates: July 7 – September 11
Admission: 1,800 yen (US$17)
Website
Source, images: Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View press release
Ocean Waves could use more love, as could Casey on Twitter.A person looking to purchase clothing advertising both their toughness and their party affiliation had many options at last summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
One tee shirt depicted a generously svelte Donald Trump on a motorcycle peeling away from Hillary Clinton. The artist’s rendition of Trump was wearing a vest that read “if you can read this, the bitch fell off.” Cartoon Trump was calm and collected; cartoon Clinton was cockeyed and losing her marbles, her emotions running wild, mouth open in a scream or other woman-sound a person purchasing that shirt was undoubtedly tired of hearing.
Elsewhere, attendees proudly donned shirts emblazoned with “Fuck your feelings,” a nod to the Trump Train’s disdain for liberal snowflakery. Trump fans confessed over the course of the campaign that they liked him because he was a real man’s man, tough and in control, and that he’d surround himself with similar in-control men, the kind of men that liberal whiny America was no longer allowing to Be Great. The generals, he loves the generals. The police, he loves the police. The gun owners, he loves the gun owners. The farmers! Oh, the farmers.
But since Trump’s inauguration, his agenda has experienced more derailments than a summer 2017 New York City subway. And it’s all been about infighting. Reince versus Bannon. Bannon versus Jared Kushner. Trump versus Reince. Trump versus Spicer. Spicer versus Scaramucci. Scaramucci versus Reince. Trump versus the Ninth Circuit. Scaramucci versus Bannon. Trump versus Congress. Trump versus the Senate. Bannon versus the legislative branch. Everybody versus James Comey. Everybody versus Mueller.
Each has cost the Republican party time and voter goodwill. Each can be directly traced back to an emotional outburst by a member of the president’s inner circle.
It’s ironic that after a macho emotion-mocking campaign, the Trump administration is a hive of out-of-control emotions, hurt feelings, and unbecoming histrionics. It’s especially ironic that the people demonstrating these unbecoming traits are men. After all of Trump and his supporters’ denigration of all things feminine, the only people who have an iota of control and restraint are the women of the White House.
Kellyanne Conway, for all of her faults, has never lost it and taken it out on a colleague. Ivanka Trump, regardless of how effective she has been as a modifying influence on her father, has never publicly blown up at another member of his staff and made everybody’s jobs more difficult. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is so stoic that it’s almost infuriating for the press charged with prying answers from her. Her mouth emits a Cirque du Soleil of acrobatic lies, but she’s always in control. Hope Hicks has never called Ryan Lizza to lewdly accuse Steve Bannon of a different sort of acrobatics. Melania Trump has displayed mild annoyance with her husband, but that was clearly planned, and also very funny.
Not losing control of one’s emotions seems a low bar to clear, but here we are.
At a Boy Scout jamboree, the president regaled thousands of boys with stories about rich guy parties on a boat and encouraged the Scouts to boo Hillary Clinton. Before police officers in Long Island, Trump encouraged them to be more brutal with suspects. The president yanks on the arms of foreign leaders, the president passive-aggressively confronts Jeff Sessions over Twitter rather than in person.
Imagine, for a moment, that the principle actors in the White House’s embarrassing week were women instead of men. It’s not hard to fathom the sort of insults a woman acting exactly like Anthony Scaramucci would garner. It’s not hard to imagine a Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity being forced to apologize after remarking that a woman acting as emotionally as Donald Trump may be premenstrual. The drama between Bannon, Preibus, and Scaramucci would evoke all manner of gendered insults. Anybody who thinks feminism is no longer necessary should think a little about the kind of people who accept this behavior from the Trump White House.
When the men of Trumpland lose control of their tough guy emotions, the people who have to clean up after them are women. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, not the president, faced the press after Trump tweeted about Mika Brzezinski’s “bloody” post-plastic surgery face. Kellyanne Conway faced the press after the New York Times revealed that Donald Jr, another man wont to utterly lose his shit on the regular, had arranged a meeting with a Kremlin-affiliated attorney during the 2016 campaign. When the president wanted to nap instead of attend a G20 meeting, it was Ivanka who took his seat.
This week, Peggy Noonan lamented in the Wall Street Journal the Trump administration’s failure to embody admirable traits of American masculinity--toughness, restraint, understated strength. She called the president a “drama queen,” and “Woody Allen without the humor.” (Nothing more culturally resonant in 2017 than a good Woody Allen reference.)
Noonan is correct that Donald Trump is not funny, at least not when he is trying to be. But she’s not quite correct about why the Trump administration should be ashamed of themselves. The men of Trumpland are acting exactly the way misogynists think women act. They’re acting exactly the way they warned us Hillary would act.
One can only shudder to think about how much worse it would be if the few women in Trumpland fell off.LOS ANGELES -- USC will enter Thursday's season opener against Hawaii with two quarterbacks still competing for the starting job, but athletic director Pat Haden said he expects the Trojans to name a starter after the first or second game of the season.
USC coach Lane Kiffin said he would not name a starter before the game and that both Max Wittek and Cody Kessler would play against Hawaii. He has not said when or if he will name a starter for the rest of the season, but Haden believes that decision will come after Kiffin sees both quarterbacks play in a game or two.
"I don't think this is going to be a thing for the season," Haden told ESPNLosAngeles.com. "This is going to be decided here perhaps the first week, maybe |
was a mistake," he wrote (PDF).
He said he fled the country after he pleaded guilty because he became depressed and "started drinking." He was arrested in Morocco last year and was detained there for nine months in what he described as "horrendous conditions."
"There were 60-80 people in our unit. One bathroom. People had to sleep on the floor body to body because the unit was small," he told the judge. He added that "Poor food, stress, sickness, and the other factors caused me lose 70 pounds during that 9 months and 16 days period."Under the laws of 29 states and Washington, D.C., patients seeking medical marijuana must get official recommendations from doctors. But a local lawmaker in the nation's capital is looking to change that.
Under the Medical Marijuana Improvement Amendment Act of 2017, patients would be allowed to self-certify as qualifying for medical cannabis.
That means they would no longer need to go through the time-consuming and sometimes costly process of meeting with a physician, filling out paperwork and waiting for the District of Columbia government to issue a medical cannabis identification card.
Instead, they could simply visit dispensaries and present a signed affidavit affirming that they use cannabis "explicitly for medical purposes," are over 21 years of age and are aware of local and federal marijuana laws.
Medical marijuana is a viable alternative to the prescription of opioid painkillers, which can set people down the path to addiction. — David Grosso (@cmdgrosso) September 19, 2017
The bill, introduced on Tuesday by Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large), would also allow medical cannabis dispensaries to open areas where patients could consume marijuana together socially.
“Medical marijuana has been shown to be a viable alternative to the prescription of opioid painkillers, which can set people down the path to addiction,” Grosso said in a press release about the bill. “While we have made significant improvements to our medical marijuana program here in D.C., there is more we can do to improve access for patients and reduce opioid reliance and overdose.”
The bill has three initial cosponsors signed on: Councilmembers Vincent Gray, Robert White and Brianne Nadeau.
Grosso also introduced separate legislation on Tuesday that would remove penalties for possessing drug testing technologies that allow consumers to examine the purity of the substances they are ingesting. That bill also allows syringe exchange programs to operate in more areas of the city.
Separately, he wrote to District health officials asking that they examine allowing safe injection facilities where consumers could take illegal drugs under medical supervision.
See a copy of Grosso's marijuana bill below:Over the next month or so, we'll be tracking the Eagles' 30 allotted pre-draft private visits to the NovaCare Complex. As information of those visits trickles in, we'll add analysis of each player. Bookmark, please.
These pre-draft visits were outstanding indicators of who the Eagles might draft during the Chip Kelly era. Last year, Carson Wentz visited the NovaCare Complex on a pre-draft visit long before the Eagles traded up to the second overall pick.
Here are the players who have either visited, or reportedly will visit the Eagles, most recently reported first, with a hat tip to BleedingGreenNation.com, who does a great job keeping their eye out for reported visits.
Shaquill Griffin, CB, UCF (6'0, 194)
According to Brandon Gowton of BGN (via a fan, via Griffin's own Instagram account), UCF CB Shaquill Griffin has already visited the Eagles.
Griffin has good size at 6'0, 194, and he ran a 4.38 in addition to other impressive numbers at the Combine:
Griffin has a cool backstory. He and his brother Shaquem (who only has one hand) both enrolled at UCF, when Shaquill had offers from schools like Alabama, but the brothers were adamant that they were a package deal.
Griffin is an aggressive tackler that Schwartz will like, and has the size-speed combo that will allow him to play on the outside in the pros.
Taywan Taylor, WR, Western Kentucky (5'11, 203)
According to Brandon Gowton of BGN (via a fan, via Taylor's own Instagram account), Taywan Taylor has already visited the Eagles.
Taylor was thought to have blazing speed, as FOX's Bruce Feldman named him the No. 5 freak athlete in the country before the 2016 season, citing Taylor's 11'5 broad jump, a 39.5" vertical and a 4.33 40. (At the Combine, Taylor ran a disappointing 4.50).
Still, Taylor has also been highly productive the last two years. In 2015, he was third in the nation with 1467 receiving yards and second in the nation with 17 receiving TDs. Those numbers dwarfed those of 2015 teammate TE Tyler Higbee (38-563-8), who was a fourth-round selection of the Rams in the 2015 NFL Draft.
In 2016, Taylor was once again third in the nation with 1,730 receiving yards and tied for third in the nation with 17 TDs. A highlight reel:
We projected Taylor as a fourth-round target in the 2017 NFL Draft.
Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida (6'1, 211)
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Florida CB Quincy Wilson visited the Eagles:
Jim Schwartz is certain to love Wilson's confidence. From the strengths section of Lance Zierlein's scouting report on NFL.com:
Very competitive. Willing to accept challenge of taking on a team's top wideout.
That's exactly why Schwartz loved Jalen Mills so much last season, even if Mills was often over-matched by the man across from him. At 6'1, 211, Wilson has great size, and is a physical corner. A highlight reel:
If Wilson made it to the Eagles' pick in Round 2, he would be of significant interest.
Derek Barnett, DE, Tennessee (6'3, 259)
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Eagles will hist Tennessee DE Derek Barnett, an obvious player of interest.
Barnett is a thick, strong defensive end who reminds me a little of Brandon Graham. Barnett is equally effective against the run as he is as a pass rusher, and has been an impact player since his freshman year:
Derek Barnett Tackles Sacks TFL FF 2014 47 10 20.5 0 2015 44 10 12.5 1 2016 56 13 19 2 TOTAL 147 33 52 3
In just three seasons at Tennessee, Barnett broke the all-time career school sack record that was previously held by some guy named Reggie White. No big deal. A highlight reel:
This draft class is considered to be very strong at edge rusher and defensive backs. I believe that the edge rushers taken in the first round will have a bigger impact than the corners taken in the first round. Conversely, I believe that the corners taken later in the draft will have a bigger impact than the edge rushers taken later. Given the choice in the first round, I'd go edge rusher, and Barnett is a great one.
Corey Clement, RB, Wisconsin (5'10, 220)
According to Dave Heller of FOX Sports Wisconsin, Clement will be visiting the Eagles:
Throughout the season, during our Grocery Shopping series in which we profiled five players to watch every Saturday who could interest the Eagles, I had many opportunities to cover Clement, but always passed because he doesn't contribute much in the passing game. Over his career at Wisconsin, Clement had just 29 receptions and was often not in the game at all in third-and-long situations.
His Combine performance was also dreadful.
That 28 1/2" vertical leap isn't much better than what I would do.
There are also character concerns. Here's what Lance Zierlein wrote under the "weaknesses" section of his scouting report on NFL.com:
Scouts have labeled him "entitled" and question his football character and leadership. Had 2015 season washed away due to injury, attitude and an off-field incident.
Still, Clement does have his positives. In 2016, he had a heavy workload, carrying the ball 314 times for 1375 yards and 15 TDs. When you watch him run, the obvious thing you'll notice is that he will break a lot of tackles. That is a something the Eagles won't have much of at the running back position when they release Ryan Mathews. A highlight reel:
To note, Clement is from Glassboro, NJ (a suburb of Philly), and may only count as a local visit, not one of the Eagles' 30 allotted pre-draft visits. He doesn't quite fit what the Eagles are looking for in a runner, but as an added back to throw on the pile, he would make sense in the late rounds, or even as a UDFA if the off-field concerns are so alarming that he doesn't get drafted.
Adoree' Jackson, CB, USC (5'10, 186)
According to Jackson himself, via Sirius XM radio (h/t Brandon Gowton of BGN), Jackson will be visiting the Eagles.
Jackson's position could just be listed as "playmaker" at USC, but his primary position in the NFL will be at corner. In 2015, in addition to being a regular starter at CB, Jackson caught 27 passes for 414 yards and 2 TDs, he had two punt return TDs, a pick six, and a blocked field goal. In 2016, he had five interceptions, two punt return TDs, two kick return TDs, one receiving TD, 55 tackles, and 11 pass breakups. Jackson is a big-time playmaker, with elite return skills.
A highlight reel:
In the NFL, Jackson is probably "only" going to be a slot corner because of his smaller size. However, in a division where each of the Eagles' rivals has high-quality slot receivers (Cole Beasley, Jamison Crowder, and Sterling Shepard), the Eagles should be placing a higher priority on a slot corner than most teams. Jackson could be a good fit in Philly as a slot corner with high-level return ability in the Eagles' already outstanding special teams units. He's worthy of a second round pick.
Ahkello Witherspoon, CB, Colorado (6'3, 198)
According to Derrick Gunn of CSN Philly, Witherspoon has visited the Eagles:
Like Florida, Ohio State, and Washington, the University of Colorado had two very good corners in Chidobe Azuwie and Witherspoon. The latter is a taller "Seattle Seahawks type" of corner at 6'3, 198.
Admittedly, I have yet to study Witherspoon at all, so we'll rely on the scouting report of Lance Zierlein of NFL.com:
Possesses a rare combination of size and speed and saw his ball production take a substantial leap this season. Witherspoon played just one season of high school football so his technique and route awareness should continue to improve. Witherspoon's length and his ability to mirror and match in space should launch him into early playing time, but his unwillingness to tackle and hit will be a complete turn-off for some teams.
Interestingly, the player comparison Zierlein used for Witherspoon is recently acquired free agent corner Patrick Robinson.
Alvin Kamara, RB, Tennessee (5'10, 214)
According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, Kamara will visit the Eagles:
Over his career at Tennessee, Kamara was a complementary back with receiving ability out of the backfield, and also the team's main punt returner.
Kamara doesn't have much of a body of work as a rusher:
Alvin Kamara Rush Yards YPC TD 2015 107 698 6.5 7 2016 103 596 5.9 9 TOTAL 210 1294 6.2 16
However, he showed that he is a good receiver out of the backfield:
Alvin Kamara Rec Yards YPC TD 2015 34 291 8.6 3 2016 40 392 9.8 4 TOTAL 74 683 9.2 7
Kamara is a hard runner with good speed (although not elite breakaway speed), with good hands, and tackle-breaking ability. Here's a highlight reel. Watch how many tackles this guy breaks:
Kamara has been projected by some to be a first-round pick. I'd by vary of spending that kind of resource on a player with such a small body of work in college, but in the second round, he would be a good fit for the Eagles.
Chris Godwin, WR, Penn State (6'1, 209)
Godwin showed up bigtime in the Rose Bowl against USC, torching the Trojans for 187 yards and two TDs on nine receptions. Here is his Rose Bowl performance:
Godwin's career numbers:
Chris Godwin Rec Yards YPC TD 2014 26 338 13.0 2 2015 69 1101 16.0 5 2016 59 982 16.6 11 TOTAL 154 2421 15.7 18
Godwin's yards per catch numbers are good and he makes plays down the field, and he dispelled any idea that he doesn't have good speed when he ran a 4.42 at the Combine. Godwin does a very good job winning contested catches by high-pointing the football and being physical in his route-running with opposing corners. He also has very good hands. I see him as a quality possession receiver in the NFL, who will make the occasional big play down the field.
Kevin King, CB, Washington (6'3, 200)
The Huskies' secondary was absolutely loaded with talent, sporting a former no-doubt-about-it first-round pick in CB Sidney Jones (before he ruptured his Achilles) and another potential first- or second-round pick in S Budda Baker. They also have CB Kevin King, who could be a first- or second-round pick as well.
King has "Seahawks corner" measurements, at 6'3, 200. His college career path followed a similar pattern to that of former Eagles second-round pick Eric Rowe, in that King moved from safety to corner while at Washington. He has also played quite a bit in the slot.
In 2016, King had 44 tackles, two interceptions, and an impressive 13 pass breakups. One of King's interceptions was this highlight reel snag against Arizona State:
My sense is that height-weight-speed excites Jim Schwartz less than it does other personnel people around the league. In other words, there may be other NFL teams who give a higher grade to King for his measurables than the Eagles will. Still, King is an intriguing, versatile corner-slot-safety hybrid who has interested the Eagles enough to bring in for a visit.
Damontae Kazee, CB, San Diego State (5'10, 184)
Kazee will visit the Eagles, according to Tony Pauline of DraftAnalayst.com.
Kazee is a lesser known player on a very good San Diego State team who does a great job attacking the football in the air. Over the last two seasons, he has 15 interceptions. His career numbers:
Damontae Kazee Tackles (TFL) INT PBU FF 2013 41 (3) 1 2 4 2014 58 (4) 1 12 0 2015 75 (5.5) 8 7 2 2016 46 (3) 7 8 1 TOTAL 220 (15.5) 17 29 7
But Kazee isn't just a ballhawk. Watch how he attacks ball carriers in the run game:
Kazee is projected to be a slot corner at the NFL level. The Eagles will still need to find help in the slot in addition to outside corners, as Ron Brooks will be returning from a serious injury. Even if Brooks can make a full return, the Eagles were forced to move Malcolm Jenkins to a slot corner position because they did not have enough cornerback depth to fill that role when Brooks went down. That negated Jenkins' impact as a playmaker to some degree last season.
Obi Melifonwu, S, UConn (6'4, 224)
According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, UConn safety Obi Melifonwu will be visiting the NovaCare Complex.
Melifonwu is a size-athleticism freak of nature, much like former UConn CB/S safety Byron Jones was in 2015, when the Eagles passed on him to draft Nelson Agholor. Here's Melifonwu's ridiculous spider chart:
In 2016, Melifonwu had 118 tackles, 4 INT, and 3 pass breakups.
The Eagles don't have a need at safety, so Meliforwu's visit is an interesting one. There's no question Melifonwu has outstanding physical traits. Perhaps they're trying to get a better idea of his football acumen.
Shelton Gibson, WR, West Virginia (5'11, 191)
According to Eagles fan @seaneham, Gibson posted on his Twitter account that he has a visit set up with the Eagles.
Here are Gibson's stats the last two seasons. Note his yards per catch:
Shelton Gibson Rec Yards YPC TD 2015 37 887 24.0 9 2016 43 951 22.1 8
Good God, that's ridiculous. Gibson is a one-trick pony, but that's a pretty neat trick.
Gibson ran a disappointing 4.50 40 at the Combine, but he has excellent deep ball tracking skills.
Gareon Conley, CB, Ohio State (6'0, 195)
Conley needs work as a tackler, but his coverage skills are very good. Here are Conley's coverage numbers the last two seasons:
Gareon Conley Targeted Comp Yards TD-INT 2015 58 21 412 3-2 2016 43 14 174 1-4 TOTAL 101 35 586 4-6
Allowing 35 completions on 101 targets is pretty good, right? A highlight reel:
Conley's stock seems to have risen quite a bit over the last few months, especially after testing well at the Combine. He is a legitimate option at 14, if he even makes it that far.
Jamal Adams, S, LSU (6'0, 214)
According to Josina Anderson (on television on ESPN), as transcribed by Brandon Gowton of BGN, Adams will visit the Eagles.
“[Adams] also had two very good visits. One with the Carolina Panthers a couple of weeks ago,” said Anderson on NFL Live on Thursday. “Met with the DB coach there. […] He also will be meeting with the Panthers again on [April] 11th. Upcoming visits that he has with the Steelers, Bengals, Eagles, and a two-day visit with the Jets. So he’ll definitely be busy in these upcoming weeks before the draft.”
Adams is a huge Brian Dawkins fan.
“Yesterday I talked to a legend, Brian Dawkins, who I've admired everything about him, and that was the highlight of my week," Adams said at the Combine. "Just knowing that he already knew about me, saying how passionate I was and how I play the game the right way. That was huge, to hear that from a legend like him.
"I saw him talking to a player. I was leaving, and he was sitting by himself. Something just spoke, like, that's who I admire, my game – he's so passionate about the game, and I had to go seek wisdom, see what he sees. The fact that I went up to him and he already knew who I was, he's already seen some film on me and watched some games, I was honored, I was blown away."
Adams is an odd visit for the Eagles to conduct, as he could be a top five pick, and safety isn't exactly a big need for the Eagles. It's due diligence, I suppose, in the unlikely event Adams falls.
Corey Davis, WR, Western Michigan (6'3, 209)
According to Albert Breer, the Eagles are bringing in Davis in for a visit today:
In his career at Western Michigan, Davis put up kinda decent numbers:
Corey Davis Rec Yards YPC TD 2013 67 941 14.0 6 2014 78 1408 18.1 15 2015 90 1436 16.0 12 2016 97 1500 15.5 19 TOTAL 332 5285 15.9 52
A highlight reel:
Davis beat the all-time MAC conference receiving record by more than 1000 yards. Is that good? That seems good. Still, Davis will face many of the same questions that Carson Wentz faced last year, coming from a smaller school.
To note, the MAC has produced receivers such as Antonio Brown (Central Michigan), Julian Edelman (Kent State), Randy Moss (Marshall, then in the MAC), Greg Jennings (Western Michigan), Brandon Marshall (Central Florida, then in the MAC), Andrew Hawkins (Toledo), and Lance Moore (Toledo).
Davis has size, speed, and he runs great routes. If there's one knock, it's that he'll have occasional drops, however, those become forgivable because he makes so many improbable acrobatic catches. Davis also did not work out either at the Combine or his Pro Day, so scouts may not have an opportunity to put a stopwatch on him before the draft.
Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU (6'0, 240)
According to Ian Rapoport, Fournette is visiting the Eagles today.
If you don't know who Fournette is, you're just not that into college football. He may have the best size-speed combo since Adrian Peterson. First, his numbers:
Leonard Fournette Rush Yards YPC TD 2014 187 1034 5.5 10 2015 300 1953 6.5 22 2016 129 843 6.5 8 TOTAL 616 3830 6.2 40
While Fournette doesn't have elite lateral agility and he only has 41 career receptions, just watch the highlight reel below, and tell me you wouldn't be intrigued to watch this guy run over and then away from defenders. No written analysis is going to describe what Fournette can do better than this:
Honestly, it's hard to watch that highlight reel above and not feel bad for some of the poor bastards who got trucked.
To note, in LSU's bowl game against Louisville, Fournette made the decision not to play so that he could begin to prepare (cough, not get injured) for the pros. Personally, I have no problem with that, and I doubt any NFL teams will either.
There will debates as to whether you should take a running back in (or near) the top 10, and there will be concerns that Fournette will injure himself with the reckless way he runs, but good God, when he's good to go he's a scary human being.
Mike Williams, WR, Clemson (6'4, 218)
According to Ian Rapoport, Clemson WR Mike Williams is visiting the NovaCare Complex today.
Williams' 40 time that Rapoport is alluding to wasn't as impressive as initially reported. Most scouts, it would seem, had him closer to the 4.58 range than the 4.50 range, which is what was first reported.
Still, he'll be a sure-fire first round pick. Williams had a strong sophomore season in 2014, catching 57 passes for 1030 yards (18.1 YPC) and 6 TDs. He was poised for a huge season in 2015 when he broke his neck against Wofford in the season opener after being pushed into the goal post on what was a touchdown reception.
He missed the remainder of the season, and there was a question as to whether he'd ever play again. After healing, Williams was ready for the start of the 2016 season, and he caught 98 passes for 1361 yards and 11 TDs. A highlight reel:
At 6'4, 218 pounds, although he's not a speed demon, Williams has the prototypical size for an NFL receiver, with good hands, body control and the ability to win contested catches.
I do wonder, however, if his skill set is too close to that of Alshon Jeffery's for the Eagles to have as much interest as they would have, pre-Alshon.
Dalvin Cook, RB, Florida State (5'10, 210)
According to Mike Garafolo of NFL.com, the Eagles are bringing in Florida State running back Dalvin Cook for a visit:
Dalvin Cook is really good. In the 2015 NFL Draft, the Seminoles lost QB Jameis Winston, RB Karlos Williams, C Cameron Erving, OG Tre' Jackson, OT Bobby Hart, WR Rashad Greene, and TE Nick O'Leary. Cook was the focus of opposing defenses, and he still ran for a ridiculous 7.4 yards per carry.
In 2016, Cook continued to pile up big numbers:
Dalvin Cook Rush Yards YPC TD 2014 170 1008 5.9 8 2015 229 1691 7.4 19 2016 288 1765 6.1 19 TOTAL 687 4464 6.5 46
He also had 34 catches for 488 yards (a lofty 14.8 YPC for a running back) and 1 TD in 2016.
Cook is a near-complete back, who has speed and some power, as well as the ability to make plays in the passing game out of the backfield. Perhaps his best strength is his combination of vision and lateral quickness to find (and hit) open holes, which is on display in the highlight reel below:
Cook also has some significant red flags, which we expanded on in much greater detail in February:
• Generally speaking, the lifespan of an NFL running back is short.
• People will point to the recent success of Ezekiel Elliott, but running backs drafted highly can be busts (and often are), just like any other position.
• He fumbles a lot. In 2016, Cook had six fumbles. During his college career as a whole, he had 12 fumbles.
• He has had surgery on his right shoulder twice since 2014. He also injured his left shoulder in high school.
• He has negative off-the-field history, which also has to be seriously considered and thoroughly investigated by any team drafting him.
• The 2017 running back class is stacked. There will be good running backs in round three, four, and five in this draft.
• He had a very disappointing Combine performance. His spider chart:
In addition to all of the above, the Eagles haven't drafted a running back in the first round since 1986 (Keith Byars). Furthermore, teams that employed Joe Douglas drafted a running back every year from 2006 to 2016. During that span, one was a second round pick, one was a third, and the rest were all drafted in round four or later. Five made the Pro Bowl. While Douglas may not have been calling the shots in those drafts, he has certainly seen his share of later round running backs have success in the NFL.
I know a lot of Eagles fans love the idea of taking Cook in the first round, but I wouldn't get your hopes up on that one.
Reuben Foster, Alabama (6'0, 229)
According to Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com, the Eagles are bringing in Alabama stud LB Reuben Foster for a visit. Alabama has churned out their share of inside linebackers the last seven years:
Year Player Team Round Overall 2016 Reggie Ragland Bills 2 41 2014 C.J. Mosley Ravens 1 17 2013 Nico Johnson Chiefs 4 99 2012 Mark Barron (S at Bama) Buccaneers 1 7 2010 Rolando McClain Raiders 1 8
Foster was the next man up, playing in the middle of Bama's defense. He's likely a WILL at the next level in a 4-3. If the Eagles had interest, they could leave Jordan Hicks right where he is at the MIKE spot, and move Bradham to a diminished role as the SAM, or just release him.
A highlight reel:
Foster is an awesome player, who is likely to be gone by the time the Eagles pick at 14/15. If he's still there when the Eagles are in the clock, there's a decent chance he'll be the "best available player," and too good to pass up. He's an intimidating thumper, but he also has speed, ability in coverage, and was a special teams standout while he waited his turn to be "the guy" in the middle of the Crimson Tide defense. He and Hicks would be an outstanding pair of linebackers.
Ryan Anderson, LB, Alabama (6'2, 253)
According to Matt Zenitz of AL.com, Alabama edge rusher visited the NovaCare Complex.
It would appear that some project him to play SAM in a 4-3, via Lance Zierlein's scouting reports on NFL.com:
SOURCES TELL US: "Size is more suited for 4-3 SAM but he could play some rush outside backer in a 3-4. He would fit Baltimore and Pittsburgh as a 3-4 SAM, too." -- NFC area scout
I don't see 4-3 SAM as Anderson's best fit with the Eagles. Anderson is a pass rusher, who had 9 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, and 19 tackles for loss a year ago. In 2016, the Eagles blitzed Mychal Kendricks a grand total of 9 times all season, despite that being arguably his best skill. If the Eagles were to have interest in Anderson, it would likely be as a DE, although he certainly doesn't have ideal size for the position.
This is an interesting visit, as Anderson is seemingly a better fit in a 3-4 defense.
John Ross, WR, Washington (5'11, 188)
According to Chase Goodbread of NFL.com, Ross squeezed in a visit to Philly before he was scheduled to have shoulder surgery. Here were two different quotes from the piece.
"I got a chance to talk to the whole (Eagles) offensive staff, pretty much, coach (Frank) Reich, coach (Mike) Groh, coach (Doug) Pederson. It was exciting," Ross said.
"I was a fan of the Eagles because they got DeSean," Ross said.
Ross was our pick in the first round in our "Eagles only mock draft, version 3.0." Go check out the more detailed write-up on him and his fit with the Eagles there.
As always, no matter who you mock to the Eagles, some percentage of the fan base is not going to like it. For those of you who don't like Ross, I hate to break it to you but he is absolutely going to get strong consideration from the Eagles at 14.
Marlon Humphrey, CB, Alabama (6'0, 197)
According to Chase Goodbread of NFL.com, Humphrey's first visit will be with the Eagles.
Humphrey was the first round selection in our Eagles only mock draft, version 2.0. He has great athleticism, and at 6'0, 197, he has good size. He's about as physical a corner as you'll find in this draft class, and is only 20 years old. Here's Humphrey's game against USC this season. It's a quick, two-minute video.
I think I can see Jim Schwartz being interested in that guy.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
Like Jimmy on Facebook.It's finally happening -- but it comes with a catch.
After rumours, speculation, and potentially accidental leaks, Netflix finally confirmed this morning they will be launching in the Australian and New Zealand markets in March 2015.
“Internet-connected users in Australia and New Zealand will be able to subscribe to Netflix and instantly watch a curated selection of popular movies and TV shows in high-definition or even 4K where available,” reads a press release distributed this morning.
The announcement cites Netflix original shows including Marco Polo and BoJack Horseman amongst its Australian content, which will also include “critically acclaimed documentaries Virunga and Mission Blue, and stand-up comedy specials Uganda Be Kidding Me, Live, from Chelsea Handler and Jim Jefferies’s BARE” — as well as Bloodline, Marvel’s Daredevil, The Matrix trilogy, Babylon 5, and the brilliant-sounding Netflix comedy Grace and Frankie, which stars Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Jane Fonda.
While Netflix AU are as yet unable to offer more information about the programs that will be available and the deals they’ve struck with local content providers, it’s likely the provider’s library will look vastly different to the version of Netflix that over 200,000 of you have been accessing via a VPN.
As ZDNet’s Josh Taylor told us in June, “People have this idea in their head of Netflix providing easy access to all these high-quality shows like it does in the US, but a lot of them have existing local exclusivity deals with Foxtel. Netflix in Australia might look like what Quickflix does now, but without all the HBO content”.
The launch could impact the ability of Australians to access American Netflix, which has so far been turning a blind eye to VPNs that unblock access to geoblocked sites. AHEDA, an Australian industry group that represents studios like Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros, Universal and Sony Pictures, has been lobbying Netflix to crack down on illegitimate subscriptions for months now — and the launch of Netflix in Australia could provide more incentive.
A spokeswoman from Netflix AU couldn’t comment on anything beyond the press release at this stage, but said to stay tuned for further announcements.I love this thread because it gives so much personal insight into other people's motivation to make the Esperanto journey. Reading what inspired other people to learn Esperanto made me want to crystalize my own reasons for studying the language.
First of all, I fell in love with the idea of studying a language that you really could learn on your own from a book and be able to communicate with people from a multitude of different languages and cultures. Unlike any other language, people who learn Esperanto WANT to communicate with others. What if I decided to study the language of another country? I could study Lithuanian, Latvian, or Bulgarian and practice until I was quite fluent---but then what? I couldn't just show up on the streets of Lithuania, Latvia, or Bulgaria tomorrow and start talking to random people--they'd think I was weird--but more importantly, even if I did have people to communicate with, I'd be locked into just that one country. Esperanto makes it possible to truly have an international circle of contacts.
Secondly, it keeps me fresh as a language teacher. I'm a Spanish teacher as well as a translator, and even when I'm not in the classroom, I find myself using Spanish on a VERY regular basis. It would be a rare day, indeed, that I didn't use Spanish for some ordinary reason. Because Spanish is such a normal part of my life, quite honestly, it was hard for me to remember what it was like to be a beginner and to attempt to use a language in which I was not yet very fluent. Studying Esperanto gave me the opportunity to go back and revisit what my students go through when they first start acquiring a second language.
Currently, I'm a Ph.D. student studying language acquisition. There are so many theories out there about all the different facets of developing language skills: the role of grammar and how it is acquired, how people develop fluency, how people negotiate meaning, etc. Most of us acquire our Esperanto skills in segments--we have to wrap our brains around the word building features, we have to learn how to navigate the grammar (particularly the use of active and passive participles that show past, present, and future aspect), and then we STILL have to develop oral fluency and comprehension skills---Esperanto gives people the opportunity to fully appreciate each individual segment of the entire language acquisition process. I often find myself reading material about some aspect of developing skills in another language and relating it to some feature of Esperanto or of my experience learning or using it.
Finally, learning and using Esperanto feels like belonging to an exclusive, unique club. We're part of a fascinating group of people who are just talented enough, or "nerdy" enough, or interesting enough--as well as motivated enough--to teach ourselves a brand new language out of a book or off the Internet or something, and then go use it. Most clubs don't have their own "secret", private language--we do!Fake News: Teasing out the problems with all of the solutions offered so far…
Shane Greenup Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 9, 2017
Summary: Editorialising (filtering) the platforms which we use to find and discover content on the web (Google, Facebook etc) will end up dividing the world along ideological lines, and give us a population of passive, uncritical believers unable to think critically about the information they receive. This is the exact opposite of what everyone wants, but we are using immense amounts of money and man power trying to solve nearly impossible problems in order to get there. We have to re-think our approach.
Since the Workshop on Digital Misinformation back in April I have been working on writing on the topic of the fight against misinformation and Fake News online. I have been struggling to write it as clearly as I would like, so this article is a way to help move me along. Instead of a well edited concise article, I present to you a brain dump of my thoughts on this topic…. Enjoy!
The Obvious Problem: Categorising true vs false, and reliable vs unreliable, is hard to do
First, it is pretty clear that the problems people are working on are hard to solve. Everyone is working on ways to identify “Fake News”, or identify who is trustworthy or unreliable. These are difficult problems. It is not at all obvious what makes something overtly true or overtly false, or what makes someone reliable or not. Reliable honest people/media companies make mistakes. Dishonest people tell the |
Trump’s motive for trying to ruin the life and reputation of a person he knew was right. “You must defend it. You must protect it. I was the monkey wrench in the gears. I was the monkey wrench threatening the integrity of the brand.”
Roffman's 40-room house in Delaware includes 11 fireplaces and an eight-seat movie theater. | Matt Roth for Politico Magazine
Roffman smiled. “I’m glad I did it. Otherwise,” he said, “I wouldn’t be sitting here in this chair.”
***
“Marvin,” Trump said.
It was the middle of that March. “I know you’re down on the Taj,” Trump said over the phone from New York, according to Roffman’s recollection.
“He said, ‘I want you to see this property in its full splendor,’” Roffman recalled. “‘I’m going to have someone call you and arrange a tour of the Taj. And after the tour, I want you to call me. And I know what you’re going to tell me. You’re going to tell me you have just seen the greatest property ever.’ I swear to God. That’s what he said.”
The tour was set for March 20.
That morning, the Journal ran an article about Trump and the much-anticipated early April opening of the 1,250-room, 120,000-square-foot Taj, which had 70 eye-catching minarets on its roof and a payroll of some 6,500 employees. Roffman, then working for a Philadelphia brokerage firm called Janney Montgomery Scott, was quoted prominently.
“When this property opens,” Roffman told the Journal, “he will have had so much free publicity he will break every record in the book in April, June and July. But once the cold winds blow from October to February, it won’t make it. The market just isn’t there.” He called Atlantic City in general “an ugly and dreary kind of place.”
Trump's Taj Mahal casino, the biggest and most shakily financed of his three, opened in 1990. | AP Photo
When Roffman arrived at the casino for his tour that day, Trump’s brother, Robert, stopped him at the door and cursed him—“I’d never heard so many four-letter words in my entire life,” Roffman told me at his house—and yelled at him to “get the fuck off the property.”
Back in Philadelphia, on the fax machine at Janney’s offices, a letter arrived from Trump Tower.
Trump in the letter called Roffman “hair-trigger” and “somewhat unstable in his tone and manner of criticism.” He continued, without regard for spelling: “For Mr. Roffman to make these statements with such definity is an outrage. I am now planning to institue a major lawsuit against your firm unless Mr. Roffman makes a major public apology or is dismissed. For a long while I have thought of Mr. Roffman as an unguided missle.”
Roffman by this point had been a securities analyst for 25 years and at Janney for 16, developing a reputation as an outspoken, tell-it-like-it-is analyst. Trump had noticed, according to Roffman, calling on occasion to quiz him about competing casinos and other executives.
In 1987, Trump even had hired Roffman as an expert witness. In testimony before New Jersey’s Casino Control Commission, Roffman acknowledged the “tremendous risk” involved with the Taj because of its size and cost—it was more than two years from completion—but he also told the agency’s members he was “excited” about its prospects. He called Trump’s first two casinos, the Plaza and the Castle, “very efficient” and “well managed,” according to a transcript of the hearing. He believed the Taj, he said, could help finally revitalize the perpetually downtrodden small city on the shore.
That fall, though, Wall Street crashed. The gaming industry started to stall. Roffman grew pessimistic. He warned in a report for Janney clients in May 1988 of “Trouble Ahead With A Capital ‘T’”—a reference to Trump and the Taj. “Trump has only experienced an economy that is growing. Let’s see how he does in a real turndown,” he told the Boston Globe that October. “Donald Trump’s style is not cash, it’s to borrow,” he said in December to the Associated Press, noting that Trump now was shouldering more than a billion dollars of debt just with his casinos. The Taj debt was $675 million in junk bonds, the only form of financing he could secure. For the Taj to service its debt and simply break even, Roffman calculated, the operation would have to take in around $1.3 million a day, unprecedented in the history of casinos.
Throughout 1989—in reports for clients, speeches to trade groups and conversations with reporters—Roffman said versions or in some cases nearly word-for-word previews of what would run in the Journal the following March. He even had said similar things earlier in the month in other high-profile publications. “I have serious reservations about the financial success of the Taj Mahal,” he told Newsday. Trump “will have to do over steady basis something no other casino in the world has ever been able to do,” he told Newsweek. If Trump had been angered by these comments, he never complained privately to Roffman, nor did he bother to publicly rebut them.
It was the March 20 story in the Journal that triggered Trump’s wrath.
He was on edge already.
“I’ve got some fabulous things,” Roffman says. | Matt Roth for Politico Magazine
Trump at the time was the subject of relentless, tabloid-led coverage of the disintegration of his marriage to Ivana Trump, the mother of his first three children, in part because of his affair with his younger, leggy mistress, Marla Maples. For going on six weeks, the drama had been front-page fodder for New York’s tabloids. LOVE ON THE ROCKS. WAR OF THE TRUMP$. IVANA IN TEARS. MARLA RAGES!
Trump was asked by the New York Post whether he considered adultery a sin. “I don’t think it’s a sin,” he said, “but I don’t think it should be done.”
He told the Journal the crush of publicity about his personal life was actually good for his bottom line, citing 1,500 requests from reporters to cover the opening of the Taj. “A divorce is never a pleasant thing,” he said, “but from a business standpoint, it’s had a very positive effect.”
It was a bluff. Almost everybody was fixated on his personal failings; almost nobody knew the perilous state of his finances. Trump had racked up massive debt—not only with his casinos, but in 1988, too, with a manic jag of buying trophy properties, such as Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel and the Eastern Air Shuttle, which he renamed the Trump Shuttle. With the onset of a recession, it was becoming unsustainable.
“He had to know it,” Roffman told me. “But he didn’t want anybody else to know it.”
Hence the hostile letter.
The next day, Jim Meyer, Janney’s director of research, detailed in an internal memo Roffman’s punishments: He was to have “no direct contact with members of the press,” no possibility of a bonus to his base salary in 1990 and a review of his employment status at the end of the year. Edgar Scott, chairman of the board, called Trump, according to court records, informing him of the nature of the censure. He asked Trump what kind of apology he wanted. Trump, according to the records, directed that Roffman write him a letter saying the Taj would be “the greatest success ever.” Roffman didn’t want to write a letter like that. His bosses did it for him. The obsequious letter said the opening of the Taj “unquestionably” would be “the grandest and most successful” in the annals of Atlantic City. “I do hope that you will let me continue to cover your companies,” it read. Roffman wanted to save his job. He reluctantly signed it. He was “a team player,” he said later in a deposition. “I wanted to go long with the firm because I liked working there.”
After a sleepless night, Roffman got a call from Trump’s secretary, according to court records. Trump, she said, wanted him to make some adjustments to the letter. He wanted, for instance, the phrase “every hope that the Taj will ultimately be very profitable” changed to “every expectation,” Roffman said. Roffman stewed. That afternoon, he wrote a new letter to Trump, a letter of his own.
“I did not write the letter,” Roffman wrote. “I retract the letter.”
Roffman showed the letter to Meyer, according to court records, saying he was going to send it to Trump. Meyer logged his response in an internal memo: “Regarding the proposed attached letter to Donald Trump, after discussion with senior management of our firm, we are directing you not to send the attached letter to Mr. Trump while you are an employee of this firm. As long as you remain an employee of ours we insist on the right to review and authorize all correspondence of yours related to anything or anybody associated with the casino industry.”
Around 4:30, Roffman sent it, anyway.
Trump’s response was quick and terse. “Only a fool, a highly unstable one at that, would send a letter such as your second one negating your original letter. You have proved by these strange and irrational actions to be a great liability to your firm,” he wrote to Roffman. “I look forward to seeing you and your firm in court.” That was March 22.
Roffman was fired on March 23.
“Because I wanted to tell the truth,” he told a United Press International reporter.
Wrong, according to Janney. Roffman was let go, according to company documents, because he gave his opinion about the Taj in a quote to a reporter before writing a report for paying clients—a dubious assertion considering he had been saying pretty much the same thing for weeks at least—and “for failure to follow his supervisor’s direct instruction.”
From Barron’s to Fortune, from Institutional Investor to Vanity Fair, from the New York Post to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Trump in the wake of Roffman’s firing unleashed a torrent of criticism against him, calling him “a bad analyst,” “a very unprofessional guy,” “a totally mediocre guy with no talent,” “not a good man,” “a man of little talent,” and “a disgrace to his profession.”
“I have a right to be a critic of a critic,” Trump said to Institutional Investor.Posted on Monday, December 2, 2013 at 12:00AM
As mentioned in a previous article, “Starting Classes with Introductions,” quite a lot of movement and coaching needs to fit into a 60-minute CrossFit group class. A typical class might include a compilation of three to five segments involving barbell warm-ups, reviews at the white board, WODs, lifting, skill development, and cool downs, etc. Especially as your affiliate grows, you'll need to have consistent and effective time management strategies to get large volumes of people through each class in a clear and practical way. At CFSBK, we constantly use time stamps—by which I mean specific, pre-set amounts of time—to achieve our planned programming within the hour.
Below I'll discuss some different class segments we typically use, how long each segment takes, and how we manage the segment’s time limits. As you'll see, we're heavy users of wall-mounted digital timers. If you're only using timers to measure WOD finish times, you're totally under-using them. We have four digital clocks in our gym—one always displays the actual time, and our coaches use the others to communicate time stamps and run WODs. Having multiple clocks is also helpful when running more than just Group Classes at any given hour.
Intros and Movement Prep (3-10 Minutes)
This portion of a Group Class is simply managed by the coach keeping their eye on the clock set to the actual time and adjusting according to how long the movements take to execute. On days when the overall class objectives are a little lighter, this segment can be extended and movement prep can be more specialized. Starting class exactly on time is critical to keeping an accurate measure of how long movement prep is taking.
Standardized Warm-Ups (8-10 minutes) Are you getting the most out of these?
Depending on our programming, we often allot time for standardized warm-ups. These vary through training cycles but usually resemble the CrossFit warm-up and consist of three movements performed for three rounds, not for time. Once Intros are done, we start one of the wall timers to indicate the warm-up has started, so people know exactly how much time they have left before we bring it back to the whiteboard and discuss the next segment. As long as you're programming simple standardized warm-ups, everyone should be able to finish three rounds in less than 10 minutes. If members finish early, they're encouraged to get some water, do some movement prep, or change shoes—anything that would further prepare them for the movement or WOD ahead. Enforce whatever cap you use and provide a one-minute warning to let stragglers know to try and finish up. It's okay if people don’t always finish—we advise three rounds or 10 minutes, whichever comes first. The point is that the class is moving forward with the next segment regardless.
(In a future article, I'll discuss in more detail how we organize and manage these warm-ups.)
White Board Reviews (1-5 minutes)
This usually only requires a couple minutes, sometimes less, sometimes more. In addition to briefing the class about the logistics of how the following segment will run—including scaling options and any points of performance to consider—this is a great time to communicate how class members should manage their own time while lifting or doing skill work. For example, prior to a lifting segment, coaches can remind the class to be done with warm-up sets by the 8-10 minute mark and to get into their work sets so they have enough time to finish at the 20-minute mark.
Coach Melo talks time management before a lifting segment.
Synchronized Reviews for Olympic Lifting and Gymnastics (5-15 Minutes)
When teaching the Olympic lifts or more nuanced gymnastic movements, you'll need to take the class through synchronized skill work as a group in order to effectively communicate points of performance. The time required for this varies drastically depending on what you're teaching and the size of the class. A simple push jerk review might take five minutes with a medium-sized class, while power snatches with a large class can require up to three times as long to cover properly. Again, these time requirements are managed by the coach who keeps his or her eye on the actual clock. We might start a review at 18 minutes after the hour and know that we need to be done by the 30-minute mark to have enough time for the rest of class.
Lifting (15-20 minutes)
After everyone has been paired up at the white board (according to barbell weight) and assigned racks, we start a wall timer and enter the lifting segment. The slow lifts (squats, deadlifts, and presses) are usually allotted 15-20 minutes, since they generally don't require the synchronized class reviews we do for Olympic lifts (the snatch and clean and jerk). We’ve found that 20 minutes is ample time for classes to move through their warm-up and work sets with slow lifts. With Olympic lifts, we take 12-15 minutes for work sets after the synchronized reviews.
WODs (Varies)
Obviously, these can vary dramatically based on what's programmed. We generally think it's a good practice to use time caps on most or all WODs. Not only does it give your members another tool for figuring out how to scale appropriately, but it keeps things running on time, especially if you're using multiple heats to get larger classes through the workout.
NFT Assistance Work (10-20 Minutes)
We also occasionally program Not For Time (NFT) assistance work in lieu of a WOD or lifting segment. A typical example is something such as:
Four Rounds NFT of:
8 Heavy dumbbell presses
8 Strict toes-to-bars
12 Heavy kettlebell swings
We execute NFT work exactly like standardized warm-ups, meaning we set a cap and use the wall timers to communicate and organize time during the class.
A Typical Class
Any CrossFitter knows that the shape and feel of their training sessions can vary greatly. The time stamp template we use changes every day based on what's programmed. Here is an outline for how class time might be managed:
Intros: about 3 minutes Mare knows exacly how long she has to get her front squats in.
Standardized warm-up: 8 minutes
White board review: about 2 minutes
Lift time: 20 minutes
White board review: about 2 minutes
WOD: 15-minute total window to execute, 10-minute cap on WOD
Consistency and Compliance
Again, we remind each class how much time remains at different points throughout each segment, so athletes can adjust accordingly. Without a clear indication of when segments need to be completed, lots of time will be wasted waiting for people to finish. This lack of time management can easily cut into valuable class time and create a dead space in classes for those who finish early or on time. Both managing time well and starting and ending classes on time demonstrate good planning and most importantly, respect for your members.
As you develop and incorporate your own time management tactics, you'll notice that members will quickly assimilate the class flow and will work with you to make each segment run efficiently. You can't expect people to read your mind, so communicate clearly, employ consistent tools and language, and you'll find that even huge classes can be run very effectively.
________________________
What other strategies have you found for managing timing in Group Classes?Last week we announced the availability of the first technology preview for Kotlin/Native, something that we’ve been working on since September 2016.
With this first preview release, you can now compile Kotlin to run natively on various platforms, including
Mac OS
Ubuntu Linux (and other Linux flavours)
Apple iOS (arm64)
Raspberry Pi
I decided to give it a whirl and see what it takes to get a simple Hello World! running on the Raspberry Pi, which has been sitting in my desk draw for months now (albeit with a custom-made Lego box)
My device is the Raspberry Pi 2, running NOOBS. No other updates or software installed.
Setting up the compiler
To target Raspberry Pi, we need to compile our applications on a Linux machine, targeting the Pi. In my case I’m using a VM running Ubuntu Desktop 64bit.
First thing is to download the right compiler distribution, in our case Linux. The zip file comes with a command line compiler, Gradle support and some samples. Given that the compiler requires the JVM, we need to install Java on the Linux distribution. In my case I’m running Java 8.
Once we’ve unzipped the compiler, in the bin folder we have access to three script files
kotlinc
kotlinc-native
konanc
The first two are in fact just proxies to konanc (codename).
Compiling for Linux
To compile the following code to target the platform we have the distribution for (in our case Linux)
fun main ( args : Array < String >) { println ( "Hello, World!" ) }
we simply run the following command from the bin folder
./konanc <path_to_source>/sample.kt -o hello
we can optionally provide an output filename using the -o argument. Otherwise it defaults to the input filename and extension kexe.
Compiling for Raspberry Pi
Now that we have it working on Linux, let’s do the same thing but this time target the Raspberry Pi. For this all we need to do is pass the -target parameter to the compiler
./konanc <path_to_source>/sample.kt -target raspberrypi -o hello
If we try and run this on Linux, we’ll get an expected error
Let’s transfer this over (in my case using scp) to Raspberry Pi and run it there.
scp hello pi@192.168.1.36:~/work
Once we have it on the device we can simply execute the binary
(you’ll notice a small message appear before the output. The team is working on i18n support which will resolve this. In the meantime you can set the locale on your machine to en_US.UTF-8)
Next Steps
This is the first preview of Kotlin/Native and there is still a lot to do (big kudos to the team for making the on-boarding experience smooth), but there is already quite a few things you can do with it beyond a simple Hello World application. Under the samples folder you can find numerous examples, including interop with C libraries.
Have a play and give us your feedback!When I first started using Glass Mapper with Sitecore, I had lots of code like this in my controllers.
using System.Web.Mvc ; using Glass.Mapper.Sc ; using My.Site.Models ; namespace My.Site.Controllers { public class WidgetController : Controller { public ViewResult Widget () { var context = new SitecoreContext (); var model = context. GetCurrentItem < Widget >(); return View ( model ); } } }
Basically - get a new context… get me the current item mapped to my model type… stuff it in a view… done. There are a few things that you can do to tidy this up. Injecting the context in a constructor is an obvious example.
Second attempt
public class WidgetController : Controller { private readonly ISitecoreContext _context ; public WidgetController ( ISitecoreContext context ) { _context = context ; } public ViewResult Widget () { var model = _context. GetCurrentItem < Widget >(); return View ( model ); } }
There were a few issues that I was still not happy about though.
It doesn’t use the datasource for renderings. It just grabs the current item, blindly. You end up with ISitecoreContext all over the place. Every controller now has a dependency on it. You’re still mapping the model in every action.
A better approach
The next approach was to use model binding.
public class WidgetController : Controller { public ViewResult Widget ([ Glass ] Widget model ) { return View ( model ); } }
Now we’re getting somewhere! No more dependency on ISitecoreContext, and we don’t need to explicitly bind the model on each action.
Note how we’ve decorated the model being passed in with the Glass attribute. This is what tells ASP.Net MVC to use our new model binder.
Here’s what the code for GlassAttribute looks like.
public class GlassAttribute : CustomModelBinderAttribute, IModelBinder { private readonly IGlassBinder _binder ; public GlassAttribute () : this ( DependencyResolver. Current. GetService < IGlassBinder >()) { } public GlassAttribute ( IGlassBinder binder ) { _binder = binder ; } public bool InferType { get ; set ; } public bool IsLazy { get ; set ; } public virtual object BindModel ( ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext ) { _binder. InferType = InferType ; _binder. IsLazy = IsLazy ; return _binder. BindType ( bindingContext. ModelType ); } public override IModelBinder GetBinder () { return this ; } }
You’ll probably recognize the InferType and IsLazy properties if you’ve done any work with Glass before. They’re used here to be able to pass down our preferences for how we want our mapping to work to the binder.
Because this is an Attribute, it’s not easy to pass in an IGlassBinder, so I’ve done the next best thing and grabbed it from the current DependencyResolver. There is still a public constructor which takes an IGlassBinder for use in tests.
Speaking of IGlassBinder …
public interface IGlassBinder { bool InferType { get ; set ; } bool IsLazy { get ; set ; } object BindType ( Type modelType ); T BindType < T >(); }
… and here’s the implementation…
public class GlassBinder : IGlassBinder { private readonly ISitecoreContext _sitecoreContext ; public GlassBinder ( ISitecoreContext sitecoreContext ) { _sitecoreContext = sitecoreContext ; } public bool InferType { get ; set ; } public bool IsLazy { get ; set ; } public object BindType ( Type modelType ) { if ( _sitecoreContext == null ) throw new Exception ( "Unable to resolve dependency for ISitecoreContext." ); var item = Sitecore. Mvc. Presentation. RenderingContext. CurrentOrNull?. Rendering?. Item?? Sitecore. Context. Item ; return _sitecoreContext. CreateType ( modelType, item, IsLazy, InferType, null ); } public T BindType < T >() { return ( T ) BindType ( typeof ( T )); } }
Phew! There’s a few things going on here, so lets break it down.
First, this is where we’ve moved our dependency on ISitecoreContext. It’s a single place, so that’s an improvement on shotgunning it all over the controllers.
public GlassBinder ( ISitecoreContext sitecoreContext ) { _sitecoreContext = sitecoreContext ; }
In the BindType method, we do a little validation to check that we can get a valid ISitecoreContext and throw an exception if not.
if ( _sitecoreContext == null ) throw new Exception ( "Unable to resolve dependency for ISitecoreContext." );
Next we work out what Item we need to bind to - has a content editor set a datasource on the rendering, or are we defaulting to the current Sitecore item?
var item = Sitecore. Mvc. Presentation. RenderingContext. CurrentOrNull?. Rendering?. Item?? Sitecore. Context. Item ;
Finally, we map the model using our Glass context, and return it.
return _sitecoreContext. CreateType ( modelType, item, IsLazy, InferType, null );
Conclusion
I’ve found this to be a really nice way to work. The mapping of my models is all nicely kept in a single place. It copes well with datasources, and makes my controllers very simple to test.
I’ve also extended this to add other attributes like GlassHome for mapping the home item for the current site. This is used for things like a footer rendering so you can store the data in a single place for the whole site.
public ViewResult Footer ([ GlassHome ] NavigationSource source ) { return View ( source. Footer ); }
There is also a GlassCurrentItem attribute for when you have some properties that you need from the current item, as well as others that are coming from a datasource. One example for a place where this is useful is if you’re trying to get related content for a specific article page. The information about the rendering (background colour, title) can come from the datasource, and the information about the page (tags, linked articles) can come from the current item.
public ActionResult RelatedContent ([ Glass ] RelatedContentModule module, [ GlassCurrentItem ] ContentPage page ) { var model = _processor. Process ( new PopulateRelatedContentQuery ( module, page )); return View ( model ); }
Happy data binding!Photo
A copy of Action Comics No. 1, which featured the debut of Superman, will be auctioned next month on eBay. The comic, which was published in April 1938, is a highly prized piece of American memorabilia and at the time of its debut cost 10 cents. In 2011 a copy of the issue sold for $2,161,000. That copy was believed to have once belonged to the actor Nicolas Cage, who bought it in 1997 for $150,000.
The copy that will be auctioned next month is owned by Darren Adams of Pristine Comics in Washington. In a video interview on eBay, Mr. Adams estimated that the initial print run for Action Comics in 1938 was around 200,000, with 34 unrestored copies known to exist today. The comic being sold by Mr. Adams received a grade of 9 out of 10 and contains white pages. While the copy sold in 2011 was also graded 9.0, its pages showed more signs of discoloration from age; some were cream to off-white. The auction will run Aug. 14 to 24 and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.WASHINGTON — The bipartisan push to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws took a major step forward Monday evening when the Senate endorsed a proposal to substantially bolster security along the nation’s southern borders as part of a measure that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country.
The 67-to-27 vote prevented any filibuster of the plan to devote roughly $40 billion over the next decade to border enforcement measures, including nearly doubling the number of border agents to 40,000 and completing 700 miles of fencing. Opponents of the measure questioned whether the security steps would ever be taken and said that the legislation should require that the border be secure before undocumented immigrants could seek legal status.
But the solid bipartisan support for the border security proposal by two Republican senators, Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota, suggested that advocates of the overhaul had the votes needed to clear remaining hurdles and pass the legislation, which was drafted by a bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators, perhaps before lawmakers leave town for the July Fourth recess.
Senators and aides said that Monday’s vote offered a preliminary glimpse of how many senators, roughly, would vote for the bill’s final passage. Several senators missed the vote because of flight delays, and Democrats said they could have landed at least 69 votes had all legislators been present.This year’s midfield battle in F1 is already looking very exciting. Last season’s battle of the mid-packers saw clear domination by Mercedes-powered teams, with Force India narrowly beating Williams at the top. But, with testing over and the constructors potentially looking more competitive, things could look a bit different this season.
Since it’s hard to draw pretictions from testing, I’ll introduce two other factors I’ve focused on in looking at this year’s packed midfield; driver changes and overall team confidence. And there’s a lot going on in both areas.
Starting with driver changes, five out of the six teams in the midfield are entering the Australian GP with a new face. But, how many are actually upgrades?
Force India: See you later. Nico Hulkenberg ended his second stint with Force India to join Renault this offseason. Although the German has shown his talent since joining the sport in 2010, the results haven’t exactly shown up, as he’s yet to score a single F1 podium. Because of this, a change of scenery may have been Hulkenberg’s best option, and with this hole to fill, Force India have found one of the best young talents on the grid. Esteban Ocon impressed in his short stint with Manor (RIP), and transitioning to the far superior Force India car could see him fighting for podiums. But at this point, with such a small sample size, it’s hard to tell if Ocon will be able to match Hulkenberg’s pace in the bubble gum car (Can that be a new thing? Can we please call it that?). With that degree of uncertainty, I’ll call this replacement a slight downgrade… for now.
Williams: There’s no need for me to wait until the end to tell you my prediction. This is a straight downgrade for Williams. No fault to them, though. The initial idea of replacing a declining (sorry) Felipe Massa with Lance Stroll was a decent one. Granted, I don’t expect Stroll to be impressing anyone off the bat, but having him play in a secondary role to Valterri Bottas could have worked out fine for them. But, Nico’s little secret turned out to hurt Williams the most, as they lost their number one man to Mercedes, and Massa was forced to step in and save the day. Let’s be real here, Massa isn’t quite the same as he was with Ferrari. Bottas outscored him on nearly a race-to-race basis in their time together. And Stroll… well, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this.
McLaren: I’m one of Jenson’s biggest fans, don’t get me wrong, but it’s no question he had a bad year last season. Even taking into effect a very slow McHonda engine, his Spanish counterpart outscored him by 33 points, and retirement (or a break… please Jenson) makes sense. As it is with Ocon, Stoffel Vandoorne’s limited F1 experience makes it hard to judge his future success. But, considering he’s the 2015 GP2 Champion, and Jenson was definitely trending downward, I’ll call this a slight upgrade.
Toro Rosso: Somehow, Kvyat kept his job, so it looks like we’ll be seeing at least one more year of intense ping pong action before Gasly takes his seat.
Haas: Upgrade. Massive massive upgrade. Gutierrez couldn’t score a point if his F1 career depended on it… which is exactly what happened, as the Mexican is headed to Formula E. Kevin Magnussen, on the other hand, actually has the talent to challenge Romain Grosjean and, dare I say, score a fucking point.
Renault: The aforementioned Nico Hulkenberg will head the operation of bringing the bruised banana car (which should also be a thing) from the basement to the midfield. Key word: head. As much as I love K-Mag, he doesn’t quite fit the role of a true first driver yet. Hulk, on the other hand, represents a clear superior to Jolyon Palmer. Big upgrade here.
New faces: check… confidence: huge check. Most of these midfield teams have big goals set for next season, with Haas targeting an improvement from their 7th place effort last season, Renault and Toro Rosso both targeting 5th, and Force India dreaming of knocking off a top team and finishing 3rd. Yes, 3rd. Obviously, not everyone will meet those goals, but it’s not impossible to think we’ll see a surprise contender coming out of the midfield.
Williams and McLaren will most likely see down years. Williams have an inferior driver lineup from last year, and although they still have the advantage of a Mercedes power unit, repeating their 5th place performance may be tough without Bottas. And McLaren, based on testing, haven’t exactly fixed any of their power or reliability issues of the past few years, and 6th place may be a stretch with lower teams expecting huge seasons.
Amongst the more… ambitious teams, I see Force India finishing atop the midfield again. While there’s a solid 1% chance they’ll actually meet their 3rd place goal, I don’t see anyone else in the midfield challenging them. Their drivers are young and talented, their car is as fast (and pink) as it’s ever been, and they looked solid in testing. That’s good enough for me.
Yes, I’ve officially climbed aboard the Renault hype-train. Not only were they finally able to build their own car without any ties to Lotus, but the addition of Hulkenberg can help them skyrocket up the table. Couple that with their huge works-team budget and Renault have the potential to meet their goal.
Not too far behind should be Haas. Gene’s team also enjoyed a very solid week of testing, and having two drivers who are actually good enough to score points should help them improve from 7th place.
Toro Rosso’s season is tough to predict. On one hand, they’re the only midfield team with the same driver lineup as 2016. But on the other, they’re the only team on the grid who are changing engine providers. Because of that, their entire season will depend on that transition, so it wouldn’t be too surprising to see a down year while they adjust.
Flaming-hot tot take (2017 constructors):
TBD TBD TBD Force India (no change from 2016) Renault (+4) Williams (-1) Haas (+1) McLaren (-2) Toro Rosso (-2) Sauber (didn’t quite mention them in the article… but did I really have to?)
AdvertisementsThe sweet anticipation for the world’s largest event for computers and video games is unabated: The online Ticket Shop of gamescom opened yesterday, on 8 March 2017, and more than 42,000 tickets had been sold after just 24 hours!
So, in accordance with the huge demand for gamescom tickets, anyone who definitely wants to take part in the world’s largest event for computers and video games, open for everyone on Wednesday, 23 August to Saturday, 26 August 2017 (NEW DAY SEQUENCE), should secure his day ticket in good time. As in past years, the following generally applies: private visitor day tickets for gamescom are available for advance sale only as long as supplies last. In 2016, all of the day tickets for the public days were sold out in the advance sales three weeks before the event began.
Being there means everything to you? Then, click here for the gamescom Ticket Shop www.gamescom-cologne.comGab's logo is a frog. (Not this frog though.) Reuters Gab, a social network popular with the racist "alt-right" movement, has been banned from the Google Play app store for hate speech.
The move comes amid a sweeping attempts from the technology industry to crack down on far-right and racist content in the aftermath of deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Launched in 2016, Gab styles itself as "an ad-free social network for creators who believe in free speech, individual liberty, and the free flow of information online."
It has proved popular with the far-right, and in page soliciting fundraising it says it sees " a unique opportunity to carve a niche in a massively underserved and unrepresented market... conservative, libertarian, nationalist, and populist internet users from around the world."
On Wednesday, Gab posted a photo on Twitter of an email it says it received from Google informing the company its Android app had been banned from the Google Play Store.
"After review, Gab.ai.android has been suspended and removed from Google Play as a policy strike because it violates the hate speech policy," it said.
The policy specifies that Google does not "allow apps that advocate against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity."
On its Twitter account, Gab speculated the move was related to the fact it apparently offered a job to James Damore, the Google engineer fired for penning a controversial memo about diversity. "Really interesting that shortly after Gab offered [Damore] a job and supported him in the media that our app |
.
- Russia 'enabling' Assad -
"Russian operations are supporting and enabling the Assad regime and our focus is solely on degrading and defeating ISIL," Davis said, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group.
Davis added that the Pentagon had received "nothing formal" from its Russian counterpart regarding the proposal.
Russia and the United States pledged earlier this month to redouble efforts to find a solution to the Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions since 2011, and extend a truce across the war-torn country.
Despite diplomatic efforts to resolve the five-year conflict, Moscow and Washington have been critical of each other's bombing campaigns in Syria.
The West has accused Moscow -- a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- of propping up the regime by targeting rebels fighting Assad in strikes Moscow said were aimed against "terrorist" organisations.
Moscow has in turn repeatedly slammed the US coalition, saying its strikes in Syria have been ineffective.
Shoigu said Friday that Russia would reserve its right to unilaterally strike "international terrorist and illegal armed groups that have not adhered to the cessation of hostilities" starting from May 25.
- Russian withdrawal? -
President Vladimir Putin surprised the West in March by announcing the partial withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria, saying Moscow's task in the war-torn country had been "on the whole" completed.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that Russia's military strength in Syria had barely changed since the partial withdrawal was announced.
Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said that Russia had established some sort of forward operating base outside Palmyra, the ancient city Syrian forces recaptured in March from Islamic State jihadists with the help of Russian air strikes and special forces.
The Russian defence ministry denied that it was building a base in Palmyra, saying its military installations in the area are a "temporary camp" used for demining operations.
Meanwhile Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday said his Lebanese Shiite movement would boost its support for Syria's regime after one of its top commanders was killed there last week.
According to Hezbollah expert Waddah Charara, the Shiite militant group has sent between 5,000 and 6,000 combatants to Syria since 2013.
Hezbollah has accused Islamist extremists of killing its commander Mustafa Badreddine in an artillery attack near Damascus. last week.February 2012 saw the circulation of this item decrying the encasement of live turtles, fish, and salamanders in plastic bags of colored water and sold as souvenir keyrings in China, exhorting readers to urge the media to “pick up this news” and help put a stop to a form of animal cruelty.
On a commercial street in China, little tortoises are found packaged as souvenir!!! These little tortoises are still alive and swimming inside a herbal solution. The store owner says it can live for 1-3 months. 5 RMB a piece. This is too cruel and unacceptable!!! God knows how many little lives were slowly suffocated to silent death; their fate sealed in a bag!!! Has the commercial world no more other ideas to make money!!! Please help “Share” this. Hopefully some media or government will pick up this news and step in to stop this animal cruelty! Perhaps find the real victim and put an end to such uncivilized act.
Although it’s difficult to gauge how widespread or pervasive this practice might be in China, a few western news articles have made mention of it in recent years. The UK’s Sun tabloid, for example, carried a brief item about goldfish key fobs being sold as souvenirs during the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing:
A cruel trader in China shows how he is cashing in on this summer’s Olympics — by selling live goldfish as souvenir key fobs. The fish, sold in tiny sealed plastic bags which bear the Beijing Games mascot, have just hours to live before running out of air. Animal rights campaigners have reacted with fury — but in China the gruesome gimmicks are selling fast. The keyrings are being sold mainly to children in Qingdao, the city hosting the sailing events.
In April 2011, a Dubai news source briefly referenced an Asian report on the phenomenon:
Live fish and turtles sealed in small key rings sold in subway entrances and train stations in China have got animal protection groups up in arms, reports ‘Asiaone’. Filled with coloured water, each seven centimetre-long key ring, sold at Sihuiv subway station, encapsulated either one Brazil turtle or two small kingfish. The vendors claim the water in the rings have nutrients and so the fish can live for months. Some clients buying the key rings claim it brings them good luck, while a few others buy to free the animals.
That same month, the New Zealand Herald also referenced a Chinese news report about the live animal key rings:
Animal rights groups are appalled by a new popular trinket being sold on the streets of China – live animal key rings. The key rings are attached to a bag filled with coloured water containing either a live Brazil turtle or two small fish. Vendors spoken to by China’s Global Times claimed the water contained nutrients and that the animal could live for months, however the animal would suffocate sooner because of a lack of oxygen, animal rights activists say. Online petitions calling for the key rings to be banned have been launched – but the gimmicks are completely legal due to China’s lack of animal cruelty laws. Qin Xiaona, director of the NGO Capital Animal Welfare Association, described the trinkets as “immoral and pure animal abuse” – but said they were legal. “China only has a Wild Animal Protection Law,” Qin told The Global Times. “If the animals are not wild animals they fall outside the law’s scope.” One woman spoken to by the paper said she planned to free the creature, while a man in his 30s was going to hang the key ring, containing a turtle, on the wall in his office. “It looks nice and brings good luck,” he said.
The web site of Phoenix radio station KTAR echoed the other news reports in noting that the bagged fish and turtles sold as key fobs would soon die if not released from their packaging, and that China lacks animal protection laws restricting such practices:We’re halfway through the season, so it’s time to pick this little corner of the Internet’s official All-Star teams. Some rules I made up:
• I ignore the fan vote completely. That’s not a shot at the fans, who deserve to craft a no-defense exhibition as they wish. I just enjoy starting from scratch.
• I follow the same rules as the fans in selecting starters, and the coaches in picking reserves. For starters: two guards and three frontcourt players, as designated by the official ballot. For reserves: two guards, three frontcourt players, and two wild cards, with some wiggle room on positions that won’t be necessary this season.
• Performance in this season trumps everything else. This game takes place every year, and so we should reward the guys who have been the very best — and most important to their teams — in this particular season. Career track record can be a useful tiebreaker in coin-flip cases, but the focus will be on the past 40-plus games. And given those priorities, it matters in very close calls if a player has missed something like eight or 10 of those games — a significant percentage.
To the rosters!
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Starters:
G Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat
G Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia 76ers
FC LeBron James, Miami Heat
FC Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks
FC Tyson Chandler, New York Knicks
Reserves:
G Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers
G Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics
FC Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics
FC David West, Indiana Pacers
FC Brook Lopez, Brooklyn Nets
WC Joakim Noah, Chicago Bulls
WC Chris Bosh, Miami Heat
Some analysis of the thornier choices:
• You’ll notice Kevin Garnett is not here. He is absolutely a worthy choice — a wonderful player who can still hit mid-range jumpers, fire whip-smart interior passes, post up when Boston needs it, set monster (illegal) screens, and play some of the best team defense in the world. Boston’s defense just folds when he hits the bench.
I love the guy, even if I’m uncomfortable with his pathological cruelty to rivals. He is my Twitter avatar, and I’ve learned more about the modern NBA from watching Kevin Garnett play defense than from almost any other player.
But he’s logging just 29.8 minutes per game, his rebounding and individual defense have slipped just slightly, and he’s not a “throw me the damn ball” offensive force on a night-to-night basis anymore. His Player Efficiency Rating of 18.4, while still excellent, would be his lowest since 1996-97.
It’s lower than that of David West, one of the three guys (along with Paul George and Al Horford) in consideration for what was essentially the final spot on this fake roster. West is playing nearly four more minutes per game than Garnett, and lacking a Rajon Rondo–style ball dominator, he often works as the centerpiece of a Pacers offense that would cease to function without him. He has been one of the league’s most efficient and high-volume crunch-time shooters, and he’s putting up the best passing numbers of his career — better passing numbers than KG — as a distributor in Indiana’s pick-and-roll system. The Pacers lack a dynamic penetrating point guard, which leaves West to slip screens into the foul line area, catch an entry pass, read the defense, and kick to an open shooter.
West isn’t on KG’s level as a defender or rebounder, but he’s perfectly fine at both, and he’s just as valuable in Indiana as the locker-room sage/inspirational leader as KG is in Boston.
• If Boston deserves a second All-Star, Pierce is a fine choice. He continues to evolve as his individual explosiveness declines. He’s working off screens more now as a catch-and-shoot player who doesn’t need much space to fire off a 3-pointer — a shot Pierce has taken, and hit, more often as he’s aged. He’s also a useful secondary distributor in high pick-and-rolls (including a killer combination with Rondo), when he catches after jetting off a Garnett screen at the elbow, and in a developing two-man game with Jason Terry.
Best of all, Pierce has become a brainy defender in all senses — a borderline All-Defense talent who keeps his feet and always knows where to be in Boston’s scheme.
• Two things on Holiday getting the starting nod over Irving and Rondo:
1. It’s very hard to argue Rondo has been better than Holiday this season. The only pieces of evidence are these: Rondo is shooting 48.7 percent, compared to 45.8 percent for Holiday, and he’s dishing two more assists per game.
Beyond that, it’s all Holiday. The shooting percentage gap vanishes when you consider Holiday is hitting 37 percent from deep — an above-average number — on three attempts per game, grabbing a much larger scoring role in Philadelphia’s offense, and getting to the line more than Rondo. That last thing is damning for Rondo as Boston desperately seeks more assertiveness from him; it’s hard to find a heavy-minutes point guard who gets to the line significantly less often than Holiday, but Rondo is one such player.
Holiday has also been especially good in the clutch, shooting 20-of-45 in the last five minutes of close games as Philly’s only reliable creator. He single-handedly destroyed Toronto on Friday at the end of regulation and in overtime to cement his case.
2. Rondo’s defense has slipped into Kobe Bryant/Kyle Lowry aimless freelancing territory, while Holiday continues to soundly hound guys at both guard positions. Rondo is still a worthy All-Star, obviously. He combines Andre Miller’s professorial understanding of spacing, angles, and timing with turbo speed and creative finishing — when he actually chooses to finish. But Holiday has been better this season.
Irving has probably been better than both of them, but he’s missed 11 of Cleveland’s 42 games and is still a subpar defender. He’s getting better on that end, and had he played more this season, he’d probably deserve to start.
• The “center” position is an interesting three-man race between Lopez, Chandler, and Noah, and all are deserving. Lopez is the most polished offensive player of three, capable of hurting teams from the post, on the pick-and-pop, and flashing into the lane via cross screens. He gets to the line a ton and sits a stunning fifth overall in PER. He’s also improved as a defender and rebounder. The Nets rank 20th in points allowed per 100 possessions, but they’re about average when Lopez plays and league-worst when he sits, per NBA.com.
But let’s not overstate things. Lopez is far from a “stopper” on the Chandler/Noah level, and he still hasn’t proven he can protect the glass adequately without a rebound-chomper like Reggie Evans or Kris Humphries next to him. The Nets have rebounded 81 percent of opponent misses when Lopez and Evans play together, but just 62.2 percent when Lopez plays without Evans, according to NBA.com. The former mark would rank first overall, while the lower number would rank dead last.
Noah might be the best defender in the league, he’s a better passer than Chandler, and he soaks up more possessions on offense. But he’s slipped of late under an unsustainable minutes burden, shooting less accurately and getting to the stripe less often after a red-hot first month.
So I’ll go with Chandler as the best available combination of offense and defense. He doesn’t finish as many possessions as the other two, but his Dwight Howard–style ability (and we’re talking 2010-11 Howard) to suck in defenders as an ultra-athletic pick-and-roll dunker has enabled New York to spread the floor around him and launch an ungodly number of 3s. Chandler is shooting an insane 67 percent and getting to the line a very nice five times per 36 minutes. His ability to both rove and protect the rim on defense has enabled Mike Woodson to go offense-first in using Carmelo Anthony at power forward.
Toughest omissions: Paul George (coming on strong after a tough start), Al Horford, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, Greg Monroe, Josh Smith, Thaddeus Young.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Starters:
G Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
G Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
FC Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder
FC Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs
FC Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers
Reserves:
G Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder
G James Harden, Houston Rockets
FC Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies
FC LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland Trail Blazers
FC David Lee, Golden State Warriors
WC Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
WC Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs
Let’s work backward. There are nine players who have to be here: the five starters, plus Gasol, Harden, Parker, and Westbrook.
There are legitimate quibbles with the starting spots belonging to Bryant and Griffin, but their replacements would come from the nine must-have All-Stars. Bryant’s shooting has come back to earth after a scorching first 20 games or so, and his defense in transition and away from the ball has been horrific. Westbrook is still a bit jumpy and unreliable on defense (and prone to his own brand of lazy transition D), but he’s been better defensively than Bryant this season, and has crept within a tenth of a point of Kobe in PER. Harden’s recent turnover-happy slump leaves Westbrook with a stronger starting case, but I’ll stick with Bryant, given the extreme drama and roster upheaval surrounding him all season.
Griffin/Gasol is a toss-up. Gasol is a legit Defensive Player of the Year candidate and perhaps the best passing big man in the league. Griffin gets better defensively every day, and Vinny Del Negro is comfortable now shifting him to center. He’s right up there with Gasol as a passer, and more willing to take a possession-by-possession centerpiece role on offense.
In any case: Those guaranteed nine leave us just three spots for the remaining six top candidates:
1. Curry
2. Lee
3. Aldridge
4. Serge Ibaka
5. Zach Randolph
6. Dwight Howard
There is a perception that Howard has been awful this season and missed a lot of games, but neither is true. He’s played in 38 of the Lakers’ 41 games, leads the league in rebounding, and has shot 58 percent from the floor. And though his defense has slipped, he still factors into the calculus of every little guy driving into the lane, and his adjusted plus/minus numbers are strong.
And yet: His half-court defense has been hit-or-miss; he has played a big part in the Lakers’ abysmal transition defense; he’s using fewer possessions and attempting fewer shots per minute than at any time in the last half decade; his scoring numbers get a semi-artificial boost from free throws that teams are happy to give him; and his PER has fallen from its customary home in the mid-20s to a relatively ho-hum 20.3.
A guy who was the second-best player in the league two seasons ago is a borderline All-Star now. He has a case, but not an airtight one, and given his piss-poor free throw shooting and unreliable D, I’m crossing him off.
Ibaka has improved on both ends, but the jump has been higher on offense, where he gets to work as a third cog around two stars who bend defenses away from him. He has a fairly low usage rate for an All-Star candidate, and though he’s more solid on defense this season, he can still struggle with positioning against shooting power forwards — and against pump fakes. In a crowded field, he’s a painful final cut.
Curry’s in. A point guard who can shoot 45 percent from 3 on a ton of attempts is a franchise changer, and Curry has worked his tail off to fit within Mark Jackson’s revamped defensive scheme.
That leaves Lee, Randolph, and Aldridge for two spots. All three rank as average or worse defenders, and Lee is probably at the bottom, even though he’s worked harder on that end — and on the boards — this season. He’s always going to be undersized and slow, with a short wingspan that limits his ability to protect the rim and contest shots in the post; opponents have shot a robust 48 percent against him in post-ups this season, per Synergy Sports, and the Warriors often have to send him help.
The Blazers don’t have to send Aldridge help, and his head-to-head assignments are just 20-of-70 against him in the post, per Synergy. Aldridge’s defense has probably regressed or plateaued since his breakout 2010-11 season, but he’s still pretty quick, comfortable defending the pick-and-roll in several different ways, and tall/long enough to be a factor down low even when his effort and positioning wane.
Aldridge’s jumper-happy start to the season hurt his efficiency, but he has found a bit more balance in his shot selection during the last month or so as he and Terry Stotts develop their player-coach chemistry. Aldridge can be a Randolph-style post bulwark when he wants to be, and he’s shooting only two percentage points worse than Z-Bo for the season. He’s a better/longer defender in space, though not in Randolph’s league on the glass.
Basically: This is an impossible choice. But since I have to make one, I’ll reward Lee for his 52 percent shooting — easily the best among three offense-first players — and ability to work as an efficient cog in just about every way the Warriors’ offensive system could ask. Aldridge gets the nod over Randolph for working as the clear no. 1 guy on his team, even if Damian Lillard has seized that mantle in crunch time. But if you want Randolph, that’s absolutely fine.
Other tough omissions: Andrei Kirilenko, Nicolas Batum, Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson, Ryan Anderson
10 Things I Like and Don’t Like
1. Amar’e Stoudemire’s Start to the Season
It’s early, and Stoudemire has shown blips of his old effectiveness as a scorer, especially in New York’s jolly good win over Detroit in London and its tough loss to Brooklyn Monday. But he’s looking so creaky on defense and the glass that it’s uncomfortable to watch. If this is the real Amar’e now, it’s going to be hard for New York to play him heavy minutes against stacked first-line offenses.
2. The “Carlton Banks” Fan Cam in Philly
Every arena experience blends with every other, and the Sixers have a “Gangnam Style” dance cam you could see anywhere. But they also have the “Carlton Cam,” which encourages fans to dance in the famous spastic-yet-rhythmic style the grinning Alfonso Ribeiro made into a sensation as Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. (IMDb tells me Ribeiro was never nominated for an Emmy during the Fresh Prince run. This is a crime against art.) It should go without saying that Tom Jones’s “It’s Not Unusual” is blaring in the background, and that there is always a fan or two who will absolutely nail this dance.
3. Steve Nash, Looking Old
It’s early, and the process-obsessed Nash is recovering from a broken leg while trying to find his fit within an evolving offense and ever-changing rotation. But he suddenly looks his age. Nash is attempting fewer shots per 36 minutes than LARRY SANDERS!, hitting a middling (for him) 39 percent from deep, and struggling more than usual to turn the corner on pick-and-rolls. Trapping defenses are keeping Nash out of the lane, and all those floaters he’s mastered just look more difficult this season; there have even been a few air balls, and some mid-range shots have come from a foot or two farther out than we’re used to seeing.
The Lakers need more, and Nash’s track record suggests he’ll have more to give eventually. Let’s hope so.
4. Oklahoma City’s Alternate Jerseys
I don’t know what these are supposed to be.
5. The Kings’ Use of the “Power-Up” Sound Effect From Super Mario Bros.
When a Sacramento player hits a free throw during a home game, the arena folks play the sound you heard as a kid when little Mario snagged a mushroom or gained Flower Power. Man, Nintendo was great.
6. Al-Farouq Aminu’s Jump Shot
If it could speak, Aminu’s jumper would say, “WHEEE!!!! I have no idea where I’m going, but I’m way high in the air right now!” It is a basketball prayer, every time. It has been nice to see Aminu work his way back into Monty Williams’s rotation as a rebounder and plus defender, but, man, is he hard to watch on offense.
7. Robin Lopez’s Baby Steps
Lopez recorded 43 assists combined in his first four seasons, which included three (!) seasons of single-digit assist totals. Lopez has already dished 35 assists this season, and while that’s still below average even for a big-man finisher, it’s a small sign Lopez still has little bits of refinement to add to his game. Lopez is now capable at least a few times per game of catching the ball in the paint on a pick-and-roll, and either kicking the ball to a shooter or dropping a short-distance bounce pass to his big-man partner around the baseline. One assist per game isn’t much, but it’s something, and it will help sustain Lopez’s usefulness.
8. The Ed Davis Quick Seal
Davis isn’t especially strong or rangy with his shot, but he is quick, and he uses that asset — plus an improved post game — to help the Raps’ half-court game flow. When Jose Calderon and Amir Johnson run a high pick-and-roll with Johnson cutting down the left side of the lane, watch Davis dart into position on the opposite block, seal his man deep, and call for the ball on a quick-hitting post-up. That action occupies a would-be help defender who now has to guard Davis instead of shifting to Johnson, and Davis himself can hit a nifty little lefty jump hook out of the post — a shot he can release before a defender reaches the peak of his jump.
9. The JaVale Precognition of the Denver Bench
When JaVale McGee does something beyond his skill set on offense — a foul line turnaround jumper, a dribble drive from 20 feet out — rewind and watch the Denver bench during the play. You’ll invariably see at least one player or coach put his head in his hands or hide his face under a towel, even as McGee just begins what they know will be a fatally bad move. It won’t surprise me if George Karl whips out a flask at one point this season.
10. Isaiah Thomas’s Hesitation Dribble
This is how a tiny person can hit a nutty 74.4 percent of his shots at the rim, as Thomas has done so far this season. I think there are still a few opposing big men standing frozen at the dotted line in Sleep Train Arena, even though their teams have flown to other cities.Much like Jolie, Justine Avery Sands underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning she had the BRCA1 gene mutation. Sands lost her mother to breast cancer at age 43, followed shortly thereafter by her mother’s sister, who had been treated for breast cancer but died of ovarian cancer. Then a first cousin was diagnosed with the disease.
“My family was like, ‘What’s going on here?’” said the 33-year-old Seattle woman. “My cousin’s doctor recommended genetic testing and so my entire family got tested and then we went through genetic counseling.”
Sands’ decision to get a prophylactic mastectomy in March of 2012 was not easy, she said, but Jolie’s revelation a year later helped more people understand her reasons for doing it.
“Some people thought what I did was a bit radical and a lot of people didn’t know what it was about,” she said. “They’d never heard of the BRCA genes. [Jolie] coming out has done great things for awareness and for people who are going to be faced with this decision years from now. Now they have something to reference. They’ve seen her go through it and come out beautiful and strong and healthy.”
Raised awareness
Most breast cancers are not hereditary. The National Cancer Institute estimates no more than 10 percent of all breast cancers are due to inherited gene mutations such as BRCA1 or 2 (there are others) According to NCI, about 12 percent of all U.S. women will develop breast cancer and about 1.4 percent will develop ovarian cancer sometime during their lives.
For women (and men) with a BRCA gene mutation, however, the risks are much higher. These risks vary depending on family history and other factors, but around 55 to 65 percent of BRCA1 women and around 45 percent of BRCA2 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer by age 70. And nearly 40 percent of BRCA1 women and 11 to 17 percent of BRCA2 women will develop ovarian cancer.
Prophylactic surgery is one way reduce those risks.
According to Dr. Anne McTiernan, director of the Prevention Center at Fred Hutch, women who have had both breasts surgically removed reduce their risk of breast cancer by over 90 percent and women who have had both ovaries removed have about half the risk of developing breast cancer as women with intact ovaries. McTiernan stressed, though, that these options are most appropriate for women at very high risk.
Jolie was very high risk and her decision to go public helped normalize both prophylactic surgery and the concept of genetic testing and counseling, said Mercy Laurino, a genetic counselor in the Cancer Prevention Clinic at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
“It was very powerful in the public health setting,” she said. “It allowed genetic testing to be an OK conversation. Patients would come to us and say my mom died of breast or ovarian cancer. And then they’d say, ‘You know, like Angelina Jolie.’ It created a starting point to discuss genetic testing and discuss other cancer genes, as well. They may bring up BRCA1 and 2 but they may not know all the other cancer genes out there. But since they get the concept, it made it easier to explain genetics education with them and the concept of inheritance.”
Laurino said this increased awareness hasn’t just been in the U.S. either.
“There’s been a ripple effect globally,” she said. “I’ve traveled to the Philippines and China and Vietnam and it’s all over. I saw vendors promoting cancer genetic testing at an oncology meeting in China and they had big pictures of Angelina Jolie in their booths. Before, I would introduce the concept of genetic testing and counseling and the importance of family history but now, they’re generating it. People get it.”
Misconceptions about genetic testing
Laurino said that referrals at SCCA’s Genetic Counseling Service doubled in the weeks following the news, but have since returned to normal. She also acknowledged that, as predicted, some of the women pushing for genetic testing didn’t necessarily need it.
“Patients sometimes wanted the test even though there was no medical indication that they should have it,” she said. “There was no family history of cancer. They just wanted to know. Those are some of the negative implications of Jolie’s message.”
Joy Larsen Haidle, president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, said that pattern held true nationally, as well.
“Most genetic counselors reported a marked increase in the number of phone calls and inquiries into genetic testing following the article,” she said, adding that counselors received calls from both high-risk women and healthy women without a family history who were concerned about breast cancer risk.
Larsen Haidle also acknowledged that along with increased public awareness came increased misunderstandings. Some people, for instance, assumed a test for a BRCA gene mutation provided them with their precise risk for developing breast cancer over a lifetime.
According to the NCI, a positive test result indicates that a person has inherited BRCA1 or 2 and thus has an increased risk of developing certain cancers, but it can’t tell whether that individual will develop that cancer or when (not all BRCA1 and 2 women go on to develop breast or ovarian cancer).
“At $4,000 per test, this is not a cost effective option for the general public as the result provides quite limited information,” said Larsen Haidle.
Importance of genetic counseling
Much more valuable, she said, is a conversation with a genetic counselor who can help explain a person’s chances of developing breast cancer based on their personal and family characteristics and then advise them on the usefulness of genetic testing.
Trained in both science and psychosocial issues, genetic counselors educate patients about their genetic risks and the necessity for testing. If patients go on to pursue testing and are deemed positive for BRCA1 or 2 or another gene mutation that raises their risk for breast cancer, they then offer counsel on various ways to reduce that inherited risk. Some of those options include extra screenings, estrogen-blocking drugs (for women over 60) and prophylactic surgeries.
“If someone knows they are at increased risk of developing cancer, that’s where we come in,” said Laurino. “And not everybody is like Angelina Jolie. Some want to do watchful waiting and screening. We have those discussions with patients.”
For Gralow, the most important thing is that these discussions are actually happening.
“Some people are undoubtedly overestimating their risk, but the dialogue continues and I know women are asking more questions of their health care providers,” she said. “Angelia started the dialogue by talking about her family history, genetic testing, and showing that removing her breasts didn’t necessarily diminish her womanhood or her sexuality. It’s up to the health care community to continue that dialogue and educate our patients and the community about how this applies to them.”
Sands agreed.
“Angelina Jolie is a celebrity and people like to bash celebrities but I think the awareness she brought was really positive for women in general,” she said. “My mom had the gene before anyone knew what BRCA was. I just feel lucky that I was able to really make the decisions I made and choose to live.”
Related stories:
Solid tumors, such as those of the breast and ovaries, are the focus of Solid Tumor Translational Research, a network comprised of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. STTR is bridging laboratory sciences and patient care to provide the most precise treatment options for patients with solid tumor cancers.
Diane Mapes is a staff writer at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She has also written extensively about health issues for nbcnews.com, TODAY.com, CNN.com, MSN.com, Columns and several other publications. She also writes the breast cancer blog, doublewhammied.com. Reach her at dmapes@fredhutch.org.The gun totin' boys at the Broxton Bridge Plantation hunting ground were planning on having themselves a good old fashioned pigeon hunt. South Carolina's unfortunately named S.H.A.R.K. animal rights group planned to expose them via aerial drone. Guess what happened.
The Times and Democrat reports that once the hopeful hunters knew they were going to be watched from above, they started to leave the private shooting plantation. SHARK decided to send up their drone anyway—above a group of cranky firearm-wielding southerners. Big mistake, SHARK. Their drone was quickly shot out of the sky:
"Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out," [SHARK leader] Hindi said in the release. "As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they had shot down our copter." He claimed the shooters were "in tree cover" and "fled the scene on small motorized vehicles."
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From the photos of the drone we've obtained, it looks like the damage was pretty light—though drones are very sensitive machines, and even a helicopter can be downed with small arms fire. Does this at least provide a possible explanation for the drone we lost over Iran? Are there pigeon hunts there? [The T and D]Full Leg Harnesses Full Articulated means a comprehensive leg harness including a cuisse and knee joined with articulation as well as greaves and sabatons.
Full Floating means a comprehensive leg harness including a cuisses, knees, greaves and sabatons all worn without articulated joints between the elements.
Partial Legs means legs are defended with mail that has been supplemented with at least a floating knee cop but do not include both greaves and sabatons. Mail means legs defended entirely with mail. Full Arm Harnesses Full Articulated means a comprehensive arm harness including vambrace, elbow, rerebrace and typically an integrated shoulder defense all joined together with articulated lames.
Full Floating means at least an elbow cop often with other elements such as a vambrace or rerebrace independently fastened to the mail sleeves.
Partial Arms means arms defended with mail that has been supplemented with at least a floating or integrated elbow but does not include both a vambrace and a rerebrace.
Mail means arms defended entirely with mail.
Knee Defenses Articulated means a knee that is joined to the cuisse via lames.
Floating means a knee cop worn with but not articulated to other elements of the leg defense.
Mail means knees defended entirely with mail. Elbow Defenses Roundel means a roundel supplementing the mail to defend the elbow
Integrated means elbow defenses that are incorporated into the vambrace. Articulated means an elbow that is joined to a vambrace and rerebrace.
Floating means an elbow cop usually worn but not joined to other elements of the arm defense. Mail means elbows defended entirely with mail.
Thigh Armour Plate means a solid, smooth plate thigh defense.
Splints means thighs defended with a foundation reinforced with vertical splints.
Studs means thighs defended with a studded defense. These study probably indicate the rivet heads securing plated beneath a covering.
Gamboised means thighs defended with a padded cuisse, often worn over mail.
Mail means thighs defended entirely with mail. Upper Arm Defenses Plate means a solid, smooth plate upper arm defense.
Splints means upper arms defended with a foundation reinforced with vertical splints.
Jack Chains means upper arms defended with a strip secured to the outside of the arms.
Mail means upper arms defended entirely with mail.
Greaves Closed greaves are those that encase both the front and rear of the calves.
Splints means calves defended with a foundation reinforced with vertical splints.
Schynbalds are greaves that defend only the fronts of the calves.
Mail means calves defended entirely by mail. Lower Arm Defenses Plate means a solid, smooth plate lower arm defense.
Splints means lower arms defended with a foundation reinforced with vertical splints.
Jack Chains means lower arms defended with a strip secured to the outside of the arms.
Mail means lower arms defended entirely with mail.
Sabatons Full means sabatons consisting of multiple lames that cover the tops and down the sides of the feet.
Scale means sabatons that are comprised of small scales.
Tops means sabatons consisting of plates that cover only the tops of the feet.
Shoes means feet without any obvious defenses.
Mail means feet defended entirely by mail. Gauntlets Solid means gauntlets that typically do not have any of the embossing associated with hourglass gauntlet metacarpal regions. These typically extend forward to cover some of the fingers with a mitten-like plate. Articulated means gauntlets of hourglass form but with multiple laminations at the wrist.
Hourglass means gauntlets with a wide bell cuff.
Segmented means gauntlets that are made from multiple plates similar to those found at the battle of Wisby.
Mail means gauntlets made of mail. These may be either mitten or fingered form.
Hip Defenses Important Note: This data may be misleading. I have listed mail as the hip defense unless it is patently obvious from the profile that there is some sort of fauld. This conservative approach was taken because I beleave that AT LEAST mail (possibly with a rigid defense over it) was being worn at this time. This has the unfortunate effect of making mail look like a primary defense for much longer than in reality it probably was.
Tassets means a fauld that ends in a pair of attached tassets.
Fauld means a series of uncovered hoops that defend the hips.
Scale means a skirt of scales that defend the hips.
Covered Fauld means a series of covered hoops that defend the hips.
Padding means |
the church.[40][41] He was also active with a small Plymouth Brethren meeting in Maywood, Illinois called Woodside Bible Chapel.
Rhetorical style [ edit ]
Robert D. McFadden, writing Harvey's obituary for the New York Times, examined his unique radio style and how it interacted with his political views:
[He] personalized the radio news with his right-wing opinions, but laced them with his own trademarks: a hypnotic timbre, extended pauses for effect, heart-warming tales of average Americans and folksy observations that evoked the heartland, family values and the old-fashioned plain talk one heard around the dinner table on Sunday.
'Hello, Americans,' he barked. 'This is Paul Harvey! Stand byyy for Newwws!'
He railed against welfare cheats and defended the death penalty. He worried about the national debt, big government, bureaucrats who lacked common sense, permissive parents, leftist radicals and America succumbing to moral decay. He championed rugged individualism, love of God and country, and the fundamental decency of ordinary people.[42][43]
Awards [ edit ]
Harvey was elected to the National Association of Broadcasters National Radio Hall of Fame and Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and appeared on the Gallup poll list of America's most admired men.[citation needed] In addition he received 11 Freedom Foundation Awards as well as the Horatio Alger Award.[citation needed] Harvey was named to the DeMolay Hall of Fame, a Masonic youth organization, on June 25, 1993.[citation needed]
In 2005, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' most prestigious civilian award, by President George W. Bush.[44] Bush's remarks summarized Harvey's career: "He first went on the air in 1933, and he's been heard nationwide for 54 years. Americans like the sound of his voice...over the decades we have come to recognize in that voice some of the finest qualities of our country: patriotism, the good humor, the kindness, and common sense of Americans."[38]:201
On May 18, 2007, he received an honorary degree from Washington University in St. Louis.[citation needed]
In 1992 he received the Paul White Award of the Radio Television Digital News Association[45]
Paul Harvey was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 1987 in the area of Communication.[46]
Family [ edit ]
Harvey was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Harry Harrison Aurandt (1873–1921) and Anna Dagmar (née Christensen) Aurandt (1883–1960). His father was born in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania; his mother was a native of Denmark. He had one sibling, an older sister Frances Harrietta (née Aurandt) Price (1908–1988).
In 1921, when Harvey was three years old, his father was murdered. His father and a friend (a Tulsa police detective) were rabbit hunting while off-duty around 9pm when approached by four armed men who attempted to rob them. Mr. Aurandt was shot and died two days later of his wounds. The four robbers were identified by the surviving detective, and arrested the day after Aurandt died. A lynch mob of 1,500 people formed at the jail, but all four were smuggled out, tried, convicted, and received life terms.[47] https://www.tulsaworld.com/archive/only-in-oklahoma-paul-harvey-s-father-shot-by-bandits/article_cfb58278-8402-551c-ae7d-3775080364c9.html
In 1940, Harvey married Lynne Cooper of St. Louis. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at Washington University in St. Louis[48] and a former schoolteacher.[49] They met when Harvey was working at KXOK and Cooper came to the station for a school news program. Harvey invited her to dinner, proposed to her after a few minutes of conversation and from then on called her "Angel," even on his radio show. A year later she said yes. The couple moved to Chicago in 1944.[48]
On May 17, 2007, Harvey told his radio audience that Angel had developed leukemia. Her death, at the age of 92, was announced by ABC radio on May 3, 2008.[50] When she died at their River Forest home, the Chicago Sun-Times described her as, "More than his astute business partner and producer, she also was a pioneer for women in radio and an influential figure in her own right for decades." According to the founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Bruce DuMont, "She was to Paul Harvey what Colonel Parker was to Elvis Presley. She really put him on track to have the phenomenal career that his career has been."[51]
Lynne Harvey was the first producer ever inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and had developed some of her husband's best-known features, such as "The Rest of the Story."[48] While working on her husband's radio show, she established 10 p.m. as the hour in which news is broadcast. She was the first woman to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago chapter of American Women in Radio and Television.[50] She worked in television also, and created a television show called Dilemma which is acknowledged as the prototype of the modern talk show genre. While working at CBS, she was among the first women to produce an entire newscast. In later years, she was best known as a philanthropist.[52]
They had one son, Paul Aurandt, Jr., who goes by the name Paul Harvey, Jr. He assisted his father at News and Comment and The Rest of the Story. Paul, Jr., whose voice announced the bumpers into and out of each News and Comment episode, filled in for his father during broadcasts and broadcast the morning editions after the passing of his mother.
Death and tributes [ edit ]
Harvey died on February 28, 2009, at the age of 90 at a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, surrounded by family and friends.[53] No cause of death was announced. In response to his father's death, his son, Paul Harvey Jr., said, "millions have lost a friend".[54] At the time of his death, he had less than two years left on his ten-year contract. Former President George W. Bush issued a statement on Harvey's death, calling Harvey: "a friendly and familiar voice in the lives of millions of Americans."[55]
On March 4, Gil Gross was chosen to become the next host of News & Comment.[56] New owners Citadel Broadcasting, which had bought ABC News Radio from Disney in 2008, chose Mike Huckabee, instead, but the show lasted only one week before being taken off the air.[57] Gross was actually happy not to have to do the show as that would have had him going into KGO San Francisco at around 1:00 a.m. to prep for the show that morning for the East Coast broadcasts (and his talk show was not until the late afternoon).
Harvey's full-length biography, Good Day! The Paul Harvey Story, was published in May 2009 by Regnery Publishing.[38]
On February 3, 2013, a recording of Harvey's "So God Made a Farmer" commentary was used by Ram Trucks in a commercial titled "Farmer," which aired during Super Bowl XLVII.
Books [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ [4] Harvey guided his black Cadillac Fleetwood toward Argonne, arriving sometime past midnight. He parked in a secluded spot, tossed his overcoat onto the barbed wire topping a fence, then scampered over.... Harvey['s plan was] to scratch his signature on 'objects that could not possibly have been brought to the site by someone else,' according to a statement later given by an off-duty guard who accompanied him.... But seconds after Harvey hit the ground, security officers spotted him.... Harvey ran until, caught in a Jeep's headlights, he tripped and fell. As guards approached, Harvey sprang to his feet and waved. Guards asked whether Harvey realized he was in a restricted area. Harvey replied no, that he thought he might be at the airport because of the red lights.... Harvey told the authorities he had been headed to a neighboring town to give a speech when his car died.... Under questioning, Harvey eventually dropped his cover story but refused to elaborate, saying he wanted to tell his tale before a congressional committee. Guards searched his Cadillac and found... a four-page, typewritten script for an upcoming broadcast. Harvey, it turned out, had planned from the outset to feed the nation a bogus account of his escapade: "I hereby affirm the following is a true and accurate account," the script began. "My friend and I were driving a once-familiar road, when the car stalled.... We started to walk.... We made no effort to conceal our presence.... Suddenly I realized where I was. That I had entered, unchallenged, one of the United States' vital atomic research installations.... Quite by accident, understand, I had found myself inside the 'hot' area.... We could have carried a bomb in, or classified documents out.
References [ edit ]Writer Lizzy Goodman recently released a new book, Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City** 2001-2011. It’s an oral history of the NYC rock scene in the first decade of the millennium, featuring LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, Interpol, and more. During an event last night at New York’s Strand Book Store, Goodman, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, and writer Rob Sheffield sat down for a discussion about the era documented in the book. Watch the full archived video below, via Observer.
During the candid conversation, Murphy and Zinner discuss their early days in New York City and the unexpected rise of the scene around their bands. “No one was thinking that New York would be the new Seattle,” says Murphy. They share stories about their first shows and DJ gigs in the city and the rise of MP3 blogs. “Since we weren't on the radio, illegal file sharing was a big thing for us,” Murphy says of LCD Soundsystem. Both artists also discuss their experience being embraced by a European fanbase before breaking in the U.S.
Goodman’s Meet Me in the Bathroom is out now via Harper Collins.
Explore LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver on Pitchfork.tv:“The simplest description of emptiness in the Buddhist teachings is this sentence: This is because that is. A flower cannot exist by itself alone. To be can only mean to inter-be. To be by oneself alone is impossible. Everything else is present in the flower; the only thing the flower is empty of is itself.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
Where do we find the origin of the profoundly original?
Earlier this week a Kraftwerk Symposium took place in Birmingham, England, and frankly, THAT’S FANTASTIC. Kraftwerk are INARGUABLY the second most influential band of the past half century, and a concentrated academic examination of their work is not only long overdue, it makes me happier than a peanut butter cup wrapped inside a larger peanut butter cup. I wasn’t able to make it to the symposium because I had a previous commitment to, uh, have a life (not to mention that my time is consumed pressuring the International Court at The Hague to charge Dick Van Dyke with Crimes Against Humanity for his English accent in Mary Poppins).
Now, Kraftwerk are not my favorite band – they’re not even my favorite krautrock band – but that has nothing to do with their importance. In 1973 and ’74 (on their 3rd LP, Ralf und Florian and coming to fruition on the legitimately historic Autobahn album), Kraftwerk replaced all elements of the pop/rock rhythm section with a pulsing, throbbing, quantized synth; in other words, they replaced the drums and the bass, without exception, with simple yet satisfying synth burps and nothing but simple yet satisfying synth burps. Make no mistake: although other artists had experimented with using the synth as a defacto drum or bass supplement or substitute (for instance, the Beach Boys on “Do It Again,” even the original Doctor Who Theme, remarkably devised by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire in 1963), no artist had said this is our sound; this our body and our soul, and we now challenge you to accept that a complete pop music rhythm section can be created by the quantized synthesizer.
Every synthetically thumping rhythm section you have heard since then – from the obvious Kraftwerk homages like “Funkytown” and Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” to the ubiquity of the modern tsk-and-burp/boots’n’pants beat in virtually all modern pop and dance music – can be traced, without fail, to Kraftwerk’s amazing invention. NO other moment in pop is as absolute and viscerally fundamental as “Autobahn.” I’ll be honest: I am a fairly avid student of this shit, and I am hard-pressed to find a moment in post-World War II mainstream pop history that is as absolutely new and defining. There have been plenty of other remarkable scene changes in the last 70 years (Hardrock Gunter and Ike Turner’s use of distorted electric guitar in r’n’b and hillbilly music in 1950 and ‘51; Bo Diddley replacing the old pick and slap of hillbilly rock with fat ham slabs of rhythm roar half a decade later; Dave Davies invention of the modern bar chord riff in 1964; the Ramones massive, massively original, and massively glorious reduction of all existing rock memes in ’74; and so on), but Kraftwerk’s invention of the totally self-contained synth-generated rhythm section is likely the biggest purely musical scene change in the history of rock/pop. I mean, the Fabs are, no doubt, the most influential band of all time, but Kraftwerk are a very, very close second, and very likely number one if you drop long held generational prejudices against dance music.
Having said that…one must acknowledge that the basic roux that flavored Kraftwerks’ gumbo had to come from somewhere (please re-read the quote that begins this piece – only a fool or a fundamentalist Christian believes in Virgin birth). Now, the foundation of the Kraftwerk sound was a pulsing, metronomic beat that mesmerized with a steady tick and minimal chord changes. Keep that in mind. Perusing the program for the symposium, I’m not sure this point was actually addressed:
Circa 1971, after their release of their peculiar, anti-jazz, anti-pop, bongo-and-flutey first album, Kraftwerk briefly had a three-piece line-up, comprised of Florian Schneider (flute and synths), Klaus Dinger (drums), and Michael Rother (guitar). Video and audio of this short-lived line-up reveal a band playing intense, punching, pulsing jams with minimal chord changes, resembling precise mongoloids playing “Sister Ray,” or perhaps you could say they sound like some stoned, happy, and aggressive Germans trying to blend Stooges/Hendrix shrrrroarrr-wang-wang with the mono-chord jams of early NYC minimalist composers like LaMonte Young and Tony Conrad. The music of Schneider, Dinger, and Rother is vastly original – it reduces the idea of “jam” to John Cale drones married to a caveman surf beat. This sound reached it’s fullest fruition when Dinger and Rother split off to form Neu!, a band whose phased, ticking, rumbling, endless one-chord explorations made for some of the most original, powerful, and influential rock ever recorded.
(the Incredible Schneider/Dinger/Rother Kraftwerk, late 1971)
But Neu! wasn’t the only child of the brief and brilliant Schneider/Dinger/Rother Kraftwerk. The future, commercially giant Kraftwerk was Neu!’s remarkable twin. It is clear – very goddamn clear – that when Schneider reunited with Ralf Hutter (who returned to the band he co-formed in 1972), there was a conscious decision to leave the odd, dumbed-down proggy thumps, bells, and whistles behind (again, the early Kraftwerk sound resembles a very stoned, very, minimalist free jazz group doing collegiate exercise in interpreting Stockhausen), and instead attempt a sound that IMITATED Dinger and Rother’s ultra-minimal motorway beat (the actual name is “motorik”) that hinted at long highways, minimal variation, and maximum energy.
So I posit – shit, I barely need to posit it, there’s plenty of evidence to back it up – that the “Autobahn” sound that reinvented pop was “just” an attempt to replicate on synths the sound that Dinger/Rother had brought to Kraftwerk during their brief time in the band. Now, NONE of that is to minimize the invention; and there is great, ENORMOUS, radical genius in Hutter and Schneider’s decision to reinterpret Dinger and Rother’s motorway drive with synths and synths alone – but I am anxious to give credit where credit is due. I will add, for the sake of accuracy/completion, that an academic-type could make a fairly strong case for the sound of the Schneider/Dinger/Rother Kraftwerk being a more simplistic, driving, spacious exploration of the herky-jerky seizure-on-the-railway sound that the Schneider/Hutter/Dinger Kraftwerk had explored on a first-album track called “Ruckzuck” – remember, “Everything else is present in the flower”.
Now back to those emails to the International Court at The Hague.
Be Sociable, Share!HBO Canada and Cineplex announced Wednesday that they will bring the final episode of Season 4 of the fantasy series to 29 Cineplex locations in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada on Sunday, June 15 at 9 p.m.
Game of Thrones fans will be able to watch the season finale on the big screen, a setting that might better suit the show’s epic proportions.
The $10 admission for what is billed as a “fan event” includes a ticket to the finale, a $10 concession voucher and a draw for Game of Thrones prizes. Tickets are available only in person at the box office of participating theatres.
The series has broken records for HBO Canada, with an average audience of nearly 1.3 million making it the most-watched series in Canadian pay TV history, Bell Media says.
GTA cinemas showing the finale include Yonge-Dundas, Queensway and Eglinton Town Centre Cinemas in Toronto; Courtney Park in Mississauga; SilverCity Newmarket; Winston Churchill in Oakville; and Colossus Toronto in Woodbridge.An in-car warning system being developed by Microsoft researchers could help prevent accidents by automatically putting calls on hold when the road demands more attention. The researchers found that the system could significantly reduce the risk of an accident while driving.
Drive carefully: A volunteer uses a driving simulator while answering questions on a speakerphone.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), using a cell phone while driving impairs a driver’s reaction time by as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of.08 percent. Most U.S. states have banned the use of handheld phones while driving, and more than half forbid novice drivers and school bus drivers from any cell phone use at all while driving.
Shamsi Iqbal and Yun-Cheng Ju at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, and Ella Mathews at Caltech had 18 pairs of volunteers use a highly realistic driving simulator. One person from each pair was asked to drive a virtual route, while the other asked them questions over a speakerphone. The virtual route featured construction zones, heavy traffic, and busy residential areas.
In part of the experiment, when the road conditions became tricky—for example, when traffic became denser—the system would cut in, giving an audio alert to both the driver and the caller. If they failed to stop talking, it would place the conversation on hold. The researchers found that with the system in use, the number of errors made by drivers decreased dramatically, from once every 1.4 minutes to once every 7.1 minutes—a rate even lower than the rate for drivers who weren’t on the phone but received no warning.
“This suggests that inventions may not only make driving safer while conversing, but may make driving safer, period,” says Iqbal. The results were presented in Vancouver this week at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
The technology needed to automatically detect trouble spots on the road is still in development, says Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft Research scientist who led the study. “The eventual idea is to have a system that can continue to monitor speed and location with GPS and compute forthcoming driving risk based on prior statistics on each roadway and on the current context,” he says.
Horvitz and colleagues are developing such a system using traffic accident data from the NHTSA and local authorities. “We splatted that data onto the road network to generate a heat map of trouble spots by densities of points of accidents and fatalities,” he says. “We’d like to one day add data on current traffic conditions,” he adds. Horvitz says some of the technology could perhaps be incorporated into a mobile app so that anyone could use it.
There is a lot of interest in developing technologies to address the problem of driver distraction. “People are under tremendous pressure to work as much as they can, and they see driving as wasted time,” says Paul Green head of driver distraction at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor. “So if they can work by talking to someone on the phone while driving, then they will just do it.”
Having a system that alerts drivers when necessary is less likely to be ignored, says Green. But the flip side is that drivers may become complacent.We just made history as the first progressive/left party to get on the ballot in North Carolina since the 1980s. Please donate now to help ensure we get our message out to thousands of people. The time is now to educate and recruit.
As of March 27, 2018, the North Carolina Green Party (NCGP) is a ballot-qualified party. That means we have ballot access—we’ll be able to run Greens as Greens for all levels of office, and North Carolina voters can now register to vote as Greens. Now that we have a ballot line it is essential that we get the word out.
The Green Party of the United States has given us a $5,000 grant to help with our ballot efforts. Let's double our impact and raise another $5,000! We will use these funds to spread the word that Green Party is now on the ballot, to hire organizers, and help cover candidate filing fees.
Please donate now to fund our ballot-access education, outreach, and candidate development. We will continue making history with your help!
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On “All Hallows’ Eve,” skeletons, ghosts and graveyards were supposed to be scary reminders of human mortality, and the threat of damnation like the image above. Carved pumpkins lit from within, or “Jack O’ Lanterns,” were originally to frighten “evil spirits” away.
Halloween is now more a creation of Gothic and horror literature like Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Hollywood horror movies, and the candy and costume industries.
But if you do want to be frightened this week, here are some Christian theological themes that actually are scary:
1. Christian Dominionism
Christian dominionism is the idea that our nation should be governed by Christians according to a conservative understanding of biblical law, and was, I believe, the theology behind the recent government shutdown. This is the “scariest” Christian theology to me because, as Chris Hedges so well argues, it is fueled by “sanctified” rage. He warns of how volatile this rage is, and that the “Christian right needs only a spark to set it ablaze.” What I particularly like about Hedges’ analysis is that he does not move away from the economic and social “despair” of those who have sought out this theology for answers. The “collapse of liberal democracy” is our common issue.
What is especially scary to me, however, is the wall of rage that seems so impossible to scale to find common cause across a spectrum of differences.
2. Hell and Damnation
Scary images of Hell and damnation have been part of religions for millennia, as Alice K. Turner demonstrates in her beautifully illustrated text, The History of Hell. These include biblical themes, as “ “Sheol” is where sinners go (Psalm 49:13–14), and hell is “everlasting fire” presided over by the Devil (Matthew 25:41).
These images abound in popular culture as well as in religion, and people who have “near death” experiences have not always written afterwards about heavenly lights, but being “hung over an abyss” with heat blasting below, while “pairs of demonic eyes” glared at them.
But while these scary images abound, a theology of hell is something different than images of demons and fire. Images of hell as judgment have been used over Christian history to construct a punitive, punishing idea of God that is used like a club to manipulate people, producing true horrors instead of faith journeys.
As I have observed before for On Faith, so many students come to us at Chicago Theological Seminary from Christian conservative backgrounds. They tell horror stories of being told they would go to hell if they did not obey the church, their parents and other authority figures without question. Even when they experienced parental abuse, they dared not tell because they were told that disobedient children deserved punishment. Awakening sexuality, gay or straight, was met with threats of hellfire and damnation.
Theologies of hell and damnation that are used to make human lives a misery are truly scary to me because they help to create and sustain ‘hell on earth’ for many. They contradict God’s love and mercy.
Christian Evangelical Rob Bell has argued this in his work Love Wins; Bell’s position continues to be controversial.
3. Women Should “Submit”
Theologies that emphasize a hierarchy in creation, i.e. that women were created second, and Eve is to blame for the sin that got Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden, are scary to me because they are literally responsible for a lot of violence against women.
In my view, the primary connection between religion and domestic violence is religiously sanctioned subordination of women. Submission itself is institutionalized violence — a structure of unequal power that puts women in a vulnerable position in the home. The front door of such a “religious” home becomes a doorway to violence.
Mary Potter Engel, a Christian theologian and novelist, has called this the “Just Battering” tradition. She models her analysis of the Christian justification of violence against wives on the Just War tradition. Just War principles start with “Right Authority.” In the “Christian home,” ideologies of “submission” mean that only the husband has authority. This makes physical abuse of women “just” in the same way that political authorities can claim a war is “just” if it is authorized by them.
“Submission” is a scary theology that justifies abuse in the name of Christian obedience by women. See, for example, Kay Marshall Strom, In the Name of Submission: A Painful Look at Wife Battering.
4. God Versus Evolution
One of the scariest places I have ever been was the Creation Science Museum in Kentucky. As I walked in, I was greeted by a pineapple eating velociraptor in an animatronic Garden of Eden. Yes, according to this museum that presents the “young earth” idea that creation is 6,000 years old, this famous meat-eating hunter-type dinosaur, so scary in the movie Jurassic Park, was a vegetarian before the fall into sin.
“Creation science” is a theology, not a science since it does not use scientific method. It is a scary theology because it is used to deny the real science of evolution and undercut the genuine urgency to stop polluting human activities that are causing violent and abrupt climate change.
I actually prefer the term “global weirding” to “climate change” or “global warming” because those terms do not evoke the erratic and dangerous effects of rapidly accelerating environmental shifts.
If you want to be really, really afraid on Halloween, read the U. N. Report from Rio on the Environment that has been called “longest suicide note in history.”
The report is terrifying not because of its urgent calls for action, but because of its failure to do so.
5. God Doesn’t Love You If You’re Gay
Homophobic Christian theologies that condemn people who are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender are scary dangerous, and they need to be continuously countered. Even while many states are making progress on passing marriage equality, the litany of gay teens who have been bullied and then committed suicide goes on.
In my “It Gets Better” video I made for that creative campaign to give hope to gay teens, I start with “God loves you.”
There’s so much that’s really terrifying in our world, Halloween shouldn’t be scary any more.
I try to make Halloween fun for my children and now my grandchildren. Some candy (along with healthy snacks!), fun costumes and community events are a great way to have family fun. I think Halloween should be fun because there are too many really scary things in our world for kids and the adults who care about them.
What really scares me, not only this week but all year through, are the Christian theologies that prey on our legitimate fears of human finitude, physical suffering, economic uncertainty, environmental destruction, and the threat of war in order to accelerate anger and alienation.
There’s no treat in that, only being tricked.
Image by FlickrThe Ocean along with the likes of Cult of Luna have become the flag bearers of post-metal. With a string of already excellent releases behind them they may just have topped them all with Pelagial. Okay so Precambrian is a bit of a classic but it's not fully representative of what The Ocean's sound is since Heliocentric/Anthropocentric.
Pelagial is the sound of a band fully at the top of their game. Initially devised and written as an instrumental album due to singer Loïc Rossetti taking ill. Pelagial is a single body of work, flowing together effortlessly. After Loïc had recovered it was decided he had to be involved, so it now is released in both vocal and instrumental versions. Double the pleasure for us as either way it's a remarkable album. Personally I enjoy the full experience of the vocal version and will focus on it for this review, but it's relevant to either.
I've mentioned Pelagial was written as one single piece of music and essentially it is. Although, there are physical markers and track names, it all flows together. Melodies and riffs also reappear throughout the course of the 53 minute running time. Though these are subtle and more noticeable when fully immersed in the albums brilliance.
What stands The Ocean apart from others is their blending of melodic progressiveness and post-metal heaviness. Pelagial begins in more melodic style and if you think of the theme of the album gets darker and heavier the further you go into it.
When I received the album I had only a brief understanding of the concept but was eager to listen to the music. So it's testament to the quality I've subconsciously absorbed what I think they had hoped to achieve when writing. Pelagial is in the truest sense a journey, the theme of the album takes you from calm surface like serenity to being plunged in darkness weighed by pressure. Along the way you experience different levels of melody, emotion and heaviness. Like the various depths if the ocean itself, riffs pull and weigh you down. At other times melodic flourishes, feel like the beauty and otherworldly environment that lies under the surface. It honestly is represented in the music and translates while listening which can't always be said of concepts. Due to other commitments I've been listening mostly in my car on route to work. Usually when reviewing, I do so with headphones and little distraction. The fact that Pelagial has impacted strongly on me musically and conceptually is a further achievement of its greatness. Although when I've had the chance I have also experienced it headphones on late at night.
The Ocean have produced probably their most cohesive and accomplished work here. Despite it being intended as a whole piece, any of the tracks could be taken individually and marveled at. It works best though from start to finish. Such is the strength of Pelagial I'm not going to single out tracks, or moments for praise. For a start there are too many to list, instead I urge you to take the journey with them. The Ocean have delivered a concept that is a metaphorical one, the themes, feelings and emotions felt listening can be attached to various facets of life. Either way its an experience I will be taking time and again due to the music and delivery.
Pelagial is destined to be one of the year's best releases. With a standard double album and expanded special edition with extra artwork and accompanying film available it makes it an essential purchase either way. The Ocean is released through Pelagic Records and Metal Blade Records on April 29th (EU) and 30th (US).
For those who are interested, read our interview with Robin Staps here.(Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday that Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft represents the “future of tactical aviation” for U.S. and British forces, as Britain prepares to take delivery of its first test aircraft.
The scheduled delivery Thursday at Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Texas, production plant is an indication of considerable strides in the program, particularly in the past year, Panetta told a Pentagon press conference alongside Philip Hammond, his British counterpart.
The radar-evading F-35 is the Pentagon’s costliest arms purchase, expected to top $396 billion for 2,443 aircraft in three models through the mid-2030s. It is being built for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps and eight co-development partners — Britain, Italy, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. Israel and Japan also are buying the F-35 and others have shown interest.
The Defense Department this year postponed production of 179 jets until after 2017, providing more time for development and testing in an effort to curb costly retrofits. The program’s latest restructuring, the third such revamp, added 33 months and $7.9 billion to the development plan.
The Pentagon is fully confident that it will be able to meet its “full commitment” to the program, Panetta said, despite a flattening of its overall spending amid U.S. deficit-reduction requirements.
“The F-35 represents, I believe, the future of tactical aviation for both of our armed services,” he said. It will make it possible to “effectively control the skies as we confront the enemies of tomorrow.”
The continued commitment to the program will also further solidify the U.S.-British alliance, Panetta said, handing Hammond a small-scale model of the new fighter.
Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s No. 1 supplier by sales, has said that international demand may help offset slower U.S. production rates. The company expects the F-35 to account for about 20 percent of revenue once full production begins at a date to be determined in coming years.Learning to sketch with a Wacom
Sayan Jjaan a
E sa, pa ri a sayan lo shaav ay jjaan i'iee i lika
E svana kasvi kemo sathas driite ali
Kin toawe lo e p'tiima wenara pa narra
Kantaki ches e arna, taki an jaa tuii prast a
Paankathii vin ekumi, nemo raaska a henda
E koama deri tel pa, e una pa tasra
Kseerros hijen e rrinka vin a pa j'tek kin ira
E rruhi'ii rebe ri i, kara masa lias i
Ai'iai'ia seji i'iuna, e demani sy dan a
Den'iaalee vin ovaara, u fan vin chuhkeia
Lii fiki in vin fina henda ensii vin ksia
Sa, feji vin e keha, shaycha ilia vree ri
Teseve kin nusaane Kelasi taaniisha
Esiri fy a tia entala e m'pili
Pa prast a e mepitaan vusa n'loka aaraska
Kin pinwa chay an ketshi, aara norfa i'iee fy uhn
The Angry Waves
Alas, toward me these waves come again with such anger to the shore
They carelessly wash aching feet upon the sand
And that flow takes my grieving tears
Cold rain clouds pass by, their rain is not needed here
A child of summer, a flower in the cracked earth is precious
He always followed me contentedly, growing by my side
When the monsoon storms were heard, I |
ions of 2016” but is nonetheless being sold “as is,” which along with the lack of interior images suggests there might be some updating and improvements required to bring the place up to speed.
listing photos: Coldwell Banker
Related:
For more celebrity videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.The iPhone 4 is Apple's "biggest leap since the original iPhone," at least according to Steven P. Jobs speaking at the WWDC 2010 keynote. Indeed, in the three years since Apple first introduced the iPhone, the device has come quite far. At the same time, the basic concepts behind the iPhone have remained very consistent over the years. Despite regular modifications to the OS and yearly hardware upgrades, the iPhone 4 is very much a more modern, more capable version of that original device that made such a splash in the industry back in 2007.
We're not living with our heads in the sand: if you have come to hate the iPhone, walled gardens for developers, and everything Apple stands for, you will likely hate the iPhone 4, and there's nothing anyone can say to change your mind. Luckily for you, Apple is no longer competing against the saddest of the sad: there are now plenty of solid phones from other manufacturers that have multitouch screens, app stores of their own, great cameras, and much more extensible OSs. If you are curious about Apple's latest offering, however, read on. The iPhone 4 is not without its flaws—some of them more serious than others—but the device remains a really cool evolution in Apple's lineup.
(We have already reviewed the majority of the OS, now called iOS 4, in a separate review. If you're looking to read about our impressions of the features in iOS 4, go read that one first and come back. This review is focused on the hardware of the new iPhone and on specific parts of iOS 4 that are limited to the iPhone 4.)
What you get in your grubby little hands
The iPhone 4 comes with the same accessories that iPhones have come with since the iPhone 3G launched in 2008 (sans microfiber cloth): a wall plug, a syncing cable, and a set of Apple earbuds with a built-in mic. The device does not come with a dock—that costs extra, to the tune of $30—but a dock isn't necessary in order to use it with a computer. (I prefer using a dock at my desk, however, so I always find myself forking over the dock tax.)
The phone itself, as you likely already know, has a completely new design compared to previous generations of iPhones. Gone is the curved back of the iPhone 3GS and 3G, and the plastic has given way to glass. The iPhone 4 is flat from top to bottom, making it considerably thinner than its predecessor: 0.37 inches thick versus the 0.48 of the 3GS/3G. Otherwise, it's basically the same overall shape: 4.5 inches tall (same as previous iPhones) and 2.31 inches wide (slightly thinner).
iPhone 4 on the left, 3GS on the right
The iPhone 4 on the left is 24 percent thinner than the 3GS on the right
You might think that the 0.11 inch difference wouldn't be all that noticeable, and it doesn't even look like much in the picture, but it is—possibly because the back is now flat and doesn't have the same "fat" feeling of the 3GS and 3G. For comparison's sake, the HTC Evo is also 0.47 inches thick, almost the same as the iPhone 3GS, but otherwise has very similar dimensions to the iPhone 4 (4.63 inches tall and 2.3 inches wide). Weight-wise, they are all similar as well: the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS are both 4.8oz. var randomnumber=Math.floor(Math.random()*11); var ___testing = false; if(randomnumber % 2){ var loc = window.location.pathname; ___testing = true; document.write('Next page: My what a nice display!'); }
Listing image by Jacqui ChengNYPD Neighborhood Coordination Officers Peter DiViesti (left) and Pearse Canavan talk with non-violence advocate Jackie Rowe-Adams, 68, during a recent community visit. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp
HARLEM — Gunfire erupted on West 133rd Street near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and one of the first things NYPD Officer Peter DiViesti did was reach for his iPhone.
He had befriended a property manager on the block months before the September incident as part of the NYPD’s neighborhood policing strategy — which gets officers off the radio and gives them more time to meet community members — and the worker had given him access to his building’s cameras.
Now, through the tap of a button, he could monitor that surveillance at any hour on his phone — and he immediately recognized the shooter as someone he’d nabbed for drug possession months before.
NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan flew out to Los Angeles to study the LAPD's neighborhood strategy. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp
“He came back on the block and was up to his old tricks,” DiViesti, 36, said. “We saw him go into the basement with the gun, then we saw him come back up.”
Matthew Hall, 52, was later charged with criminal possession of a weapon for firing those rounds.
And while an arrest for shots fired may not be on the same scale as a bust for murder, it’s the type of crime the NYPD says is now being cracked more easily through the neighborhood policing model.
THE ORIGINS
On paper, the stats had been strong for years — an 85 percent drop in murders across the city from 1990 to 2013 and a 54 percent decrease in felony assaults — results of the data-driven COMPSTAT era that took an analytical approach to crime fighting.
“But the communities weren’t feeling it,” NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan said. “It was all about the numbers. Make stops, give out summonses. How many numbers did you do as opposed to what results did you get? It did reduce crime, but it really didn't teach a cop how to be a cop.”
Police-community relations became a centerpiece of the 2013 mayoral race. Bill de Blasio was elected, at least in part, on a pledge to replace NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and make significant reforms to stop-and-frisk, which had reached a record high of more than 680,000 just two years before.
But it was difficult to quickly change the reputation of a department that had largely been seen as overaggressive for years.
Those relations were further strained in July 2014 by the chokehold death of Eric Garner by police in Staten Island and then weeks later by the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., both of which sparked massive protests throughout the city and across the country.
“We had to adapt, and we had to adapt quickly,” Monahan said.
So Monahan, then the No. 1 in Chief of Department James O’Neill’s office, flew to Los Angeles in November for a four-day crash course on its community policing program.
The most compelling element he said he saw with the LAPD was the pride that officers had in their areas.
“They knew the people, they were really in tune," Monahan said. "And once you get to see the really good people that live and work in your neighborhood, you want to protect them.”
The challenge would be figuring out how to condense the tips and information these neighborhood officers were receiving and then disseminate that to detectives and patrol officers, who run on dozens of 911 calls a day and have far less intimacy with neighborhood residents.
Over the next four months, Monahan, O’Neill and other top NYPD officials met regularly to devise a sustainable model for New York that would improve relations while still reducing crime.
“If crime goes up, it doesn’t matter how much connectivity you have with the community,” Monahan said. “If people aren’t safe, this doesn’t work.”
They ultimately agreed on a pilot program that would keep the precincts broken down into sectors, smaller segments that officers regularly patrol.
Each sector would also be assigned two neighborhood coordination officers (NCOs), who would be the eyes and ears on the street. They’d go to shops and businesses, attend community meetings more frequently and even give out their phone numbers — with the goal of creating a friendlier NYPD.
“They were also going to be the ones who were going to have the ultimate responsibility for crime,” Monahan said.
Additionally, smaller teams within the department such as the street narcotics enforcement unit would be disbanded with officers put back on patrol to ensure that crime numbers remained low.
Over the next several months, the prospective NCOs received extensive training on everything from conflict resolution strategies to public speaking, and by May 2015, the program was rolled out in the 33rd and 34th Precincts in upper Manhattan and the 100th and 101st Precincts in the Rockaways, to mixed expectations.
“A lot of people looked at this and said, ‘This isn’t the way we did business. Crime is going to go up,’” Monahan said.
“There was so much fear from the boss level, but if you took it back down to the cop level, it was, ‘Thank God someone is actually going to trust us.’”
MEET YOUR NCOS
Det. Theodore Watson, like several NYPD officers interviewed by DNAinfo for this story, said he wasn’t entirely sure what he was getting himself into when he signed on to become a neighborhood coordination officer at the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway.
But with the highly-concentrated units in the department being disbanded, Watson, a 14-year veteran, needed another role — and he didn't want to go back to just running on 911 jobs.
“I just thought this was gonna be like shaking hands and kissing babies," he said. "I took it as something like, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’”
The 101, as one of the four pilot precincts, had been given a lot of flexibility by department brass to customize its neighborhood policing strategy as it saw fit.
So, in the early weeks, Watson and the seven other NCOs went around to stores and community centers in the area to begin promoting the idea.
“Get to know the players, the good people, the not-so-good people,” his supervisor, Sgt. Robert Garrity, said.
But the relationship between police and residents has long been tumultuous in Far Rockaway, and it was not going to be mended in a few weeks with a couple handshakes and smiles.
Two unsolved, high-profile murders of teen brothers Shawn Plummer, 18, who was killed in 2012, and NeShawn Plummer, 16, who was fatally shot in 2015, still haunt investigators, and there’s a sense in the area that residents have an idea of who the killers are.
Yet, tips at this point appear to be scarce.
“People know,” said the boys’ mom, Sharon Plummer. “But they’re scared of retaliation. And there’s a big trust gap. A lot of people don’t trust police because of things they’ve done in the past — unnecessary stop-and-frisk stuff they weren’t supposed to do. And that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.”
O’Neill, however, now NYPD commissioner, has said neighborhood policing is a long-term strategy that has already paid short-term dividends.
When a gang member in January fired several rounds outside a pizzeria on Beach 20th Street near Mott Avenue, narrowly missing a group of young kids, investigators could only come up with was a grainy surveillance image of the suspected shooter.
But a couple of days later, a tipster with a checkered past walked by the precinct and spotted Det. Watson, who had previously cooled down a heated situation between him and other officers from the 101, saving the man from arrest.
“He’s a real pain the butt,” Watson said. “He’s been collared plenty of times, real perpetrator.”
“So I’m standing in front of the precinct and he’s just walking through and he goes, ‘Yo, Watson, can I talk to you for a second?’ He was like, ‘I usually don’t talk to the cops, but I’ma talk to you ‘cause I’m cool with you, and when kids are in danger, I’m not gonna tolerate that.' So he tells me what happened.”
Watson then went upstairs to the precinct’s detective bureau and relayed that information. He later moderated a meeting between investigators and the informant.
Days later, police had a suspect in custody.
Smaller success stories like that have been common across the city since the inception of neighborhood policing, the department insists.
In East New York last fall, NCO Terrance Lloyd was approached outside the 75th Precinct by a mother who said her 16-year-old daughter had been roughed up multiple times by an ex-friend.
“It’s the sort of thing that leads to boyfriends getting involved, and all of a sudden, someone shoots someone over it,” Monahan said.
Lloyd got the name of the other girl, 17, from the 16-year-old’s mother and went over to her house — and ultimately coordinated a meeting between the families at a community center in nearby Starrett City.
“I just spoke and said, ‘Nobody’s in trouble. I’m here to let you guys talk it out, not to say who’s right and who’s wrong,’” Lloyd, 36, said.
“But they were so mad and heated. The mother and grandmother kept going back and forth. The girls weren’t even talking. Everyone just needed to calm down.”
He had the mother and grandmother leave the room and then let the girls talk for 15 minutes uninterrupted, a strategy he learned from his NCO training.
“I was just the referee not letting anybody disrespect anybody,” he said. “I said, ‘Y’all don’t have to be best friends, but y’all don’t have to fight every time you see each other.’”
Ultimately, he learned the feud stemmed from a miscommunication in which another girl had spread false rumors about them, enraging them both.
“It was nothing of any substance where you should ever be fighting,” he said. “They were going by a third party. I said, ‘Did you ever think that girl was jealous over y’all’s friendship?'”
The teens were ultimately able to work it out, he said, and by the end, even the mother and grandmother were embracing.
“It was cool to see,” Lloyd said. "They were so mad, then an hour-and-a-half later, they were hugging and joking.”
But as impactful as his work was, it also underscored one of the major challenges the department says it’s facing.
THE HURDLES
“How do we quantify what we do?” Monahan asked.
The NYPD insists it’s no longer putting as heavy an emphasis on arrest and summons numbers, so how does it gauge officer effectiveness?
The department recently developed an internal phone app, Craft, that allows police to report their accomplishments that may have gone unnoticed in the past, like jumping in the water to help a child or finding a missing person.
“We want them to toot their own horns,” Monahan said.
But officers expressed skepticism about whether an app that encourages self-promotion will be an effective barometer of success.
“I think some might abuse it,” said Officer Lauren Nadle, 26, of the 101st Precinct. “There’s officers who don’t get a lot of arrests, don’t get a lot of summonses. They may overcompensate by saying, ‘I just did this, this and that.’”
The other key issue with the NCO program is officer turnover, Sgt. Garrity said.
In the nearly 21 months since its inception, the neighborhood program in the 101st Precinct has already had about 15 different NCOs.
The extensive training, specifically the detective courses, are almost too informative, Garrity said, to the point where officers see the program as a steppingstone.
“My guys aren’t staying longer than a year,” he said. “I’m losing my best guys for narcotics, for gang, for detective bureau. They’ve put so much emphasis into the NCO program, but I don’t think anybody thought about retention.”
Yet, Monahan insists that though there are tweaks to be made, the model is working. There are now NCOs in 48 precincts and public service areas — and the department has said they will eventually reach all of them.
The program still does not have a specific budget, but Queens District Attorney Richard Brown recently pledged more than $20 million in asset forfeiture funds toward it.
Crime fell to historically low levels in the city in 2016. In the 101st Precinct, major crime was down about 4 percent, NYPD statistics show. In the 32nd Precinct, it was down more than 7 percent, though it’s difficult to determine what role, if any, neighborhood policing played in that.
Some are more skeptical than others.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor and ex-NYPD Officer Eugene O'Donnell said that program is just a public relations ploy by the department.
"It's a sop," he said of neighborhood policing. "It's common to be wheeled out in a time of crisis. After a case like Eric Garner, you send people out. Chicago has had community policing since 1985. They've still had 25,000 murders."
But some New Yorkers said that while they've witnessed the uglier side of the NYPD for years, getting to interact with the same officers regularly has warmed them up to the department.
“I’ve witnessed first hand how they can act. I’ve witnessed an officer talking down, ‘You M.F., you this, you that, get out the effing car!’” said Jackie Rowe-Adams, 68, a non-violence advocate in Harlem, who gets a weekly visit from DiViesti and his partner.
“But this has changed people taking the police for granted. When they had no respect for the police recently, they’re seeing the police around now, and they’re making arrests for the right reasons, not just picking on people.”
Derrick Irving, 53, the owner of 361 Laundromat on Malcolm X Boulevard, also sees DiViesti every week. But he said he’s still cautious around him.
“If I need them, they’re here,” he said. “But it’s still the 'hood, and I respect the 'hood. I’m not ratting nobody out.”
The exact future of the model and whether tips gathered by NCOs will lead to arrests for bigger crimes remains to be seen.
But DiViesti, Watson and Lloyd insisted their satisfaction comes from their positive interactions with residents, not by anything measured through statistics.
“Some people feel rewarded when they get guns off the street — that’s their thing. But I’m not a big gun guy,” Lloyd said.
“Not to sound cheesy, but I just like helping people.”VEVAY, Ind. (Sept. 10, 2015) — A large house in Indiana is for sale, but the price is well below market value.
It’s known as the River House. It’s along State Road 156 in Vevay and the Ohio River.
The home is over 4,000 square feet, with vaulted ceilings, a fireplace, two jetted tubs, and a great room with panoramic views of the river. And it can all be yours for just $199.
The catch is you have to write a persuasive essay about why the house should be sold to you.
The essay has to be less than 200 words.
“I do not want the job to judging the essays, that would be tough,” said homeowner Rhonda Penninigton. “ I graduated from Hanover College, I am an alum. I contacted them and they are supplying an anonymous panel of judges to judge… They pick the winner.”
Each $199 payment received goes into an escrow account for the sale.
The fee and the essay are due by September 28. You can submit your entry online at RiverHouseContest.com.
Please enable Javascript to watch this videoDeath is in the air. To be more specific, it is on the air waves. I turned on the car radio last week to hear a recording of a speech that the late Steve Jobs, co-founder and chief executive of the Apple empire, had made in 2005 to the students of Stanford University. In its own way it was electrifying.
Jobs said that when he was 17 he had come across the saying, “If you live each day as though it were your last, some day you will most certainly be right.” Apparently it had made a deep impression on him, leading him to ask himself every day, “If today were the last day of my life would I wish to do what I am now doing?” He went on to tell the students, “Death is the destination we all share. No-one has ever escaped it….Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” A difficult colleague to work with, Jobs brought an urgency and intensity to his work that clearly contributed to his success.
I don’t know what his listeners made of it. Apparently Jobs had been influenced by Eastern religions; certainly there was a Buddhist element to his thought: the endless cycle of birth and death of which humans are just a part. And his admonition, “Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people’s thinking” lacked a Catholic understanding of the word “dogma”. The recording made me immediately think of the (probably apocryphal) story of a former headmaster of Ampleforth who, when asked by a parent what he was preparing the boys for, answered robustly, “Death.”
Then yesterday morning on Radio 4 there was more of the Grim Reaper: an interview with the novelist Julian Barnes, who is the favourite to win this year’s Man Booker Prize. Barnes wrote in his autobiographical book, Nothing to be Frightened Of, “For me, death is the one appalling fact which defines life; unless you are constantly aware of it, you cannot begin to understand what life is about.” Like Jobs, Barnes is very preoccupied with the subject, telling interviewer Rebecca Jones, “I don’t think we talk or think enough about death.” Describing death as “an eternity of non-existence” he concluded with a mordant half-laugh, “You are only here once.”
My Catholic ears were twitching. For Christians, death is not the point of life; it is “the life of the world to come” that we recite – often so unthinkingly – in the Creed at Mass. St Paul grasped this immediately, knowing that our faith is ‘vain’ without belief in the Resurrection. As it happened, I had a conversation about Jobs’ speech last weekend with my brother-in-law. As with his fellow-atheists, Jobs and Barnes, the finality and vastness of non-existence is troubling to him. I explained that Christians see it differently: this life is simply a preparation for the fullness of life that we hope to experience after death. He could see this might be a consoling thought, a happy illusion, but as he did not believe it he was not consoled.
I sometimes think we Christians don’t emphasise enough to our non-believing friends that the grave is not victorious and that death has no sting. We give assent to the dogma but we don’t live it in our daily lives with the heartfelt urgency that Jobs and Barnes give to thinking of death. If we did, we might possibly convert people like them, terrified of the dreariness of non-being but without hope of an alternative. After all, the atheist Edith Stein was deeply influenced by the example of a Christian friend whose husband had died in the Great War and who, despite her sorrow, was quietly convinced she would meet him again one day.When visiting, tune your FM car radio to 107.7 and you can hear the music for the lights from the comfort of your car. There's a small, motion-activated speaker by the mailbox if you want to get out and stretch your legs too.
North Kensico Christmas Light Show
We believe that we have the best Christmas light display in New York. Come on out and enjoy our 2018 Computerized Christmas light and music display and discover it for yourself and your family. This year we have over 10,000 lights on 144 channels synchronized to music. This will be our tenth year of using computer controlled lights and we hope to expand it more every year. There are four homes as part of the show this year.
Are you visiting Westchester's Winter Wonderland this season? We're only 3.1 miles and 9 minutes away. The best part is that unlike the Westchester Winter Wonderland - we're free!
2018 Show Schedule
Sun., November 25th to Wed., January 2nd
5:30pm – 11:00pm 7 days a week
The Show may be shut down due to rain or wet snow for safety reasons.
Website Visitors:An innovative sharing-economy on-demand platform, TaskRabbit connects consumers with skilled Taskers to handle everyday needs such as furniture assembly, moving and packing, general handyman work, and home improvements. Taskers are performing thousands of tasks every day through the platform. The company has recently expanded its presence to 40 cities around the United States and in London (UK). In November 2016, IKEA Group started a successful pilot with TaskRabbit and the IKEA stores in London to enable furniture-assembly services by Taskers to IKEA customers.Once completed, the acquisition would enable IKEA Group to provide consumers and IKEA customers with access to the services provided by the TaskRabbit Taskers. In addition to supporting consumers and IKEA customers in the United States and the United Kingdom, other countries may be added at a later date.“Through our unique on-demand platform, TaskRabbit is making life better for both consumers and Taskers. In the communities in which we operate, TaskRabbit provides strong economic impact. With IKEA Group ownership, TaskRabbit could realize even greater opportunities; increasing earning potential of Taskers and connecting consumers to a wide range of affordable services,”IKEA Group owns and operates 357 IKEA stores in 29 countries and operates a growing ecommerce business with over two billion visits to IKEA.com every year. In order to meet the changing demands and needs of consumers, the IKEA Group is making investments into multichannel capabilities such as expanding store and distribution networks and developing new store formats and services. Through this, IKEA Group aims to offer an affordable and seamless shopping experience for the many people.The transaction was signed on 25 September 2017. The transaction is expected to close in October. After the completion of the transaction, IKEA Group will fully own TaskRabbit, which will remain a standalone company and operate as an independent company within the IKEA Group. As such, TaskRabbit will continue to partner with other retailers and commercial partners in this capacity. TaskRabbit will remain headquartered in San Francisco (US).IKEA Group is wholly owned by INGKA Holding B.V. and its controlled entities. It is the world’s largest home furnishing retailer and operates 357 stores in 29 countries. Our vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. IKEA Group offers well-designed, functional and affordable home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. IKEA Group stores had 783 million visitors during FY16 and 2.1 billion people visited www.IKEA.com.A pioneering on-demand workforce company, TaskRabbit connects clients with skilled Taskers to handle everyday needs such as furniture assembly, moving and packing, general handyman work, and other home improvement services.TaskRabbit operates its unique two-sided marketplace with an overall mission to have a presence in in every city and on every device. Taskers are independent contractors who task when they want, where they want and at rates they set.TaskRabbit operates in 40 cities across the United States and in London, UK, and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit TaskRabbit.com, @TaskRabbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.+1-866-329-4532 or press.us@ikea.com +46-70 993 6376 or corporate.communications.gl@ikea.comISLAMABAD – A public holiday announced for Islamabad and Rawalpindi as Pakistani government finalised security plan for Economic Coordination Organisation (ECO) summit, scheduled to be held on 1st March at Pakistan capital city, pakistantribe.com reported.
According to PakistanTribe’s correspondent from Islamabad, Pakistan Interior Ministry announced public holiday for Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Officials said that foolproof security will be provided to all foreign delegation visiting Pakistan to attend the ECO summit.
Alternative traffic plan for the residents of twin cities also finalised and announced by the administration.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan chaired a meeting to review security measures for ECO meeting.
Representatives from local police and civil administration attended the meeting.
Islamabad administration issued security plan for the upcoming ECO meeting, stating that all educational institution and offices will be closed at 1pm on Tuesday (tomorrow), while there will be public holiday in twin cities.Inconsistent. Porous. Disappointing. These are just some of the verbal Molotov cocktails lobbed in the direction of the Broncos’ offensive line this season.
A year ago at this time, general manager John Elway began a search for a head coach, desiring a team that would go out “kicking and screaming.” Offensively that meant more running, especially when Gary Kubiak took over as boss after the Broncos’ disappointing one-and-done playoff exit.
During his previous two decades as a coordinator, Kubiak’s rushing attack averaged a 10th-place ranking in the NFL. Through nine games this season, Denver sat in 29th place, averaging only 86 yards per game.
As a makeshift group featuring a blend of extreme youth and experience, the offensive line received the bulk of the external criticism. Then something weird happened. Over the last six games, all of which featured the quarterback under center, the rushing attack breathed to life. Denver averaged 135.1 yards rushing per game, seventh-best during this stretch. In the Broncos’ biggest wins, running back C.J. Anderson walked off the New England Patriots in a snowstorm and Ronnie Hillman left footprints on the San Diego Chargers with a fourth-quarter score.
“We just got better later in the season. We built on some early success,” said center Matt Paradis, who is Denver’s only offensive player to log every snap this season. “In the end, it was just better execution.”
It can be forgotten that transitions are difficult, even at the professional level. Kubiak and offensive coordinator Rick Dennison introduced a zone-blocking scheme, which requires the mastering of cut blocking and mobility through repeated drills. But this is a different NFL than when the Broncos won Super Bowls with this scheme in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Players rarely practice in pads, and they don’t cut block or take defenders to the ground during workouts anymore.
It means game time, in some ways, becomes practice, making it difficult to microwave the learning curve.
“I think the line has grown up,” Anderson said. “They have responded to us. And me and Ronnie have done a better job of responding to them and what they are doing up front. It just took some time.”
The ability to run is a staple of Kubiak’s offense. It sets up play-action passes, creates open crossing routes for tight ends and tames defenders. When the Broncos run the ball at least 25 times this season, they are 9-1.
“Everyone just has a better feel for what we are trying to do,” said tight end Owen Daniels. “C.J. and Ronnie have been seeing the holes awesome and cutting things back and making things happen when they aren’t there. That’s what you want. They are running hard and with a purpose. Being able to run in the playoffs is huge.”
It can’t be overstated how much this helps the Broncos in pass protection, preventing even an aggressive Steelers front from pinning its ears back.
“Anytime you’re playing in the playoffs, you’re playing against the best,” said offensive tackle Ryan Harris. “They’ve got some of the best defensive front that’s out there in football right now. We’ve just got to execute our game plan. Really for us, it’s all about us and what we do. We’re focused on that right now. We want to contribute and do our part.”
Of course, issues remain. Michael Schofield, who could start Sunday’s game at right tackle despite being benched in the regular-season finale, has struggled in pass protection. Schofield used the bye week “to work on technique and get my confidence back.” Tyler Polumbus figures to get snaps at right tackle. Experienced guards Louis Vasquez and Evan Mathis are sharing the workload as rookie Max Garcia plays the majority of the snaps. This wasn’t the plan coming into the season. But the Broncos lost two left tackles, Ryan Clady and Ty Sambrailo, to injuries. Vasquez and Mathis have dealt with injuries too.
The mistakes, as such, have been amplified. And come Sunday, there is little margin for error. A hard sack of Peyton Manning could change everything, given his age (39) and Brock Osweiler’s injured right knee.
“We go into the game knowing we never want the quarterback to get his jersey dirty. That’s the goal,” Paradis said. “Peyton’s done this for a long time. We need to do our job. Of course, it’s personal.”
Troy E. Renck: trenck@denverpost.com or @troyrenck
Evolution of the Broncos’ offensive line
The Broncos’ offensive line underwent an extreme makeover this season because of injuries and defections in free agency. A look at how the playing time shook out during the regular season, reflecting the constantly evolving group:Hey boss, don't fret about all the stormy weather: It could well be making your workers more productive.
New research from Harvard University finds that employees get more done when the weather is frightful because they aren't distracted by ideas of the fun they could be having if they weren't stuck at work.
Related: Cheatin' Hearts Online Cost Businesses $17M a Day
"When the sun is out you're sort of thinking about the many different things that you could be doing outside," said Francesca Gino, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard and one of the paper's authors. "When the weather is bad that doesn't even come to mind, because that's not even an option."
To determine how weather affects productivity, the authors compared a long-running Japanese study of worker productivity with the weather during the two-and-a-half-year study. They found that workers got tasks done more quickly when it was raining.
The researchers did tests with other pools of participants and found that when the weather is lovely, people tend to be more distracted by thoughts of what they could be doing other than sitting at their desk working.
Related: 25 Weird Interview Questions Companies Really Asked
Of course, that doesn't account for the other drag on productivity related to weather: Not being able to get to work at all. That's something workers in the Atlanta area encountered this week after a rare snowstorm disrupted the city.
Maybe there's a silver lining there as well. Other research has found that some people are actually more productive when they work at home.
Gino said she experienced that firsthand when recent bad weather in the Boston area forced her to work at home, away from the interruptions of meetings and chats with colleagues. "The day of the snowstorm I was even more productive," she said.
This article originally appeared in CNBC.
Read more at CNBC:
Get smart! Your phone habits are annoying at work
Young women see sexism, but not at their job
Yes, your boss probably is happier than you areCrash.net:
You've made a great start at Ducati, what is it that you like about the bike?
Scott Redding:
I like the positioning on the bike. The fitting on the bike is really good. I like the power delivery and basically how everything runs. It's just better for me. Also I like the way the team is running, very calm but very productive and no real major pressure.
Crash.net:
What's the key to going fast with the Ducati and how is it different from the Honda?
Scott Redding:
It's hard to say. I just have more feeling so I've got more confidence and I can predict what's going to happen. I can just get a bit more of a flow and a rhythm. Last year it never happened. I was always trying to get somewhere I couldn't get to.
Crash.net:
Last year was obviously tough, looking back was there anything that could have changed the situation?
Scott Redding:
No, not really. I just think I didn't have the feeling, not the feeling with the bike as much as I just couldn't get the bike to work for me really.
Crash.net:
How about the feeling with the new Michelin tyres and ECU? You seem to have adapted well?
Scott Redding:
I feel good. I like the feeling of the Michelins. They suit me a bit more. The electronics I don't really feel that much different compared to the electronics I've used before, so I feel comfortable.
Crash.net:
The Sepang test is coming up, will you have anything new for the bike?
Scott Redding:
I don't think so although we've got our own bikes now, we were using Pirro's bikes before. It will be quite cool to have two bikes instead of just one. Just need to get out there, put in some laps and start the work.
Crash.net:
Is there anything you specifically want to work on at the test?
Scott Redding:
Malaysia's hard because it gets so hot and humid and the track gets greasy, the lap times drop. It's hard to improve but if you can get a feeling in the hot conditions and work on consistent laps, that's what I want to concentrate on for the moment.
Crash.net:
How is the relationship with your new crew chief? I guess they all have different ways of working...
Scott Redding:
Yeah everyone is different. Some of them like to go by numbers. Some by feeling. Some a bit of both. But the main thing for me is that he gives a good confidence about the change he is going to make.
Crash.net:
Some big news at Ducati over the winter has been Casey Stoner coming back, what do you think about having him as a test rider?
Scott Redding:
I think it'll be good. Pirro is not bad anyway, but Casey as well could be a big help. I just hope he |
a mistake to suggest that Vardy’s upward trajectory has been entirely smooth. Over the summer he was embroiled in an unsavoury row when he made derogatory comments to a Japanese man during a night out in a casino. The consequences provided further evidence that he was no longer playing in the minor leagues.
“I regretted it massively,” he says of the incident. “It was very uncharacteristic of me and that is why I wanted to meet the chap himself.
“We sat down and had a chat and I just said it was silly, stupid. We shook hands and that was it, it was done.”
He is relieved, he adds, that, despite his transgression, Roy Hodgson saw no reason not to include him in the England squad.
“I appreciate all the backing that I had. There was a lot of support out there and it was a massive learning curve. Uncharacteristic and stupid of me but I’ve learnt my lesson and moved on and just want to concentrate on my football.”
Indeed, his ability to concentrate on his football has made him something of a role model for anyone playing outside the Premier League: he has proven it is possible to make it to the top from the least likely of circumstances.
“It just shows that it can happen and that there are a lot of gems in the lower league,” he says.
Which is just as well for Hodgson. Given the increasing annexation of the Premier League by players not available for England selection he could do with a whole division of Vardys.Search Gallery Celestia themed M35 stahlhelm tensaioni 37 Celestial patch tensaioni 114 Advertisement Advertisement Luna patch recolor tensaioni 148 Pony patches! tensaioni 164 Luna patch subdued project tensaioni 59 LSTS subdued WIP? tensaioni 54 LSTS lined up! tensaioni 43 Luna patch pre-production tensaioni 105 Maremacht recruitement poster tensaioni 126 Zebra outlaw - Commission tensaioni 154 Super mane bow tensaioni 226 Psi commando - commission tensaioni 58 New Lunar Republic Commission tensaioni 177 Luna Commander tensaioni 371 Lunar Commando - Commission tensaioni 123 Navy Rarity tensaioni 355 Celestial Special Forces Patch tensaioni 188 Luna Special Forces Patch tensaioni 526 Brony Royal Guard - Commission tensaioni 131 US Derpy - Commission tensaioni 218 The Blues Bronies tensaioni 48 Twilight Twilight tensaioni 560 Let's make something tensaioni 64 Waiting for rescue tensaioni 19Michael Flynn’s resignation was an intelligence community hit job of the kind typically reserved for enemies of the state, former intelligence officials told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” retired Col. James Waurishuk told TheDCNF’s Richard Pollock, referring to Flynn’s ouster from the Trump administration. Waurishuk is a veteran military intelligence official who served on the National Security Council. “We’ve never seen to the extent that those in the intelligence community are using intelligence apparatus and tools to be used politically against an administration official.”
{WATCH}
Flynn resigned as national security adviser after news broke alleging he spoke with the Russian ambassador about sanctions before Trump took office — potentially in violation of federal law — and then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the call. The White House maintains Flynn didn’t break any laws, but couldn’t stay on because he lost the trust of Pence and Trump. (RELATED: Defiant Flynn Insists He Crossed No Lines, Leakers Must Be Prosecuted)
Another narrative picking up steam, however, is that news of the call was the last straw in a campaign to get Flynn out of the administration. Republicans, in particular, have clamored for an investigation into the leak of the classified information. Such leaks are atypical, although they continue to happen as the Trump administration gets underway.
Multiple former intelligence officials told Pollock the whole thing looks like a massive underground campaign inside an intelligence community ticked off at Trump and partial to former President Obama to undermine the new administration.
Retired Marine Col. Bill Cowan, who interacted with intelligence officers in combat zones, said Trump’s CIA director Mike Pompeo has to clean house, or else these kinds of attacks will continue for the next four years. “The director, Pompeo, if he doesn’t get a hold of the agency and its personnel, he can expect four years of this,” he told Pollock. “Clandestine, undercover disinformation, misinformation, psychological information to undermine this administration and this president.”
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.Michael Duncan talks about the role Huntsman of Savile Row plays in the new film Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle You can find out more on Michael’s walk “In Search of the real Kingsman – Spies and suits of Savile Row”
Huntsman is one of the great shops of Savile Row.
In its time it has clothed the likes of Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan, Paul Newman and the great Gregory Peck went to Huntsman for fifty years.
But it has also clad notable women including Hollywood legends Katherine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Elizabeth Taylor (and her often less legendary husbands).
And more recently it made the white tie ensemble for Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey.
Through its doors in 1989 stepped a young chap who had just finished at Stowe School. His mother thought Huntsman would be the prefect place to get his first bespoke suit, to release him into the adult world properly dressed to face its many challenges.
Flash forward to 2014 and that same young man, Matthew Vaughn is a successful film maker with an impressive C.V. who has just released what was to be his biggest grossing movie to date; Kingsman: the Secret Service.
Kingsman is based on a comic book series originally called merely “The Secret Service”. Vaughn was inspired by the comics but wanted to give it something extra, so he turned to his favourite tailors “Huntsman” to give it a classy disguise. “Huntsman” has a starring role in the movie, acting as Kingsman’s head office as well as a secret entrance via one of its changing rooms to a network of tunnels which lead ultimately to a country home stuffed full of the usual gadgets and weaponry you’d expect to find at any self-respecting spy organisation.
The film tells the story of the recruitment of a London lad called Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Eggerton) into a spy organisation. He meets a lot of resistance from his fellow candidates who view him as a “chav”, but he wins through to take on and defeat an evil power-crazed billionaire called Richmond Valentine played by Samuel L Jackson.
It’s fantastically produced, has great performances, is utterly ludicrous and brilliant fun.
Now Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle is hitting the screens and the beloved Huntsman, surely one of the world’s most beautiful shops, appears to suffer a terrible fate!
In contrast to the drama of the film, Huntsman is thankfully still there.
Stepping inside it feels like a place where nothing can go wrong. There is a gentle ringing of the bell as you enter. Ahead of you are comfortable sofas and a fireplace framed by two stags heads.
They were left for safekeeping by a customer in 1921 before he headed off for what has always been thought of as a particularly good lunch. He never returned.
But I wonder if Matthew Vaughn wasn’t onto something when he cast Huntsman as the front of his secret service? Could our mystery customer have been whisked away through one of Huntsman’s changing rooms into its underground network of tunnels. Or perhaps he took on one mission too many. We’ll never know. But in the world of The Kingsman, stranger things have happened.
Share this page: Pinterest emailSo much attention is appropriately focused on the anatomy and technique for intraosseous needle placement. In contrast, very little attention is paid to securing the needle. Often this involves a make-shift setup which involves gauze, wraps, and/or tape. This becomes especially important in the prehospital setting where these can be easily dislodged. The following trick stems from a Twitter discussion in 2015 amongst prehospital providers, lamenting this fact.
Trick of the Trade
Use a mask from a bag valve mask (BVM) setup
Place the padded mask over the IO needle. The IV tubing can be threaded through the hole at the top of the mask. Secure the mask by wrapping circumferential tape around the extremity and mask as a unit. This mask trick works whether the IO needle is in the tibia, femur, or humerus. If available, you can use a pediatric mask for a less obtrusive setup – great tip by Ireland paramedic Eoghan Connolly (@EoghanCon11).
The mask also works for humeral IO lines and seems pretty secure with a prototype that Dr. Jonathan Fu and I tested on shift.
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InstagramHeading into the 2015/2016 season, the most oft-discussed (and heated) debate among Red Wings fans was that of the goaltending situation. Would Petr Mrazek take over the starting role from Jimmy Howard once and for all, or would the seasoned netminder regain his form and get back the crease?
As there was little else to discuss in the offseason, we debated this topic ad-nauseam on the Winged Wheel Podcast. The prevailing opinion among listeners (and Red Wings fans in general) was that Petr Mrazek was not only the future of the franchise between the pipes but that he should maintain his starting job that he won from Howard at the end of last season. Being somewhat of a “Jimmy Howard apologist”, I was not so hasty to make that switch. My hesitation was not to discredit Mrazek and everything he had achieved, but rather due to a steadfast belief in Jimmy Howard’s potential as a top NHL goalie.
Five months into the season, I could not have been more wrong. Petr Mrazek has not only become the bonafide starter in net for the Detroit Red Wings – Petr Mrazek has made a case as a candidate for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the best goaltender in the National Hockey League.
By the beginning of February, Mrazek was the league leader in Save Percentage (.933) and Goals Against Average (1.97), as well as being fourth overall in Shutouts (4) through 36 games between the pipes. Even after a few high scoring games, he is currently posting a Save % of.928 (3rd) and a GAA of 2.07 (2nd) through 42 GP. In a Vezina race that was widely considered to be a shoo-in for Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby, Petr Mrazek has emerged as not only a viable candidate but a possible winner.
When Carey Price won both the Vezina Trophy and the Hart Trophy (NHL MVP) in the 2014/2015 season, there was not one fan, player, media member or otherwise who disputed his achievements. He posted the most dominant season by a goaltender that the NHL had seen in ages, and was the biggest factor in Montréal’s success that season. To emphasize how much of their success was based on his play: they entered the playoffs with the least amount of goals scored by any playoff team (221) while also allowing the fewest goals against of any playoff team (189). Though one may imply that the defence had a big part in this, a quick look at the number of shots the he faced (5th most of any goaltender, ~30 per game) dissuades that theory.
The point of highlighting Carey Price’s stellar campaign last year is not necessarily to draw the comparison to Petr Mrazek (though there are a couple of similarities that we will get to later), but rather to provide contrast to Braden Holtby’s season. Holtby is having an undoubtedly fantastic year and is currently one of the league’s top goaltenders – nobody should dispute that. However, if one were to take a look at the team in front of him, it becomes extremely apparent that he is not playing under the same set of circumstances as Petr Mrazek.
Through 59 games, the Washington Capitals have a record of 44-10-4 (92 points), which puts them on pace for roughly 61.15 wins and 127.86 points. To demonstrate how effective this campaign has been for the Capitals, the 95/96 Detroit Red Wings currently hold the record for most wins in an NHL regular season (80 games at the time) with 62, having totalled 131 points during that period. The Washington Capitals are not simply having a good season… they are having a potentially historic season. They are scoring at a league-best clip of 3.34 goals per game while also allowing the fewest goals against and maintaining the best goal differential in the NHL. Even taking a quick look at their roster, there does not seem to be a position in which they are deficient or lacking. There are a slew of other statistics and inferences that can be drawn to further my point, however it is clear to any hockey fan at this point that the Washington Capitals’ success, though in part due to Braden Holtby, comes from every facet of their system.
Petr Mrazek has not had the benefit of the same team success that Braden Holtby – or nearly any other Vezina candidate – has had. The Detroit Red Wings have struggled to score this season, with key offensive contributors slumping often. Through 61 games, they have the fewest goals-for of any Eastern Conference playoff team, and 2nd-fewest across both conferences. Defensively, they have been just as stagnant, allowing the 2nd-most goals-against of any Eastern Conference playoff team, and 4th-most in the league. Just to beat a dead horse, the Red Wings also have the worst goal differential of any other playoff-positioned team in the NHL at this juncture.
Despite his lack of support from the team in front of him, Mrazek’s play has him among the league’s best this year, managing a record of 23-11-6. Any Red Wings fan will be quick to tell you just how instrumental Mrazek has been in each of those 23 wins. Playing in more 1 goal games than anybody else this season, Detroit has not given him much goal support. Mrazek ranks 43rd in the league in terms of goal support from his team, 4th last among goaltenders who have played at least 40 games (Holtby is 7th, 1st among goalies with 40+ GP).
Statistics aside, a simple eye-test will tell you just how crucial Petr Mrazek has been to Detroit’s success this season. Game after game, he makes more than just the routine saves – he wins entire games. He makes the saves that nobody expects a goalie to make. Just the other night, in Detroit’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators, he countered a clear breakaway from Bobby Ryan in overtime with one of the saves of the year. In a game against the Washington Capitals last November, he preserved a 1-0 shutout by stopping each and every one of Alexander Ovechkin’s 15 shots against him.
There is no clear-cut Vezina winner (à la Carey Price) this year. Other names that should be considered (outside of Holtby and Mrazek) are Corey Crawford and Corey Schneider, with the latter making a strong case under similar circumstances as Petr Mrazek. However, if Mrazek maintains his pace and success throughout the rest of the season (and Detroit makes the playoffs), he should be a premier candidate for the award – and he deserves it.In honor of International Women’s Day, the organizers of the Women’s March on Washington this week coordinated “A Day Without a Woman.”
Women were asked to not engage in paid or unpaid work, avoid spending any money (except at small, women- or minority-owned businesses), and wear red in solidarity.
Undoubtedly, some college women chose to partake in this event. While only 23 percent of American women identify as feminists, 47 percent of millennial women do.
But unfortunately, the policies supported by modern feminists have been particularly bad for young women. Consider two prominent examples.
Massive Loan Debt
Today, millennial women struggle with significant student loan debt and often have a hard time finding a job that will get them out of mom and dad’s basement. About 42 percent of women have more than $30,000 in student loan debt, compared than just 27 percent of men.
This could be a function of more women pursuing higher levels of learning. But significant student loan defaults among this group indicate that women may not be getting the return on investment they had hoped for.
Women are vastly overrepresented in majors that are known to have low returns on investment, such as gender studies or social work. Yet the feminist movement encourages more young women to pursue these degrees.
Their solution is to advocate further government assistance through policies such as free public college, loan forgiveness, and income-based repayment policies that drag out the life of a loan while doing nothing to put pressure on colleges to keep prices in check.
Warring Against the Mythical ‘Wage Gap’
One of modern feminism’s stated goals is to eliminate the perceived “wage gap.” The movement claims that women are paid 77 cents for every dollar a man makes for the same work, and that this discrepancy is due to rampant sexism in the workplace.
However, the “77 cent” statistic has been proven to be very misleading.
This figure is calculated simply by dividing the average salary of women by the average salary of men. However, when controlling for education, experience, hours worked, and other factors that would contribute to earnings, the wage gap virtually disappears.
Moreover, women sometimes choose to pursue less lucrative fields than men, or take time off work for family obligations.
Yet students at Georgetown University claimed to be “traumatized” after one of modern feminism’s greatest critics, Christina Hoff Sommers, delivered a talk about the “trigger warning” culture. Sommers frequently discusses how statistics on the gender gap or campus sexual assault can be misleading.
But instead of listening to facts, some women on college campuses meet new information with hostility and anger.
It does a disservice to young women on college campuses to hear that no matter how smart or driven they are, the world is stacked against them—particularly when wage data indicate that this simply is not the case. This encourages young women to see themselves as victims of a faceless adversary before they have even entered the workforce.
Advocating policies that force others to bear the consequences of one’s decisions, such as loan forgiveness, will not advance the position of women, many of whom don’t hold bachelor’s degrees (as is the case with many men), and all of whom see their taxes increase as a result.
A Sad Direction for Feminism
Feminism used to be about removing the barriers of opportunity for all women. Unfortunately, the ideology has taken a sharp departure from its roots.
Instead, modern feminism has become a lobbying group for liberal policies that do little to empower millennial women to climb the ladder of economic opportunity.
Events such as “A Day Without a Woman” don’t really help. Women on college campuses should reconsider whether or not modern feminism is really helping to advance their position and to pursue the hopes and dreams that they’ve established on their own terms.
If college campuses encourage young women to tune out the opinions of others who have differing viewpoints, refuse to hear other perspectives and new information, and advocate policies that disenfranchise conservative men and women alike, they will be remembered as a generation of women who put together good protests, but nothing else.I have wanted to start a podcast aimed at people doing similar things in beekeeping to our own plans. I finally got my first interview done and am going to post it here.
Our first interview is with Les Crowder. We talked about top bar hives and transitioning from Langstroth hives to top bar hives and a few other topics such as his work in Jamaica.
I will admit that this is a rough recording. Les was actually traveling to LA to catch a flight to Jamaica and stopped on the side of the road to have the interview. I really appreciate him taking the time to do that.
If there seems to be an audience and interest for this podcast I am willing to invest in some better sound equipment and the time to do some post processing and clean up the episodes more. I have several more interviews lined up in the next couple of weeks that I am excited about. If you are a beekeeper trying to, or already running a sideline or small scale commercial operation and want to be interviewed send me an email at jenningsapiaries@gmail.com
If there are any questions, feedback or suggestions please feel free to let me know :)A virtual school stretches over the Central North Island and has doubled its roll over the past four years.
The Volcanics eLearning Community lets "eTeachers" deliver to students who could be in a participating school from Ohakune to the Coromandel - or beyond.
A combination of video conferences, email, Google sites, Skype and text means the students can study subjects from a distance.
And the biggest user is Tokoroa's Forest View High School.
This year the Volcanics community has about 430 students studying one or more subjects, ePrincipal Sue Winters said.
The community covers 17 schools, including three in the Coromandel Peninsula which are new this year: Thames High School, Mercury Bay Area School in Whitianga and Coromandel Area School.
Schools generally joined for two reasons - "a wider range of programmes, and then also flexibility", she said.
"Where there are teacher shortages in subjects we'll often have a lot of students, for example level 3 physics and level three calculus."
However, other subjects such as languages, art history and accounting were in demand.
And Winters said students weren't missing out because they didn't get face-to-face teaching.
"We can build just as effective working relationships with our students online," she said.
"Our students become less and less dependent on hearing our voice."
Students have a once-a-week video conference for a discussion session.
"There might be between two and 10 schools dialling into one."
Between times their eTeacher would provide activities and help using online platforms such as Moodle or Google sites, or tools including Skype, email and even text messages. They're also supported by an in-school eDean.
And online inter-school communication was "the way that face-to-face teaching will go," Winters said.
"Even though students are in a school in a face-to-face classroom they will be connecting online with students in other schools and teachers in other schools to have a personalised, customised programme of learning."
It also prepared students well for the university environment, she said.
Forest View High School has about 65 students studying at least a subject through Volcanics. That includes foreign language options in the junior years and classical studies for seniors.
"We're able to maintain a very, very wide curriculum," principal Ian Ferguson said.
"If a student wants to take a particular subject but we may not offer it - but the student needs that for their particular pathway - rather than us saying 'Well, no you can't do that option' we try to make it happen through video conferencing."
It could also help students get around timetable clashes.
Independent, online learning could take some adjustment for students but Ferguson said it was "certainly not a poor option". "We're getting a lot of students achieving merit and excellence subject endorsements [in NCEA]."
Each school in Volcanics commits to run one programme online, and a Forest View teacher offers level three digital photography to the network.Nick Clegg says the British people will never elect Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister and have no desire for "Che Guevara" politics.
The former Deputy Prime Minister, who led the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015, told the audience at the Hay Festival Segovia: "It was totally unsurprising, almost inevitable, that the Labour Party elected a leader from the hard left but they will never win an election under Jeremy Corbyn as leader. I have seen this frequently in my time in politics: when political parties just talk to themselves they always end up losing. There is no groundswell for Jeremy Corbyn. A couple of thousand people seeing him in a hall on a rainy Thursday in Leeds is not a revolution."
Then, in a reference to Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary leader of Cuba, Clegg added: "The British people aren't going to look for Che Guevara in the next election. Labour may have a politically motivated group whose voice will be ever more shrill and loud and amplified by social media but there is a whole sea of people, millions of voters, who don't engage with politics. I think roughly only 20-25 per cent of the population are strongly engaged in politics, whether that is going to meetings with Corbyn or being foot soldiers for UKIP but the vast majority of people are broadly sceptical and bored by politics and they are the ones who count in elections. When the Labour Party realise that they can have their sanctimonious debates, throwing rocks, but that it won't make them win, then maybe they will change again. But that could be a long time. I remember a time when the Conservatives were considered stuffed and Tony Blair was in sway but the pendulum has swung. Who knows, it might take another 15 years for it to swing back for Labour."
Photo: Nick Edwards/The Telegraph
Clegg, who was in conversation at the University of Segovia with Pedro J Ramiro, from Spanish newspaper El Español, declined to comment on tomorrow's Catalonian parliamentary election, but when he was asked by a member of the audience about the European Union, he said that the European migration crisis had put the EU "in a perilous position." Clegg said: "Things are more fragile than at any time. We are perilously close to the point where many nations no longer believe that the EU can secure their basic economic security and safety. They have to start persuading people they can provide the most basic ingredient of stability."‹ › Joining Lt. Colonel Murphy was D. Edwin Jernigan, Chairman of the Murfreesboro Parks & Recreation Commission along with Mayor Shane McFarland and former Congressman Bart Gordon Former Congressman Bart Gordon. D. Edwin Jernigan, Chairman of the Murfreesboro Parks & Recreation Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland. LTC Steve Murphy, U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers Murfreesboro Councilman Bill Shacklett
A new section of the Greenway trails in Murfreesboro is now open. Lt. Colonel Steve Murphy, U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers, cut the ribbon for the official opening of the North Rutherford Greenway on Central Valley Road just days ago.
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Joining Lt. Colonel Murphy was D. Edwin Jernigan, Chairman of the Murfreesboro Parks & Recreation Commission along with Mayor Shane McFarland and former Congressman Bart Gordon, who spearheaded the Greenway system in Murfreesboro and Rutherford County a number of years back.
Photo by Jim Davis/Murfreesboro Parks & Rec.Despite a number of annoying challenges, it is totally possible to run distributed databases at scale with Docker containers. This tutorial will show you how to deploy a MongoDB replica set in 5 steps using Docker containers, Kubernetes, and Supergiant.
NOTE: This tutorial was depricated when Components were removed in version 0.11.x. This tutorial is valid for Supergiant version =< 0.10.x.
About the Tools
Docker is much-loved for bundling applications with dependencies into containers. I’m going to assume you already have knowledge of Docker, or you wouldn’t be reading this tutorial. We’re going to use the official MongoDB container already on DockerHub.
Kubernetes solves many container orchestration challenges for us, including networking (for clustering) and external storage (for state and data persistence). However, the sequence of Kubernetes commands needed to deploy a clustered application with storage is far from straightforward. We’ll use Supergiant to solve these problems.
Supergiant solves Kubernetes complications by allowing pre-packaged and re-deployable application topologies. Or, in more specific terms, Supergiant lets you use Components, which are somewhat similar to a microservice. Components represent an almost-uniform set of Instances of software (e.g., Elasticsearch, MongoDB, your web application, etc.). They roll up all the various Kubernetes and cloud operations needed to deploy a complex topology into a compact entity that is easy to manage. If you don’t already have Supergiant running on AWS, you can do this pretty quickly from the Install Supergiant page.
So let’s get down to business. This tutorial will use the Supergiant’s API directly with cURL for clarity on all the configuration and inputs, and we’ll have a running replica set in just 5 steps.
Step 1: Create an App
An App allows you to group your components. For example, you might have an app named my-site-production, where one of the components is my-mongodb.
1 2 3 curl - XPOST $ API_HOST / v0 / apps - d '{ "name": "test" }'
Step 2: Create an Entrypoint
An Entrypoint represents a cloud load balancer (such as an ELB on AWS). When you create components that expose network ports, you can optionally allow external access by assigning them to entrypoints, which then gives the component a publicly-reachable address. This will allow us to communicate with MongoDB from anywhere outside of the Kubernetes cluster.
Note: we’ll do this for our tutorial, but if you don’t need external access, it is smarter to leave communication on the private network by just using the private address without an entrypoint.
1 2 3 curl - XPOST $ API_HOST / v0 / entrypoints - d '{ "domain": “example.com" }'
Step 3: Create a Component
The component contains only 2 attributes: name and custom_deploy_script. Custom Deploy Scripts allow components to extend the standard Supergiant deployment flow. The deploy script used here is supergiant/deploy-mongodb, which configures a replica set based on the component information.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 curl - XPOST $ API_HOST / v0 / apps / test / components - d '{ "name": "mongo", "custom_deploy_script": { "image": "supergiant/deploy-mongodb:latest", "command": [ "/deploy-mongodb", "--app-name", "test", "--component-name", "mongo" ] } }'
Step 4: Create a Release
A Release holds all the configuration for a component. You can think of it like a commit to a git repo. Creating new releases allows you to adjust configuration, and deploy changes when needed.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 curl - XPOST $ API_HOST / v0 / apps / test / components / mongo / releases - d '{ "instance_count": 3, "volumes": [ { "name": "mongo-data", "type": "gp2", "size": 10 } ], "containers": [ { "image": "mongo", "command": [ "mongod", "--replSet", "rs0" ], "cpu": { "min": 0, "max": 0.25 }, "ram": { "min": "256Mi", "max": "1Gi" }, "mounts": [ { "volume": "mongo-data", "path": "/data/db" } ], "ports": [ { "protocol": "TCP", "number": 27017, "public": true, "per_instance": true, "entrypoint_domain": "example.com" } ] } ] }'
Since the release is the real meat of the matter, I’ve highlighted the parts that can be adjusted without altering the actual topology. First, there’s the volumes section, in which the name, size, and type of EBS (hard drive) can be edited. Then, cpu and ram, both of which control the allotted min/max (or reserve/limit) range for each instance of the component. The mounts section corresponds to volumes, so make sure that the volume value matches the name used for the drive.
Step 5: Deploy
This will deploy the Component as outlined by the Release.
1 curl - XPOST $ API_HOST / v0 / apps / test / components / mongo / deploy
When the deploy finishes, you can retrieve the assigned address of each Instance of the component like so:
Request:
1 curl $ API_HOST / v0 / apps / test / components / mongo / releases / current / instances / 0
Response:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 { "id" : "0", "base_name" : "mongo-0", "name" : "mongo-020160715200942", "status" : "STARTED", "cpu" : { "usage" : 7, "limit" : 250 }, "ram" : { "usage" : 36270080, "limit" : 1073741824 }, "addresses" : { "external" : [ { "port" : "27017", "address" : "supergiant-example-com-XXXXXXXXXX.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com:30682" } ], "internal" : [ { "port" : "27017", "address" : "mongo-0-public.test.svc.cluster.local:27017" } ] } }
Using the external address of the first instance (highlighted above), we can connect to the MongoDB shell remotely (from your local computer for instance) like so:
1 mongo supergiant - example - com - XXXXXXXXXX. us - east - 1.elb.amazonaws.com : 30682
Your output upon connecting should look like this (the important part being the prompt, rs0:PRIMARY>, confirming the replica set is configured):
1 2 3 4 MongoDB shell version : 2.4.10 connecting to : supergiant - example - com - XXXXXXXXXX. us - east - 1.elb.amazonaws.com : 30682 / test... rs0 : PRIMARY >
Note: if you’re looking to deploy larger, sharded MongoDB clusters, you could use the following layout:
Component for each shard (optionally as a replica set), just as defined above. Runs the mongod process (see command section of the container definition).
process (see command section of the container definition). Component for the config server replica set. Runs mongod with the -- configsvr option.
with the option. Component for the routing layer. Runs mongos.
View Deploy a Sharded Cluster in the MongoDB manual for an overview of the setup.
And there you have it — a MongoDB replica set running as containers, with data stored reliably on detachable external drives.
This setup can be resized at any time (CPU, RAM, or disk; volumes can be resized), by creating a new release that defines the new resource allocations you want. Supergiant will then gently rebuild each container upon deploy.William Shatner, the iconic Captain Kirk, talks to USA TODAY about the importance of music to 'Star Trek' as a North American concert tour celebrating 'Trek' music opens. (Photo11: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)
LOS ANGELES – William Shatner’s famed opening narration, “Space: The Final Frontier …,” is imprinted in the popular culture, but the words are inseparable from the musical notes, fanfare and starship "whoosh" that accompany them in Alexander Courage’s Star Trek TV theme.
As the classic science-fiction franchise begins its 50th anniversary celebration, fans will get a chance to enjoy the music that is integral to the Trek films and TV series in Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage.
Voyage, which opens this weekend in West Palm Beach, Fla., will visit performing arts centers in 100 North American cities in a tour that will run through May. The concerts will feature a symphony orchestra playing the Trek music of Jerry Goldsmith, Gerald Fried, Jay Chattaway, Dennis McCarthy, Mark McKenzie, Cliff Eidelman, Ron Jones and others, accompanied by scenes from the series and films (www.startrekultimatevoyage.com).
CLOSE William Shatner, the fabled Captain Kirk, tells USA TODAY's Bill Keveney that music is "essential" to the 'Star Trek' TV shows and films. 'Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage,' a 50th anniversary concert series, kicks off this weekend in Florida. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
It’s safe to say that Trek wouldn’t have boldly gone anywhere without its music. Shatner, whose Captain James T. Kirk is an iconic character, tells USA TODAY that music is “essential” to the franchise's success.
“Music is as much a part of Star Trek as the dialogue and the actors,” says the actor, who appeared in the original series, which premiered in 1966, and in several Trek films. “When great music is written … it's both recognizable, if it were pulled out, but it also should not intrude on your appreciation of what’s going on on the screen.”
The composers are “enormous talents and (an) enormous aid in making the television show and the movies as popular as they were,” says Shatner, who will not be at the concerts other than his appearance in TV and film scenes accompanying the music. “An enormous and uncredited part of Star Trek’s success is due to the music.”
A scene with 'Star Trek: Enterprise's' Captain Archer (Scott Bakula), center, will be featured in 'Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage,' a 50th anniversary concert series. (Photo11: Ron Tom, Paramount Pictures)
Justin Freer, who will lead an orchestra that will range from 40 to 90 instruments, said Voyage will present live performances accompanied by screen depictions of pivotal scenes from each Trek TV series,including Kirk’s famous “Risk is our business” speech from Season 2’s Return to Tomorrow and a Captain Archer |
Newspaper near central.
I used to get the train down to central and then we'd both get on the tram and go out to Anzac Parade and then walk all the way down with our bags down to the ground, those were the days before Lamborghinis and everything else.
MARK COLVIN: I was going to say, a very different world. Everybody had to have a second job.
ALAN DAVIDSON: It was a wonderful world because I think the best part was that you became mates, real mates, the friendships that were developed because things weren't, you know they weren't easy days. But the thing is that you know we had six or seven years where we were actually learning the game and then we went with Ian Craig as captain to South Africa and then from 1957 through to '64, well we were world champions.
MARK COLVIN: People talk about it as a rebuilding of Australian cricket in the pos-Bradman era. There was that slump wasn't there in the middle there. What did Richie contribute to the rebuild?
ALAN DAVIDSON: So many of the players were in the invincibles in '48, they were all men that had served in the services throughout the war and then instead of them coming into the chest side in the early '20s, they were virtually 28-29 by the time the war was over. And that was a different world, a different world altogether.
But the thing was that I can only emphasise the fact of what Richie tried to establish was that we are a team, nobody was better than anyone else and that was the atmosphere in the dressing room, it was when you met socially, everyone was equal.
MARK COLVIN: He was clearly a very good player. What do you think it was that made him such a good captain, what were the personal qualities in Richie?
ALAN DAVIDSON: The personal qualities, he was a student, a real student of the game. But apart from that he also, he knew every player in his team, he knew the capabilities of every one of the players, he knew the players and then he knew also the opposition so well.
Like for instance I, there was chap called Roy McLean who had a sensational tour to Australia in '52. As soon as he came in the wicket in South Africa I was on, because I had the wood on him. You know, Richie's timing with changes of bowlers and changing of field placements was just phenomenal.
MARK COLVIN: Tactics, a real tactician.
ALAN DAVIDSON: But he had, he had, his tactics were take the initiative, don't let the other bloke get the initiative. You know, in other words, keep the bloke on the back foot all the time.
And there was nothing he couldn't do.
MARK COLVIN: When I was watching him play I was just a school boy and I would have to admit that I probably hero-worshipped him. Was Richie the hero that a lot of school boys thought he was?
ALAN DAVIDSON: Well he was so, like Richie was tremendously popular with every member of the side. You know, funnily enough he was the first one to actually used to come around, you know if you took a wicket, he wanted to run up and give you a bloody bear hug and everything.
And the amazing part about that was the first time he did it I put my, I gave him the best fend of any rugby league or rugby union player and I've hit him in the centre of the chest because I didn't want him hugging me or kissing me and he finished up on his backside on the ground.
MARK COLVIN: Alan Davidson, old friend, old teammate, of Richie Benaud, who has died at 84.Blue Mountains bushfires: Provisional settlement calls for Endeavour Energy to pay $18m over Springwood blaze
Updated
A provisional $18 million court settlement is very much in the interests of residents affected by the devastating 2013 Blue Mountains bushfires, a judge has found.
Winmalee resident Sean Johnston launched a NSW Supreme Court class action against Endeavour Energy, claiming it failed to take action to remove a rotting tree that fell onto power lines and sparked the fire that razed 196 homes.
In granting provisional approval for the proposed settlement, Justice Clifton Hoeben concluded that the lawsuit against Endeavour would have had poor prospects of success and it was unlikely Mr Johnston would have been able to establish liability by the company.
About 700 residents were involved in the class action against the company.
The fire is believed to have started in Linsview Road, Springwood and spread to other suburbs, including Winmalee, where many of the homes were destroyed.
The residents alleged the fire was started by a tree that had fallen on a power line and that the company should have taken steps before the fire to remove the tree.
The class action claimed that Endeavour was negligent in failing to clear dangerous trees.
Endeavour has denied there was any vegetation within 1.5 metres of its power lines.
Cause of the fire remains in dispute: judge
In handing down his judgement, Chief Justice Clifton Hoeben said the origin and cause of the fire remained in dispute.
The provisional approval for the proposed settlement was given last month, with Justice Hoeben handing down the reasons for his decision this morning.
He said the most compelling reason was that the plaintiffs had poor prospects of proving Endeavour was liable.
"It was common ground that Endeavour engaged contractors to carry out an inspection of vegetation near power lines throughout its large area of responsibility, which included the power lines on Linksview Road," he said.
"At no time did Endeavour or any of its contractors detect the fact that the tree was rotten and therefore at substantially increased risk of failing and falling onto the power lines."
'Considerable disagreement amongst the experts'
Justice Hoeben also cited evidence the tree had internal rot, which could not have been seen looking at the tree and would have required more testing.
"There was considerable disagreement amongst the experts as to the existence, prominence and significance of the signs [if any] which were present," he said.
If approved a Settlement Distribution Scheme to pay the plaintiffs will be established.
The settlement is listed to be finalised on the September 26.
The provisional order said Endeavour Energy should pay the settlement, and they were allowed to do so without an admission of liability.
A scheme of distribution for the funds has also been set out.
A chief investigator told a coronial inquiry into the fires in 2015 that the blaze was an act of God.
Last year, a Winmalee schoolteacher who lost everything when the bushfire ripped through his suburb, said he was appalled to hear Endeavour Energy has underspent on its maintenance budget.
A hearing into the matter was held in the NSW Supreme Court over 10 weeks last year.
In his opening remarks before the hearing, the barrister representing the residents, Tim Tobin SC, described how the Blue Mountains was in a state of "high vulnerability" on that October day, with high temperatures, gusting winds and low humidity.
The fire went on to burn for close to month, destroying more than 3,500 hectares, Mr Tobin said.
ABC/AAP
Topics: bushfire, disasters-and-accidents, winmalee-2777, nsw
First postedNETFLIX has become the dominant player in the world of video-on-demand streaming services, but it doesn’t mean the company has forgotten its roots.
The tech giant has become a global media and entertainment power in the past few years but it still has a pretty lucrative side business. Astonishingly, Netflix continues to make money by lending DVDs to customers via the post.
The service is actually the origins of the company but surprisingly it’s still going pretty strong in 2017. In fact, there remains 4.2 million people in the US who rent physical DVDs from Netflix.
Granted that number is down from its peak of 20 million in 2010, but Netflix isn’t giving up on the DVD part of its business.
The streaming giant built its success by forging the future of home entertainment but it continues to keep the past relevant, and recently launched a new iOS app for users of its site, DVD.com.
Those who prefer the older technology don’t get as much bang for their buck. Plans start at $US5 a month (half of what a monthly Netflix membership costs) and customers are able to be delivered a DVD bundle at a time.
It is only available to US customers but it’s very interesting that Netflix hasn’t killed off this part of its business yet, despite the fact that it’s viewed by many as an unnecessary anachronism.
It’s tough to tell how long Netflix’s DVD.com service has left but in June 2015 the company told The New York Times that executives expect it to stick around.
“If you cut back on service, you are going to lose your subscriber base,” Hank Breeggemann, general manager of Netflix’s DVD division, said. “Expect us to continue to ship DVDs for the foreseeable future.”
To that end, Netflix has continued to find ways to streamline the service and look for innovative technologies that help trim costs as well as improve customer service.
The company boasts 86 million subscribers in 190 countries but even with an ever-growing customer base, it doesn’t want to lose those loyal to the disc.Since signing a six-year deal with the Giants in August after a back injury sidelined him for all but two games the previous two seasons — including all of 2009 — the 27-year-old Andrews has been used as a replacement tackle and guard. But he has been especially useful as a blocking tight end in rushing situations. He has been consumed with learning the playbook, reporting to the Giants’ practice facility on most of the team’s days off.
“He’s done a good job, getting good playing time,” quarterback Eli Manning said. “He’s got a good personality, just smiling and laid back. I think he’s happy to be here and back playing football and doing what he loves.”
Photo
But not many of Andrews’s new teammates appear to know about his musical passion. When left tackle David Diehl, whose locker is next to Andrews’s, overheard the thumping bass seeping from his headphones one day after practice, he seemed to offer his approval.
“That’s gangster,” Diehl said.
Andrews laughed. Diehl’s ear must have been mistaken.
Andrews has an eclectic taste, but he was never really into gangsta rap, like his older brother, Stacy, an offensive guard with the Seattle Seahawks. Their mother preferred soulful singers like Johnnie Taylor and Al Green, but Shawn Andrews did not relate as much to the artists of yesteryear.
Still, Andrews loved music at an early age. Starting in kindergarten, he was the student who drove teachers to distraction with his incessant tapping on his desk. Until his sophomore year at Camden Fairview High in Arkansas — when he opted to focus on football instead — Andrews was the largest tuba player and drummer in the school’s band.
Andrews is not bashful about spreading his musical cheer. In the Giants’ locker room, his falsetto can be heard imitating the hip-hop artist Drake. On the way to the cafeteria, the 330-pound Andrews swaps lyrics for food references, his mind never far from his next meal. To put his own twist on a Cher hit, for example, Andrews cooed about getting a second helping, “Do you believe in grub after grub?”
But Andrews’s whimsical flair brought criticism when he played for the Philadelphia Eagles.
While recovering from his back injury before the 2009 season, Andrews posted a video of one of his songs, “Gettin’ My Michael Phelps On,” on YouTube. Andrews said the video, which he has since removed from the site, was intended to be playful, but it prompted fans and commentators in Philadelphia to question his dedication.
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“Play some football instead of playing all these things on YouTube,” Howard Eskin, a sports-talk radio host at WIP in Philadelphia, said by telephone. “Shawn is actually a good guy, but the people here believe, and I believe, he never wanted to play football. He likes the paychecks, but he doesn’t like to play football.”
But Andrews said he was just as dedicated to his music while he was healthy. And when he was healthy, Andrews was a force at guard. Drafted by the Eagles in the first round in 2004, Andrews was a two-time Pro Bowl guard in Philadelphia before being released in March. He would often drive to his home in southern New Jersey, which was outfitted with a studio, after practices and work on his music for hours.
“Sometimes, I wouldn’t even eat, I’d be so excited to get in the studio,” said Andrews, who waits until his 2-year-old son, JaShawn, is asleep before hurrying off to work on his music. “I’d be in the studio from like 3 p.m. until 7 a.m. the next day because it’s fun. The amount of time I spent in there, if I’ve spent 12 hours in there, it feels like 30 minutes has gone by.”
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Andrews is building a studio in his home in Little Rock, Ark. He will be able to manipulate the sound with one of three laptops — one for mixing the tracks, one for the rough drafts of his songs, one for the finished products.
In his current residence in Clifton, N.J., Andrews has only one laptop, which was by his side while he rehabilitated his back injury in Los Angeles over the past year.
The hours Andrews has put into his music are evident when he manipulates the editing program. He typically opens a blank project, much like an empty word-processing document, sets up tracks — to add a bass guitar, a snare drum, a synthesizer, an electric guitar — and then composes a beat with all the instruments. He can plug a miniature keyboard into the computer as well.
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Andrews said his inspiration came from all manner of muses. He taps out notes to himself on his BlackBerry when he thinks of a beat or a title, and then he gets to work on a song when he gets home. To Andrews, the rhythm is more important than the lyrics.
“When I hear a song, even though there’s words, I can block it out,” Andrews said. “I hear the beat. The beat is what gets me. After I listen to the beat and break down the instruments in there, then I can listen to the words.”
In 2008, Andrews revealed that he had struggled with depression. He could not help reading accounts in the news media about his decline, how he was a bust on the football field. He took them to heart.
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As part of his recovery, Andrews met with a psychiatrist and was put on antidepressants. But his personal remedy was to slip away into his music. Perhaps the most important song he created during that time, he said, was a beat without lyrics titled “It’s Funny How.” Funny how everyone wanted to be around Andrews when he achieved success. Funny how they quickly turned from him once that changed.
While recalling that period, Andrews became emotional, exhaling deeply. He is in a much different place now, but as always, he relies on his music to help him unwind, pointing to the screen of his laptop for emphasis.
“If I don’t have anything else,” he said, “I’ve got God, my family and my music.”Have your say
Police are appealing for witnesses after an entire cash machine was stolen from the main arena at T in the Park.
The theft took place in the early hours of Friday at the festival’s Strathallan Castle site.
Festivalgoers had been allowed into the camping area on Thursday.
Police say a “significant amount” of money was stolen along with the cash machine.
A statement said: “Police have appealed for witnesses following the theft of an ATM machine from the main arena area at T in the Park.
“The ATM contained a significant amount of cash and was taken between 12am and 7am on Friday, 8 July. Anone with information is asked to contact the police on 101.”
Meanwhile, Police Scotland have confirmed they are investigated the seperate deaths of a male and female at this year’s festival.
The Scotsman’s EU Referendum page: Keep up to date with latest news, polls and features.
DOWNLOAD THE SCOTSMAN APP ON ITUNES OR GOOGLE PLAYWhatever the motive behind the event, it made for some powerful images of some China residents' desperation for better air.
Making the media rounds this week are photographs of residents of Zhengzhou, the capital of China's Henan Province, lining up for a chance to breathe fresh mountain air via sealed bags.
Some of the more heart-tugging photos were of parents and grandparents fixing the masks on children's faces so they can have a few rare sniffs of the fresh O2.
Zhengzhou is one of China's worst cities for air pollution, ranking 10th in a Greenpeace list of the country's most polluted cities in 2013, which used official data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
At the time of writing, Zhengzhou's AQI (Air Quality Index) recorded an "unhealthy" 157. Even Beijing, often the subject of bad pollution headlines, recorded a "moderate" AQI of 55 (the capital made headlines with its off-the-chart AQI reading of 755 last January).
New York recorded an AQI of 62.
Zhengzhou is one of the worst cities in China for air pollution. STR/AFP/Getty Images
The late-March series of events were part clever travel marketing gimmick, part public awareness campaign for China's air pollution crisis, put on by Laojun Mountain Natural Reserve Development Co.
The company brought in 2,000 cans and 40 bags of air that had been packed in Laojun Mountain, also located in Henan Province.
"A TV crew came to Laojun Mountain to test the air and found it unbelievably good and we had the idea of doing this to promote tourism to the area," sales and marketing officer for the park Khurram Zhang told CNN.
Known for its fresh air, the mountain was designated a national nature reserve in 1997, and sits 120 kilometers away from the nearest city of Luoyang.
"We collected 2,000 cans of air from She Shen Ya (a cliff on Laojun Mountain) early last month and we gave them out in multiple locations as a marketing campaign. It was gone in 20 minutes," said Zhang.641 0 1 0
Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years! Is there a better way to return after months of absence than by bringing you with a comic about Zeus trying to bang some hapless mortal woman? I say there is not!
Poor Europa, abducted by a god disguised as a bull, and then ravished by that same god disguised as an eagle. Zeus was one messed up fella! Either that, or the folks writing stories about him had some really intense feelings about animals that they did not hide very well. Maybe it was a bit of both?
You’d at least think that, having seduced so many mortal women, he’d have perfected a better technique at some point, but he always seems to manage to just get more ridiculous.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Europa, she is another in a long line of mortal conquests by the immortal Zeus. In the tale, Europa is a beautiful young maiden (aren’t they all?) of noble birth, most often a descendent of Io, one of Zeus’s former lovers. One day, while out with her friends in the fields, she spots a beautiful white bull mixed in with her father’s herds. Entranced by this stunning creature, she climbs upon its back against the urgings of her friends. At once, the bull runs off, carrying her across the land and out to the sea. The Zeus-bull swims with her on his back the isle of Crete where he reveals his identity to the young woman. In most versions of the story, he shows her his true form as a man, though in some he turns into an eagle to ravish her for whatever reason. There are also some forms of the story where Zeus takes the form of an eagle from the beginning and flies off with her to Crete.
After telling Europa that he is, indeed, the chief of the gods, Zeus beds the young woman. Having made love to her, Zeus returns to Olympus but, in most versions of the story, leaves her with several gifts: Talos, an enchanted man made of bronze that guarded the island, Laelaps, an incredible hunting dog, and a javelin that never missed its target. Europa later gave birth to three famous sons, among them was the legendary King Minos who would later have the labyrinth built to hide the deadly Minotaur. Europa is generally considered to be the first Queen of Crete and her sons, the first Kings.
After all was said and done, Zeus marked his union with Europa by creating the image of the bull in the stars which we know today as Taurus. A strange way to put a notch on one’s bedpost, to be sure.
Unlike many of his other lovers, Europa was one of the few that actually managed to escape the wrath of Zeus’s wife, Hera, though why this would be is rarely discussed. Suffice to say the girl was lucky.
Well, as lucky as someone who gets abducted by a god disguised as a bull and carried off to an island only to be ravished by said god can be. I guess it was worth it in the end?
I wanted to say thanks to everyone for your continued support! I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long but life has been hugely in flux over the last few months. I’ve been getting a lot more work coming in and it’s hard to balance that with improving my life and personal projects. Needless to say it’s been a crazy ride. It’s also a little intimidating to try to write comics that I’m happy with. The more time goes by, the more scared I get of disappointing you fine folks. All I can say is that I will do my best to update more regularly and I will try not to worry so much as it tends to just get in the way of actually getting things done.
Much love and sorry for making some of you worry! <3The finished Rift, which will see release in early 2016, is a surprisingly low-key device. It's big, but its size is tempered by gentle curves and a matte finish — plastic on the front, cloth almost everywhere else. It weighs about as much as Crescent Bay, the prototype it's based on, but notably less than either the second development kit or the mobile Gear VR (which makes sense, given that the Gear VR has to hold an entire phone instead of just a screen). Oculus has deemphasized specs ever since announcing Crescent Bay, but Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe confirms that it's got a wider field of view than the DK2, and its screen is high-resolution enough that the pixels aren't distracting.
Seeing the Oculus Rift at E3 feels like the end of a journey. It’s experienced a more dramatic trajectory than perhaps anything else at the show, from a simple prototype in 2012 to the flagship product of a company that Facebook paid $2 billion for. Oculus’ booth is lined with lavish prints of virtual reality games like Lucky’s Tale and EVE Valkyrie, and co-founder Palmer Luckey is chatting with journalists under the calming purple light. But really, it’s a beginning: our first look at one of the earliest attempts to make VR a real medium instead of a science fictional dream, complete with a totally new control system.
That's not to say the screen is perfect — it's still probably the Rift's weakest feature. Oculus has overcome the "screen door effect" of the original headset, but when every flat screen around it is dense with pixels, the magnified Rift image looks noticeably less sharp. It was probably a little blurrier than usual in my case, because the demo unit had a fixed inter-pupillary distance — normally, there's a slider that lets you adjust the width of the lenses to fit your eyes, but it was sealed off for E3. I got a choice of eight Rift game demos, of which I ended up checking out three: hack-n-slash RPG Chronos, a hockey game from a sports collection, and chilly survival game Edge of Nowhere. It's frankly amazing how well the developers have managed to overcome VR motion sickness. The slightly counterintuitive trick, as far as I understand, is to stop the camera from shifting in any way that might remind you of natural motion. In Chronos, for example, each room is shot from a fixed angle, like you're looking onto a stage — it's a strategy that has worked for older VR games like Herobound. The hockey game uses a first-person perspective, but you only play as the stationary goalie. Is it still immersive if you're a disembodied camera? Edge of Nowhere is particularly interesting. The game is exactly the kind of thing that could be nauseating in the Rift: an action game with lots of running and jumping (who knows, the Lovecraftian elements could end up being nauseating in their own right). But instead of the average over-the-shoulder perspective, its third-person camera is kept as far from the character as possible, and you don't get any say in how it moves. The effect is almost more like watching an interactive movie than playing a game. Occasionally, this makes it difficult to control — it's hard to time jumps if you're seeing them from an angle you're not used to, and it doesn't directly track the protagonist as much as slide around him. But it's mostly a problem of unfamiliarity — something that, if VR expands, could quickly fade away. Since VR is often described as "putting you in the game," this might seem to defeat the purpose. What’s the point of playing something immersive if you’re immersing yourself as a disembodied camera? But besides getting what feels like the world’s biggest screen, seeing a third-person game in VR gives you a real sense of situational awareness. You know things your character doesn’t, and you can respond accordingly. It bolsters the argument that VR is genuinely a new medium, with conventions that are only just becoming clear.
On launch, it's not clear how many games there will actually be, and Iribe didn't clarify except to say that these might not all be out when the Rift is released. Eight games isn't enough to make a catalog, but we're seeing plenty of VR games — Adrift and Time Machine, to name two — that could help pad it out. As weird as it sounds now, the consumer Rift isn't actually the most exciting part of Oculus' VR plans any more. That would go to Oculus Touch, the prototype motion controllers that are coming out in the first half of 2016 (the Rift comes out in the first quarter). Touch seems roughly in the state that Crescent Bay was before today, dotted with exposed sensors and apparently slightly fragile; it's even paired with a Crescent Bay headset. While most of the controls are solid, the face buttons are cringe-inducingly mushy. But it otherwise feels admirably non-experimental. Aside from the rings around the front — which lets the Rift's camera track them from multiple angles — the controllers are like nothing so much as Wii nunchucks, designed to fit the contours of your closed fist. There are two triggers, one under your forefinger and the other against the meat of your palm, and an analog stick for your thumb. Touch feels less like a remote control than an extension of your hand There’s also one intriguing, invisible feature: a pair of touch sensors on one trigger and the analog stick. They're not controls per se, but they let the Touch reflect your hand position — if you lift your thumb, for example, your avatar will raise theirs as well. It's so natural that it feels weird at first. There are no Touch-enabled games at E3, but Oculus has developed a "toybox" full of moveable, breakable objects. I built block towers and managed a short, clumsy game of ping-pong. I played tetherball and, in a strangely meta moment, picked up a controller inside the game to drive a miniature tank. I fired a slingshot and managed to actually hit a few things. It feels roughly as accurate as, say, the Sixense Stem, but its design is far more intuitive and restrained, with a minimum of buttons. And while Touch doesn't give you as many options as Valve's trackpad-equipped controllers, it consequently feels less like a remote control and more like an extension of your hand.Arrieta will take the mound today, looking to extend that streak against the Dodgers at Wrigley Field. It will be his first time facing the Dodgers since his no-hitter against them Aug. 30. This long-awaited rematch is just one of several intriguing matchups set for the day's 15-game slate, all of which are available for streaming live on MLB.TV.
Jake Arrieta has been as close to an automatic win for the Cubs as there is in baseball. Chicago has won each of its ace's last 23 starts, a franchise record.
Jake Arrieta has been as close to an automatic win for the Cubs as there is in baseball. Chicago has won each of its ace's last 23 starts, a franchise record.
Arrieta will take the mound today, looking to extend that streak against the Dodgers at Wrigley Field. It will be his first time facing the Dodgers since his no-hitter against them Aug. 30. This long-awaited rematch is just one of several intriguing matchups set for the day's 15-game slate, all of which are available for streaming live on MLB.TV.
MLB.TV Premium returns with the same features as last year, but at $109.99, it is a full 20 bucks cheaper than the 2015 cost. This package has the best value and provides access to more than 400 devices and a free subscription to the MLB.com At Bat Premium app (a $19.99 value). It offers the best picture quality ever -- a new 60 frames per second -- for supported devices. Monthly signups for MLB.TV Premium are now underway as well for $24.99.
The new MLB.TV Single Team package is also now available as an $84.99 yearly subscription. You can watch a single team's live out-of-market games in full HD.
Here's what to watch for throughout the day (all times in ET):
Dodgers look to solve Cubs' Arrieta: LAD@CHC, 8:05 p.m.
In his last outing, Arrieta surrendered a season-high four earned runs in a five-inning start. Chicago still won, however, as Arrieta became the first Cubs starter to begin a season 9-0 since Ken Holtzman did it in 1967. Despite the unblemished record and a sterling 1.72 ERA, Cubs manager Joe Maddon insisted we still haven't seen Arrieta pitch to his full potential.
"He has not pitched as well as he can yet," Maddon said. "You'll see the day when he goes out with that fastball command and it'll be the eighth inning with 92 pitches and it'll be a good day."
For Los Angeles, Scott Kazmir gets the start. Kazmir rebounded from issuing seven walks against the Padres on May 20 to strike out 12 batters his last time out. He won his only other career start at Wrigley Field back with the Angels in 2010.
Stat that matters: Extra bases have been hard to come by against Arrieta this year. He's limiting opponents to a.239 slugging percentage, which ranks first among all qualifiers.
Video: CHC@SF: Arrieta chats about the Cubs on the broadcast
Something's gotta give: PIT@MIA, 7:10 p.m.
Two of the game's hottest pitchers will take the mound at Marlins Park. Jose Fernandez will toe the rubber for the home team, looking to extend his six-game winning streak. The right-hander owns a 1.89 ERA in that six-start span, striking out 58 batters against 14 walks. Opposite Fernandez will be Pittsburgh's Gerrit Cole, who's allowed just one earned run in his last three outings. He's 3-0 with a 1.04 ERA over his last four starts.
Stat that matters: Fernandez is especially tough on right-handed batters, of which of the Pirates have many. Right-handers have struck out 60 times in 129 plate appearances (46.5 percent) this season. That's the highest rate among qualified starting pitchers.
Video: MIA@TB: Fernandez fans 12 in seven strong innings
Lewis seeks to continue road dominance vs. Kluber, Indians: TEX@CLE, 6:10 p.m.
Colby Lewis allowed six runs in five innings, his shortest outing of the season, against the Angels last week, but still came away with the win. The right-hander has been at his best on the road, going 2-0 with a 1.73 ERA across four starts entering today's tilt in Cleveland. The Indians will counter with Corey Kluber, who's tossed at least seven innings in consecutive starts. Kluber has allowed four runs on 12 hits in that span, beating both the Red Sox and White Sox.
Stat that matters: Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus performs better at Progressive Field than any other ballpark. He's batting.406/.479/.566 with 11 extra-base hits (eight doubles, three homers) and 15 RBIs in 28 career games on the road against the Indians.
Video: CLE@CWS: Francona on Kluber's performance in win
Third time's the charm: WSH@PHI, 7:05 p.m.
For the third time this season, Aaron Nola will try for his first career win against the Nationals. The Phillies right-hander gave up seven runs in five innings vs. Washington on April 16, taking the loss, then received a no decision for his seven scoreless frames on April 28. Washington will hand the ball to Joe Ross, who turned in his best start of the season against the Phillies on April 20. Ross tossed 7 2/3 scoreless frames in that outing, allowing just three hits and two walks and striking out five batters.
Stat that matters: Daniel Murphy's 44 hits in May are the most by any Nationals hitter for a single calendar month, and he still has one game left to play.
MLB.TV Premium subscribers get the Mosaic View -- split screen or quad, available on PC or Mac only. That always comes in handy, especially when scoreboard-watching looms. MLB.TV Premium and MLB.TV Single Team subscribers both enjoy HD and both will get real-time highlights and player stats automatically loaded moments after they occur (only for the game you are watching with MLB.TV Single Team, and for all games with MLB.TV Premium).New Delhi: Moving ahead with the introduction of the high-speed Maglev (magnetic levitation) trains in the country, the Indian Railways has asked Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) to prepare a detailed project report within the next six months. The railways aims to implement the first stretch of the project in less than three years’ time.
“We would be very closely associated with RITES as they would collect all the required data after which we would together do the analysis of the sufficiently high clientele sectors where Maglev can be implemented," said Nitin Chowdhary, executive director, mechanical engineering (development), ministry of railways.
Maglev trains which run at a minimum speed of 350 km per hour (kmph) and maximum 500kmph without touching the ground are based on the magnetic levitation technology wherein the train is elevated 1 to 6 inches above the ground through a system of magnets thereby making the train move frictionless at high speeds.
The project would be implemented on a PPP (public-private partnership) basis as a joint venture between the railways and a private company wherein the railways would contribute 26% of the equity.
“Two private companies can also form a JV within themselves but the resultant JV would have to in turn work with us in a joint venture by sharing the technology for the project and not be our competition instead," explained Chowdhary.
According to Chowdhary, the objective is to have a core incubator group with a mandate to develop Maglevs in India. The group will brainstorm with the industry as well as the railways. The close knit group will also oversee the development of the Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) for freight which would run along the Maglev trains.
Refuting the notion that Maglev would be too expensive a project to generate positive returns, Chowdhary said, “Developing Maglevs won’t be as expensive as people are thinking it to be since we have spoken to a lot of vendors about it and it seems doable."
He added that for people the priority has shifted towards saving time and if Maglev can provide that with high-end quality service, then passengers will be willing to spend a higher fare amount.
In September this year, six companies, including Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Switzerland-based SwissRapide AG, had evinced interest in developing Maglevs in India. The railways had invited expressions of interest for Maglev trains in July this year.It's a bizarre experience, but I don't feel sick, because the Symbioz is transmitting real road motion to the headset. That data is then subtly adjusting the virtual image to be in sync with the real-life car movements. I even see simulated versions of the cars and trucks on the road fed in by LiDAR and other sensors. After a few minutes, the headset shows a dramatic eclipse, and the faux Symbioz leaves the road and soars over a canopy of trees.
All of this is part of the "mind off" driving experience that Renault is exploring with the Symbioz. With fully autonomous vehicles just around the corner, the company is trying to imagine how we can spend our free time once we surrender the wheel to robots. VR may not be your personal entertainment choice, but it exhibits that idea in a vivid way.
"This demo really shows you that when your mind is off, it's really off," Redzik told me. "If we give people back time, I don't think we should be judging what they are going to use this time for, whether it's gaming, VR or office work."
Renault sees future cars as more than just A-to-B |
Systems, John Chambers, 72.62
36. Macy’s, Terry Lundgren, 72.58
37. DaVita, Kent Thiry, 72.53
38. Aon, Gregory Case, 72.37
39. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Monty Moran, 72.34
40. LyondellBasell, James Gallogly, 72.23
41. Valeo, Jacques Aschenbroich, 72.20
42. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Ed Clark, 72.10
43. Gilead Sciences, John Martin, 71.79
44. Omnicom, John Wren, 71.72
45. Actavis, Paul Bisaro, 71.69
46. Danaher, H. Lawrence Culp Jr., 71.61
47. McKesson, John Hammergren, 71.57
48. Eaton, Alexander Cutler, 71.57
49. Biogen Idec, George Scangos, 71.51
50. Starbucks, Howard Schultz, 71.44
51. Perrigo, Joseph Papa, 71.21
52. TJX, Carol Meyrowitz, 71.06
53. Intercontinental Exchange, Jeffrey Sprecher, 70.88
54. Wynn Resorts, Stephen Wynn, 70.80
55. Air Liquide, Benoît Potier, 70.79
56. AutoZone, William Rhodes III, 70.65
57. Franklin Resources, Gregory Johnson, 70.54
58. Nike, Mark Parker, 70.23
59. Ametek, Frank Hermance, 70.19
60. Simon Property Group, David Simon, 70.13
61. CSX, Michael Ward, 70.02
62. MasterCard, Ajaypal Banga, 69.98
63. Pentair, Randall Hogan, 69.87
64. Hexagon, Ola Rollén, 69.68
65. Swedbank, Michael Wolf, 69.54
66. Chubb, John Finnegan, 69.48
67. Salesforce.com, Marc Benioff, 69.44
68. Yum Brands, David Novak, 69.13
69. Allergan, David Pyott, 69.12
70. Express Scripts, George Paz, 69.00
71. Cabot Oil & Gas, Dan Dinges, 68.59
72. First Quantum, Philip Pascall, 68.46
73. VF, Eric Wiseman, 68.32
74. Brookfield Asset Management, Bruce Flatt, 68.27
75. Noble Energy, Charles Davidson, 67.92
76. Public Storage, Ronald Havner Jr., 67.53
77. Crescent Point Energy, Scott Saxberg, 67.22
78. Ross Stores, Michael Balmuth, 66.99
79. Anheuser-Busch InBev, Carlos Alves de Brito, 66.66
80. PotashCorp, William Doyle, 65.67
81. Tenaris, Paolo Rocca, 65.52
82. Royal Bank of Canada, Gordon Nixon, 65.30
83. Valeant Pharmaceuticals, J. Michael Pearson, 65.17
84. MediaTek, Tsai Ming-Kai, 65.07
85. Alliance Data Systems, Ed Heffernan, 64.99
86. Telenor, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, 64.95
87. Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, Benjamin Steinbruch, 64.83
88. Southern Copper, Oscar Gonzalez Rocha, 64.68
89. Power Corporation of Canada, André Desmarais, 63.68
90. Power Corporation of Canada, Paul Desmarais Jr., 63.68
91. Actelion, Jean-Paul Clozel, 63.19
92. Cemig, Djalma Bastos de Morais, 62.71
93. CCR, Renato Alves Vale, 61.67
94. América Móvil, Daniel Hajj Aboumrad, 61.36
95. Fast Retailing, Tadashi Yanai, 59.89
96. Sampo, Kari Henrik Stadigh, 57.61
97. BOC Hong Kong, He Guangbei, 54.67
98. Sands China, Edward Matthew Tracy, 49.34
99. Want Want China, Tsai Eng-Meng, 45.82
100. Monsanto, Hugh Grant, 39.83 Source: Reputation Institute
When we looked at the top 10 firms, a few things jumped out:
Bezos wins again. We can probably chalk the dual achievement up to his constant pursuit of a clear vision: to be “the most customer-centric company in the world.” Still, it presents a marvelous irony. The leader most adamantly ignoring Wall Street pressure creates the most value—and the company that spends next to nothing on advertising and PR ends up with a great reputation.
There is really no correlation. The order of names on the two lists is utterly unrelated. While two of the top 10 CEOs from our ranking also lead companies that are in the top 10 reputation-wise, so does a CEO ranked 98th on the original list. In fact these reputation winners are pretty evenly distributed in terms of their value creation.
It’s fair to call it a CEO ranking. Sure, this is a ranking of company reputations, not the reputations of the CEOs themselves—and what is being measured here is their current value, rather than any change in value across the CEO’s tenure. We’re still comfortable with hanging these companies’ reputations on their leaders. First, because among these 10, the average tenure in office is over 12 years—surely enough time to make a mark. Second, because no one is better positioned than the CEO to effect the changes that improve (or ruin) a company’s image.
For longtime leaders, it might be personal. One of the CEOs of our reputational top 10 is a founder (Bezos); one is the son of a founder (Hayek), and two are close to that (Wolfson, whose father was chairman of the same company, and Riboud, whose father spent many years in the same CEO seat before him). Nearly all the rest have been with their companies a long while—as in 27 to 35 years. At least two explanations are possible. Perhaps people outside the company respond well to long-term leaders, so reputation scores tend to rise with tenures. Or it could be the other way around: Maybe leaders whose identities are so thoroughly tied up with their companies’ are more attuned to leaving legacies that aren’t only about financial value created.
Karen Moskowitz
The Numbers in Jeff Bezos’s Head
On a Friday afternoon in 2004, Amazon manager Vijay Ravindran received an unusual invitation—to a Saturday morning meeting with Jeff Bezos at the boathouse adjoining the CEO’s lakefront home. When the attendees arrived, Bezos told them he’d received an employee suggestion that Amazon supplement its existing shipping policy—free shipping on orders over $25—with a new offer. Customers would pay an annual fee for free shipping on most products, regardless of order size. “Jeff was extremely energetic—he felt this was an opportunity to build something that was going to be very important,” Ravindran recalls. Hence the urgent weekend meeting at the lake.
The proposal sparked hushed concerns and consternation. Amazon’s finance team worried that waiving shipping charges would gut margins. “There were people who thought it was an extremely bad idea—the spreadsheets uniformly painted pictures of losses,” Ravindran says. Bezos ignored the objections, convinced that the offer would spur more orders. That intuition proved correct just weeks later, when the program, Prime, launched. Customers who’d previously made a few purchases a year were suddenly ordering multiple times a month. “Instead of looking to protect the current business, Jeff saw the upside,” says Ravindran, now chief digital officer at Graham Holdings. “It was the most impressive display of business leadership I’ve seen in my career.” Today tens of millions of customers pay $99 a year for Prime, which generates more than $1 billion in membership fees and incalculable incremental sales.
He’s invented a new philosophy for running a business. Even as Amazon grows, he’s reinvesting to make it even bigger.
Disregard for orthodox approaches is not unusual for Bezos. Amazon’s culture famously forbids the use of PowerPoint, for instance. But the frequency with which he rejects spreadsheet-driven decision making has probably played a larger role in Amazon’s growth. With 132,000 employees and $75 billion in annual revenue, Amazon is a 20-year-old corporation that routinely posts losses. (Its operating loss may top $800 million in the third quarter.) Unlike Apple, which boasts precisely how many iPhones it’s selling, Amazon steadfastly refuses to give Wall Street basic data, such as how many Kindles it has sold—an opaqueness that even Bezos fans say hurts the stock price. Like every CEO, Bezos talks about managing for the long term—but he walks the talk, shrugging off investor concerns even as Amazon’s stock dropped from a high of $407 in January 2014 to $307 in August. Over the long haul, however, there’s no disputing his ability to generate shareholder returns: The company’s stock performance since its 1997 initial public offering has been so strong that its share price could have dropped to $250, and Bezos would still rank as HBR’s best-performing CEO.
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He and his team have achieved that feat by sticking steadfastly—even boringly—to a few key principles (outlined in his 1997 shareholder letter, which he still sends to investors every year). Instead of focusing on competitors or technology shifts, they continually invest in getting a little bit better. In their core retail business, they grind out incremental improvements in delivery speed and product offerings while chipping away at prices. As Amazon continues to move into completely new industries—it’s now a serious player in cloud computing, online video, e-readers, and other devices—some see a company that’s pioneering a new model. “In some ways he’s invented a new philosophy for running a business,” says Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store, a best-selling Bezos biography. “Even as Amazon grows, he’s focused on reinvesting to make it even bigger—and because that means it shows no profits, he avoids paying dividends or corporate taxes.”
While Amazon is younger than Walmart or Apple, its creation story is becoming equally familiar. After graduating from Princeton with a computer science degree in 1986, Bezos spent eight years on Wall Street. In 1994 he and his wife, MacKenzie—a Princeton grad and his former coworker—left New York for Seattle, setting up shop in their garage. Jeff and a few employees began building a website that would sell books. Amazon went live in July 1995 and, in its first month, sold books to customers in 50 states and in 45 countries. It quickly expanded into CDs and other goods.
His willingness to go through the valley of death and come out the other side makes Wall Street give him the benefit of the doubt.
While consumers gravitated to Amazon, some investors remained skeptical. Henry Blodget, then a Merrill Lynch analyst, recalls an investor conference in the late 1990s at which Bezos patiently explained why Amazon allowed customers to return huge flat-screen TVs for a full refund with no questions asked—a costly policy meant to drive customer satisfaction. “Almost no one understood the potential for the company, its business model, and its stock,” says Blodget, who rose to fame for his seemingly outlandish 1998 prediction that Amazon shares, which were trading around $200, would hit $400—which they did, three weeks later. (Blodget now runs Business Insider, a website in which Bezos is an investor.)
Today Amazon is so successful that people often assume it has enjoyed a linear rise—like a dominant sports team cruising, as expected, to the championship. But for several years, Wall Street questioned Amazon’s viability. “At analyst conferences during the early 2000s, I saw fund managers openly laughing at him,” recalls Marc Andreessen, the entrepreneur-turned-venture-capitalist. “They’d say, ‘That guy is nuts, and that company is going to go bankrupt.’ That’s one of the things I really admire about him, and it’s what I talk to our founders about. It’s very easy to say you want to be Jeff Bezos today. It’s a lot harder to be Jeff Bezos during that ‘valley of death’ period. It was his willingness to go through that valley and to come out the other side that makes Wall Street give him the benefit of the doubt. A lot of people would have given up, but he didn’t. That’s what I admire most about his story.”
The other big misconception: that Bezos doesn’t care about profitability. By all accounts Amazon’s mature businesses (such as online retail) are profitable; it’s his deep investments in new businesses that create accounting losses, which he regards as a false measure of performance. “He’s really focused on cash flow and what kind of return on invested capital is being created,” says Warren Jenson, Amazon’s chief financial officer from 1999 to 2002. Bill Miller, a fund manager at Legg Mason who has held shares in Amazon since it went public, says Bezos shows deep understanding of the point Clay Christensen made in his recent HBR article “The Capitalist’s Dilemma,” which argued that most managers focus on the wrong financial metrics. “Jeff really takes theory seriously—he started out wanting to be a theoretical physicist,” Miller says. “In terms of financial theory, he’s trying to get away from the behavioral problems that afflict other companies” that try to maximize the wrong numbers. Other Bezos watchers go even further: At a time when many large companies (most notably Apple) are hoarding idle cash, shouldn’t we be lauding Amazon’s ability to continually find entirely new industries to reinvest and innovate in, rather than criticizing the losses driven by those outlays?
Bezos is unperturbed by criticisms of his financial management. He says he’s always been transparent about Amazon’s focus on long-term cash flow (instead of net profit). “As far as investors go, our job is to be superclear about our approach, and then investors get to self-select,” he says. He insists Amazon discloses far more data about its business than is legally required and is silent only about numbers that could help competitors.
Some criticism goes beyond his financial theories, however. Like Walmart, Amazon has been condemned for upending the economics of industries in ways that destroy competitors and vaporize jobs. Since 2007, when its Kindle ignited the e-book business, Amazon has been at war with publishers for using its leverage to price e-books at discount levels. Over the past two years the company has drawn fire for its treatment of distribution-center workers and the hyperaggressive steps taken to weaken rival e-commerce players such as Zappos and Diapers.com. (It eventually acquired both.) Bezos’s personal management style, which by some reports can be abusive and demeaning, has also been reproached. But Stone believes Bezos has mellowed with age. “In fairness, a lot of the examples in the book of him behaving that way are older ones, and I think he’s gotten better over time,” Stone says.
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Even critics admit that Bezos has an unusually ambitious imagination—one likely to have an impact far beyond online retailing. He founded Blue Origin, a company experimenting with space travel, and last year purchased the Washington Post, where he spends one day a month in hopes of finding a viable financial model for journalism. And at Amazon, his strategy of making bold moves into adjacent industries could become a model for other managers. Scott Cook, the Intuit founder and former Amazon director, compares Amazon to companies such as P&G (which invented brand management) and Toyota (which invented lean manufacturing). “I think Amazon is one of those—what they’re doing is inventing better ways for companies to operate,” Cook says.
That spirit could continue for some time. Bezos is 50—about the same age Bill Gates was when he retired from Microsoft to pursue philanthropy at the Gates Foundation, whose offices are visible from the roof deck at Amazon’s headquarters. But Bezos seems unlikely to make that kind of transition. “I’ve never gotten any vibe off of him that he wants to do anything else,” says Andreessen. “He’s monomaniacally focused on Amazon. My sense is he’s going to be running it another 30 years—and shareholders will be lucky if he does.”
Jeff Bezos in His Own Words
In early August Amazon’s founder and CEO spoke with HBR’s Adi Ignatius and Daniel McGinn at the company’s Seattle headquarters. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation:
HBR: How do you balance the long term versus the short term when thinking about innovation?
Bezos: I bet 70% of the invention we do focuses on slightly improving a process. That incremental invention is a huge part of what makes Amazon tick. There’s a second kind of invention, which is more clean-sheet and larger scale—things like the Kindle or Amazon Web Services. We have a culture that supports the risk taking and time frames required for that.
Your stock has taken some hits this year. Does that affect the way you manage?
Amazon’s stock has always been somewhat volatile. Even though we have significant revenues, we invest in so many new initiatives that in some ways we’re still a start-up. Volatility is part and parcel of being a start-up.
You say you focus on customers, not competitors. But how do you react to Google’s teaming up with Barnes & Noble to offer same-day delivery?
You can’t insulate yourself from competition by being customer-obsessed. But if that obsession leads to invention on behalf of customers, it helps you stay ahead.
You’re now making your own big investments in same-day delivery. How do you know customers want it?
In our retail business, there are three big ideas: Low prices, vast selection, and fast, reliable delivery. We continually work on all three. We don’t know what technologies might be invented or who our competitors will be, so it’s hard to build strategies around those uncertainties. But I do know that 10 years from now, nobody is going to say, “I love Amazon, but I wish the prices were a little higher.” It’s the same thing with fast delivery.
Has the backlash over your dispute with Hachette about e-book pricing surprised you?
The publishing industry changes very slowly. The paperback, which was developed before World War II, was the last radical invention before the e-book. All the arguments that the literary establishment made against paperbacks—they’re devaluing books, publishers are not going to be able to invest in literature—are being made about e-books, too. Today we know the arguments about paperbacks were wrong, and they’re equally wrong about e-books. It will take a while for the incumbents to come to terms with e-books, but we’re determined to get e-books to be less expensive.
What other CEOs do you admire?
I’m a huge fan of Jamie Dimon, Jeff Immelt, and Bob Iger. They all have deep keels. They have conviction around certain business ideas. Warren Buffett is another one. They can’t be blown around, and I think that’s pretty rare.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Jan. 13, 2015, 5:42 PM GMT / Updated Jan. 13, 2015, 5:42 PM GMT
Money laundering, drug trafficking and computer hacking.
Those are just some of the charges that 30-year-old Ross Ulbricht, the accused founder of the anonymous black market site Silk Road, will be facing when his trial kicks off in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday.
And although the case grabbed headlines 15 months ago because of the lurid nature of the allegations, the implications of the trial go beyond mere illegal activity. The case could reveal details about how the government monitors Internet activity, and potentially expand legal liability for commerce in contraband online.
Ulbricht, also referred to as Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested on allegations that he created and operated Silk Road, a marketplace website on the so-called Dark Net that enabled users to anonymously buy and sell things using Bitcoin as a payment method.
While Silk Road enabled the sale of a variety of goods and services, it was also a hotbed for the sale of illegal drugs.
Ulbricht, who was also charged with running a criminal enterprise, has maintained that he is not guilty on all charges. But if he is convicted he faces 20 years to life in prison.
The outcome of his case, though, may also have broader implications for Internet freedoms and businesses.
Surveillance and anonymity
Ulbright's case could be a huge wake-up call for people using the Dark Web under the impression their activity is anonymous, and could also shed light on how the government tracks people in the shadier corners of the Internet.
"What's most interesting about this case is that it is the first case in its enormity involving the Dark Net and it's going to be a wake-up for anyone using the Dark Net thinking they have anonymity. You cannot remain anonymous on the Internet," said Darren R. Hayes, assistant professor and director of cybersecurity at Pace University.
One of the most controversial issues regarding the case has been how exactly the FBI was able to track down the server that hosted the Silk Road website. This is being called into question because the server was used to produce evidence for the trial. Ulbricht denies that the server even belongs to him.
The feds claim that they were able to trace the server via a captcha prompt on Silk Road's website that leaked the site's IP address, which led to its location in Iceland. However, the defense claims this explanation doesn't add up and supporters of Ulbricht are quick to accuse the government of using a possibly illegal method to locate Silk Road, which they claim would violate Ulbricht's Fourth Amendment rights. However, since Ulbricht is denying ownership of the server, the judge declined to entertain this notion.
Regardless, the trial should give more insight to just how the government is watching behind the scenes.
"From a tech perspective it's going to be very interesting because we are going to learn in more detail about how the government is really able to track people on the Dark Net," Hayes said.
A new precedent for online businesses
Beyond possibly revealing how the government may be tracking people, the case could also set a precedent for cases against other website operators.
"The main issue, the main Internet freedom issue is at what point are website operators accountable for what happens on their site? In Silk Road, it's an easy case because they were catering to illegal activity. But what is interesting is that you start with easy cases and then you start to go towards some of the borderline cases," said Hanni Fakhoury, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The government could use this case as a way to pursue other online operators who provide a platform that might be used for illegal activity, and that can get tricky, he said.
"There has to be some question about where does the line get drawn. And the line drawing is done by prosecutors who are making judgement calls about what site operators are criminally responsible for what is happening on their site," Fakhoury said.
But it's more likely that a conviction would have more immediate impact on Dark Net website operators, Hayes said.
"If this is successful, we will see more Dark Net cases come to trial," Hayes said. "This could just be the beginning."Cottonwood Art Festival website will return with an all-new updated design on March 1, 2019.
Join us as we celebrate Cottonwood Art Festival’s 50th Anniversary in 2019 at Cottonwood Park, Richardson, TX.
Cottonwood Art Festival is a juried semi-annual art show that features work from the nation's top visual artists and takes place on the first full weekend in May and October each year. This year approximately 1,400 artists submitted their work for consideration. For each show, jurors select over 240 artists to exhibit their museum-quality work in 14 categories: 2D Mixed Media, 3D Mixed Media, Ceramics, Digital, Drawings/Pastels, Fiber, Glass, Jewelry, Leather, Metalwork, Painting, Photography, Sculpture and Wood.
In honor of our 50th Anniversary, we are bringing back the Chair Art Contest!
Cottonwood Art Festival is bringing back the beloved Chair Art Contest for its 50th year celebration! Chair Art Contest is open to everyone, students and adults, and entries can be submitted as individuals or as a group. Participants may use an existing chair or build a chair as their entry, but are encouraged to use creativity, lots of detail and color to complete their piece of art. All entries will be on display throughout the weekend at Cottonwood Art Festival and there will be a winning chair in each age category. Winning chairs will be announced on Saturday, May 4, at 12:00 PM on the Courtyard Stage.
Click here to download the entry form.
Accessibility:
The City of Richardson strives to make sure that Cottonwood Art Festival is an accessible event.
Accommodation requests for persons with disabilities should be made at least 14 days in advance of the festival by contacting Taylor Lough, ADA Coordinator, via phone at 972 744-4208, via email at ADACoordinator@cor.gov, or by appointment at 411 W Arapaho Road, Richardson, TX 75082.
Individuals needing to schedule assistance with DART Paratransit please contact DART directly at 214-515-7272.Fledgling engineering teams and hundred-person juggernauts, boom times and lean years — Adil Ajmal has experienced them all. As an engineering leader for nearly 20 years at companies like Amazon, TenMarks Education, Intuit, Posterous and Homestead, he’s repeatedly grown teams from scratch or just three engineers to dozens — before jumping to another brand-new startup to do it all over again. He’s hired for entry-level positions, VPs, and everything in between. Now CTO for LendingHome, having finely-honed his recruiting craft, his candidate close rate is exceptional.
Over the course of thousands (and thousands) of interviews, a curious truth emerged that informs his approach: The secret to closing isn’t offering the most equity or saying just the right thing during an offer call. It’s really closely listening to and noticing what’s motivating each candidate during the entire process, and then explaining precisely how your company will serve those needs. This sounds straightforward — but given that people seldom know what they want or tell the full truth or represent themselves accurately in interviews — it’s anything but.
In the exclusive interview, Ajmal explains exactly how to suss out what’s driving your prospective hires, and how to carry that thread throughout the hiring process so that you’re not relying on a single closing conversation. The trick is to be closing the whole time. He also shares expert tips for delivering a comp package, the best way to explain its real value, and how to lose a candidate so gracefully that they eventually come back to you.
DECIPHERING CANDIDATE MOTIVATIONS
Closing begins with your first candidate interaction. That’s when you should start asking yourself the all-important question: What does this person want to get out of the role, and the company, and can we realistically make it happen for them? The recruiting process needs to be designed to investigate and answer this question. “You have to figure out each candidate’s motivation from the beginning. If you don't know that, then it's hit or miss when you're trying to close. The more you know about what truly excites each person, the better you can tailor the entire process,” says Ajmal.
Engineers, in particular, may hold their cards close to the vest, so you’ll need to develop keen people-reading skills to really boost your chances. “If you ask somebody, ‘Are you excited?’ they'll say yes. And that doesn't get you anything,” says Ajmal. The trick is to ask targeted questions to find out what excites them. Consider asking simple things like:
What in your career or life are you most excited about? (Never ask them directly if they are excited about the job in question. And if a ‘why’ is not inherent in their answer, then always follow up with that and see what you can glean from their response.)
Another way in: What fun stuff are you working on these days? (This is usually revealing because ‘fun’ is very relative and very different from person to person based on what they truly enjoy.)
For engineers driven by problem-solving, enthusiasm for the job manifests as curiosity; they’re motivated by meaty technical problems. “Drill deeper into that curiosity. Ask them, ‘What problems are you most interested in?’ If you're not getting anything from those questions, there's a good chance that you're going to lose them. But if you see something that you can connect to, start digging into that story.”
Other times, this might reveal that the candidate is less motivated by a problem than by the opportunity to make a difference. These candidates need to hear you define your mission and explain how their role supports it. “LendingHome is in the mortgage business, but our mission is not just to be the best mortgage company. Our mission is to have a positive impact on people who are going through the biggest purchase of their lives.” Mission-oriented candidates want to connect to the emotional core of what they would be doing.
You can identify these people because they're very focused on the impact they would like to make, versus understanding the technical problems they’ll encounter. They will talk about their desire to improve things for a particular audience. They’ll talk about what solving a problem will actually do for that audience in a broader sense (i.e. what will it empower them to do more easily or accomplish). They will often be excited about improving something they’ve experienced firsthand. Examples to spot might include:
They want to help small businesses because a parent or someone in their lives was a small business owner.
At LendingHome, they often want to improve the mortgage process because they or one of their friends just went through it and it wasn’t great.
They want to work on an education app because they want to improve outcomes for students, etc.
If you hit a wall and can’t suss out a candidate’s driving interests at all, try asking what they’ve gotten out of their previous positions. What are the most important skills, assets, or experiences those roles yielded? Pay close attention to the choices they make. “The way they approach that question, and the kinds of things they speak about, gives you a very good idea of what they're looking for in their next role, too.”
There is one motivation that should raise a red flag, though. “The candidates that I don't usually want to spend much time on are folks who are basically just looking for the next big check. Money is not a great motivation,” says Ajmal. “But it’s actually very common that this is driving the entire process for them.”
Few people lead with cash demands in their interviews, but there are some giveaways. “When they get into the offer process, this type of candidate will forget about everything else that they said they wanted to get out of the role. They become fixated on compensation and often have unreasonable expectations.” Other times, when asked about their past jobs, these candidates might focus not on what they learned there but how they were shortchanged financially or in terms of title (i.e. 'I was basically a Director'), or how they did more work than they feel their title or status in the company represented.
Short of these warning signs, though, few motivations are bad. It’s not a matter of looking for one over another, but rather developing the interviewing intelligence to frame the role in a way that will resonate for that candidate.
Once you understand a candidate’s motivations, you have to make that your North Star throughout the recruiting process.
For example, if you’re trying to close a problem-solver, you might continue to share some of the thornier goals or features your team is currently working on. You want to give them as much of a window into the tough challenges that actually exist at the company as possible.
If you’re trying to close someone who’s mission-focused, you might want to stack their interview panel with people who feel similarly and can speak compellingly about how the company’s objectives align with their values, and why the mission matters to them personally. You want the candidate to see themselves reflected back across the table so that they know they’ll be able to make the impact they’re seeking.
If you suspect that a candidate is driven by compensation, make a point to ask them early on about how rewarded they felt in past roles. Ask them what they are maximizing for in their job search and how they’re approaching that. People are not used to this question and may be more candid, saving you a longer time investment.
KEEP THEM ENGAGED
One mistake Ajmal has seen many times is the tendency for recruiters or hiring managers to front-load their sales pitch to prospective hires. “When it comes to candidates who weren’t necessarily looking for something new in particular, you're trying to get them to come onsite.” Once there, though, these candidates are often put through grueling interview panels where no selling happens at all. This is a mistake.
“If every person on the panel is just grilling the candidate and not making them excited about what you're doing, there's a good chance that you're going to lose that candidate,” says Ajmal. “They probably already have a good job, and you just put them through the wringer. Why would they leave?”
The hiring process is long. If you’re only bringing the excitement to early conversations, it’s unlikely to last. “You have the best shot at closing a candidate if they want to work in your office when they wrap up their last interview. Forget the offer details,” says Ajmal. “If they don't feel great about themselves, the environment, the job itself when they're leaving at the end of that onsite interview day, your chances are very diminished.”
To keep the excitement level high, make sure the last interviewer of the day doesn’t just walk someone out and say goodbye in a cold way. Have the hiring manager or recruiter do a short wrap-up to provide some nice closure, positivity, and respite from the stress of rapid-fire questioning.
Talk to the people on your hiring loop in advance to remind them that interviewing is not just about going down a checklist of questions. Encourage them to talk about the things that excite them, or integrate what they love working on into the conversation. A lot of interviewers shy away from talking about themselves. While they shouldn’t go on and on, it helps for them to proactively give specific examples of what’s revved them up to come to work every day. Make sure they start each session with at least a little personality-driven smalltalk before launching into the interview proper or a coding exercise.
Regardless of how well a candidate is performing, some ‘sell’ should be baked into every conversation they have.
Remember that interviewing is a two-way street. You should assess candidates for skill and fit, of course — but you can do it in a way that helps them evaluate your team, too. Ajmal has found particular success with incorporating collaborative work sessions into his interviewing process. “As they work, our engineers are absolutely evaluating the candidate. But they’re also helping them out, like you would when you’re actually working with somebody. That gives candidates an opportunity to see that they’re dealing with a team of smart, collaborative people.”
Indeed, interview work sessions shouldn't be about gotcha questions. “In one problem-solving exercise that I give folks, they start with a solution that is not optimal and are asked to optimize it. If they're not able to get there on their own, I start breaking the problem down with them.” If candidates can’t act on Ajmal’s hints and examples, that’s a red flag. But if they can, it’s a double win: he gets to see what they can do, and they finish the exercise with a positive sense of what they could learn on and from his team.
You can and should work with your interview panels to implement this kind of collaborative evaluation. Realistically, though, your engineers are not going to go the extra mile to paint a picture of the company for an interviewee — that’s the role of leadership. “We keep our managers and directors involved in even junior hiring loops (including me, the CTO), and they are tasked with creating that narrative,” Ajmal says. “They’re proactively answering things like ‘How am I going to grow here? What's the impact that I’m going to have?’ Make sure that you’re giving candidates a healthy dose of that along the way.”
MAKE THE OFFER
When the interviews are over and the decision has been made, it’s time to make the offer. But this isn’t just a formality or a cursory call to deliver those eagerly awaited compensation numbers. When a candidate picks up the phone, they should be the most excited about the opportunity that they've ever been.
Ajmal identifies five steps that you should walk through with every offer call, each of which can make the difference between closing and losing a top hire.
1. Review the interview narrative.
“When you get to closing, begin with a recap of how the interview process has gone,” says Ajmal. “I usually start by asking, ‘How did your interview go? Do you have any feedback?’” If you have a candidate who’s clearly all-in on your company (indicated by major upfront enthusiasm or detailed positive feedback), by all means, fast-track to the next step.
But in the majority of cases — when you get an “I felt pretty good about it” response — that's your chance to remind the candidate of the high points (they’ll be touched you have this information. Be sure to instruct your hiring panel to take notes on these ‘highlights’ and supply them to you — including wins during their conversations, breakthroughs, specific great impressions they made on various people). Then talk through their lingering concerns. Tell them to be candid and pull no punches, demonstrate that you’re highly invested in making this the best candidate experience possible. It says good things about your company, and it’s crucial to learn about and/or mitigate any of these reservations or worries before you get to the numbers.
Once you start talking money, that overshadows everything else. You want to make sure the person is at ease and feels good about everything before making the formal offer.
Whatever mood or attitude you inspire right beforehand is what the candidate |
would fill the void with long quotations from Samuel Adams, selections from the Breitbart Hymnal for the Permanently Aggrieved, and some of his original work.
Our children cannot pray, as they are taught evolution
Will they learn the fear of god is the only true solution?
And so on.
Getty Images
His speech rambled. He was utterly lost when he strayed a syllable distant from the devotional. He wants to repeal Obamacare, but plainly has no idea what it is. He wants the federal government out of Alabama schools, but plainly has no education policy beyond the early chapters of Leviticus. But once he found his way back to his safe space and readjusted his halo, Moore was so emboldened that he had the audacity to quote FDR, and then to recite extensively from the Gettysburg Address, leaving the shades of Roosevelt and Lincoln to spin swiftly under the sod before they both threw up.
I’ll tell you something. In this country, we have explored the temples built by the Democrat and Republican parties and found that they have idols that do not see us and do not hear us. We need to move forward with a vision to recognize God, to recognize he’s on his throne, and he is, and cares for this country.
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You grow exhausted from the effort it takes to keep mockery at bay long enough to explain that what Moore and Bannon are selling is a dangerous blend of religious extremism and McCarthyite bombast, Roy Cohn in Torquemada drag. You grow exhausted by the effort it takes, over and over again, to remind yourself that there are good people in the crowd cheering this river of sludge and nonsense.
Finally, you give up. Roy Moore is a vehicle for collecting suckers, for liberating them from their responsibility as citizens in a self-governing republic, and anybody who thinks this waterheaded theocrat belongs in the United States Senate is a dupe and a fool. Finally, you don’t care if the people behind Roy Moore, and the people in the crowd in front of him, believe you are a member of the coastal elite or an agent of Lucifer. Finally, you grow weary of the smug condescension of religious bigots. Finally, you decide to put down the twin burdens of excusing deliberate ignorance and respecting the opinions of people who want to light the world on fire to kill their imaginary enemies. And you give up and tell the truth.
These people deserve what they get.
Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page.Tour operators specialising in travel to North Korea have reported that the Trump administration plans to bar Americans from visiting the country starting next month.
Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours, who both operate in North Korea, have reported that the US plans on barring its citizens from visiting the country.
The ban will be officially announced on 27th July, coinciding with North Korea’s ‘”Victory Day,” and will come into effect exactly one month later.
The Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular affairs for the United States in the country, informed the tour operators of the ban.
It is widely assumed that the ban is in response to the detention of US citizens in North Korea and the death of Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student from Ohio, who was held for nearly 18 months before being flown home in a coma.
“We have just been informed that the US government will no longer be allowing US citizens to travel to the DPRK (North Korea),” Young Pioneer Tours said in a statement. “It is expected that the ban will come into force within 30 days of July 27th. After the 30 day grace period any US national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government.”
“Any US national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government.”
Earlier this month, North Korea announced it had successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Some experts say the ICBM could reach as far as Alaska.2011 studio album by Talib Kweli
Gutter Rainbows is the fourth studio album by American hip hop artist Talib Kweli. The album was released on January 25, 2011, by Blacksmith Music and Javotti Media. The album was originally intended to be released in only a digital format. However, on November 16, 2010, it was announced that Duck Down Records would step in to see the album got a CD release.[1] This included an import edition and a special edition with extras.[2]
Reception [ edit ]
Critical response [ edit ]
Gutter Rainbows was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. The album holds a score of 71 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "generally favorable reviews".[3] HipHopDX gave it a score of three out of five and called it "a fairly easy spin, and can go into the listener's steady rotation in a pinch. That being said, this feels a bit like a subdued version of Eardrum."[14] BBC Music gave it a favorable review and said, "This is an odd thing to say, given the dumbness of so many contemporary rap songs--is that Kweli tries to cram too much awareness into his lines at the expense of rhymes and flow. But trying a little too hard to find enlightenment can be forgiven when it comes from within a genre that often tips bravado ahead of insight."[15] However, some reviews are very average or mixed: URB gave it three stars out of five and said, "Talib seems to be coasting just a bit on this cut-and-paste session. As in, from a pure musical standpoint, outside of a few of repeat-worthy tracks, Gutter Rainbows is no cure for your current cabin fever."[16] No Ripcord gave it a score of six stars out of ten and said that it "hovers between a mainstream and an indie vibe, embracing neither and potentially isolating both audiences."[17] Tiny Mix Tapes gave it a score of two stars out of five and said, "Kweli still has an ear for beats, and despite some particular low points here, his lyrics were always overshadowed by his flow, which is as sharp as ever."[18]
Commercial performance [ edit ]
In its first week, the album sold 13,900 copies in the United States.[19] In the first two weeks after its release, the album sold a total of 19,000 copies in the United States.[20]
Track listing [ edit ]
iTunes deluxe edition bonus tracks[21] No. Title Writer(s) Producer(s) Length 15. "How You Love Me" (live from BK Bowl) (featuring Blaq Toven) A. Ranson, T. Greene Blaq Toven 3:46 16. "Go Now" (featuring Iron Solomon and Jean Grae) P. Mathore, T. Greene, T. Ibrahim Ty’neg of Drum Dreamers 4:37
Amazon bonus track[22] No. Title Writer(s) Producer(s) Length 15. "GMB (Grown Man Business)" T. Greene, E. Jones E. Jones 5:06
Personnel [ edit ]
Credits for Gutter Rainbows adapted from CD booklet.
Charts [ edit ]As the online option of Grand Theft Auto V continues to progress, players of GTA Online welcome regular updates with new modes, items, fixes, and changes to the multiplayer world. Earlier this month, developer Rockstar Games announced that vehicles locked behind heist mission requirements can now be purchased without having to complete the heist.
In the update, a “Buy It Now” option was added to heist vehicles for players looking to pick up one, or more, of the unique vehicles without having to worry about finding a group to finish the associated heist. This includes trucks like the HVY Insurgent Pick-Up and the Karin Technical alongside several other vehicles like the Armored Karin Kuruma and the Lampadati Casco. Even aircraft previously locked behind completion of certain heists are available immediately, according to the official website.
The HVY Insurgent and the HVY Insurgent Pick-Up both have "Buy It Now" options [Image by Rockstart Games]
GTA Online players that have previously completed heists or those that plan on finishing one before the purchase of a heist vehicle will still benefit from their efforts, though. These cars, trucks, and aircraft are much cheaper for a player that completes or has completed the associated heist before purchase. Those that skip doing the heists and use the “Buy It Now” option will pay a higher price than those that complete them.
“Your vehicular arsenal just isn’t complete without a HVY Insurgent, but breaking into the Humane Labs isn’t always as easy as it looks. The good news is you now have buy-it-now instant access to any vehicle that had to be acquired on a Heist.”
For a full list of affected vehicles, players can view the Rockstar Games support site. The current GTA Online patch notes include the list alongside more details on the change to heist-related items. In fact, players can also purchase heist equipment that was previously locked behind heist completion as well. Now, finishing certain heists is no longer required to buy the Rebreather, Night Vision, or the LCD Earpiece from Ammu-Nation.
The Karin Technical features a mounted gun in the bed [Image by Rockstar Games]
GTA Online continues to update this week with the new Pegassi Infernus Classic available for purchase from Legendary Motorsport. Additionally, the new Resurrection Adversary mode is now live with double RP and cash earned for participating. As with all Adversary modes, the new Resurrection mode tasks players with a new set of rules on special maps as noted on the game’s website.
“Compete in this new mode in 7 distinct locations including the Aircraft Carrier, Ron Alternates Wind Farm and Elysian Island – with 2 teams and 4-8 total players, where the objective is to eliminate the entire opposing force, and where every enemy you kill revives a fallen member of your squad (in the order in which they were killed).”
With vehicles, houses, clothes, and more to purchase in GTA Online, players are constantly saving up enough cash for their next purchase. Since content updates for the online mode of Grand Theft Auto V are completely free, GTA Online is supported with the sale of in-game currency. Players can earn cash by completing jobs or spend real money to increase their character’s in-game bank account.
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The most recent content update, Cunning Stunts: Special Vehicle Circuit, expanded on a free update released in 2016 simply called Cunning Stunts. The latest update added new races, introduced special vehicles to stunt races, and much more. Of course, patches and updates to GTA Online also include quality-of-life improvements as well as fixes to certain issues.
In December, for instance, Rockstar Games added the option to change characters’ appearance after they are created. As the Inquisitr reported, players can spend $100,000 of in-game cash to tweak how their characters look by simply opening up the quick menu. Although gender cannot be altered with this option, GTA Online players can constantly keep their character fresh with a completely new look.
[Featured Image by Rockstar Games]I’d tell you more about Vicki Vale, Harvey Dent, or even Thomas Wayne, but I don’t want to ruin the surprises!
The combat is easy to handle, as you have to push a button here or there, move the L stick a certain direction, or combine the two to effectively deliver a strike. The timing is important in combat, but it’s not so complex that you lose yourself in the button mashing.
The detecting segments are very well done, where you have to survey the crime scene, examine clues, and try to connect them in a specific order to deduce the pattern of events. It’s time-consuming in a way that makes you feel that it demands your attention: you don’t want to miss an identified clue, nor do you want to connect clues that don’t go together. You really have to be the World’s Greatest Detective, and it’s nice to have the emphasis on that.
This is a continuation of TellTale’s success with DC intellectual properties, with Wolf Among Us being another incredibly absorbing game. In Batman you truly feel immersed in Bruce Wayne’s world, with every character having a different edge to them, and the gravity of every decision – be it a handshake or an off-hand comment – constantly present. It’s exciting, heart-breaking, and engrossing, and it’s worth splurging on all five episodes. I can’t endorse this game enough.Image Slideshow Karen McComb Karen McComb Graeme Shannon Graeme Shannon Graeme Shannon Karen McComb Karen McComb
Humans are among the very few animals that constitute a threat to elephants. Yet not all people are a danger — and elephants seem to know it. The giants have shown a remarkable ability to use sight and scent to distinguish between African ethnic groups that have a history of attacking them and groups that do not. Now a study reveals that they can even discern these differences from words spoken in the local tongues.
Biologists Karen McComb and Graeme Shannon at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK, guessed that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) might be able to listen to human speech and make use of what they heard. To tease out whether this was true, they recorded the voices of men from two Kenyan ethnic groups calmly saying, “Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming,” in their native languages. One of these groups was the semi-nomadic Maasai, some of whom periodically kill elephants during fierce competition for water or cattle-grazing space. The other was the Kamba, a crop-farming group that rarely has violent encounters with elephants.
Maasai man's voice The recording translates as “Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming.” You may need a more recent browser or to install the latest version of the Adobe Flash Plugin.
The researchers played the recordings to 47 elephant family groups at Amboseli National Park in Kenya and monitored the animals' behaviour. The differences were remarkable. When the elephants heard the Maasai, they were much more likely to cautiously smell the air or huddle together than when they heard the Kamba. Indeed, the animals bunched together nearly twice as tightly when they heard the Maasai.
Kamba man's voice The same sentence spoken by a Kamba man in his language. You may need a more recent browser or to install the latest version of the Adobe Flash Plugin.
“We knew elephants could distinguish the Maasai and Kamba by their clothes and smells, but that they can also do so by their voices alone is really interesting,” says Fritz Vollrath, a zoologist at the University of Oxford, UK (see video below).
Maasai woman The Maasai sentence again, this time spoken by a woman... You may need a more recent browser or to install the latest version of the Adobe Flash Plugin.
Fascinated by their findings, McComb, Shannon and their colleagues wondered whether the Maasai language on its own was a danger signal, or whether the animals were responding to the combination of the language and the voice of an adult male who was likely to wield a spear. To find out, they recorded Maasai women and boys saying the same phrase, and monitored elephant-family responses to them.
Maasai boy... and by a Maasai boy You may need a more recent browser or to install the latest version of the Adobe Flash Plugin.
Careful listeners
The differences were similar to what they saw with the Kamba. The elephants were less likely to flee from the voices of Maasai women and boys than they were from Maasai men, and they bunched together less closely. Most intriguingly, the researchers noted that elephant families led by matriarchs more than 42 years old never retreated when they heard the voices of boys, but those led by younger matriarchs retreated roughly 40% of the time.
It is not yet clear whether elephants are born knowing what a dangerous human sounds like or whether they can learn this from one another, but McComb suspects that the knowledge is cultural rather than innate. “Even though spearings by Maasai have declined in recent years, it’s still obvious that fear of them is high. This is likely down to younger elephants following the lead of their matriarchs who remember spearings from long ago,” says McComb.
In fact, elephants seem to be able to communicate about their encounters with dangerous people, according to a separate recent study that appeared late last month in PLOS One2. It found that the animals adjusted the frequencies of their vocalisations as they meet different threats, and made a unique call when they came across swarming bees and a different unique call when they met people who traditionally hunted them. Whether these calls are something akin to language remains to be determined, but the findings certainly hint that there is much more going on in the minds of these animals than previously expected.Remedy’s upcoming Xbox One game Quantum Break will consist of 5 acts, connected through 4 subbed and dubbed action TV-episodes, that are unlocked after each game act. The duration of each act depends on gameplay style, and the choices the player makes.
Developer Remedy Entertainment confirmed this on Twitter overnight. The developer was asked whether the interactive TV-episodes were skippable and if this would hurt the game’s re-playability.
According to Remedy, Quantum Break will feature 5 game acts, and after each act, the player unlocks a 22 minute TV-episode. These are skippable, but Remedy recommends to watch them.
@Nahkapukki @TiC_Podcast @Crypt0ll7 5 game acts, 4 x ~22 min live action episodes unlocked after each act. Can skip, but recommend to watch! — Remedy Entertainment (@remedygames) December 2, 2015
Remedy adds that the TV-episodes will be localized and have “plenty of subs and dubs”.
@Nahkapukki @TiC_Podcast @Crypt0ll7 Localizations TBC, plenty of subs and dubs in the works. Klingon missing from the list though 😀 — Remedy Entertainment (@remedygames) December 2, 2015
@Crypt0ll7 @Nahkapukki @TiC_Podcast Depends on gameplay style, can't give a number. But you choose how the story plays out -> replay value. — Remedy Entertainment (@remedygames) December 2, 2015
The duration of the each act remains unknown, simply because Remedy can’t answer how long each act will take. This completely depends on the player’s gameplay style and the choices the players makes through act the act. With regards to the game’s re-playability, Remedy points out that since the player chooses how the story plays out, this adds to the game’s replay value.
New Quantum Break content to be shown off during The Game Awards
Earlier this week, Remedy confirmed that new content for Quantum Break will be shown off during The Game Awards 2015.
It’s interesting to note that last week, Remedy’s drama director Stobe Harju, shared that the team locked down the game’s end scene. According to Harju, the end scene in the game is ‘shivering’, and important for the rest of the scenes in the game.
Xbox One exclusive Quantum Break was first scheduled for a release in 2014, but has been delayed multiple times. According to publisher Microsoft the game was recently delayed due to a clash with other Xbox One exclusives releasing late 2015. Remedy’s Sam Lake, has assured fans that the extra development time on the game, will be used to further “polish” the game.
Quantum Break is now set for a release on April 5, 2016.I’ve noticed that I don’t do all that much with my free time. I do mindless things like browse the internet and watch videos. I always link free time with relaxation so I disassociate myself from anything I perceive as work.
I’ve also noticed that this trend leads to more frustration that it’s meant to. I feel better when I’m making progress with work. However, it seems odd to exclaim I enjoy working instead of relaxing but that’s exactly what happens. Doing nothing constructive can be extremely boring and even tiring but I almost feel obligated to continue doing nothing with my free time because I don’t want it to become like work.
Being in the flow
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has produced some great research on what makes people happy. He noticed that a surprising number of people are actually happier at work than during their free time despite saying they enjoyed their free time more. In light of this, the solution for some is to either fill up their free time with more work or do nothing about it. Neither are ideal. One just leads to burnout and a build up of resentment towards it. The other doesn’t help change your position in any way.
Csikszentmihalyi says that being in a state of flow is what makes people happy. There are a few factors present when someone is in the flow.
They’re completely focused on one activity They feel in control of what they’re doing It’s intrinsically rewarding They essentially lose their sense of time
All these factors point to a situation where you’re so focused on an activity you enjoy that you don’t have time to be frustrated with yourself. You feel relaxed because you’re living in the present and very mindful of what you’re doing.
Best of all: you’re happy.
How to be in the flow
While you’ve probably experienced this feeling before, you might not know why it happens.
This chart shows what it takes for someone to be in the state of flow.
The difficulty level of the activity should match our perceived skill set. This means it shouldn’t be so difficult that you feel like throwing a chair through your window. Nor should it be so easy that you could fall asleep at a moments notice.
People usually feel happier while actually doing something (even if it’s at work or while studying) because of a constructive environment. You’re more likely to be completely focused on a project you want to work on, than sifting through pictures of birds with arms.
Why free time can make us unhappy
The reason why people can feel frustrated or unhappy with their free time is mainly because they don’t do anything with it. If you spend all day refreshing YouTube, then you’l probably feel extremely unfulfilled. Boredom will rise at an alarming rate, time will disappear and ‘damn, where did the time go?’ will be exclaimed.
Being happily unproductive
If you don’t feel like you enjoy your free time or have even found it draining (like I have!), here’s a list of a few things you could start doing:
Learn a new skill – There’s so much out there that can help you learn things for free or a small price. Online courses offered by websites such as Coursera, edX, Codecademy and Duolingo are fun and engaging. You don’t need to put pressure on yourself to complete them by a certain date.
Read a book – If you have a list of books that you’ve been meaning to get started with, actually do it. If not, there are over 800 new books published each day in the US. You’ll find something to read! Losing yourself in a good book is a perfect example of what it feels like to be in the flow.
Create something – At least try. It’s easy to dismiss this option because you’re ‘not a creative person’ but creativity is something that can be developed as well as anything else. Write, draw, make music or even build something! It doesn’t need to be a best seller but spend a small time creating something and you’ll probably find it fun and try again.
Have a hobby – That can be anything from maintaining a blog or learning something new to marking origami turtles. If you have no idea what you could do, try a variety of things and you’ll find something you’ll want to pursue more. (Try origami, it’s a lot of fun)
Do some gaming – This isn’t an excuse to game unconditionally for hours and hours on end but the reason why we can play games for so long is because of flow!
Enjoy your free time
After reading this, you might have realised that you don’t actually care for much of what you do in your free time. Switching through TV channels in an attempt to find something interesting is boring. Instead, do something interesting.
You don’t want it to be be mentally draining or become like work but doing next to nothing might not help you feel that relaxed either.
If you want to find out more about flow and where I got my information from, I’d recommend watching Csikszentmihalyi’s TED talk on the topic and reading his book called ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’.
***
Another thing you can do, if you found this post helpful, is share it. You can follow the blog too. It’ll put you in the zone if you do. (It won’t. Sorry)
1. The ‘800 books a day’ statistic was simply found by dividing the number of books published a year in the US by 365.
2. The image came from news.cnet.com
3. Birds with arms is exactly what it sounds like.
4. I can’t say Csikszentmihalyi’s name. I just stare at it. Should I feel bad? Csikszentmihalyi if you ever read this post, hi and sorry I can’t say your name.
AdvertisementsProceeds from a new line of house-themed charm bracelets will go towards helping children’s charity Lumos.
Back in 2013, J.K. Rowling auctioned her beautiful Harry Potter charm bracelet at Sotheby’s in aid of Lumos Foundation, her non-profit organisation, which works to support the eight million children in institutions worldwide.
This sparked a wonderful idea – to create a new kind of charm bracelet that fans could wear themselves, with a percentage of the cost going to support the great work of Lumos.
That idea became a reality this weekend at A Celebration of Harry Potter in Universal Orlando Resort, as the Lumos Harry Potter Charm Bracelet Collection was unveiled.
The bracelets are made by The Noble Collection. Fans can choose from four finely crafted bracelets, each themed around their Hogwarts house and featuring three exclusive charms: the Sorting Hat, a Hogwarts house crest, and the Lumos butterfly.
At least 15 per cent of the suggested retail price of each bracelet (and any subsequent charms) will go to Lumos Foundation, to help children regain their right to a family life and end institutionalisation.
The Noble Collection will also release batches of new Harry Potter-themed charms for fans to collect, including the Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts Castle and the Golden Snitch.
The bracelets will be available online from The Noble Collection in the US and from the UK, as well as Amazon UK, US and Germany.The lack of ambassadors in the Middle East is even more striking when one considers the importance of the countries from which they are absent.
The Trump administration’s decision to relocate the American embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has increased the focus on America’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, particularly when it comes to the role of American embassies and the State Department in conducting foreign policy. Despite his ongoing efforts to broker a peace between Israel and Palestine, contain the spread of Iranian influence and achieve our military objectives in both Syria and Yemen, President Donald Trump has yet to appoint ambassadors to several critical nations in the Middle East. President Trump’s delay in making these crucial appointments severely undercuts America’s diplomatic efforts while significantly decreasing the likelihood of the United States achieving its foreign policy goals in the region.
While President Trump has appointed ambassadors to Israel, Lebanon, Bahrain and Kuwait, important nations such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar remain without a chief diplomat from the United States, with the United Arab Emirates set to join this list when outgoing Ambassador Barbara Leaf vacates her position this month. The absence of an American ambassador is far from an ordinary state of diplomatic affairs, and is generally reserved for nations such as Syria and Iran with whom the United States has purposefully severed normal diplomatic relations. When present, ambassadors play a key role in fostering stable relations between countries by opening reliable channels for communication between the respective heads of state, as well as developing strong working relations with the leadership of the country in which they are stationed. Ambassadors help leaders clearly communicate their goals for the relationship between two countries, as well as how each nation intends to pursue those aims.
The lack of ambassadors in the Middle East is even more striking when one considers the importance of the countries from which they are absent. Egypt and Jordan are among the countries receiving the largest amounts of foreign aid from the United States, and are viewed as highly important military allies in the region. Saudi Arabia ranks as one of the largest suppliers of oil to the United States, is a key regional power broker among Sunni states and is an important piece to counterbalance a potentially revisionist Iranian power to the east.
Furthermore, Qatar currently exists under a Saudi-backed blockade launched in response to Doha’s alleged support for terrorism, and occupies a unique diplomatic space between the American and Iranian orbits that requires a deft and experienced hand to navigate appropriately. Finally, Turkey, which has the largest GDP in the region, has been an awkward but extremely important ally in the Syrian conflict, and has a relationship with the United States in need of mending after significant tensions between the Turkish government and former American ambassador John Bass. Such important alliances require constant maintenance and, in the case of Qatar and Turkey, the occasional repair. These diplomatic efforts become increasingly difficult in the absence of a dedicated ambassador to constantly address these issues.
The absence of ambassadors to these critical American allies has already produced unfortunate diplomatic side-effects. First, President Trump’s controversial decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel earned widespread condemnation from America’s regional allies, sparking fears that the concerns of the Arab world are being marginalized by the new administration. These feelings of abandonment are compounded by our lack of urgency in appointing ambassadors to high-profile Muslim-majority nations, particularly since President Trump announced his selection of David Friedman as Ambassador to Israel prior to his ascension to the White House, furthering the perception that our Arab allies are junior partners relative to the Israelis. While there is no reason to suspect that the appointment of ambassadors to every Middle Eastern nation would have meaningfully altered the Trump administration’s Jerusalem decision, making these appointments in a timely manner would have improved the administration’s capacity to more effectively manage the fallout from this decision.
To further complicate matters, the diplomatic void left by the vacant ambassador seats has largely been filled by Jared Kushner, a 36-year old real estate developer with no meaningful diplomatic experience and no demonstrable proficiency in analyzing the region’s complex politics. Kushner has shown little interest in keeping the chargés d'affaires tasked with running our short-staffed embassies notified of his conversations with foreign dignitaries, resulting in the United States being poorly prepared for significant and provocative actions undertaken by its regional allies. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was “completely blindsided” by Saudi moves to initiate their embargo against Qatar in June, as well as their efforts to meddle in the internal politics of Lebanon in November. Both of these moves were widely believed to have been approved by Kushner, and left the State Department scrambling to address them. It is difficult to imagine such significant communication breakdowns occurring if diplomacy were being conducted by experienced statesmen through the State Department’s embassies.
The Trump administration will face significant challenges achieving any of its foreign policy goals in the Middle East should the vacant ambassadorships remain unfilled. The White House wants to limit Iran’s capacity to increase their power and influence in the region, yet has failed to adequately engage the governments of Turkey and Qatar—two states who continue to draw closer to Iran at the expense of their relations with the United States. President Trump urged on December 6 for Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade preventing humanitarian assistance from reaching the victims of the conflict in Yemen, but has thus far been unable to initiate dialogue with the Saudis on this issue, leaving the blockade very much in place. The United States desires a peaceful end to the conflict in Syria, but has failed to address the growing split between countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE regarding the desired end towards which any peace talks should ultimately strive.
However, it is the Trump administration’s push towards peace between Israel and Palestine that will be the most adversely affected by the absence of American ambassadors in the Middle East. The proposed Saudi peace plan was largely unpopular in the region even before the Jerusalem decision, and any final status agreement will require the vocal support of regional partners to succeed. Egypt displayed its influence by brokering a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas this past fall, and could use its strong ties to both the Palestinians and, increasingly, the Israelis to support any U.S.-led peace proposal. Jordan must be similarly involved in any peace settlement addressing Israeli security interests in the Jordan River Valley. And with its large Palestinian diaspora, Jordan could significantly influence Palestinian public opinion on the peace process if properly engaged.
Even countries such as Turkey and Qatar who have frosty relations with Israel could facilitate peace by providing a full-throated support of the process and discouraging local backlash to the proceedings. This would allow Israeli and Palestinian leaders to negotiate honestly without fear of radical groups “spoiling” the talks with an attack or protest designed to drive a wedge between the two parties. All of these measures require careful, painstaking coordination between embassies and a team of expert diplomats to be successfully implemented. Unfortunately, it is difficult to imagine such efforts being successfully completed or even attempted without America’s diplomatic vacancies being filled.
President Trump’s lack of urgency in filling the vacant ambassador positions in the Middle East has undermined his administration’s diplomatic efforts in the region and threatens to weaken America’s relations with important regional allies. The complexities of the Middle East cannot be navigated without stable channels of diplomatic communication and strong relations with local actors, both of which would be greatly improved by the prompt appointment of qualified ambassadors to these vacant seats. Should President Trump fail to address this concern, it is highly unlikely that his administration will achieve its goal of contributing to peace and stability in the Middle East.
Matt Reisener is a program associate at the Center for the National Interest.
Image: Arab League foreign ministers hold an emergency meeting on Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Cairo, Egypt December 9, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El GhanyMusician Barry Llewellyn, who co-founded groundbreaking reggae trio The Heptones, has died aged 64.
One of the definitive vocal groups of the 1960s, the band were at the forefront of the transition from ska to the slower, melodic rocksteady style.
Recorded for the legendary Studio One label, their best-known songs included Fattie Fattie and I've Got A Feeling.
Lead singer Leroy Sibbles said that Llewellyn had died of unknown causes at Kingston Public Hospital in Jamaica.
Born in the Trenchtown neighbourhood in 1947, Llewellyn attended Kingston Senior School with future reggae stalwarts such as Marcia Griffiths and Carl Dawkins.
Breakthrough hit
Another fellow-pupil was Earl Morgan, with whom he formed the Heptones in his teens. They had several line-up changes before finding Sibbles, who led the trio through their trademark harmonies.
Early recordings, including a ska adaptation of the William Tell Overture, were unsuccessful. But when Jamaican radio banned Fattie Fattie - a lascivious paean to larger women - they finally scored their breakthrough.
Their recording career stretched for over a decade.
In that time, they fell out with Studio One and signed a contract with Island Records, for whom they recorded the 1975 album Night Food, produced by reggae icon Lee "Scratch" Perry.
The Heptones reunited in the 1990s after a nearly 20-year absence, finding a receptive audience in the midst of a worldwide ska and rocksteady revival.
Llewellyn is survived by his wife, Monica, and several children. A funeral is scheduled for 4 December, reports the Jamaica Observer.poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201708/2828/1155968404_5554764492001_5554757728001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Kasich: I'm not running in 2020 with Hickenlooper
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Sunday that he and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will not form a bipartisan ticket for a 2020 presidential bid, shooting down rumors that the pair had been considering such a move.
“Chuck, look, Kasich/Hickenlooper. You couldn’t--first of all, you couldn't pronounce it. And secondly, you couldn't fit it on a bumper sticker,” the Ohio governor, a Republican who ran for the GOP nomination in 2016 and has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Story Continued Below
Pressed by host Chuck Todd that his bumper sticker answer fell short of a denial, Kasich offered a more emphatic answer: “The answer is no, OK?”
Kasich and Hickenlooper, a Democrat, have worked together recently on repairing the nation’s healthcare system. That the two men might join together for a 2020 bid, with Kasich at the top of the ticket, was first reported last week by Axios and CNN — and shot down by Hickenlooper on Twitter.
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“Odd & funny that people expect a political marriage when 2 people from different parties work together. Kasich is dapper & worldly, but knows nada about brewing beer,” the Colorado governor, who founded a brewery in Denver before entering politics, wrote on Twitter. “Loving the attention on our bipartisan work but no ulterior motive. Not a unity ticket, just working with a new friend on hard compromises.”
Kasich, too, expressed surprise and exasperation at the notion that members of opposing political parties working together might trigger speculation about ulterior motives.
“I do want people to think about this, because Hickenlooper and I work together, cynics out there say, ‘Well, they want something,’” Kasich said.
“You know, sometimes people actually do things because they're trying to help somebody. And when we do that everybody ought not to say, ‘Well, what's in it for them?’ This growing cynicism eats at the fabric of the spirit of our country. It really aggravates — there’s not much that aggravates me. That does.”Batman: Arkham City save files disappearing for some users According to an ongoing thread on the forum, users have returned to their game only to find their save files have either been corrupted or have outright vanished from their console.
A number of users on the official Batman: Arkham City forum have reported issues with |
constitution that was written in an era of turmoil and unrest”.(NOTE: this program was written around 2003 and, although it still works, it is no longer in active development.)
This is what niftyPlayer looks like:
Copy and paste the code below into your HTML file, then replace all values in red accordingly.
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" width="165" height="38" id="niftyPlayer1" align=""> <param name=movie value="niftyplayer.swf? file=betty.mp3 & as=1 "> <param name=quality value=high> <param name=bgcolor value=#FFFFFF> <embed src="niftyplayer.swf? file=betty.mp3 & as=1 " quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF width="165" height="38" name="niftyPlayer1" align="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"> </embed> </object>
If you'd like to use the JS extension, include the code below in your HTML file (it usually goes inside the head section). You may set the height and width of the Flash (in blue, above) to 0 to make it disappear -- or use CSS, alternatively.
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="niftyplayer.js"></script>
Also, you may want to check out the FlashMP3alizer script too.Ross Barkley is winning his battle to convince Roy Hodgson he can start for England during Euro 2016.
Hodgson has paid particularly close attention to the Everton midfielder’s performances this season ahead of the European Championships.
The England manager has never doubted Barkley’s attacking prowess, but has doubts over the 22-year-old’s in-game management.
Graph shows an in-depth focus of midfielder Ross Barkley and how he has impressed this season
Barkley (left) has been a central figure for Everton and his form has caught the eye of Roy Hodgson
Indeed, in June 2014 after Barkley’s first international start, Hodgson said: 'He lost the ball an awful lot of times. ‘If he's going to be the player we want him to be, he has to make better decisions of when he turns with the ball.
‘I think Ross had some good moments. I think he needs to learn when he can turn with the ball and when he has to keep the ball.’ Those concerns had left Hodgson torn over whether Barkley could play regularly for his side in France.
The England manager has always rated the 22-year-old but previously questioned his game management
Barkley has struck 11 times for his club so far and has added both goals and maturity to his all-round game
Barkley, though, is winning Hodgson over - the England boss now more certain than ever the Liverpool-born attacker can play a pivotal role.
Hodgson has been impressed with the level of discipline and maturity Barkley has added to his game this season.
And Barkley is now set for a lead role for England this summer.
The Toffees attacking midfielder has started in four of the last five England internationals and will be handed a further chance to state his case in the forthcoming friendlies against Germany and Holland.
With 19 caps and 2 goals for England Barkley is set for a starring role at this summer's tournament
Barkley was due to be part of a 40-man England get together at St George’s Park yesterday as Hodgson finalises his plans for the tournament.
His club team-mate Tom Cleverley was also part of the gathering; despite making his last international appearance in November 2013.
It is understood no uncapped players were invited to yesterday’s debrief; a decision that has surprised West Ham manager Slaven Bilic.
Aaron Cresswell and Mark Noble - who are both uncapped - have both played a starring role for the Hammers’ impressive season.
Likewise, Andy Carroll, who played for Hodgson at Euro 2012, was also omitted.
And Bilic said: ‘Forty players and none of our’s are there? Really? ‘I was a manager of a national team for six years (Croatia), so I don't like to interfere like that. I don't know situation in the dressing room. ‘All I can say that if you ask me, I didn't see many midfielders having better seasons than Mark Noble or a better left-back than Aaron Cresswell.
‘They should at least be mentioned.’ Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew took a similar tack yesterday.
Scott Dann, Wilfried Zaha - who has two England caps - and Joel Ward have all been tipped for international recognition but were not invited to St George’s Park.
“None of our players have gone, he [Hodgson] must have a very, very good squad.’When audiences pay to see the limited roadshow engagement of Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” this holiday season, it won’t just be the projection of Ultra Panavision 70mm photography that distinguishes it from multiplex versions released two weeks later. It will be a slightly different — and longer — film overall.
“The roadshow version has an overture and an intermission, and it will be three hours, two minutes,” Tarantino told Variety. “The multiplex version is about six minutes shorter, not counting the intermission time, which is about 12 minutes.”
The two-time Oscar winner was not ordered to truncate the film for the Jan. 8 wider release. Rather, he liked the idea of the roadshow experience having a little something extra. “Nor did I want to treat the multiplex release like this left-handed version, either,” he said. So he tweaked certain scenes to better suit the separate viewing experiences.
“The 70 is the 70,” he said. “You’ve paid the money. You’ve bought your ticket. So you’re there. I’ve got you. But I actually changed the cutting slightly for a couple of the multiplex scenes because it’s not that. Now it’s on Showtime Extreme. You’re watching it on TV and you just kind of want to watch a movie on your couch. Or you’re at Hot Dog on a Stick and you just want to catch a movie.”
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The sequences in question play in “big, long, cool, unblinking takes” in the 70mm version, Tarantino said. “It was awesome in the bigness of 70, but sitting on your couch, maybe it’s not so awesome. So I cut it up a little bit. It’s a little less precious about itself.”
Roadshow experiences are rare these days, but they have been implemented by filmmakers looking to make splashes. Kevin Smith toured his 2011 film “Red State,” four-walling it in theaters across the country at premium prices. In 2008, Steven Soderbergh’s two-part “Che” was presented as a double-feature roadshow in certain markets. Tarantino’s fellow celluloid proponents Paul Thomas Anderson (“The Master”) and Christopher Nolan (“Interstellar”) have released movies in the 70mm format in recent years, but it’s mostly reserved for repertory and retrospective programs.
Panavision retrofitted lenses for cameras during production of “The Hateful Eight” and made 2,000-foot magazines to hold the massive amounts of film. The Weinstein Company, meanwhile, is paying to install projectors in venues across the country. While only 16 70mm prints for “The Master” were struck, and 12 for “Interstellar,” the ambitious plan for the “Hateful Eight” roadshow is to play in 100 theaters when it opens Dec. 25.
Tarantino, who revamped the New Beverly Theater in Los Angeles last year with a film only directive, said 70mm could be a way to combat ubiquitous digital projection, a development he considers a bridge too far in the steady move away from celluloid.
“I didn’t realize what a lost cause 35mm projection was,” he said. “But what I also didn’t know is how excited everyone was going to be about 70. I think everybody is looking to see how we do in that first two weeks. But that’s also kind of exciting. I’m hoping that ‘Hateful Eight’ does well enough that that becomes, for the filmmakers who care, the new premier way to launch their movie in an exclusive way.”SAN NICANDRO GARGANICO, Italy (JTA) – In the Christian cemetery of this sleepy farming town on the spur of Italy’s boot, Lucia Leone looks up at a row of tombs marked incongruously by Stars of David.
“That’s my mother,” she said. “And that’s my grandmother and great-grandmother. And that’s Donato Manduzio, who started everything.”
Manduzio, who died in 1948, was a self-taught local peasant, a disabled World War I veteran who in 1930 embraced Judaism on his own after having a visionary dream. A charismatic figure with a reputation as a faith healer, Manduzio attracted dozens of followers among his poverty-stricken neighbors.
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The San Nicandro Jews observed their own brand of homemade Judaism for years, even during fascist rule and World War II. But eventually they were recognized by Italian Jewish authorities and, in a remarkable episode, they formally converted en masse in the 1940s.
“It would seem to be the only case of collective conversion to Judaism in modern times,” historian John Davis wrote in an acclaimed recent book about the case.
Manduzio died two months before Israel was born. But almost all the others in the group — about 70 people — made aliyah by 1949.
Most are descendants of anusim — Jews forced to convert to Christianity or face expulsion 500 years ago
Leone, her family and a handful of other families are descendants of the four or five women who chose to stay behind. Some never formally converted; some had non-Jewish husbands who didn’t want to leave. Against all odds, they kept Judaism alive in their homes — and in their hearts — for more than half a century, lighting candles, keeping kosher and observing Shabbat and the holidays on their own.
Until a decade ago, they maintained a low profile.
“We weren’t afraid, but as much as possible, we kept our identity to ourselves,” said Leone, who is in her late 40s.
Today they form a fervent congregation of about 35 people that has won the embrace of Italy’s Orthodox Jewish mainstream community as part of a concerted new effort by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, or UCEI, aimed at reaching out to so-called Returning Jews in the south.
“We don’t feel so alone anymore,” Leone said. “Every month a rabbi or teacher comes to us, and we meet up at the holidays and other times with Jews from Calabria, Sicily, Naples and elsewhere in Apulia. And of course there are a lot of websites and Facebook that help us keep in touch.”
Last year, seven San Nicandro Jews underwent formal, Orthodox conversions. Leone, her husband and their two grown children were among them.
“Finally!” Leone said. “Baruch Hashem! It took five years of study, but it was a beautiful experience.”
The San Nicandro Jews are a special case. But they are among dozens of other Italians in the southern part of the country who are embracing Jewish identity. Spread out across several towns and cities, most are descendants of anusim — Jews forced to convert to Christianity or face expulsion 500 years ago. Many describe mysterious family traditions rooted in Jewish practice: covering mirrors after a death or burning a bit of dough when baking bread.
“These are people who maintained their Jewishness for dozens of generations,” said Rabbi Scialom Bahbout, chief rabbi for Naples and Southern Italy. “They had very strong roots at the beginning, and these left their mark.”
Since 2010, Bahbout has been the UCEI’s religious reference point for the region.
“I’ve been trying to converge the people together from the various regions — Apulia, Calabria, Sicily — to create a movement,” he said.
Others are reaching out, too. For the past decade, American Rabbi Barbara Aiello, whose own ancestors were anusim, has led Ner Tamid del Sud, an independent Jewish prayer and study center in Calabria. Aiello’s center operates outside the Orthodox Jewish establishment and is not recognized by the UCEI. But interest is so great, she said, that her group plans to open a new synagogue next summer when the building is completed.
“Ner Tamid del Sud is not affiliated with any Jewish movement,” said Aiello, who divides her time between Calabria and the United States. “We are pluralistic in that we are open and welcoming to Jews of all backgrounds, including interfaith families and Jewish families where the father is the Jewish parent.”
In early September, dozens of Jews from all over the south converged on Trani, an ancient port town on Italy’s heel, for a special Shabbat celebration that concluded Lech Lecha, a weeklong Jewish cultural festival held in Trani and nine other Apulian towns. No Jews live in Trani, but the town has been a focal point for Jewish revival since 2004, when a medieval synagogue there that for centuries had been used as a church was deconsecrated and restored as a house of Jewish worship.
Keeping mitzvahs is not always easy. Buying kosher meat means a four-hour drive to Rome
This time, the congregation was too big for the tiny sanctuary, and Saturday morning services took place in the piazza outside. At sundown, Bahbout held aloft the havdala candle as cries of “Shavua tov!” kicked off the festival’s final night.
Later, after dinner at a local restaurant that had been specially koshered for the occasion, Davide Scibilia, from Catania, Sicily, recounted how he had always known he was Jewish, but only became affiliated with organized Jewry two or three years ago.
“Our Judaism was lived in the home,” he said. “We celebrated Shabbat, I didn’t go to school on Saturday, and my mother cooked dinner on Friday before sunset. My father circumcised me himself when I was eight days old.
“We didn’t eat meat because there wasn’t kosher food locally, so we cooked soya in all forms,” he added. “My mother was great in this.”
Back in San Nicandro, Leone showed a visitor the community’s one-room meeting hall, where a picture of Manduzio held pride of place, and the tiny nearby synagogue where they meet to pray and sometimes host gatherings of other Jews from the south. On most Shabbats there is no minyan; most community members are women.
Keeping mitzvahs is not always easy, Leone said. For one thing, buying kosher meat means a four-hour drive to Rome. A proud Jewish mother, Leone kvelled over how her children were both immersed in Jewish life: Her daughter is studying in Rome to be a Jewish teacher, and her son serves as a kosher supervisor, or mashgiach, at Shabbatons and other events.
She did confess to one concern, however: Her daughter is still single.
“Let’s hope for a good marriage — above all to a Jewish man,” she said. “She’s 27. It’s time.”Mark Sanford is hoping to master the art of the political comeback.
The disgraced former South Carolina governor, who drew national headlines in 2009 after disappearing for several days and later tearfully admitting to an extra-marital affair, will run for Congress, he told National Review's Jim Geraghty in an interview Tuesday.
Sanford stepped down as governor in early 2011.
He will seek the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Tim Scott, whom Gov. Nikki Haley tapped to replace Republican Sen. Jim DeMint after he left to head the Heritage Foundation.
From the report:
Geraghty: The word is that you’re going to run for the House of Representatives in South Carolina’s First Congressional District. Mark Sanford: Officially we’re going to announce tomorrow, and then it’s off to the races. Geraghty: Why are you running? Sanford: For 20 years I’ve been out there, if you look at my record in both Congress and the governorship, talking about the fact that this moment would come. If we didn’t get our nation’s financial house in order, there would be dire consequences to the American taxpayer and to the American dream and for those in this generation and the next. I think we’ve reached that day of reckoning. It seems that we’re averting a new fiscal cliff or crisis every few months these days, and what the numbers point to is that the trend is going to intensify. What I’d like to do is take all that I’ve learned in my time in Congress and my governorship, on my way up and on my way down, and apply it to what is probably the most important debate that we will have in regard to the future of our country. I’m running because I care deeply about spending, and the mathematical impossibility of us continuing down the path we’re on.
If successful, his victory will be somewhat of a homecoming. Sanford represented the First District of South Carolina in the House from 1995 to 2001 before he was elected to the governorship in 2003.
His ex-wife, Jenny Sanford, had mulled the option of running against him, but announced earlier this week that she would not take up a bid for the seat.Thirteen miles. Several hours of running, usually by yourself. There are definitely parts of participating in a long-distance run that are—dare we say it—kinda dull.
At this weekend’s New York half marathon, amateur athlete Kelly Roberts dreamed up an awesome new way to mark time on the long road to the finish line: taking selfies with all the hot guys she overtook on the way.
The best part is that it’s pretty impossible to look suave while wearing sweatpants, a ball cap, and an exhausted expression, so well done for making the cut, guys.
Roberts managed to take a selfie with a different guy for every one of the 13 miles in the half marathon, and most of them turned out pretty hilarious. Apparently her favorite is the old dude in the short-shorts, though.
And here we are at the finish line.
Further bonus points to Kelly Roberts for managing to find makeup that stayed more or less intact throughout an entire half marathon. Some of those guys in the selfies could’ve done with some matte foundation of their own.
Photos via kellykkroberts/InstagramInternational
Une Canadienne de 28 ans s'est retrouvée amputée de trois membres, alors qu'elle pensait souffrir d'une simple grippe. Cette dernière souffrait en réalité de la « bactérie mangeuse de chair », la jeune femme a survécu mais avec un bras et ses deux jambes en moins.
A 28 ans, Cari Kirkness, originaire du Winnipeg au Canada, n'aurait jamais imaginé un tel tournant dans sa vie. Un matin, la jeune femme se réveille malade, persuadée d'avoir la grippe, « j’avais mal à la gorge, aux oreilles, à la tête et des douleurs musculaires », raconte-t-elle au Huffington Post canadien. Seulement, trois jours après l'apparition des premiers symptômes, une drôle d'ecchymose apparaît sur son bras. Cari Kirkness se rend alors dans un centre de soins pour réaliser un prélèvement bactérien de la gorge, et confirmer ou non ce supposé état grippal. Le médecin lui conseil alors « de prendre son mal en patience ». Mais quelques heures plus tard, avant même d'avoir les résultats, Cari Kirkness voit son état empirer, « j’avais d’immenses tâches rouges et bordeaux tout le long de mon bras. Et la douleur s’est vraiment empirée dans la nuit ».
De la grippe à l'infection dangereuse
Le lendemain de sa visite médicale, Cari est emmenée aux urgences de l'hôpital Victoria, par sa mère. Là-bas, elles ont attendu près de six heures avant d'être prises en charge. Et le verdict du médecin est sans appel : Cari Kirkness souffre d'une « infection envahissante par le streptocoque du groupe A fasciite nécrosante », plus connue sous le nom de « la bactérie mangeuse de chair ». Le médecin ordonne alors qu'elle soit transférée dans un autre hôpital, au Centre des sciences de la santé. Pour les chirurgiens, il faut l'opérer de toute urgence afin de stopper la propagation de l'infection. Ils décident alors de l'amputer de son bras droit et de la partie inférieure de sa jambe gauche. Après cette lourde opération, son état empire et Cari est placée sous assistance respiratoire : plusieurs de ses organes ont fait défaillance dans la nuit, et le lendemain, les médecins remarquent des signes d'infection sur sa jambe droite. Son pronostic vital engagé, les médecins demandent à la famille de choisir entre l'amputation de la jambe droite de leur fille, ou la laisser partir. « C’était facile comme bonjour. Nous lui avons dit "non, amputez la jambe, nous choisissons la vie. Nous ne voulons pas qu’elle nous quitte" », raconte la mère de Cari.
Un mois après l'opération, Cari Kirkness espère bientôt quitter l’hôpital et être placée dans un centre de réadaptation, où elle pourra renforcer les muscles de son cou et du bras qu’il lui reste. « Je ne suis pas fâchée. Je suis toujours avec mes bébés. Et j’ai encore un bras pour les embrasser, leur donner des câlins. Parce que les enfants, ils ont besoin de ça, des câlins de leur maman », conclut-elle.
Cette histoire rappelle celle de Priscilla Dray, qui avait été amputée des quatre membres après avoir été infectée par la même bactérie. Malheureusement pour la jeune femme, elle avait contracté cette infection suite à une IVG au CHU de Bordeaux. L'hôpital a d'ailleurs été condamné il y a quelques mois à verser 300.000 euros à la jeune femme.For the first time in a while there were no major upsets in Mountain West play this past Saturday. The only game that could possibly even be considered an upset was UNLV defeating San Diego State at home. Colorado State earned an extremely difficult road win by upending Air Force, and then New Mexico held off Boise State at home.
The wins by New Mexico and Colorado State have kept them with just two losses in league play; the two are three games ahead of both UNLV, San Diego State and the surprise that is Air Force.
The regular season league title is likely coming down to the winner between Colorado State and New Mexico. The two schools matchup on Saturday in a must see game. Colorado State does have to play a game before the weekend as they go on the road to face a UNLV team who is very dangerous at home.Jones and Badini Make USA World Junior Final Roster
By Michael Walters
Team USA announced their final World Junior Super Showcase roster today. Anaheim Ducks prospects Max Jones and Jack Badini both made the final cut. Badini currently has two points(1 G + 1 A). Jones appeared to injure his knee after blocking a shot in yesterday’s game. He is listed as day-to-day per the team. He was seen on crutches after the contest yesterday.
Team USA has been using two squads, USA White and USA Blue. Overall Team USA is currently 4-2 with three games left to play. The final roster will play today against Sweden at 1 PM PT/4 PM ET. Team USA will play again on Friday, August 4th against Finland at 1 PM PT/4 PM ET and then one final game Saturday, August 5th at 4 PM PT/7 PM ET. Team USA will also participate in the Ivan Hlinka Exhibition vs Czech on Saturday. For more info visit Hlinka Cup.
Players on the final roster will compete in the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26th, 2017 – Jan. 5th, 2018, in Buffalo, New York.
For more on Team USA visit teamusa.usahockey.com
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August 2nd, 2017
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Filed under: Ducks News Tagged: Anaheim DucksWindows 8's sales are worse than Windows 7's were at the same time in its lifecycle—unless they're higher. They're also apparently worse than internal Microsoft estimates. But what those estimates are is anyone's guess. Truth is, we don't really know and we won't for some time. But combine the new operating system with the continuing conjecture over former Windows Division president Steven Sinofsky's departure, and you've got some great headlines.
The first mutterings about poor sales came in the aftermath of Sinofsky's demise, with incredulity that he'd be let go so soon after Windows 8's launch unless sales were catastrophic. Bad sales are plausible, too, after reviews of Windows 8 were decidedly mixed. The operating system, at best, seemed deeply polarizing.
Surprisingly, the first talk of sales numbers was positive: the Register reported the results in Europe were, according to channel analyst Context, actually quite good. Sales in the two weeks up to and including the October 26 launch of Windows 8 were up 7.8 percent year-on-year, and about a quarter of these machines shipped with Windows 8. Windows 7 was only installed on 17.1 percent of machines sold in the equivalent time period around its launch. Context also noted that in spite of fears to the contrary, there wasn't a glut of unsold Windows 7 inventory clogging the channel. In a sluggish European computer market still suffering the effects of the global downturn, that's a pretty healthy performance.
A few days later, the news wasn't so good. Microsoft-watcher Paul Thurrott wrote that a single source inside the company said Windows 8 PC sales were "well below" internal projections. The software maker apparently blamed the slow start on lackluster offerings from PC OEMs.
Today, AllThingsD offered confirmation of sorts to Thurrott's source. According to market research firm NPD, the US market does have a problem with stale Windows 7 inventory. Windows 8 is growing each week as these old machines are flushed from the channel. But Windows 7, in contrast, had no comparable problem with Windows Vista inventory. The result? Windows 7 had a "stronger launch," but Windows 8 has a "faster ramp."
Microsoft has announced no sales figures. But Redmond did say that over the first three days of retail availability the company sold 4 million upgrade licenses and the operating system was selling faster than Windows 7. While the time scales may be different—a few days versus a few weeks—this would appear to undermine NPD's claim that Windows 8's launch was weaker than Windows 7's.
Even Thurrott's source gives no real insight into sales figures. Windows 8 could have matched or beaten Windows 7, but still fallen short of Microsoft's own projections if those projections were high enough. At its earnings call in October, the company pointedly refused to give investors any guidance on its expectations of the Windows division's revenue even when directly asked.
If the company does have projections, and it surely must, it doesn't yet have enough confidence in them to issue guidance based on them. If we're cheeky, we might, however, be able to speculate a little from its other predictions—in particular the relationship between the Microsoft Business Division's Office revenue, the PC market as a whole, and Windows revenue.
Microsoft splits Office revenue into two parts. There's multiyear revenue, from volume licensing subscriptions, and there's transactional revenue, from one-off perpetual sales such as the various editions bought at retail or pre-installed on PCs. In general, Microsoft expects transactional Office revenue to reflect the performance of the overall PC market, albeit at a slightly lower level. We can see how this would make sense: a growth in sales of consumer and small business PCs will cause a corresponding growth in sales of consumer and small business versions of Office (the ones that tend to be transactional rather than subscription).
Windows revenue, particularly transactional Windows revenue, is similarly driven by the overall health and behavior of the PC market. This tends to follow in lockstep for reasons that should be obvious.
For the three months of October, November, and December 2012, Microsoft expects transactional Office revenue to grow by the low single digits. From this we could infer PC market growth of perhaps mid-to-high single digits, and hence Windows revenue growth of the same amount.
Although only spanning two weeks, the European numbers from Context are in line with this inference. The numbers from the US may be worse—given the contradiction between Steve Ballmer's claims and NPD's, it's difficult to draw any coherent picture. But this inferiority may be due not to poor sales per se, but delays in shifting Windows 7 merchandise. With NPD noting the old inventory is being cleared and Windows 8 is ramping up, the US could soon match Europe's results.
Absent an explicit statement on sales figures from Microsoft, the true impact of Windows 8 on the PC market and Microsoft's own finances won't become apparent until January. Then, we'll get real numbers for this quarter's performance.
Nonetheless, it's far too early to write off the operating system yet. The evidence, such as it exists right now, is nowhere near strong enough to dismiss Windows 8 as a catastrophe. Windows 8 may still bomb on the market and its success certainly won't be straightforward or obvious given the nature of the changes that it makes. But its failure is by no means a foregone conclusion either—and it might just surprise the critics in the end.Bhante Henepola Gunaratana — affectionately known as “Bhante G.” — had a moment of coming face-to-face with death while on a flight. Here’s what he told an audience at Cittaviveka, a Buddhist monastery in the UK, about it.
I had received word of my mother’s final illness. On the way to Sri Lanka from Washington, DC, I changed planes to a jumbo jet in Hawaii. An hour or two after taking off from Hawaii, I looked out my window and noticed flames coming from the plane’s engine.
Then the pilot’s voice came over the intercom: the engine was on fire and we were turning back.
I exhorted myself: ‘No matter how strong my attachment to life, I must let go of that attachment now.’
He told the flight attendants to give instructions on how we should exit the plane if we managed to get back to Hawaii. We were to sit quietly with our seat belts on. When we landed, floor lights would lead us to the eight emergency doors. The doors would open, and emergency chutes would come out. We were to jump on to the chutes without a moment’s hesitation, slide down and run away from the plane.
I doubt anybody understood much of these instructions. From the moment the pilot had announced that the engine was on fire, everyone in the cabin seemed to be seized with fear of death. Some started crossing themselves, couples clutched to each other and kissed, others wept or looked tense and anxious.
I thought, “If this is my time to die, well I will die anyway, whether I am afraid or not. Let me keep my mind clear.” First I recalled my intellectual understanding of what death is. I considered that death is inevitable, and that this would be a good time for me to die for I had been doing good deeds, and I had nothing to regret. Then I thought about the likely sequence of events. “If the plane falls quickly from a height of thirty-nine thousand feet we will be unconscious before the plane hits the ocean.” I do not know whether this is scientifically true, but that is what I thought at the time.
I exhorted myself: “I have to keep my mind very clear, very pure before I lose consciousness. This is the time to use my mindfulness to realize the inevitability of death. If I die peacefully with a pure, clear state of mind my future life will be bright. Perhaps I will attain a stage of enlightenment through seeing the truth of impermanence. I must not block my mind with fear or confusion. No matter how strong my attachment to life, I must let go of that attachment now.” Thus I made the effort to prevent any unwholesome state of mind arising in the face of death and encouraged wholesome states of mind to arise.
I was just too stunned to feel afraid, and felt no fear, I actually enjoyed watching the flames coming out of the engine at thirty nine thousand feet! The flames were blue and yellow and red. You seldom see such blue flames. Sometimes they were streaming out; sometimes they were low. They looked like fireworks, or the Aurora Borealis.
While I was enjoying the drama the three hundred or so other passengers from time to time saw the agony they suffered from the very thought of death. They seemed almost dead before they died! I noticed, however, that the little children did not seem affected. They kept laughing and playing as they did before the crisis. I thought, “Let me put myself in their place in a child-like mind.”
We did make it back to Hawaii and the plane made an emergency landing. We went out the emergency doors as instructed, sliding down the chutes. Going down the chute was an entirely new experience for me. Perhaps everyone else on the plane had at least gone down a playground slide in their childhood, but I had never done such a thing in the poor village where I grew up.
Right up to the end I enjoyed it all very much.
Text courtesy Cittaviveka Monastery, compiled by Don de Silva.A Show-Stopping Classic with Effortless Playability
Introducing the Singlecut McCarty 594, a vintage-inspired instrument that embraces all the benefits of modern manufacturing. “When we were developing the 594, we examined everything: the scale length, the tuners, the bridge materials, the nut material, the pickups, the neck shape...every piece of this instrument was designed to be exactly what we thought it needed to be to add up to the best instrument we could make,” explains Paul Reed Smith. By paying attention to the details and adding Private Stock’s craftsmanship and stunning designs and materials, the November Guitar of the Month looks like nothing you’ve seen before but feels like a guitar you’ve been playing forever. Like its double-cutaway brother, the Singlecut McCarty 594 can seamlessly master rich, authentic, vintage humbucking tones and nuanced, sweet singlecoil sounds.
Some unique appointments for the November Guitar of the Month include paua, mother of pearl, gold and black lip, pink mussel, and black corian “Mosaic” bird inlays on the fingerboard and “Mosaic” Private Stock Eagle with “November” engraved banner on the headstock veneer, mother of pearl side dots, East Indian rosewood binding along the top, Faded Royal Blue Smoked Burst high gloss nitro finish, and 58/15 LT treble and bass pickups.A Southwest Airlines employee turned himself in to police last month and confessed to reissuing about $203,000 worth of airline gift cards to himself.
Olivas turned himself in to Dallas police on May 21 and confessed to stealing the cards, using them for himself and selling them, the affidavit states. He was charged with theft and posted bail Monday night.
Christopher Olivas, 43, began unfreezing cards and reissuing the PIN numbers onto new gift cards in January 2013, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. He continued doing so until April 2014.In September 2013, he was transferred from the customer relations office to the finance department where his job was detecting and investigating fraud. He had access to all the gift cards that had funds frozen on them.He used some of the 457 gift cards to buy flights for friends and sold some on gift card trading sites, the affidavit states.Southwest opened an internal investigation in April after a coworker noticed inconsistencies in one of Olivas' transactions.Southwest spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said the airline is "fully cooperating" with Dallas police on the investigation.Olivas was hired in February 2011. Eichinger could not say whether he still works for the airline.The cult comedy just got canned over the weekend, taking with it one of TV's great characters.
For far too long, as a gay man, I’ve been subjected to boring, annoying and borderline homophobic gay caricatures on TV, characters that are supposed to represent me and my gay bros. So, it was refreshing and groundbreaking to see a slovenly, chubby and lazy gay dude grace my screen. His name was Max Blum, he was hilarious, and he was arguably the best part of the best sitcom that no one ever watched, Happy Endings.
During the weekend’s fall schedule scramble, in which your beloved Community was renewed for a fifth season, Happy Endings ended up as one of the sad casualties. There are rumours that it may yet be saved by another network, but nothing concrete yet — which is sad because, in short, Happy Endings was basically this generation’s Friends, albeit with a Chicago backdrop, less sappy storylines, and much funnier punchlines. Featuring a |
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CARL: Calm down, there absolutely will be a season. [Then there was mumbling I couldn’t understand, sounded like he was questioning my background and education] We have come up with a new plan that is bound to increase participation, increase the walleye population, and increase income and sales for many Minnesota businesses. After long negotiations with several Minnesota companies, Mille Lacs anglers will be participating in the newest, most progressive concept in fisheries management ever thought of.
ME: Yeah, progressive…that’s what Minnesota walleye anglers are looking for. Why don’t you guys just stock more fish? That seems to be a popular default answer for many of the outspoken ladies and gentlemen I see on TV.
CARL: We are counting on Minnesota anglers being a little more open minded. But believe it or not, stocking more fish is part of the plan. Stocking fry or fingerling sized walleyes has never really shown any results. But we always knew that if only we could stock the lake with “keeper” sized walleyes, like they do with trout in the streams, there would be an immediate and drastic improvement of the walleye population. Growing walleyes to keeper size, around 14”, has always been cost prohibitive, so it’s never been done. Until now.
ME: Alright, this is starting to sound good. You will be stocking walleyes, keeper walleyes, and there will be a season. Will Mille Lacs be open for walleye fishing when the statewide fishing season starts in May?
CARL: Yes, you will be able to um, go out on Mille Lacs when the season opens May 14.
ME: That is great news. What will the bag limit and size limit be?
CARL: This is where things start to become a little more, uh, unusual…I guess you can say the limit will be five, with no size restrictions.
ME: Really, five? It’s been a bunch of years since you could keep five walleyes on Mille Lacs.
CARL: Well, I never said anything about keeping five walleyes…like I said everyone needs to keep an open mind. Getting this fishery to rebound will take some time, even with our new exciting plan. And if the anglers are taking walleyes out at a rate faster than they are putting them in, we will be worse off than before. The limit will be five, but you won’t be able to keep any.
ME: So it will be what—a catch and release season where you are only allowed to catch and release five?
CARL: Not quite. Our statistics show that catch and release fishing, while seemingly without impact, will be too harmful to the population. We tried to come up with a plan that would allow fishing with barbless hooks, and even though our chief consultant Phillip Washington made some convincing points as to how a barbless catch and release season would work, we ultimately decided that anglers would not be able to figure it out, so we came up with something that will be fun for the anglers and still have no impact on the fishery.
ME: So we can’t keep any fish, can’t even catch and release fish—what can we do?
CARL: Underwater cameras have become very popular, and we decided that it would be best if anglers only viewed the walleyes with a camera, thereby eliminating all contact with the fish. Of course, you would be free to make video recordings of the fish you see so you can enjoy them later, or even share the clips with friends on YouTube or Facebook. Just make sure that once you have viewed five walleyes, you quit. The limit for this season is five walleyes, any size, but they can only be seen, not caught. DNR enforcement will be checking the recordings on your SD cards, so make sure you don’t go over your limit.
ME: This started out sounding so good, but now that I’ve heard all the details, this sounds like a disaster. Won’t all those “keeper-size” walleyes you guys are stocking help out right away?
CARL: You missed one detail. I said keeper walleyes were going to be stocked, but not by us—it is just too cost prohibitive. It costs about $22 to grow a walleye to 14” and stock it in a lake, and we just don’t have the budget for it. The walleyes will be stocked by all of you—the Mille Lacs anglers. In fact it will be required that in order to fish on the Big Lake, you must bring one [or more] live walleye from a registered vendor, and release it into the lake before you launch your boat.
ME: [blank stare]
CARL: I’m sure you are wondering where the registered walleye vendors will be located—we have arranged for walleye vending machines to be installed at several popular bait shops surrounding the lake, and they all take credit cards.
ME: [blank stare]
CARL: The walleye vending machines work like this—swipe your card, select the number of walleyes you want to purchase, hold your five gallon bucket under the chute, and pull the lever—instant walleye in the bucket. Are you OK? You’re not having a stroke or something are you?
ME: Oh sorry, no, that just caught me by surprise, all these regs…I was thinking I would have good news for my readers, but now…well, I’m not sure what the average angler will think of this.
CARL: I said these new regs would be progressive. There have actually been similar plans used in Europe.
ME: [blank stare]
CARL: Quit doing that, it’s freaking me out. And a blank stare can’t be heard on your little recorder.
ME: Alright. So for review, there will be a season, but in that season we can’t keep any walleyes. And during that season, we can’t actually fish for walleyes, at least not with hook and line. But we can look at them on a camera, but we are only allowed to see five a day. And we have to bring a live walleye, one we paid for, and stock it into the lake before we can launch a boat. So the bag limit is actually negative one.
CARL: You got it. We think it is going to be popular. J.C. Munchall from Nanook Underwater Cameras has already predicted record sales of their Mille Lacs Special camera—it has built in recording and has software that will calculate the length of the walleye on camera. A software update scheduled for release this spring will also calculate the weight. We may as well embrace the digital age. Walleyes Unlimited have already scheduled a “Camera Only” tournament for June, and this event could get national coverage. Now even vegans can participate in fishing tournaments!
ME: I think these new regs will be met with…resistance. You know these fishermen will want to have some fish to bring home once in a while. Or do you expect all the anglers on the lake to also turn vegan?
CARL: We have thought of that, and we want everyone to be able to have a fish fry. Whenever an angler purchases a live walleye for stocking, he will get a coupon for 20 percent off of frozen tilapia fillets at any participating grocer. Did you know tilapia are farm raised? Eat all you want—they’ll make more!
ME: I’m starting to hate you. Let’s change topics…what about the muskie management of Mille Lacs, you have to admit this fishery is very popular, and continues to bring tourism to the area. It’s one of the only things still good about the lake.
CARL: We are absolutely going to continue with the muskie program, with a few changes. The muskies have done well in Mille Lacs, maybe too well. There have just gotten to be too many big muskies in the lake—did you hear about the guy that caught a fifty pounder on a fly rod? On a goddam effing fly rod! If there are so many big muskies in the lake that even fly fishermen can catch them, it is definitely time to scale back. We are going to revert back to stocking “Shoepack” strain muskies. They are native to Minnesota, but rarely get bigger than ten pounds. We feel it is a much safer choice for the lake than the giant Leech Lake strain currently in there.
ME: I’m glad you guys aren’t in charge of anywhere I regularly fish.
CARL: Oh, and where do you fish nowadays? ME: You know, the usual spots like the Miss…..uh I mean…uh, Devils Lake North Dakota, yeah that’s it. That’s where I fish now. Devils Lake. Now what about the smallmouth. You have to admit that Mille Lacs is truly a world class smallmouth fishery. I know lots of people, myself included, that have caught smallies six pounds or bigger here. The Bassmasters are even coming here this summer for a big tournament. Tell me you’re not going to mess with the smallmouth.
CARL: Yeah, we’re going go ahead and do away with all smallmouth regulations. Starting this year there will be no closed season, no size limit, and no bag limit. It turns out all the Iowans that come up here like to eat them, and they do spend a lot of money at the casinos. And they can’t tell the difference between a rock bass and a smallmouth, so rather than making things more confusing for them, we simplified it.
ME: We’re done here. Check please!
Suddenly the room started getting wavy and spinny, a doodly-doo doodly-doo doodly-do sound filled my ears…Two groups of airport workers and community supporters took it right to their employers, Extra Car Park and Air Serv, demanding better wages and working conditions.
Extra Car Park isn’t paying their workers the $15/hour that the people of SeaTac voted for and is trying to intimidate workers who are standing up for what they deserve. When Extra Car workers filed complaints with the City of SeaTac, their boss started firing them. We all aren’t going to put up with that.
Extra Car workers, other airport workers, Teamsters, SEIU members and other allies marched in front of Extra Car’s parking lot waving signs, yelling and calling management out for their shady treatment of their workers.
“Shame! Shame! You’ve gone too far, Extra Car!”
Extra Car management tried to push us, literally, off of the public sidewalk and tried to encourage cars to drive right through us as we marched. We still didn’t back down.
Later in the day, workers announced they’ve filed a class-action lawsuit against Extra Car. Through street heat, organizing and legal action, we’ll win justice at Extra Car!
Right down the street we walked into the Air Serv main offices and delivered a petition, signed by the majority of Air Serv workers, calling on management to meet with the workers’ committee.
Air Serv workers handle baggage, clean airplanes, and provide wheelchair services at Sea-Tac Airport. The company is profitable but treats its workers shabbily.
“You don’t pay us the $15 we deserve,” said Alex Hoopes, an Air Serv worker. “You just keep cutting hours, and cutting hours. You keep hiring new people when the rest of us can’t make enough.”
We cheered as management started mumbling a weak retort.
“How are we supposed to be loyal to you when you aren’t loyal to us?”
We crammed into the Air Serv office, filling it and spilling into the hallway. What we wanted was simple. Management needs to meet with the workers’ committee to start to address the continuing issues of low pay, a lack of respect, and safety issues.
One person shouted out, “Just meet with us!” Another said, “You don’t give us any dignity. We want to be paid enough to actually live!”
As we asked for the management to do the right thing by its workers, one person summed everything up.
“We just want management to agree to meet with us and go over these issues that won’t go away. We just want respect. And we won’t stop until we get it.”Haier Group, China's biggest maker of household appliances, has signed closing documents for the company's acquisition of General Electric (GE)'s home appliance business, according to an announcement made by the two sides.
The announcement said GE Appliances will continue to be headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky in the United States and operated independently under the day to day direction of the current management team.
A board of directors, with representatives from the senior leadership teams of Haier and GE Appliances, and two independent directors, will help guide the strategy and operations of the business.
Zhang Ruimin, chairman and CEO of Haier Group said, "Haier and GE Appliances have always sought to adapt to changing times and customer preferences. The two companies share the same vision of the future and, by acquiring GE Appliances, both companies will be able to achieve significant synergies.
"Haier is on an exciting journey as it transforms itself into a true 'internet enterprise', which fosters and cultivates innovation and customer choice, while GE Appliances has great employees and a strong global customer base."
Chip Blankenship, president and CEO of GE Appliances, said, "We are excited to become an important part of a global appliance company. Haier loves appliances as much as we do and shares our goal to be the most competitive, innovative and customer-focused company in the world. Together we will find new and better ways to help people improve their lives at home."
The announcement follows the previously announced memorandum of understanding between Haier Group and GE to cooperate globally and pursue joint growth projects in areas including advanced manufacturing, healthcare and the Industrial Internet.Design matters. There’s no question about it. Whether you’re a graphic designer, copywriter, photographer or blogger, any and all sorts of design will shape the outcome of your business from the moment you present yourself.
Think about it. We all know someone that has been gracefully blessed with the divine skills of something. That something can be anything. Maybe your friend is a spectacular photographer, but he or she has no sense of how to present their portfolio. In my own experience, I can see a direct correlation between the re-design of my website and the amount of new clients coming in the door.
But here’s the catch, nothing changed. My photography portfolio, built up of the images I use as my prime work examples, did not change. The portfolio section of my site was exactly the same!
What did change was the design. A complete rejuvenation of what I wanted my photography business to be. It was a reawakening of how to present my business, my services and myself – a new attitude taken to a new level.
How Does Design Affect Your Business
It is my plea that design should not be left only to the creatives of the world. Rather, everyone, creative or not, should consider design and how it affects their business. Design is a strategic process that takes time, energy and consideration. This, obviously, is a no-brainer for your standard freelance designer.
By now you should understand the process of showing your work in a creative, dynamic and aesthetically pleasing way. But what about the blogger who’s just starting out? What if you haven’t been published yet? And by all means, attaching Word documents to an e-mail does not count as showcasing your portfolio to that next potential client and/or editor.
In order to take on the “Design Matters” philosophy, let’s take a look at some key steps in what this all means:
What Is Design?
Design is anything that communicates a visual message. Everything has an element of design.
Why Does Design Matter?
First impressions are everything – from business cards to Web sites – the moment a potential client gets that first insight into your world, aesthetics and design are firing thousands of messages. Some positive, some negative… it all depends on the design and the message you want to send.
Good Design Gives Credibility.
Echoing the previous point, you only get one chance to make a first impression. People will not take the time to thoroughly investigate your Web site and figure out who you are and what your story is just to determine if they want to hire you.
Eventually the conversation may discuss some of this information, but initially, trust is the only thing that matters. And trust, at this point, is a gut feeling. The fastest way to send positive reinforcements of trust is through a well-executed visual design that shows your credibility.
Design Is Emotional – Don’t Be Afraid Of It.
It doesn’t matter what your freelancing talents are – design is one of the only ways to connect with your clients emotionally. Sure, words are emotional too… but how these words are read on screen can make a world of difference. When you connect with a client emotionally your relationship is taken to a new level. The sooner you can connect emotionally, the better.
Just like every other part of your freelance career, design requires a considerable amount of planning. When you’re ready to think about the next design step, here are some things to think about:
What three audiences will come to my Web site. What three types of people would I give a business card to?
If there was one thing you could communicate to each audience, what would that be?
At first glace, what does your Web site homepage say about the type of person you are?
What visual elements communicate the type of business you’d like to run?
Who are your competitors? What visual elements do they show?
Is everything consistent? Does your logo match your Web site? Your business card? Your invoices?
How will you measure the success of your design? More hits and page views? More e-mail inquiries? More clients?
Now that these things have been considered, it’s time to take the next step. Maybe your design is right where you want it. Maybe it needs a facelift. Or perhaps, maybe this is the first time you’ve even thought about it. No matter where you’re at on the spectrum, what matters is this: Understand that design matters, no matter what. :)
What do you think?Complete financial protection with ATOL and On the Beach
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We were one of the first online travel agents in the UK to have complete financial protection because we know how important peace of mind is to our customers when they book their holiday. That means, in the unlikely event that one of your suppliers or On the Beach experiences financial failure, your money is safe. Whether you're counting down to departure, or already on holiday, you'll have complete peace of mind that you're guaranteed financial protection.Teaching and writing about public policy for more than half my life has taught me that most of the errors made in that realm are not complicated or sophisticated, beyond the ability of “ordinary people” to understand. They are failures to apply basic logical and economic principles. The complications and sophistication mainly arise from efforts to disguise the misrepresentations and wealth transfers being committed, when policies are designed, presented and scored. (For example, see my “Comparing Obamacare Scams.”)
My experience implies that seeing through the policy camouflage to recognize where analyses are inconsistent with core principles is a primary skill in evaluating policies.
One such helpful guide to accurate economic analysis is the principle of symmetry. That is because the logic of economics focuses on the need for individuals to choose, which derives from scarcity. Choosing in the face of scarcity means bearing the costs of foregoing other things we also value with every choice. Consequently, virtually anything that would change the marginal expected benefits or the marginal expected costs of a choice to a decisionmaker would predictably influence what self-interested individuals choose.
An increase in the marginal expected benefits or a decrease in marginal expected costs of a choice or behavior will tend to increase its amount. Symmetrically, a decrease in marginal expected benefits or an increase in marginal expected costs of a choice or behavior will tend to decrease its amount.
Such symmetry means that if a lower price leads to an increase in the quantity of some good demanded, other things equal, a higher price for a good must lead to a decrease in quantity demanded, other things equal (i.e., the law of demand holds in either direction); that if a higher price leads to an increase in the quantity of a good supplied, other things equal, a lower price must lead to a decrease in quantity supplied, other things equal (i.e., the law of supply applies in either direction). Similarly, if a $1 per unit subsidy would increase production of a good, a $1 per unit tax would decrease its production.
Failures to apply such symmetry in economic analysis reveals misunderstanding and/or intentional deception. Yet such errors are ubiquitous in the marketing of public policy proposals, always (shockingly) in the direction that advances the self-interests of the special pleaders.
Consider how this plays out with price controls. Those who push for higher minimum wages (and similarly for other price floors) go to great lengths to argue that they won’t have an appreciable effect reducing employment (i.e., the law of demand has so little power that it essentially does not hold in that case); those who push for rent controls (and similarly for other price ceilings) go to similarly great lengths to argue that they won’t have an appreciable effect reducing the amount of rental housing available (i.e., the law of supply has so little power in that case that it essentially does not hold). They often supplement their “this is an exception” claims by hiring what Henry Hazlitt called “the best buyable minds” to produce “research” reverse-engineered to get the desired conclusions (for example, when the city of Seattle authorized a study of a higher minimum wage, and then authorized another study to contradict it when the results were adverse).
In fact, the pro-price control cases both misrepresent the analysis and contradict each other.
Minimum wage advocates present the issue as a simple leading question for low-skill workers: “If you could earn more per hour of work, wouldn’t you would be better off?” It is true that they would be willing to work more at higher wages, reflecting the law of supply, but higher wages reduce how many of their services employers will hire, reflecting the law of demand. Since you need both willing buyers and willing sellers for each market exchange, fewer of those labor services will be actually be employed as a result. Therefore, the framing of the question misrepresents what economics reveals would be the result.
Symmetrically, rent control advocates frame that issue as a simple leading question for renters: “If you could rent for less, wouldn’t you be better off?” It is true that reducing rents by law will increase how much housing renters will want (reflecting the law of demand), but rent control will reduce how much landlords will offer (reflecting the law of supply). Since you need both willing buyers and willing sellers for each market exchange, renters will get less housing, rather than more (although existing renters gain because the costs are focused on those not yet trying to rent in an area). The framing of the question again misrepresents what economics reveals would be the result.
Further, despite the fact than minimum wage increased supporters also support rent controls, those argument for each shows the glaring error in the argument for the other.
If higher mandated wages increase the amount of labor services offered, the reverse must also be true. Lower wages must reduce workers willingness to offer labor services. But if that is so, rent controls must, symmetrically, reduce landlords’ willingness to provide housing, and rent control will restrict rather than expand tenants’ housing options.
Similarly, if legislated lower rents increase willingness to rent housing, the reverse must also be true. Higher rents would reduce families’ willingness to rent housing. But if that is so, higher minimum wages must, symmetrically, reduce employers’ willingness to hire low-skill workers, and the minimum wage will restrict rather than expand their employment options.
Many violations of symmetry also haunt government stimulus claims.
Government spending supposedly created jobs. That is true as far as it goes, but those same resources, left in the hand of their owners, would have been spent elsewhere, also creating jobs. Treating those two options symmetrically reveals that government moves rather than creates jobs.
Government spending also supposedly generates multiplier effects, producing additional benefits beyond where those dollars are spent, because added incomes from government spending generate additional spending and still more income, etc. However, leaving those dollars with private individuals instead would have left them with more of their own incomes, triggering additional spending, which would have also led to parallel multiplier effects. Government spending delivers multiplied gains only at the expense of multiplied costs, but the latter are routinely ignored.
The economic approach also requires correctly counting benefits and costs. But double counting is common. Most commonly, jobs and income are both asserted as benefits, even though the jobs are actually the work that must be done (a cost, not a benefit) to earn the incomes.
The deficit financing involved with government stimulus is also misleadingly compared to tax financing. Tax financing imposes the full resource burden of government spending in the present. Deficits, however, defer much of the burden into the future (by forcing higher future taxes, crowding out future disposable income and consumption, to pay off the added debt or finance it over time).
While these symmetry failures do not exhaust the cornucopia of examples, they reveal that it is not uncommon for multiple logical and economic errors to be incorporated in public policy proposals. Each one becomes a faulty premise in the analysis. And as I emphasized in my book, Faulty Premises, Faulty Policies, “When there are several false premises, the odds turn heavily against the likelihood of good policy…while the ability to use such tools to misrepresent or deceive increases sharply.”Boo is all about the microchipping.
Boo is all about the microchipping.
FROM 2016 ONWARDS all dogs in Ireland will have to be microchipped.
The Department of Agriculture has announced that a microchipping programme will begin with puppies in September of this year, before being expanded to all dogs in March 2016.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said that widespread microchipping will have a number of positive benefits, including “speedily uniting stray dogs with their owners”.
He said it will also act as “a deterrent for those who abandon dogs and assist in identifying marauding dogs and those that pose a threat to livestock or people”.
Microchipping is not currently mandatory but is needed to apply for a dog passport.
Coveney said that many “responsible owners” have already had their dogs microchipped, adding it is important they ensure registered details are up to date and correct “so that if their dog is lost they can be contacted”.
The minister said the cost of implanting microchips and data registration services has fallen in recent times.
He added that “the disadvantaged in society who own a dog” can avail of “quite a number of subsidised microchipping initiatives” introduced by animal welfare charities.
Coveney is a big fan of dogs.
Source: Mike Shaughnessy
He REALLY loves them.
Source: Mike Shaughnessy
Big or small.
Source: MerrionStreet.ieThis blog is part of our Rails 5 series.
Cache Digests
After cache digests were introduced in Rails, all calls to #cache in views automatically append a digest of that template and all of its dependencies to the cache key.
So developers no longer need to manually discard cache for the specific templates they make changes to.
# app/views/users/show.html.erb < % cache user do %> <h1> All Posts < /h1> <%= render user.posts %> <% end %> # app/ views / posts / _post. html. erb < % cache post do %> <p> < %= post.content %></p> <p> <%= post. created_at. to_s %> <%= render 'posts/completed' %> < % end %>
This creates a caching key something like this views/users/605416233-20129410191209/d9fb66b12bx8edf46707c67ab41d93cb2 which depends upon the template and its dependencies.
So, now if we change posts/_completed.html.erb, it will change cache key and thus it allows cache to expire automatically.
Explicit dependencies
As we saw in our earlier example, Rails was able to determine template dependencies implicitly. But, sometimes it is not possible to determine dependencies at all.
Let’s see an example below.
# app/views/users/show.html.erb < % cache user do %> <h1> All Posts < /h1> <%= render user.posts %> <% end %> # app/ views / posts / _post. html. erb < % cache post do %> <p> < %= post.content %></p> <p> <%= post. created_at. to_s %> <%= render_post_complete_or_not(post) %> < % end %> # app/helpers/posts_helper.rb module PostsHelper def render_post_complete_or_not ( post ) if post. completed? render 'posts/complete' else render 'posts/incomplete' end end end
To explicitly add dependency on this template, we need to add a comment in special format as follows.
<%# Template Dependency: posts/complete %> <%# Template Dependency: posts/incomplete %>
If we have multiple dependencies, we need to add special comments for all the dependencies one by one.
# app/views/posts/_post.html.erb < % cache post do %> <p> < %= post.content %></p> <p> <%= post. created_at. to_s %> <%# Template Dependency: posts/complete %> < %# Template Dependency: posts/incomplete %> <%= render_post_complete_or_not(post) %> <% end %>
Using Wildcard in Rails 5
In Rails 5, we can now use a wildcard for adding dependencies on multiple files in a directory. So, instead of adding files one by one we can add dependency using wildcard.The Bears likely would have called on their tight ends to provide chip help for their offensive tackles if it was needed Sunday, but Charles Leno and Bobby Massie held up well against a talented Falcons front.
Mike Glennon was sacked four times in the 23-17 loss at Soldier Field, but the tackles stood out —a positive sign for an organization that considered change in the offseason. The Bears made a run at signing right tackle Ricky Wagner in free agency. When he chose to sign with the Lions, Massie's spot was safe.
Massie missed only one block in pass protection, allowing defensive end Derrick Shelby to come free off the edge, but it didn't result in a hit on Glennon. Massie was lined up across from seven pass rushers over the course of the game, and he dealt with Vic Beasley the most (22 rushes), stalemating last year's NFL's leader in sacks (15.5).
Leno also played well, making the four-year, $38 million extension the Bears gave him last month look like money well spent. Glennon isn't mobile, so he needs a clean pocket. The majority of pressures Sunday — including the sack by Brooks Reed on the final offensive snap — happened because Bears receivers weren't open. The Falcons played man coverage and used rovers, eliminating option routes at the goal line.
Massie was quick off the ball. Officials missed one false start he should have been called for on the final drive, but it was a much better debut than he had a year ago. Left guard Tom Compton was steady filling in for Kyle Long and right guard Josh Sitton played well, getting a nice block on the edge on Tarik Cohen's 15-yard run in the first quarter.
Center Cody Whitehair had the toughest day dealing with Grady Jarrett on the inside as he was called for two penalties and had two poor snaps. Offensive line grade: 7.
Quarterback
Photos of former Bears quarterback Mike Glennon.
Grade: 5
The Bears are deficient at wide receiver and will scramble this week after Kevin White was placed on injured reserve. Any evaluation of Glennon must account for this. Glennon took care of the football and that was the first order of business for coach John Fox, playing a turnover-free game. He didn't take many shots downfield but did throw a pretty deep ball to Cohen that linebacker De'Vondre Campbell broke up in the end zone. Glennon needed to find a way to make a play from the 5-yard line in the closing minutes. One pass went off the fingertips of Josh Bellamy and running back Jordan Howard took his eyes off a throw and dropped a ball at the 1-yard line.
Running backs
Grade: 8
Cohen was slippery in his debut, rushing for 66 yards on five carries and turning what would have been a loss into a 46-yard gain when he reversed field. The Bears didn't throw to him once in preseason, and that was a ruse as he was targeted a game-high 12 times, catching eight passes for 47 yards. He could prove more valuable catching the ball out of the backfield than former Bear Matt Forte because of his ability to avoid tacklers. Howard really didn't get a chance to get lathered up, finishing with only 13 carries for 52 yards. He didn't elude many defenders and was best running straight ahead.
Wide receivers
Grade: 3
Kendall Wright, Deonte Thompson and Kevin White all did a nice job blocking on the edge for the running game. White had a drop before he left with an injury and ran a poor route when Glennon looked his way on a curl. Thompson and Bellamy came up with big catches in the fourth quarter and Wright is going to be a solid slot option. No one challenged Falcons cornerbacks Desmond Trufant and Robert Alford deep downfield.
Photos from the Bears-Falcons Week 1 game at Soldier Field on Sept. 10, 2017.
Tight ends
Grade: 5
Dion Sims proved physical and nimble in the open field and should get more looks. Zach Miller looks like he's already a preferred target for Glennon. Second-round draft pick Adam Shaheen is being brought along slowly. He logged only eight snaps.
Defensive line
Grade: 9
Defensive end Akiem Hicks was a tremendous force the day after signing his four-year extension with $30 million guaranteed. He sacked Matt Ryan twice, was a wall against the run and overpowered right guard Wes Schweitzer. The only negative was a roughing-the-passer call when Hicks took two full steps after the ball was out and took Ryan to the ground. That moved the chains for the Falcons on third down, and they kicked a field goal on that drive. Nose tackle Eddie Goldman was stout in a good battle with center Alex Mack. Jonathan Bullard handled double teams well as did Roy Robertson-Harris, who added a pass deflection, batting down a ball headed for a wide-open Mohamed Sanu. The line bottled up a potent running game.For Muslim men in India, getting a divorce can be as easy as 1-2-3 — just say the word “talaq” three times.
The practice of talaq-ul-bidat — or “triple talaq” — allows male Muslims in India to end their marriage by saying the phrase, which is increasingly being emailed or texted to women. And despite being frowned upon by strict Muslims and being banned in Pakistan, Bangladesh and throughout the rest of the Muslim world, the custom pervades India, home to the world’s third-largest Muslim population.
But the country’s supreme court now “looks set” to declare triple talaq unconstitutional, as well as another law that forces women who remarry their husbands to first have sex with another man, The Guardian reports.
“It is a totally unilateral, one-sided, instant form of divorce, and uttered by men,” activist Zakia Soman told The Guardian. “The wife need not be present. She need not even be aware.”
Soman, co-founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, or Indian Muslim Women’s Movement, said a national study released last year by her organization found that roughly 1 in 11 Muslim women were survivors of triple talaq, with the vast majority receiving no compensation.
“The reason triple talaq has persisted is first and foremost because Indian Muslims are poor, socially backward, economically backward and educationally backward,” she told The Guardian. “As a result, there is a stranglehold by patriarchal elements posing as religious leaders. And they have spread rampant misinformation and misunderstanding.”
A ban on the custom would remove the threat of a “trapdoor divorce” for up to 90 million Muslim women in India, where Muslims can be governed by sharia, or religious law.
“But the law doesn’t state the minimum age of marriage, the procedure for divorce, or polygamy, or the guardianship of children,” Soman said. “The law just says they’ll be governed by sharia. But which sharia? Whose sharia?”
The challenge by Soman’s group to Muslim divorce laws in the country boils down to her belief that she and any other Muslim woman has the same right to interpret the Quran as any cleric or religious scholar.
“Triple talaq is totally un-Quranic,” Soman told The Guardian. “The Quran nowhere has any mention of it. A Muslim marriage is a social contract and the right to divorce is given to both husband and wife.”
‘It is a totally unilateral, one-sided, instant form of divorce, and uttered by men. The wife need not be present. She need not even be aware.’ - Zakia Soman
Meanwhile, the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board filed an affidavit last month arguing that absent the right of instant divorce, a husband “may resort to illegal, criminal ways of murdering or burning [his wife] alive,” The Guardian reports.
One 45-year-old woman told the newspaper she feared hearing the words from her now-former husband for more than a decade.
“If you interfere too much in my life, I’ll give you talaq,” said a woman identified only as Arshiya, recalling the words of her husband when she caught him talking online to other women.
The woman said she actually missed her husband saying he wanted a divorce.
“One day, suddenly, he told me he had given me talaq,” she recalled. “He said, ‘I gave it to you four days earlier.’”
Arshiya continued: “I literally begged him. I went down on my knees and said, ‘If you want to have affairs, go, just don’t throw me out of the house.’ Where will I go with my child? I don’t have a steady job – what will I do?”
Since her husband chose to have an Islamic divorce instead of one under India’s secular laws, Arshiya was denied the one-third of his salary to which she was legally entitled as alimony. She’s now working |
of pristine glaciers and crystal-clear mountain springs. We now have "luxury" water bars and "premium" bottled water. Some people are spending 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they typically are for tap. Is it worth the cost—to you and the environment?
How is water regulated?
It's regulated by different agencies, with different missions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversees the quality of water that comes out of your tap, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for ensuring the safety and truthful labeling of bottled water sold nationally. States are responsible for regulating water that is both packaged and sold within its borders (which is most of the bottled-water market), but one in five states doesn't even bother.
It's important to note that the federal government does not require bottled water to be safer than tap. In fact, just the opposite is true in many cases. Tap water in most big cities must be disinfected, filtered to remove pathogens, and tested for cryptosporidium and giardia viruses. Bottled water does not have to be.
Both kinds of water are tested regularly for bacteria and most synthetic organic chemicals, but city tap is typically assessed much more frequently. For example, bottled-water plants must test for coliform bacteria just once a week; city tap needs to be tested 100 or more times a month.
Limits on chemical pollution for both categories are almost identical. The one place where bottled water might have the edge is in the case of lead; because many older homes have lead pipes, the EPA standard for tap water is less strict—one-third of the FDA's standard for lead in bottled water.
OK—but which type of water is actually safer?
In 1999, after a four-year review of the bottled-water industry and its safety standards, NRDC concluded that there is no assurance that bottled water is cleaner or safer than tap. In fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle—sometimes further treated, sometimes not.
Of the 1,000 bottles tested, the majority proved to be relatively clean and pure. About 22 percent of the brands tested contained chemicals at levels above state health limits in at least one sample. If consumed over a long period of time, some of those contaminants could cause cancer or other health problems for people with weakened immune systems.
Though it's mostly safe, tap might at times also present issues—especially if you live in a rural community with a higher likelihood of pesticide runoff contamination, or if you get your water from a private (unregulated) well or live in an older home.
Under "right-to-know" provisions in the drinking water law, all tap suppliers must provide annual quality reports to their customers. You also can test your water yourself. Standard consumer test packages are available through large commercial labs at a relatively reasonable price. Call your state drinking-water program or the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791) for a list of contacts.
Your water report will point out possible risks to health; fortunately, a home filter designed explicitly to strip contaminants will resolve most cases. If you want to take extra precautions, you should purchase filters certified by NSF International. These models are designed to filter out specific contaminants, so you can select one based on your needs.
If I still want (or need) to buy bottled water, how do I know what I'm buying?
Even though both the federal government and most states have bottled-water safety programs, regulations don't adequately assure consumers of either purity or safety. A few state bottled-water programs (for example, those in Massachusetts and New York) maintain lists of the sources, but not all do.
Carefully check the label and even the cap; if it says "from a municipal source" or "from a community water system," this means it's derived from tap. If you don't find any information on the bottle, you can call the bottler or the bottled-water program in your state or the state where it was packaged and ask about the source.
Could the actual bottle pose a health risk?
Recent research suggests there might be cause for concern. Chemicals called phthalates, which are known to disrupt testosterone and other hormones, can leach into bottled water over time. One study found that water that had been stored for 10 weeks in plastic and in glass bottles containing phthalates, suggesting that the chemicals could be coming from the plastic cap or liner. Although there are regulatory standards limiting phthalates in tap, there are no legal limits in bottled water; the bottled-water industry waged a successful campaign opposing the FDA proposal to set a legal limit for these chemicals.Apr 5, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Nik Stauskas (L) and guard T.J. McConnell (R) during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans at Wells Fargo Center. The Philadelphia 76ers won 107-93. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
The Philadelphia 76ers point guard T.J. McConnell came into summer league with a new hair-do, largely inspired by his girlfriend.
Summer league is here, and for Philadelphia 76ers fans, that means we get our first look at some of the new players, as well as some of the older players. This year’s summer league roster is comprised of some drafted rookies — including first overall pick Ben Simmons — some international players, some undrafted rookies, and some former D-League players. On top of that, the Sixers have some sophomore players on their squad.
Everyone is looking for their spot in the NBA, and in some cases, really fighting hard for a spot.
One of the second-year players joining the Sixers is point guard T.J. McConnell, who was the underdog in last year’s summer league that actually ended up making the Sixers’ final roster, and finished the year with the team. Although his future is in question with the recent signing of Sergio Rodriguez, he’s getting the opportunity in summer league to remind the Sixers why they drafted him.
What we also saw when McConnell took the court for the first time, among his basketball abilities, was his new hairdo, which has a bit more length than his usual buzz cut.
Brian Seltzer, Sixers.com reporter, asked McConnell about the new ‘do, and McConnell said that the new hairdo actually was because of his girlfriend.
“I’ve got to get the sides cut first, it’s getting a little out of hand. But you can thank my girlfriend for that one, she said, ‘buzz cut’s got to go.'”
The hairdo was the talk of Twitter when the Sixers’ first summer league game began on July 4th, and some even thought McConnell had dyed it. Nik Stauskas assured everyone that he wouldn’t let his friend do that to himself.
Haha don't worry I'll make sure he doesn't do anything too crazy! https://t.co/GTa1iW4Qd8 — Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) July 5, 2016
Also, this was pretty funny.
I love TJ McConnell pic.twitter.com/IpKGw7FQMz — Jim Adair (@jimadair3) July 5, 2016
Jokes aside, it’s great to see McConnell back on the floor, and I love his new hairdo. Although I think it may be a tight competition for McConnell to make the final roster and get valuable minutes during games next season, I do hope that McConnell can surprise us all yet agin next season.There are a vast number of physically possible universes. A universe that would be hospitable to the appearance of life must conform to some very strict conditions. Everything from the mass ratios of atomic particles and the number of dimensions of space to the cosmological parameters that rule the expansion of the universe must be just right for stable galaxies, solar systems, planets, and complex life to evolve. The percentage of possible universes that would support life is infinitesimally small (from 2). Our universe is one of those infinitesimally improbable universes. Our universe has been fine-tuned to support life (from 3 and 4). There is a Fine-Tuner (from 5). Only God could have the power and the purpose to be the Fine- Tuner. God exists.
Everything that has a beginning of its existence has a cause of its existence; The universe has a beginning of its existence; Therefore: The universe has a cause of its existence. (Implied) God is that cause.
This argument is at least based on something that is most likely true--the Big Bang Theory. So, I won't argue premise 2. As much as they like the Big Bang, apologists stop paying attention to the science after it can be used to support their beliefs. Traditional causation could very well not apply in general at the quantum level in which we find the singularity, and especially in the case of the universe with no prior time or space for a cause to occur or God to exist. The Big Bang, after all, isn't just the beginning of our universe, but also space and time as we understand it. To posit otherwise is merely an "of the gaps" argument. The implication of 4 is hasty now that there are more hypotheses than ever for possible causes of the universe and likely others that haven't occurred to us. In the end, the biggest weakness is that the argument establishes a rule because a lack of counter examples and then arbitrarily makes what they want to believe an exception. If we say that everything that begins to exist has a cause because we have no examples of things that exist without a cause, then we can also say everything that exists is within time and space because we have no examples of things that exist outside time and space. Since apologists require their God to be outside time and space for this argument to work, they would have to explain why the first statement is legitimate while the second it not.
The Ontological Argument: Invalid, basically it's just wordplay.
Nothing greater than God can be conceived (this is stipulated as part of the definition of “God”). It is greater to exist than not to exist. If we conceive of God as not existing, then we can conceive of some-thing greater than God (from 2). To conceive of God as not existing is not to conceive of God (from 1 and 3). It is inconceivable that God not exist (from 4). God exists.
"Greater" is a value judgement that can vary from person to person, which is problematic to this argument. However, the real problem is that the argument works for any concept that includes the linguistic trick of including "must exist" in it's definition. For example, if one said the Fly Spaghetti Monster exists, by definition, then it exists. Somehow I doubt many Christian apologists would accept that definition. Nor should they, because existence isn't a property one can prescribe conceptually. Neither is "greatness" for that matter.
There exist objective moral truths. (Slavery and torture and genocide are not just distasteful to us, but are actually wrong.) These objective moral truths are not grounded in the way the world is but, rather, in the way the world ought to be. The world itself—the way it is, the laws of science that explain why it is that way—cannot account for the way the world ought to be. The only way to account for morality is that God established morality (from 2 and 3). God exists.
This argument, had we just a little more supporting knowledge, could make me deist. It says that the physical laws and constants that allow for a life-sustaining universe lie in a very small fraction of the possible spectrum of values and the fact that our universe is within that unlikely range is evidence that it was designed with us in mind. Many atheists argue the anthropic principle here, which says that we can only come to this conclusion because we are, in fact, here. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t. Obvious, I know. The anthropic principle is worthwhile when arguing against the fine tuning of earth specifically, but we don't have enough information for it to be meaningful in terms of the fine tuning of the universe.The difference is that the variables that can vary widely and affect the possibility of life on a planet (such as distance from a star, having a moon/asteroid belt to deflect impacts with space objects, the presence of water, etc.) are most likely all fulfilled throughout the universe. There are enough planets that one can say, “sure, we are alive on this planet because we couldn’t be alive elsewhere.” However, we can only account for one universe.this universe is all there has ever been, andthe aforementioned laws and constants can vary to the degree apologists claim, then I agree that we are such a coincidence that a designer is a better explanation than chance. I’m just not convinced because those "if"s are not answered. I tend to think that the laws and constants can vary, but that enough other universes either have, will or currently exist to make the anthropic principle meaningful--but that’s just personal speculation.I don’t know if this is the worst argument for God in my book, but it is certainly the worst of those still popular in the apologetic community. Why? Because it haspoints of failure. There isthat shows that God is a redundant factor if objective morality is valid. There is the impossibility of ascertaining exactly what the objective morals are if they exist, unless. of course, they are defined by humans in relation to social interactions which would discount a need of a supernatural law giver. There is the question if morality is objective at all (I see morality as a broad concept including the possibility for a variety of moral codes--which may be applied objectively but are hardly transcendent.) There is evolutionary biology that suggests moral instincts are selected traits which are passed down genetically. I feel apologists over estimate the argument’s power because the opposition can seem scatter brained when refuting it because the number of ways to refute it makes one’s mind spin out. That, and it’s the one argument that allows them to both claim there is a god and take the moral high ground in one fallacious move.Disclaimer: This article is part of my series on free agency from the perspective of the agent, where I prepare Scott Boras-esque “books” that detail where each player stands in the marketplace and why he deserves as much of your team’s money as possible. Normally, my goal is to use statistics and historical context to present the most accurate depiction of football that I can, but in this series, all I want to do is convince you to spend money on the player in question. As a result, I may include information or suggest comparisons that I don’t necessarily agree with, just as an agent might try to play up his clients’ strengths. Keep that in mind when you’re reading. (For more on this, check out the Monday piece on Mike Wallace that started this series, and Tuesday’s article covering Matt Flynn.)
Once every few years, a game-changing pass-rusher hits the market and inspires his team to hit new defensive heights. Reggie White. Kevin Greene. Julius Peppers. Mario Williams is the next player in that group of legendary acquisitions, a one-man wrecking crew who carried a dormant Texans unit on his back for five seasons. And while those players were acquired after they had passed their athletic primes, Williams just turned 27 in January; he’s about to hit his athletic peak. As the most well-rounded and versatile lineman in this year’s class, Mario Williams is the sort of player that can make a bad defense good, a good defense great, and a great defense legendary. His combination of proven performance, elite athleticism, and room to grow with age makes him the most valuable defensive player to ever hit unrestricted free agency.
The Preeminent Young Pass-Rusher
Mario Williams creates havoc in the offensive backfield to an extent that only the best defenders in football can match. Unfortunately, because he hasn’t had the players around him to complement that rare pass rushing ability, his performances haven’t received the sort of notoriety that more prominent players have gotten. The Texans finally put together a secondary to take advantage of Williams’ rushing ability in 2011, but after five sacks in five games, Williams suffered his only major injury as a pro, a torn pectoral muscle that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. If we put Williams’ performance in context by accounting for that season and the players around him, a masterful pass-rusher is revealed.
What’s first impressive about Williams is how successful he has been without the presence of a second significant pass-rusher to play alongside him. Other pass-rushers who have hit free agency in recent years have had dynamic rushers on the other side of the field to take the heat away. Ray Edwards had Jared Allen, and Allen had Tamba Hali. Robert Mathis had Dwight Freeney. There was not a player of any note to operate across from Williams before 2011, and teams keyed on that fact by doubling Williams on virtually every single play.
Despite those double-teams, though, Williams was still able to sack the quarterback at a truly impressive rate. From 2006 through 2010, the Texans sacked opposing passers 143 times. Williams had 48 of those sacks, accounting for more than one of every three Texans sacks by himself. Over that time frame, only two players produced a higher percentage of their team’s sacks than Williams did:
PIECE OF THE TEAM SACKS PIE 2006-10 Player Sacks Team Sacks Percentage 1 DeMarcus Ware 72 207.5 34.7% 2 Robert Mathis 48.5 144 33.7% 3 Mario Williams 48 143 33.6% 4 Jared Allen 63 190 33.2% 5 John Abraham 49 154 31.8% 6 Tamba Hali 41.5 136 30.5% 7 Dwight Freeney 43 144 29.9% 8 Julius Peppers 48.5 162.5 29.8% 9 Aaron Kampman 44.5 172 25.9% 10 Trent Cole 52 206 25.2%
Williams was the only Texans player during that five-year stretch to produce six or more sacks in a season, something he did in four consecutive years. Other teams knew that he was coming and that he was the only person they really needed to worry about, and they still couldn’t stop him. That says a lot about Williams’ ability to be “the man” on a defense, the guy to whom the unit turns when they need a big play.
What’s even more incredible is that Williams was doing all this at a remarkably young age. For a 25-year-old to average nearly 10 sacks per season over a five-year stretch is nearly unprecedented. In fact, since the NFL started tracking sacks in 1983, only two players have accrued more sacks by the time they turned 26 than Mario Williams: Derrick Thomas and Dwight Freeney.
SACKS BY THE AGES Sacks by 26 Player Sacks 1 Derrick Thomas 58 2 Dwight Freeney 51 3 Mario Williams 48 4 Tim Harris 48 5 Terrell Suggs 45 6 Bruce Smith 44.5 7 Simeon Rice 44 8 Shawne Merriman 43.5 9 Jared Allen 43 10 Elvis Dumervil 43
If you want to give Williams credit for that sack-per-game pace and suggest that he would have finished a fully healthy 2011 season with 16 sacks, that would give him a total of 64 sacks through the completion of his age-26 season. The only player with more sacks than that through 26 would be Thomas, and even he would only be two ahead of Williams.
Let’s include that 2011 season in the analysis, because once you account for the lost time, Williams’ production just becomes all that much more impressive. Over the past five years, Mario Williams has sacked opposing quarterbacks 48.5 times in just 66 games. That’s an average of 0.73 sacks per game, or just under 12 sacks per full season. It’s a figure that’s also only been topped by two players.
SACKING THE AVERAGE 2007-11 Player Team(s) Sacks per Game 1 DeMarcus Ware DAL 1.00 2 Jared Allen MIN/KC 0.99 3 Mario Williams HOU 0.73 4 James Harrison PIT 0.73 5 Trent Cole PHI 0.71 6 Osi Umenyiora NYG 0.71 7 Elvis Dumervil DEN 0.71 8 John Abraham ATL 0.70 9 LaMarr Woodley PIT 0.69 10 Dwight Freeney IND 0.66
Hitting His Peak
Furthermore, whichever team signs Mario Williams as he heads into free agency for the first time can expect to get a player at the top of his game, because elite pass-rushers peak at ages 26-28 before beginning a decline that becomes steep in their 30s. To test this, we took the top 50 pass-rushers (by career sacks) since the NFL started tracking the statistic and measured how many sacks they accrued per game at each age. (We assigned each season to a particular age by noting their birth date as of the opening game of the season.)
Based on how those sack artists performed historically, they peaked at age 27 by sacking quarterbacks 0.71 times per game. Remember from the previous table that Williams has been sacking opposing quarterbacks at a slightly higher rate — 0.73 times per game — over the past five seasons, when he was 22-26. These dominant pass-rushers put up a roughly similar performance at ages 26 and 28 before beginning to decline thereafter.
The real dropoff comes at age 32, when the top 50 pass-rushers average 0.53 sacks per game and never again approach an average above that half-sack-per-game figure. You’ll note that the market’s two other prominent defensive ends are 31-year-old Robert Mathis and 33-year-old John Abraham. Each of those players have likely already played his best football. Your team can lock up Mario Williams on a five-year deal and actually see him play out the entire contract before he can be expected to suffer any sort of serious decline.
Conclusion
Mario Williams can do a lot of things. He can play as a defensive end in a 4-3. He can move to outside linebacker in a 3-4. He can play the run effectively. He can bounce to either side of the line. What your organization is going to pay Mario Williams to do, though, is rush the passer and create big plays for your defense. And when you put the numbers in their proper context, the only player in football who compares to Mario Williams as a young pass-rusher forced to go it alone is DeMarcus Ware. Other teams will get a veteran and hope that he hasn’t lost it. Only one will get the sure thing, a superstar in the prime of his career.
To be quite honest, Mario Williams shouldn’t be a free agent. The Houston Texans failing to negotiate a contract extension with Williams before his deal expired will go down as one of the great mistakes in league history, like the Eagles failing to lock up Reggie White, or the Falcons letting Deion Sanders go. Their inability to lock up Williams with the franchise tag is going to be a franchise-defining moment for two teams: the Texans and whatever team is lucky enough to add the most valuable defender in the history of free agency to their roster.You probably need to see a professional.
I hate to bring this up, but wanting to see all of your comments, I went to your history and noticed that you post some pretty disturbing things on here. For example, "retarded babies", you refer to women as "plates" which makes me suspicious that you might actually be a cheater considering that you might be pursuing other women while with your girlfriend.
"A plate of mine was talking about retarded babies being a gift and a blessing infront of her friends. I said some thing to the effect of "dressing up a burden to look like an angel doesn't mean you have an angel. It means your lying to yourself." The chorus of angry voices rising in unison was comical. These women were actually defending retarded babies as being as good or better than a healthy child."
The way you talk about women is a little disturbing and you spend a lot of time on TwoX just trying to argue with people about women. I don't doubt that maybe you distrust women if your relationship with your ex was very bad, but maybe your current girlfriend has started feeling some abuse from YOU. It was not cool of her to contact your ex, but I can see this sub understanding it from her side too if she has been feeling abusive behaviors from you.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Vigils have been held across the US - including this one in Washington DC
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised US President Barack Obama for his silence over the murder of three Muslim students in the US.
He said politicians were responsible for events in their countries and had to clarify their stance over them.
More than 5,000 people attended the funeral of the students who were shot dead in North Carolina on Tuesday.
With a suspect in custody, police are still investigating the motive, amid family claims it was a hate crime.
The shootings took place in the town of Chapel Hill. Initial indications are that the gunman, Craig Hicks, acted in a dispute with the victims over a parking space, according to the police.
A district prosecutor said on Wednesday there was no evidence that the victims - Deah Shaddy Barakat, wife Yusor Mohammad and her sister Razan - had been targeted because of their faith.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Erdogan: "If you stay silent when faced with an incident like this, and don't make a statement, the world will stay silent towards you"
However, at Thursday's funeral in Raleigh, the local police chief said his force would investigate every lead, including the possibility of a hate crime.
The murders have resonated both within US and around the world, especially on social media. The hashtag ChapelHillShooting has been used hundreds of thousands of times.
Image copyright AP Image caption Thousands attended the funeral in North Carolina on Thursday
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Turkish leader made his comments while on a visit to Mexico
Speaking on a visit to Mexico, Mr Erdogan criticised Mr Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and US Vice-President Joe Biden for not having made any statement about the murder of the "three Muslims".
"If you stay silent when faced with an incident like this, and don't make a statement, the world will stay silent towards you," he said.
"As politicians, we are responsible for everything that happens in our countries and we have to show our positions."
Mr Erdogan is a devout Sunni Muslim who has been increasingly critical of the treatment of Muslims living in Western societies.
His relations with the Obama administration have also come under strain over the conflict in Syria and Iraq.
Turkey and the US are allies in the campaign against Islamic State militants, but differences over tactics have emerged over the last six months.
At the funerals - Rajini Vaidyanathan, BBC News
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Thousands gathered to pay last respects - Rajini Vaidyanathan reports
"Everybody is your neighbour, everybody is family here," was how one mourner described the Chapel Hill/Raleigh area, where the students lived.
Home to a number of university campuses, as well as tech and science companies in the so called "research triangle", people say it's a tolerant and open minded place. Which makes these murders all the more shocking.
Deah and Yusor and Razan have been described to me as smart, popular, fun students who worked hard and enjoyed sport. Above all, people remember them as kind, supportive and selfless. That they could provoke so much anger in a mere parking dispute - enough to cut their short lives short - is utterly inexplicable to people.
This is a hate crime, people told me time and time again - the victims' religion can't be divorced from the context of the crime, they said.
Sarah, who grew up with all three and says she's experienced Islamophobia, articulated a view many shared: "You have to have a lot of hate in your heart to kill three people in cold blood, and over a parking spot, it's ridiculous to say this was just that".
Neighbours stunned by triple murder
In pictures: Chapel Hill vigils
Thursday's funeral was held at the athletic fields of North Carolina State University where all three victims had been students. Police estimate 5,500 people attended the event.
The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan says many mourners felt the murders were sparked by something far deeper than a parking row.
"When we say this was a hate crime, it is all about protecting all other children in the USA,'' the father of the two sisters killed in the attack, Dr Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, said.
"It's all about making this country that they loved, where they lived and died, peaceful for everybody else.''
Image copyright AFP Image caption A vigil was held for the victims at the University of North Carolina, where all three were students
Mr Hicks gave himself up to police and has been charged with the murders. His Facebook profile included a photo that read "Atheists for Equality". He also frequently posted quotes critical of religion.
But Mr Hicks's wife Karen said the incident had nothing to do with religion and her husband treated everyone equally. He also apparently had a history of conflicts with neighbours over parking spaces.
Mr Barakat was a dental student at the university and his wife was planning to enrol in the school in the next term.
Muslim and civil rights organisations held more vigils across the country for Thursday evening.
There has been criticism of a perceived lack of coverage in the mainstream media with the hashtag MuslimLivesMatter mentioned almost 100,000 times in the day following the shooting.The creators of the world’s first working hoverboard have turned their sights toward larger-scale projects, patenting a three-part hovering foundation system to defend houses in earthquake- and flood-prone areas facing threats from natural disasters. The basic idea: decouple buildings from the ground temporarily, isolating them from unwanted movement happening below and around them.
Arx Pax, based in Silicon Valley and the creators of the Hendo Hoverboard using Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA), designed this new approach to floating homes during emergencies, using a buffer medium over a construction platform. Their physical technologies will be connected to ShakeAlert, an automatic warning software developed in part by the University of California, Berkeley and the U.S. Geological Survey.
“The ShakeAlert program aligns well with our long-term vision,” said Greg Henderson, co-founder and CEO at Arx Pax. “Weaving ShakeAlert into our MFA seismic isolation solution provides a valuable new tool to architects, engineers, and developers who are looking for a better way to build in areas affected by earthquakes. Our goal is to eliminate structural movement by pinpointing the exact time an object or building’s ‘landing gear’ should retract and activate the hover engines.”
Currently, many large buildings already have countermeasures to protect them from strong winds or earthquake forces, but few small structures can afford similar protections. Arx Pax hopes to make similar approaches cost-effective for individual houses and lower buildings in general, raising them up in the face of floodwaters or shaking ground.
In addition to helping homeowners, Arx Pax sees applications for this technology for places including surgical operating rooms where stability is essential or laboratories, server farms and other spaces with sensitively calibrated equipment.R.L. Stine’s signature children’s horror series Goosebumps has already been given the feature film treatment, but now his more mature book series Fear Street is heading to the big screen. However, this adaptation of the young adult series may shake things up a bit when it comes to how they’re released into theaters.
20th Century Fox is looking to release three different Fear Street films that would be shot back-to-back and then also release back-to-back one month after another. We’re basically looking at a Netflix binge for a theatrically released franchise.
The Hollywood Reporter announced the details of the Fear Street movie trilogy with a unique release plan. While this has the concern of putting the horse before the cart, the release strategy might be intriguing enough to get audiences to pay attention, though I can’t imagine it becoming the norm for film franchises down the road.
Leigh Janiak (director of the indie Honeymoon) is the filmmaker tasked with rewriting and directing the first Fear Street movie (originally scripted by Kyle Killen), which was first announced for a film adaptation back in 2015. However, the trade reports that several sources revealed Janiak’s deal calls for her to write/rewrite three different scripts with the intention of shooting and releasing them back-to-back.
This strategy could just be a discussion happening behind the scenes, but along with Janiak’s deal, Zak Olkewicz (Lights Out) has already been hired to write the second script while Silka Luisa (To the Bone) will write the third. So even if the release strategy doesn’t come to fruition, 20th Century Fox is still planning on a Fear Street franchise, which makes sense since there were 52 books in the original series run, not to mention plenty of spin-offs that followed.
It’s not clear if the project from the Planet of the Apes prequel franchise producers Chernin Entertainment will be adapting specific books in the Fear Street franchise or creating new scary, sometimes supernatural stories that will take place in the fictional town of Shadyside, Ohio where all the books from the 1980s and 1990s took place. It’s also not clear if the series of movies would all share some kind of connection or if they would be standalone stories that just happen to take place in the same location.
Janiak may not be a household name, but she has the right kind of experience to make Fear Street happen. In addition to directing episodes of MTV’s Scream TV series, she was also working on a remake of The Craft, though she has since fallen away from that project. She clearly has a knack for horror and supernatural style stories, so this seems right up her alley. (Editor’s note: Her feature debut, Honeymoon, is not only really good, it’s really flippin’ scary.)
It sounds like it’s early days on the Fear Street movie trilogy plans, but we’ll keep our ear to the ground to see how this innovative franchise plan plays out.Anti-LGBT Pastor Warns of 'Sodomite' Semen in Starbucks Lattes
The homophobic minister who decried Starbucks patrons as 'upscale sodomites' who spread Ebola now says the chain is using the semen of'sodomites' to flavor its coffee.
The latest (brew-haha?) for coffee giant Starbucks relates to queers, bodily fluids, an anti-LGBT minister, and a faulty satire detector.
James David Manning has escalated his homophobic remarks to double venti levels with his contention that Starbucks uses “the semen of sodomites” as flavoring in its coffee.
The story starts with Manning’s assertion last week that Starbucks is “ground zero for spreading Ebola and other diseases” due to the “generally upscale sodomites” who frequent the coffee shops and “exchange a lot of body fluids.”
Since the video of Manning’s “upscale sodomites” remarks hit the Web, two things apparently set him off even more. One is that LGBT rights advocates protested outside Manning’s ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York. The other is that he evidently read a satirical post about Starbucks using semen in its drinks and mistook it for a real news story.
“Now this is the absolute truth,” he said in a video posted Wednesday. “There was a big article about an investigation into Starbucks using male semen and putting it into the blends of coffee that they sell. … My question is, where are they getting all this semen from? … My suspicions is that they’re getting their semen from sodomites … my suspicion is that semen … it has millions and millions of little zygotes in it, and it flavors up the coffee and it makes you thinks you’re having a good time drinking that cup of latte with the semen in it.”
Manning swears he isn’t making the story up and refers to reading a report in a publication called the Inquisitor. The only high-ranked Google result for “inquisitor Starbucks semen” is an Inquisitr item that explains that the rumors are not true — and it points to a satirical Huzlers.com post as the source of the claim. Here’s an excerpt from that story, published October 18:
“‘We can not believe this’ says FDA inspector Jamison Fields, ‘this is disturbing, if i wanted to consume semen I would just do gay pornography, who would’ve known i was consuming semen through Starbucks.’ … It is also speculated that the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte, which is only sold at Starbucks in the autumn, is not only loaded with semen, but cockroaches as well.” The Huzlers story also quotes a supposed Starbucks customer who doesn’t mind the semen because it makes the coffee taste so good and says, “I might just try semen alone to see if it’s that good.”
Huzlers has also run a satirical story — published March 3 of this year—with the contention that Starbucks was using breast milk in its beverages. Manning must have missed that one. Hopefully he’ll tune in if anyone runs a story contending that the company is using blood in the baked goods.
Manning has in the past accused President Barack Obama of “[releasing] homo demons on the black man” and asserted that gay athletes are pedophiles.
Here's the latest video from Manning:ASHBURN, Va. -- The production hasn't been there since the season opener and it continues to get worse. It's not what Alfred Morris or the Washington Redskins are used to -- and it's something that must change over the final nine games. If not, it could be the final nine of his Redskins' career.
Not all the issues are Morris' alone. He's gained just 9 yards before contact in the last three games -- he had 75 such yards in the season opener. That's a function of getting hit behind the line of scrimmage too often. But Morris hasn't helped himself, either, whether by breaking tackles or hitting holes quicker.
Here's a look at Morris' six carries against Tampa Bay and what went wrong:
First-and-10, own 20. Loss of 1 yard. The Redskins used a three-receiver alignment, forcing Tampa into a six-man box (with a seventh defender, the safety, walking up late). Morris ran an outside zone to the left for a loss.
The culprit: Left tackle Trent Williams was moved back 2 to 3 yards, forcing Morris to cut inside earlier than desired. Center Josh LeRibeus lost his block and right guard Brandon Scherff could not reach the linebackers -- they were positioned just 3 yards off the line, clearly anticipating a run.
First-and- |
see discussion of depth columns in text below. Right: The neurons from the Neural Network chapter remain unchanged: They still compute a dot product of their weights with the input followed by a non-linearity, but their connectivity is now restricted to be local spatially.
Spatial arrangement. We have explained the connectivity of each neuron in the Conv Layer to the input volume, but we haven’t yet discussed how many neurons there are in the output volume or how they are arranged. Three hyperparameters control the size of the output volume: the depth, stride and zero-padding. We discuss these next:
First, the depth of the output volume is a hyperparameter: it corresponds to the number of filters we would like to use, each learning to look for something different in the input. For example, if the first Convolutional Layer takes as input the raw image, then different neurons along the depth dimension may activate in presence of various oriented edges, or blobs of color. We will refer to a set of neurons that are all looking at the same region of the input as a depth column (some people also prefer the term fibre). Second, we must specify the stride with which we slide the filter. When the stride is 1 then we move the filters one pixel at a time. When the stride is 2 (or uncommonly 3 or more, though this is rare in practice) then the filters jump 2 pixels at a time as we slide them around. This will produce smaller output volumes spatially. As we will soon see, sometimes it will be convenient to pad the input volume with zeros around the border. The size of this zero-padding is a hyperparameter. The nice feature of zero padding is that it will allow us to control the spatial size of the output volumes (most commonly as we’ll see soon we will use it to exactly preserve the spatial size of the input volume so the input and output width and height are the same).
We can compute the spatial size of the output volume as a function of the input volume size (\(W\)), the receptive field size of the Conv Layer neurons (\(F\)), the stride with which they are applied (\(S\)), and the amount of zero padding used (\(P\)) on the border. You can convince yourself that the correct formula for calculating how many neurons “fit” is given by \((W - F + 2P)/S + 1\). For example for a 7x7 input and a 3x3 filter with stride 1 and pad 0 we would get a 5x5 output. With stride 2 we would get a 3x3 output. Lets also see one more graphical example:
Illustration of spatial arrangement. In this example there is only one spatial dimension (x-axis), one neuron with a receptive field size of F = 3, the input size is W = 5, and there is zero padding of P = 1. Left: The neuron strided across the input in stride of S = 1, giving output of size (5 - 3 + 2)/1+1 = 5. Right: The neuron uses stride of S = 2, giving output of size (5 - 3 + 2)/2+1 = 3. Notice that stride S = 3 could not be used since it wouldn't fit neatly across the volume. In terms of the equation, this can be determined since (5 - 3 + 2) = 4 is not divisible by 3.
The neuron weights are in this example [1,0,-1] (shown on very right), and its bias is zero. These weights are shared across all yellow neurons (see parameter sharing below).
Use of zero-padding. In the example above on left, note that the input dimension was 5 and the output dimension was equal: also 5. This worked out so because our receptive fields were 3 and we used zero padding of 1. If there was no zero-padding used, then the output volume would have had spatial dimension of only 3, because that it is how many neurons would have “fit” across the original input. In general, setting zero padding to be \(P = (F - 1)/2\) when the stride is \(S = 1\) ensures that the input volume and output volume will have the same size spatially. It is very common to use zero-padding in this way and we will discuss the full reasons when we talk more about ConvNet architectures.
Constraints on strides. Note again that the spatial arrangement hyperparameters have mutual constraints. For example, when the input has size \(W = 10\), no zero-padding is used \(P = 0\), and the filter size is \(F = 3\), then it would be impossible to use stride \(S = 2\), since \((W - F + 2P)/S + 1 = (10 - 3 + 0) / 2 + 1 = 4.5\), i.e. not an integer, indicating that the neurons don’t “fit” neatly and symmetrically across the input. Therefore, this setting of the hyperparameters is considered to be invalid, and a ConvNet library could throw an exception or zero pad the rest to make it fit, or crop the input to make it fit, or something. As we will see in the ConvNet architectures section, sizing the ConvNets appropriately so that all the dimensions “work out” can be a real headache, which the use of zero-padding and some design guidelines will significantly alleviate.
Real-world example. The Krizhevsky et al. architecture that won the ImageNet challenge in 2012 accepted images of size [227x227x3]. On the first Convolutional Layer, it used neurons with receptive field size \(F = 11\), stride \(S = 4\) and no zero padding \(P = 0\). Since (227 - 11)/4 + 1 = 55, and since the Conv layer had a depth of \(K = 96\), the Conv layer output volume had size [55x55x96]. Each of the 55*55*96 neurons in this volume was connected to a region of size [11x11x3] in the input volume. Moreover, all 96 neurons in each depth column are connected to the same [11x11x3] region of the input, but of course with different weights. As a fun aside, if you read the actual paper it claims that the input images were 224x224, which is surely incorrect because (224 - 11)/4 + 1 is quite clearly not an integer. This has confused many people in the history of ConvNets and little is known about what happened. My own best guess is that Alex used zero-padding of 3 extra pixels that he does not mention in the paper.
Parameter Sharing. Parameter sharing scheme is used in Convolutional Layers to control the number of parameters. Using the real-world example above, we see that there are 55*55*96 = 290,400 neurons in the first Conv Layer, and each has 11*11*3 = 363 weights and 1 bias. Together, this adds up to 290400 * 364 = 105,705,600 parameters on the first layer of the ConvNet alone. Clearly, this number is very high.
It turns out that we can dramatically reduce the number of parameters by making one reasonable assumption: That if one feature is useful to compute at some spatial position (x,y), then it should also be useful to compute at a different position (x2,y2). In other words, denoting a single 2-dimensional slice of depth as a depth slice (e.g. a volume of size [55x55x96] has 96 depth slices, each of size [55x55]), we are going to constrain the neurons in each depth slice to use the same weights and bias. With this parameter sharing scheme, the first Conv Layer in our example would now have only 96 unique set of weights (one for each depth slice), for a total of 96*11*11*3 = 34,848 unique weights, or 34,944 parameters (+96 biases). Alternatively, all 55*55 neurons in each depth slice will now be using the same parameters. In practice during backpropagation, every neuron in the volume will compute the gradient for its weights, but these gradients will be added up across each depth slice and only update a single set of weights per slice.
Notice that if all neurons in a single depth slice are using the same weight vector, then the forward pass of the CONV layer can in each depth slice be computed as a convolution of the neuron’s weights with the input volume (Hence the name: Convolutional Layer). This is why it is common to refer to the sets of weights as a filter (or a kernel), that is convolved with the input.
Example filters learned by Krizhevsky et al. Each of the 96 filters shown here is of size [11x11x3], and each one is shared by the 55*55 neurons in one depth slice. Notice that the parameter sharing assumption is relatively reasonable: If detecting a horizontal edge is important at some location in the image, it should intuitively be useful at some other location as well due to the translationally-invariant structure of images. There is therefore no need to relearn to detect a horizontal edge at every one of the 55*55 distinct locations in the Conv layer output volume.
Note that sometimes the parameter sharing assumption may not make sense. This is especially the case when the input images to a ConvNet have some specific centered structure, where we should expect, for example, that completely different features should be learned on one side of the image than another. One practical example is when the input are faces that have been centered in the image. You might expect that different eye-specific or hair-specific features could (and should) be learned in different spatial locations. In that case it is common to relax the parameter sharing scheme, and instead simply call the layer a Locally-Connected Layer.
Numpy examples. To make the discussion above more concrete, lets express the same ideas but in code and with a specific example. Suppose that the input volume is a numpy array X. Then:
A depth column (or a fibre) at position (x,y) would be the activations X[x,y,:].
would be the activations. A depth slice, or equivalently an activation map at depth d would be the activations X[:,:,d].
Conv Layer Example. Suppose that the input volume X has shape X.shape: (11,11,4). Suppose further that we use no zero padding (\(P = 0\)), that the filter size is \(F = 5\), and that the stride is \(S = 2\). The output volume would therefore have spatial size (11-5)/2+1 = 4, giving a volume with width and height of 4. The activation map in the output volume (call it V ), would then look as follows (only some of the elements are computed in this example):
V[0,0,0] = np.sum(X[:5,:5,:] * W0) + b0
V[1,0,0] = np.sum(X[2:7,:5,:] * W0) + b0
V[2,0,0] = np.sum(X[4:9,:5,:] * W0) + b0
V[3,0,0] = np.sum(X[6:11,:5,:] * W0) + b0
Remember that in numpy, the operation * above denotes elementwise multiplication between the arrays. Notice also that the weight vector W0 is the weight vector of that neuron and b0 is the bias. Here, W0 is assumed to be of shape W0.shape: (5,5,4), since the filter size is 5 and the depth of the input volume is 4. Notice that at each point, we are computing the dot product as seen before in ordinary neural networks. Also, we see that we are using the same weight and bias (due to parameter sharing), and where the dimensions along the width are increasing in steps of 2 (i.e. the stride). To construct a second activation map in the output volume, we would have:
V[0,0,1] = np.sum(X[:5,:5,:] * W1) + b1
V[1,0,1] = np.sum(X[2:7,:5,:] * W1) + b1
V[2,0,1] = np.sum(X[4:9,:5,:] * W1) + b1
V[3,0,1] = np.sum(X[6:11,:5,:] * W1) + b1
V[0,1,1] = np.sum(X[:5,2:7,:] * W1) + b1 (example of going along y)
(example of going along y) V[2,3,1] = np.sum(X[4:9,6:11,:] * W1) + b1 (or along both)
where we see that we are indexing into the second depth dimension in V (at index 1) because we are computing the second activation map, and that a different set of parameters ( W1 ) is now used. In the example above, we are for brevity leaving out some of the other operations the Conv Layer would perform to fill the other parts of the output array V. Additionally, recall that these activation maps are often followed elementwise through an activation function such as ReLU, but this is not shown here.
Summary. To summarize, the Conv Layer:
Accepts a volume of size \(W_1 \times H_1 \times D_1\)
Requires four hyperparameters: Number of filters \(K\), their spatial extent \(F\), the stride \(S\), the amount of zero padding \(P\).
Produces a volume of size \(W_2 \times H_2 \times D_2\) where: \(W_2 = (W_1 - F + 2P)/S + 1\) \(H_2 = (H_1 - F + 2P)/S + 1\) (i.e. width and height are computed equally by symmetry) \(D_2 = K\)
With parameter sharing, it introduces \(F \cdot F \cdot D_1\) weights per filter, for a total of \((F \cdot F \cdot D_1) \cdot K\) weights and \(K\) biases.
In the output volume, the \(d\)-th depth slice (of size \(W_2 \times H_2\)) is the result of performing a valid convolution of the \(d\)-th filter over the input volume with a stride of \(S\), and then offset by \(d\)-th bias.
A common setting of the hyperparameters is \(F = 3, S = 1, P = 1\). However, there are common conventions and rules of thumb that motivate these hyperparameters. See the ConvNet architectures section below.
Convolution Demo. Below is a running demo of a CONV layer. Since 3D volumes are hard to visualize, all the volumes (the input volume (in blue), the weight volumes (in red), the output volume (in green)) are visualized with each depth slice stacked in rows. The input volume is of size \(W_1 = 5, H_1 = 5, D_1 = 3\), and the CONV layer parameters are \(K = 2, F = 3, S = 2, P = 1\). That is, we have two filters of size \(3 \times 3\), and they are applied with a stride of 2. Therefore, the output volume size has spatial size (5 - 3 + 2)/2 + 1 = 3. Moreover, notice that a padding of \(P = 1\) is applied to the input volume, making the outer border of the input volume zero. The visualization below iterates over the output activations (green), and shows that each element is computed by elementwise multiplying the highlighted input (blue) with the filter (red), summing it up, and then offsetting the result by the bias.
Implementation as Matrix Multiplication. Note that the convolution operation essentially performs dot products between the filters and local regions of the input. A common implementation pattern of the CONV layer is to take advantage of this fact and formulate the forward pass of a convolutional layer as one big matrix multiply as follows:
The local regions in the input image are stretched out into columns in an operation commonly called im2col. For example, if the input is [227x227x3] and it is to be convolved with 11x11x3 filters at stride 4, then we would take [11x11x3] blocks of pixels in the input and stretch each block into a column vector of size 11*11*3 = 363. Iterating this process in the input at stride of 4 gives (227-11)/4+1 = 55 locations along both width and height, leading to an output matrix X_col of im2col of size [363 x 3025], where every column is a stretched out receptive field and there are 55*55 = 3025 of them in total. Note that since the receptive fields overlap, every number in the input volume may be duplicated in multiple distinct columns. The weights of the CONV layer are similarly stretched out into rows. For example, if there are 96 filters of size [11x11x3] this would give a matrix W_row of size [96 x 363]. The result of a convolution is now equivalent to performing one large matrix multiply np.dot(W_row, X_col), which evaluates the dot product between every filter and every receptive field location. In our example, the output of this operation would be [96 x 3025], giving the output of the dot product of each filter at each location. The result must finally be reshaped back to its proper output dimension [55x55x96].
This approach has the downside that it can use a lot of memory, since some values in the input volume are replicated multiple times in X_col. However, the benefit is that there are many very efficient implementations of Matrix Multiplication that we can take advantage of (for example, in the commonly used BLAS API). Moreover, the same im2col idea can be reused to perform the pooling operation, which we discuss next.
Backpropagation. The backward pass for a convolution operation (for both the data and the weights) is also a convolution (but with spatially-flipped filters). This is easy to derive in the 1-dimensional case with a toy example (not expanded on for now).
1x1 convolution. As an aside, several papers use 1x1 convolutions, as first investigated by Network in Network. Some people are at first confused to see 1x1 convolutions especially when they come from signal processing background. Normally signals are 2-dimensional so 1x1 convolutions do not make sense (it’s just pointwise scaling). However, in ConvNets this is not the case because one must remember that we operate over 3-dimensional volumes, and that the filters always extend through the full depth of the input volume. For example, if the input is [32x32x3] then doing 1x1 convolutions would effectively be doing 3-dimensional dot products (since the input depth is 3 channels).
Dilated convolutions. A recent development (e.g. see paper by Fisher Yu and Vladlen Koltun) is to introduce one more hyperparameter to the CONV layer called the dilation. So far we’ve only discussed CONV filters that are contiguous. However, it’s possible to have filters that have spaces between each cell, called dilation. As an example, in one dimension a filter w of size 3 would compute over input x the following: w[0]*x[0] + w[1]*x[1] + w[2]*x[2]. This is dilation of 0. For dilation 1 the filter would instead compute w[0]*x[0] + w[1]*x[2] + w[2]*x[4] ; In other words there is a gap of 1 between the applications. This can be very useful in some settings to use in conjunction with 0-dilated filters because it allows you to merge spatial information across the inputs much more agressively with fewer layers. For example, if you stack two 3x3 CONV layers on top of each other then you can convince yourself that the neurons on the 2nd layer are a function of a 5x5 patch of the input (we would say that the effective receptive field of these neurons is 5x5). If we use dilated convolutions then this effective receptive field would grow much quicker.
Pooling Layer
It is common to periodically insert a Pooling layer in-between successive Conv layers in a ConvNet architecture. Its function is to progressively reduce the spatial size of the representation to reduce the amount of parameters and computation in the network, and hence to also control overfitting. The Pooling Layer operates independently on every depth slice of the input and resizes it spatially, using the MAX operation. The most common form is a pooling layer with filters of size 2x2 applied with a stride of 2 downsamples every depth slice in the input by 2 along both width and height, discarding 75% of the activations. Every MAX operation would in this case be taking a max over 4 numbers (little 2x2 region in some depth slice). The depth dimension remains unchanged. More generally, the pooling layer:
Accepts a volume of size \(W_1 \times H_1 \times D_1\)
Requires two hyperparameters: their spatial extent \(F\), the stride \(S\),
Produces a volume of size \(W_2 \times H_2 \times D_2\) where: \(W_2 = (W_1 - F)/S + 1\) \(H_2 = (H_1 - F)/S + 1\) \(D_2 = D_1\)
Introduces zero parameters since it computes a fixed function of the input
For Pooling layers, it is not common to pad the input using zero-padding.
It is worth noting that there are only two commonly seen variations of the max pooling layer found in practice: A pooling layer with \(F = 3, S = 2\) (also called overlapping pooling), and more commonly \(F = 2, S = 2\). Pooling sizes with larger receptive fields are too destructive.
General pooling. In addition to max pooling, the pooling units can also perform other functions, such as average pooling or even L2-norm pooling. Average pooling was often used historically but has recently fallen out of favor compared to the max pooling operation, which has been shown to work better in practice.
Pooling layer downsamples the volume spatially, independently in each depth slice of the input volume. Left: In this example, the input volume of size [224x224x64] is pooled with filter size 2, stride 2 into output volume of size [112x112x64]. Notice that the volume depth is preserved. Right: The most common downsampling operation is max, giving rise to max pooling, here shown with a stride of 2. That is, each max is taken over 4 numbers (little 2x2 square).
Backpropagation. Recall from the backpropagation chapter that the backward pass for a max(x, y) operation has a simple interpretation as only routing the gradient to the input that had the highest value in the forward pass. Hence, during the forward pass of a pooling layer it is common to keep track of the index of the max activation (sometimes also called the switches) so that gradient routing is efficient during backpropagation.
Getting rid of pooling. Many people dislike the pooling operation and think that we can get away without it. For example, Striving for Simplicity: The All Convolutional Net proposes to discard the pooling layer in favor of architecture that only consists of repeated CONV layers. To reduce the size of the representation they suggest using larger stride in CONV layer once in a while. Discarding pooling layers has also been found to be important in training good generative models, such as variational autoencoders (VAEs) or generative adversarial networks (GANs). It seems likely that future architectures will feature very few to no pooling layers.
Normalization Layer
Many types of normalization layers have been proposed for use in ConvNet architectures, sometimes with the intentions of implementing inhibition schemes observed in the biological brain. However, these layers have since fallen out of favor because in practice their contribution has been shown to be minimal, if any. For various types of normalizations, see the discussion in Alex Krizhevsky’s cuda-convnet library API.
Fully-connected layer
Neurons in a fully connected layer have full connections to all activations in the previous layer, as seen in regular Neural Networks. Their activations can hence be computed with a matrix multiplication followed by a bias offset. See the Neural Network section of the notes for more information.
Converting FC layers to CONV layers
It is worth noting that the only difference between FC and CONV layers is that the neurons in the CONV layer are connected only to a local region in the input, and that many of the neurons in a CONV volume share parameters. However, the neurons in both layers still compute dot products, so their functional form is identical. Therefore, it turns out that it’s possible to convert between FC and CONV layers:
For any CONV layer there is an FC layer that implements the same forward function. The weight matrix would be a large matrix that is mostly zero except for at certain blocks (due to local connectivity) where the weights in many of the blocks are equal (due to parameter sharing).
Conversely, any FC layer can be converted to a CONV layer. For example, an FC layer with \(K = 4096\) that is looking at some input volume of size \(7 \times 7 \times 512\) can be equivalently expressed as a CONV layer with \(F = 7, P = 0, S = 1, K = 4096\). In other words, we are setting the filter size to be exactly the size of the input volume, and hence the output will simply be \(1 \times 1 \times 4096\) since only a single depth column “fits” across the input volume, giving identical result as the initial FC layer.
FC->CONV conversion. Of these two conversions, the ability to convert an FC layer to a CONV layer is particularly useful in practice. Consider a ConvNet architecture that takes a 224x224x3 image, and then uses a series of CONV layers and POOL layers to reduce the image to an activations volume of size 7x7x512 (in an AlexNet architecture that we’ll see later, this is done by use of 5 pooling layers that downsample the input spatially by a factor of two each time, making the final spatial size 224/2/2/2/2/2 = 7). From there, an AlexNet uses two FC layers of size 4096 and finally the last FC layers with 1000 neurons that compute the class scores. We can convert each of these three FC layers to CONV layers as described above:
Replace the first FC layer that looks at [7x7x512] volume with a CONV layer that uses filter size \(F = 7\), giving output volume [1x1x4096].
Replace the second FC layer with a CONV layer that uses filter size \(F = 1\), giving output volume [1x1x4096]
Replace the last FC layer similarly, with \(F=1\), giving final output [1x1x1000]
Each of these conversions could in practice involve manipulating (e.g. reshaping) the weight matrix \(W\) in each FC layer into CONV layer filters. It turns out that this conversion allows us to “slide” the original ConvNet very efficiently across many spatial positions in a larger image, in a single forward pass.
For example, if 224x224 image gives a volume of size [7x7x512] - i.e. a reduction by 32, then forwarding an image of size 384x384 through the converted architecture would give the equivalent volume in size [12x12x512], since 384/32 = 12. Following through with the next 3 CONV layers that we just converted from FC layers would now give the final volume of size [6x6x1000], since (12 - 7)/1 + 1 = 6. Note that instead of a single vector of class scores of size [1x1x1000], we’re now getting an entire 6x6 array of class scores across the 384x384 image.
Evaluating the original ConvNet (with FC layers) independently across 224x224 crops of the 384x384 image in strides of 32 pixels gives an identical result to forwarding the converted ConvNet one time.
Naturally, forwarding the converted ConvNet a single time is much more efficient than iterating the original ConvNet over all those 36 locations, since the 36 evaluations share computation. This trick is often used in practice to get better performance, where for example, it is common to resize an image to make it bigger, use a converted ConvNet to evaluate the class scores at many spatial positions and then average the class scores.
Lastly, what if we wanted to efficiently apply the original ConvNet over the image but at a stride smaller than 32 pixels? We could achieve this with multiple forward passes. For example, note that if we wanted to use a stride of 16 pixels we could do so by combining the volumes received by forwarding the converted ConvNet twice: First over the original image and second over the image but with the image shifted spatially by 16 pixels along both width and height.
An IPython Notebook on Net Surgery shows how to perform the conversion in practice, in code (using Caffe)
ConvNet Architectures
We have seen that Convolutional Networks are commonly made up of only three layer types: CONV, POOL (we assume Max pool unless stated otherwise) and FC (short for fully-connected). We will also explicitly write the RELU activation function as a layer, which applies elementwise non-linearity. In this section we discuss how these are commonly stacked together to form entire ConvNets.
Layer Patterns
The most common form of a ConvNet architecture stacks a few CONV-RELU layers, follows them with POOL layers, and repeats this pattern until the image has been merged spatially to a small size. At some point, it is common to transition to fully-connected layers. The last fully-connected layer holds the output, such as the class scores. In other words, the most common ConvNet architecture follows the pattern:
INPUT -> [[CONV -> RELU]*N -> POOL?]*M -> [FC -> RELU]*K -> FC
where the * indicates repetition, and the POOL? indicates an optional pooling layer. Moreover, N >= 0 (and usually N <= 3 ), M >= 0, K >= 0 (and usually K < 3 ). For example, here are some common ConvNet architectures you may see that follow this pattern:
INPUT -> FC, implements a linear classifier. Here N = M = K = 0.
, implements a linear classifier. Here. INPUT -> CONV -> RELU -> FC
INPUT -> [CONV -> RELU -> POOL]*2 -> FC -> RELU -> FC. Here we see that there is a single CONV layer between every POOL layer.
. Here we see that there is a single CONV layer between every POOL layer. INPUT -> [CONV -> RELU -> CONV -> RELU -> POOL]*3 -> [FC -> RELU]*2 -> FC Here we see two CONV layers stacked before every POOL layer. This is generally a good idea for larger and deeper networks, because multiple stacked CONV layers can develop more complex features of the input volume before the destructive pooling operation.
Prefer a stack of small filter CONV to one large receptive field CONV layer. Suppose that you stack three 3x3 CONV layers on top of each other (with non-linearities in between, of course). In this arrangement, each neuron on the first CONV layer has a 3x3 view of the input volume. A neuron on the second CONV layer has a 3x3 view of the first CONV layer, and hence by extension a 5x5 view of the input volume. Similarly, a neuron on the third CONV layer has a 3x3 view of the 2nd CONV layer, and hence a 7x7 view of the input volume. Suppose that instead of these three layers of 3x3 CONV, we only wanted to use a single CONV layer with 7x7 receptive fields. These neurons would have a receptive field size of the input volume that is identical in spatial extent (7x7), but with several disadvantages. First, the neurons would be computing a linear function over the input, while the three stacks of CONV layers contain non-linearities that make their features more expressive. Second, if we suppose that all the volumes have \(C\) channels, then it can be seen that the single 7x7 CONV layer would contain \(C \times (7 \times 7 \times C) = 49 C^2\) parameters, while the three 3x3 CONV layers would only contain \(3 \times (C \times (3 \times 3 \times C)) = 27 C^2\) parameters. Intuitively, stacking CONV layers with tiny filters as opposed to having one CONV layer with big filters allows us to express more powerful features of the input, and with fewer parameters. As a practical disadvantage, we might need more memory to hold all the intermediate CONV layer results if we plan to do backpropagation.
Recent departures. It should be noted that the conventional paradigm of a linear list of layers has recently been challenged, in Google’s Inception architectures and also in current (state of the art) Residual Networks from Microsoft Research Asia. Both of these (see details below in case studies section) feature more intricate and different connectivity structures.
In practice: use whatever works best on ImageNet. If you’re feeling a bit of a fatigue in thinking about the architectural decisions, you’ll be pleased to know that in 90% or more of applications you should not have to worry about these. I like to summarize this point as “don’t be a hero”: Instead of rolling your own architecture for a problem, you should look at whatever architecture currently works best on ImageNet, download a pretrained model and finetune it on your data. You should rarely ever have to train a ConvNet from scratch or design one from scratch. I also made this point at the Deep Learning school.
Layer Sizing Patterns
Until now we’ve omitted mentions of common hyperparameters used in each of the layers in a ConvNet. We will first state the common rules of thumb for sizing the architectures and then follow the rules with a discussion of the notation:
The input layer (that contains the image) should be divisible by 2 many times. Common numbers include 32 (e.g. CIFAR-10), 64, 96 (e.g. STL-10), or 224 (e.g. common ImageNet ConvNets), 384, and 512.
The conv layers should be using small filters (e.g. 3x3 or at most 5x5), using a stride of \(S = 1\), and crucially, padding the input volume with zeros in such way that the conv layer does not alter the spatial dimensions of the input. That is, when \(F = 3\), then using \(P = 1\) will retain the original size of the input. When \(F = 5\), \(P = 2\). For a general \(F\), it can be seen that \(P = (F - 1) / 2\) preserves the input size. If you must use bigger filter sizes (such as 7x7 or so), it is only common to see this on the very first conv layer that is looking at the input image.
The pool layers are in charge of downsampling the spatial dimensions of the input. The most common setting is to use max-pooling with 2x2 receptive fields (i.e. \(F = 2\)), and with a stride of 2 (i.e. \(S = 2\)). Note that this discards exactly 75% of the activations in an input volume (due to downsampling by 2 in both width and height). Another slightly less common setting is to use 3x3 receptive fields with a stride of 2, but this makes. It is very uncommon to see receptive field sizes for max pooling that are larger than 3 because the pooling is then too lossy and aggressive. This usually leads to worse performance.
Reducing sizing headaches. The scheme presented above is pleasing because all the CONV layers preserve the spatial size of their input, while the POOL layers alone are in charge of down-sampling the volumes spatially. In an alternative scheme where we use strides greater than 1 or don’t zero-pad the input in CONV layers, we would have to very carefully keep track of the input volumes throughout the CNN architecture and make sure that all strides and filters “work out”, and that the ConvNet architecture is nicely and symmetrically wired.
Why use stride of 1 in CONV? Smaller strides work better in practice. Additionally, as already mentioned stride 1 allows us to leave all spatial down-sampling to the POOL layers, with the CONV layers only transforming the input volume depth-wise.
Why use padding? In addition to the aforementioned benefit of keeping the spatial sizes constant after CONV, doing this actually improves performance. If the CONV layers were to not zero-pad the inputs and only perform valid convolutions, then the size of the volumes would reduce by a small amount after each CONV, and the information at the borders would be “washed away” too quickly.
Compromising based on memory constraints. In some cases (especially early in the ConvNet architectures), the amount of memory can build up very quickly with the rules of thumb presented above. For example, filtering a 224x224x3 image with three 3x3 CONV layers with 64 filters each and padding 1 would create three activation volumes of size [224x224x64]. This amounts to a total of about 10 million activations, or 72MB of memory (per image, for both activations and gradients). Since GPUs are often bottlenecked by memory, it may be necessary to compromise. In practice, people |
dragonfly, Lilliput mussel, Threehorn Wartyback mussel, Bank Swallow bird, Eastern Wood-Pewee bird and Wood Thrush bird.About This Mix:
Starting off with a Bonobo special becaus;
1. He released a new remix album
2. He's awesome
So this mix is taking more of a relaxed vibe with selected songs from Black Sands Remixed.
Continuing the theme, is Flying Lotus, A A.Skillz doing a funky yet still relaxed remix of With You.
I look to You has been a favourite of mine and when I saw it posted, couldn't hesitate to put it in.
Dillon Francis released some new tracks and I love his takes on Moombahton. So bring up the pace while keeping the same tempo is Falling Up.
Continued at Reddit post: http://goo.gl/Tu8MT
A little bit of self promotion,
If you've been enjoying the mix's I've been releasing, I ask that you take some time to listen to my Ultra Festival competition entry. And if possible, favourite and share it with your friends. Any help at getting me to UMF would be much appreciated.
http://goo.gl/CYJ6bBen Bernanke has inaugurated his blog with a set of thoughtful observations on the determinants of real interest rates (see his post here) and the secular stagnation hypothesis that I have invoked in an effort to understand recent macroeconomic developments. I agree with much of what Ben writes and would highlight in particular his recognition that the Fed is in a sense a follower rather than a leader with respect to real interest rates – since they are determined by broad factors bearing on the supply and demand for capital – and his recognition that equilibrium real rates appear to have been trending downward for quite some time. His challenges to the secular stagnation hypothesis have helped me clarify my thinking and provide an opportunity to address a number of points where I think there has been some confusion in the public debate.
Is Secular Stagnation all about the Zero Lower Bound on Nominal Interest Rates?
The essence of secular stagnation is a chronic excess of saving over investment. The natural question for an economist to ask is how can such a chronic excess exist in flexible markets? In particular, shouldn’t interest rates adjust to equate saving and investment at full employment? The most obvious answer is that short term interest rates can’t fall below zero (or some bound close to zero) and this inhibits full adjustment. Ben is skeptical of the importance of this factor, noting that with a 2 percent inflation target real interest rates can fall to -2 percent. True enough. But, it is at least an open question whether central banks can always be credible in claiming they will hit their inflation targets. Market measures of expected inflation suggest that throughout the industrial world inflation may well fall short of 2 percent for a decade or more.
Separately, it is worth noting that there may be other reasons why interest rate adjustment to equate saving and investment at full employment does not operate smoothly. In situations where target saving is important, reductions in rates may increase rather than decrease saving, exacerbating imbalances. Further, there are reasons for concern that protracted very low rates precipitate financial instability by increasing capitalization ratios, raising the duration of assets, encouraging risk taking to chase yield and reducing the financial discipline associated with loan coupon payments.
Do Real Rates below Zero Make Economic Sense?
Ben suggests not– citing my uncle Paul Samuelson’s famous observation that at a permanently zero or subzero real interest rate it would make sense to invest any amount to level a hill for the resulting saving in transportation costs. Ben grudgingly acknowledges that there are many theoretical mechanisms that could give rise to zero rates. To name a few: credit markets do not work perfectly, property rights are not secure over infinite horizons, property taxes that are explicit or implicit, liquidity service yields on debt, and investors with finite horizons.
To use a phrase Ben has popularized in a different context, negative real rates are phenomenon that we observe in practice if not always in theory. The paper by Hamilton, Harris, Hatzius, and West that he cites demonstrates that during the twentieth century, rates in America have been negative at least 30 percent of the time. In Germany right now, the 10-year nominal rate is 18 basis points suggesting a negative real rate, and the rate is around 60 basis points for 30 years! In Britain, yields on 50-year indexed bonds have been negative for long periods of time.
Were Bubbles an important Contributor to Previous Recoveries?
In support of the idea that the economy suffered from a chronic excess of saving, I have argued that the 2003-2007 recovery and quite possibly the late stages of the 1990s recovery were powered in significant part unsustainable financial conditions. Ben is skeptical, relying on the work of Hamilton et. al (2015) to note that the positive effects of the housing bubble during the previous expansion were offset by an increase in the US trade deficit, and that bubbles were only modestly relevant in the late 1990s. This issue requires much more study. I think that it will be hard to escape the conclusion that household debt grew at an unsustainable pace in the decade before the great financial crisis and that this was an important spur to growth. And I am fairly confident that wealth effects associated with a booming stock market were important in the late 1990s. As I discuss below, I agree with Ben that the open economy aspects are very important and that excess saving in substantial part has emanated from abroad. I have always listed reserve accumulation and foreign demand for safe assets among the major factors acting to depress real interest rates.
How good a solution is expansionary fiscal policy?
Ben accepts the logic of my argument that if reducing rates to equate saving and investment at full employment is infeasible or likely to lead to financial instability, fiscal policy in general and public investment in particular is a natural instrument to promote growth. But he expresses the concern that permanently expansionary fiscal policy may not be possible, given that the government cannot indefinitely expand its debt. This issue is worth further theoretical exploration, but I think Ben greatly understates the scope for feasible fiscal policy for reasons that Brad Delong and I have considered in our 2012 BPEA paper.
Imagine a secular stagnation world with a zero real interest rate. Then, government debt service is very cheap. As long as a public investment project yields any positive return it will generate enough revenue to service the associated debt. This effect will be magnified if there are any Keynesian fiscal stimulus effects of the project or if there are any hysteresis effects. Notice that with sufficiently low real interest rates, even fiscal stimulus, which does not have supply effects, can pay for itself through mulitiplier effects.
This is not just a theoretical point. The October 2014 IMF World Economic Outlook suggests that public investments in countries where interest rates are near the zero lower bound are likely to significantly reduce debt-to-gdp ratios.
The case for expansionary fiscal policy in economies with very low real interest rates is of course magnified if there are reasons to doubt that the central bank can act on its own to raise inflation expectations. It may well be that in situations where the interest rates are trapped near zero – such as those prevailing in Japan and Germany – expansionary fiscal policy reduces real rates by raising inflationary expectations.
What about Global Aspects?
With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had been clearer in seeking to resurrect the secular stagnation hypothesis that one should take a global perspective. Indeed, the lower level of rates, the greater tendency towards deflation, and inferior output performance in Europe and Japan suggests that the spectre of secular stagnation is greater for them than for the United States. Moreover, in a world with integrated capital markets real rates anywhere will depend on conditions everywhere. Particularly in the 2003-2007 period it is appropriate to regard Ben’s savings glut coming from abroad as an important impediment to demand in the United States. Ben and I are, I think, in agreement that it is important to think about the saving-investment balance not just for countries individually, but for the global economy. If there are more countries tending to have excess saving than there are tending towards excess investment, there will be a global shortage of demand. In this case countries able to devalue their currencies will benefit from generating more demand. Global mechanisms that concentrate on causing borrowing countries to adjust without seeking to shrink the surplus of surplus countries will tend to push the global economy towards contraction.
Successful policy approaches to a global tendency towards excess saving and stagnation will involve not only stimulating public and private investment but will also involve encouraging countries with excess saving to reduce their saving or increase their investment. Policies that seek to stimulate demand through exchange rate changes are a zero-sum game, as demand gained in one place will be lost in another. Secular stagnation and excess foreign saving are best seen alternative ways of describing the same phenomenon.
Final Thoughts
I would like nothing better than to be wrong as Alvin Hansen was with respect to secular stagnation. It may be that growth will soon take hold in the industrial world and allow interest rates and financial conditions to normalize. If so, those like Ben who judged slow recovery to be a reflection of temporary headwinds and misguided fiscal contractions will be vindicated and fears of secular stagnation will have been misplaced.
But throughout the industrial world the vast majority of the revisions in growth forecasts have been downwards for many years now. So, I continue to urge that it is worth taking seriously the possibility that we face a chronic problem of an excess of desired saving relative to investment. If this is the case, monetary policy will not be able to normalize, there will be a continuing need for expanded public and private investment, and there will be a need for global coordination to assure an adequate level of demand and its appropriate distribution. Macroeconomists can contribute by moving beyond their traditional models of business cycles to contemplate the possibility of secular stagnation.Depressants (including alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines, dissociatives and others) are the most widely used class of recreational drug in the world. Yet, despite and perhaps due to their relative ubiquity, their dangers are often not well known and respected by users. As a result of this, depressants and combinations of depressants are the most common cause of drug-related deaths.[1][2][4][6] Here we discuss the dangers of depressant use, and explain why they are heavily compounded when used in combination with each other, and thus why such mixes should almost always be avoided.
Depressants are so named because they are Central Nervous System (CNS) depressants – which are drugs that can be used to slow down brain activity. CNS depression refers to physiological depression of the central nervous system which results in a decreased rate of breathing, decreased heart rate, and potential loss of consciousness at higher doses. In excess, CNS depression will eventually lead to coma or death.[11][12] CNS depression is specifically the result of inhibited brain activity – in this case caused by depressant drugs. In more general terms: the more of a depressant drug ingested, the weaker a person’s breathing and heart rate become; if they are slowed enough, the user will stop breathing entirely.
Heavy use of depressant drugs carries other dangers outside of direct CNS depression. A common depressant-related cause of death is aspiration – when one vomits while sleeping, cannot expel it due to a suppressed gag and cough reflex, and thus chokes on it.
In addition to the physiological dangers of overdosing on depressant combinations, users also risk damaging themselves accidentally due to reduced inhibitions and impaired motor function. Many drug-related casualties are actually those of misadventure: people getting hurt or dying during the undertaking of an activity while impaired under the influence. While blacked out on a depressants, you cannot ensure that you will not undertake a dangerous activity and endanger yourself or others.
Aside from physical harm, it also puts users at a greater legal risk. It is a popular adage that those who binge on benzos will wake up naked in a prison cell, and there is some truth to this. Benzodiazepines in particular are reported to cause certain users to act in a violent manner, while all depressants have been shown to increase tendency to engage in criminal behaviour.[9] In Scotland among the 71% of suspected criminals testing positive for controlled drugs, benzodiazepines are detected in amounts second only to Cannabis.[8]
With most depressants it’s relatively easy to dose with a good knowledge of the extent to which it will affect you, in sensory terms and in terms of CNS depression. This can be achieved by using dosage guidelines and by slowly titrating up from a lower dose until reaching the desired effects. However, the effects of CNS depressants when combined are highly unpredictable and synergistic, which will lead to problems much more easily and in a non-linear manner.[10] As such, a user combining depressants is at much more risk from the factors noted above. Depressant combinations are an extremely common cause of recreational drug deaths, and the most commonly indicated when several drugs are involved.[15]
A common rationalisation in spite of the recorded dangers of combining CNS depressants, and one of the main reasons that otherwise educated drug users continue to take these dangerous combos, is the argument that they aren’t particularly dangerous in small amounts. While this is partially true, the synergy of effects is unpredictable and thus so is the reduction in inhibitions. People who overdose on CNS depressant combinations rarely intend to, but black out on smaller doses and then redose compulsively. Thus, while the physical danger of smaller doses of combined CNS depressant combinations is relatively low, they leave users with a much greater risk of putting themselves in a situation of physical harm through unconsciously dosing more than originally intended.
Below we have summarised interactions between major depressant categories, though it should be noted that most other depressant interactions are also highly dangerous, such as GHB + others.
Benzodiazepines and Alcohol
These drugs are one of the most commonly combined for recreational effects, however they are also one of the most prominent overall causes of drug-related deaths.[1][2][5]
Benzodiazepines and Opioids
The majority of depressant-related deaths involve misuse of heroin or other opioids in combination with benzodiazepines or other CNS depressant drugs. In most cases of fatal overdose it is likely that lack of opioid tolerance combined with the depressant effects of benzodiazepines in the cause of death.[3][4]
Alcohol and Opioids
A huge number of drug-related deaths involve the combination of alcohol and opiates, most commonly heroin and methadone.[2][5]
Benzodiazepines and Dissociatives
Taking benzodiazepines on top of dissociatives is generally not known to be particularly fatal[7], since most dissociatives do not significantly lower respiration – they are actually used medically in combination for surgery anesthesia in some cases. However, the combination will almost definitely cause the user to black out, and therefore still poses ample risk towards the user through injuries from falls and movement while impaired.
Alcohol and Dissociatives
Though they are not so commonly mixed, alcohol is known to be particularly dangerous in combination with dissociatives.[13]
Opioids and Dissociatives
These are a more uncommon mix, and as such there is no direct evidence contraindicating their being taken together in a short-term respect. However, we can extrapolate that taking them in combination is probably risky. There is also some evidence that Ketamine use reduces Opioid tolerance.[14]
Further Reading
References
[1] “Alcohol and benzodiazepines in fatal poisonings.” PMID: 12170103
[2] “Deaths Related to Drug Poisoning, England and Wales – 2013” Table 6c
[3] “A survey of buprenorphine related deaths in Singapore. ” PMID: 16879940
[4] “Drug misuse and dependence – UK guidelines on clinical management”
[5] “Benzodiazepines and alcohol are associated with cases of fatal buprenorphine poisoning”
[6] “National Drug-Related Deaths Database (Scotland) Report 2012”
[7] “Interactions between phencyclidine and central nervous system depressants evaluated in mice and rats.” PMID: 3628447
[8] The Scottish Government Publications (25 July 2000). “Interviewing and Drug Testinåg of Arrestees in Scotland: A Pilot of the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Methodology (ADAM)”.
[9] Australian Government; National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (2007). “BENZODIAZEPINE AND PHARMACEUTICAL OPIOID MISUSE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO CRIME” (PDF). NDLERF.
[10] “Mechanisms of depressant drug action/interaction” PMID: 2871594
[11] http://alcoholrehab.com/drug-addiction/central-nervous-system-depressants/
[12] Wikipedia: Central Nervous System Depression
[13] “Tissue distribution of ketamine in a mixed drug fatality” – PMID: 9397567
[14] “The effect of ketamine on opioid-induced acute tolerance: can it explain reduction of opioid consumption with ketamine-opioidanalgesic combinations?” PMID: 11094005
[15] Figure: Drug combinations that caused death are only CNS depressants [6]
[16] “Polydrug abuse: A review of opioid and benzodiazepine combination use“VICTORIA B.C. – Today Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, re-introduced the Election Amendment Act 1, which seeks to engage youth in politics through lowering the voting age to 16.
“There is a lot of evidence that shows that if we engage our youth earlier in the political process they are more likely to develop voting as a habit for the rest of their life,” says Weaver, also the Leader of the B.C. Green Party.
“I’ve been speaking to individuals of all ages since I introduced this bill last Spring. I have heard overwhelming support for lowering the voting age.
“The decisions we make today as legislators will have a profound impact on the lives of our youth. I can’t think of a good reason why they shouldn’t have a stake in those decisions.
“It appears there is a trickle-up effect in civic participation. When youth engage, conversations around the dinner table tend to focus on politics and local issues, which results in a positive impact on voter turnout for the whole family.”
Many other jurisdictions, including Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, and parts of the UK, have extended voting rights to 16-year-olds. Scotland experimented by lowering the voting age in their independence referendum. It was so successful that they subsequently permanently dropped the voting age to 16 in all Scottish Parliament and local government elections.
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Media contact
Mat Wright, Press Secretary
+1 250-216-3382 | mat.wright@bcgreens.caMatch Summary
Chelsea win the 2015 Capital One Cup with an assured 2-0 victory against Tottenham.
The Blues, who struggled in the first-half as Tottenham got the better of this all-London affair, had John Terry to thank for giving them the lead just before the break, and then Walker’s critical deflection off Costa’s shot guided home the second Chelsea goal.
It gives Mourinho his first trophy in two years, and Chelsea their first trophy since the Europa League title in 2013, and how they celebrated the win post-match.
But it could have all been a very different story. Mourinho, whose side had a full week to prepare whilst Tottenham were knocked out off the Europa League mid-week, opted to experiment with his side with Nemanja Matic suspended. Kurt Zouma was the holding midfielder but was ran ragged in the first half.
Tottenham had the half’s best chance, from Eriksen’s free-kick. Cech had it covered, but it was a delicious strike that cannoned back off the crossbar.
Chelsea just could not grow into the cagey game, inviting Tottenham pressure, and whilst there was no real test of either goalkeeper, Tottenham were superior in possession.
Enter John Terry in the 44th minute. Ivanovic did superbly to win a free-kick wide on the right, and Willian’s whipped ball in caused havoc for Tottenham’s defenders, whose zonal-marking system was a shambles. Rose’s half-hearted clearance dropped for Terry to lash home.
Chelsea’s tails were wagging and Cahill nearly doubled their lead in the dying stages of the first-half. Had it been left to Zouma, perhaps the young French man would have generated better power.
It was the perfect scenario for Chelsea, as Mourinho was surely going to shift the system at half-time: Zouma as a midfielder was just not working. Now, it worked in their favour as Zouma could alternate with five at the back.
But it did not take long for the second Chelsea goal, whoever will go down as the goal-scorer. Costa dummied Walker inwards but took the right-back on the outside. His left-footed drive looked to be going off-target, but Walker’s deflection took it past Lloris.
Then it was Chelsea’s game. Hazard’s curling shot nearly crept into the far post, but the cushion was there and there is no better side to defend.
Kane and Eriksen will be disappointed with their contributions especially as Chelsea’s back-line was vulnerable on more than one occasion, but the last 10 minutes did see a reinvigorated Tottenham side. Kane looked set to score but for Terry’s vital block.
And then came the celebrations, the Mourinho phone call to his wife, and, as Mourinho said, “20 minutes more of celebration and then we concentrate on West Ham at Wednesday”.
Man of the Match
THE WHOLE CHELSEA TEAM: All players contributed well to this victorious Capital One Cup. On the day, you would have to give it to John Terry for the winning goal and a crucial last-ditch block from Kane; the guy epitomises Chelsea. But, as Mourinho said, you have to hand it to the players who did not play today too — Courtois for his semi-final heroics, Luis too, so the whole Chelsea team deserves to celebrate this trophy. 10/10
Manager Reaction
Mourinho was not holding back with his celebrations: “You are never too old to celebrate! For me this is [trophy number] 24 but I am like a kid with the first one. Now I blow kisses to everyone that is happy because we are happy, but this is quick, there is no time for big celebrations.”
Pochettino was gracious in defeat, but could take positives for his evolving side: “Firstly I want to congratulate Chelsea on their victory — they played very well. We fought until the final moment and that was important. We have a very young group and it was a first final for a lot of our players.”What makes this famous climb just so special?
Alpe d’Huez is pretty unremarkable. There, I’ve said it. Take away the Tour de France and it’s just one of dozens of hairpin roads leading to an ugly ski resort in the French Alps, one of hundreds of roads that are famous thanks purely to professional cycling, places that we’d never know of were it not for a famous bike race.
The Mur de Huy is celebrated as the finale for Flèche Wallonne, as the Poggio is for Milan-San Remo. The empty cobbled farm tracks of Belgium and Northern France are exactly that for 364 days of the year.
There are, however, a few places that have that star quality of their own. Places that you don’t forget in a hurry. The Col du Galibier is one of them.
The very name ‘Galibier’ means something significant. These days it lends itself to a cycle clothing company, a PR firm, a capital management company, a Bugatti supercar, a minimalist house track, a management consultancy in Brisbane, and a turntable manufacturer in Colorado. All of them are trying to tap into a meaningful, semi-spiritual quality of this climb, with varying degrees of success.
Reaching 2,642m in altitude, for a long time it was the undisputed physical peak of the Tour de France.
A handful of Tour climbs are now higher, but none are so well renowned. While most places count the days until the return of the world’s biggest bike race, the Tour itself counts down the days until it can go back to the Galibier and have a little bit of the mountain’s magic sprinkled on it once again.
The highest-ever finish
The first time the Galibier featured in the Tour de France, on July 10, 1911, only three riders got their crude single-speed bikes up the sloppy track to the summit without walking. The last time the mountain appeared was in 2011, 100 years and 11 days after its debut.
Its scale is vast. It dwarfs even the most imposing of high mountain passes elsewhere in Europe. The Col du Tourmalet is half a kilometre lower in altitude, and the climb from the bottom to the top is half as long.
Alpe d’Huez is 20km shorter, and climbs just over half the vertical metres. To use a more domestic comparison, you would have to ride up Box Hill in Surrey more than 16 times to replicate the distance and vertical ascent.
>>> How much difference does weight really make to your climbing speed?
There are three ways up to the top of the Galibier; all three are over 30km and include another col to climb on the way up.
From Briançon or Bourg d’Oisans you head up the southern face via the Col du Lautaret (2,057m); from St Michel de Maurienne you tackle it from the north via the Col du Télégraphe (1,566m), a route that includes a morale-sapping 4km descent, forcing you to climb 165 vertical metres all over again.
One man who knows the Galibier well is Andy Schleck. Now retired, he took the most famous victory of his career in 2011 when the Tour de France finished on top of the col for the first, and so far only, time in its history. It remains the Tour’s highest ever summit finish.
“You don’t find any other climb that is comparable to Galibier,” he tells Cycling Weekly. “You are so, so high up. It’s not like one of these climbs where you look up and see the trees above you, you just go up and it’s like you’re riding into the sky.
“And then when you are at the top there is hardly any space; hardly space for a finish line, no barriers, just a small epic road that goes up there. The scenery and the small roads going to the top so high up is what makes it, for me, the most beautiful climb in France.”
One of the best pure climbers of his generation, Schleck conquered the Galibier on stage 18 of that year’s Tour with a long-range solo move from over 60km out, cresting the Col d’Izoard before dropping down into Briançon and tackling the Lautaret and Galibier, two cols he says go together “like gin and tonic”.
Even before the benefit of hindsight, it had the trappings of a ride that would go down in the history books. The Galibier is good at that. It hosted Fausto Coppi’s career-defining solo move on the way to the first ever summit finish at Alpe d’Huez in 1952.
It was where Marco Pantani made his Tour-winning move in 1998, a little speck of yellow and celeste in the sodden gloom, gliding up as others wallowed. A memorial now marks where he put in his attack.
A must-do
It’s easy for the scale of the Galibier to obfuscate just how hard it is. On the tougher, more famous north side, which has featured most often in the Tour de France, it’s 100 metres shy of 35km in length.
The average gradient is only 5.5 per cent, but that includes the downhill section from the summit of the Télégraphe into Valloire. In total there is 17km of climbing at over seven per cent.
All this begs the obvious question: why would anyone want to do it at all? Well, try to explain to your non-cycling friends what it is that you enjoy about climbing up hills and putting yourself through hours of discomfort. It’s not particularly logical, but there’s nothing else like it.
All we can say is this: climb that final stretch of road that clings to a foamy white tip of a wave of rock. Ride over the top, towards a valley dozens of kilometres away from your starting point, and look down on another world where the light and the landscape are totally different.
It is one of those places you will never forget. Whether you have thousands of fans cheering you on or not, it’s something every cyclist must do at least once in their lives. Ride up the Col du Galibier and let a little bit of its magic rub off on you too.
Appearances in the Tour
The Tour de France has crossed the Col du Galibier 58 times, 37 from the north via the Télégraphe. It was due to feature in 2015, however a landslide towards Bourg d’Oisans meant the Tour had to divert via the Col de la Croix de Fer.
It makes it’s return on stage 17 of the 2017 edition of the Tour, where the riders will tackle it from its north side before descending down to the finish in Briançon.
It was the favoured climb of the man who founded the Tour, Henri Desgrange, and in 1949 a memorial to Desgrange was erected on the southern side, just by the entrance to the tunnel.Copyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved An undated courtesy photo of David Quang Pham. (Wyoming Department of Public Safety)
Copyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved An undated courtesy photo of David Quang Pham. (Wyoming Department of Public Safety)
24 Hour News 8 web staff - WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) -- The Wyoming Department of Public Safety is asking for the public's help in tracking down a man missing for longer than a week.
David Quang Pham, 20, was last seen at his family's Alger Street home in the early morning hours of Dec. 19. His family told officers he has a history of leaving and "being off the radar" for a few days at a time, but never this long. Relatives filed a missing person report Tuesday.
Pham's family says while he has no known medical issues or diagnosed mental health issues, he has been struggling with depression. Officers say he left his car and keys at his parent's home and his cellphone was reportedly left at his residence near Michigan State University, which he attends.
Lansing police have already spoken with his roommate.
Pham is 5 feet 8 inches, 125 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black coat. Officers say he known to frequent Palmer Park.
Anyone with information in this case is asked contact Wyoming Public Safety at 616.530.7335 or Silent Observer at 616.774.2345.Mercury nets spacecraft companion
Mercury was the fleetest of the Roman gods, the messenger of heaven. A tough guy to catch in a race. Catching up to Mercury, the god's planetary namesake, was no easy feat either.
That's why the engineers whose spacecraft this week caught up to the world named for the wing-footed deity, the fleetest planet in our solar system, perhaps deserve some victory laurels.
"We hit it right on all the orbital numbers. It went perfect," says MESSENGER mission engineer Eric Finnegan of the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.
Consummating a six-and-a-half year pursuit, NASA's $446 millionMESSENGER spacecraft fell into orbit around Mercury on Thursday evening, following a 15-minute rocket firing. (MESSENGER stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, surely one of the most contrived acronyms in the space agency's Inquisition-like history of torturing names.) To hit its mark, the rocket burn only exceeded its planned time by 4 seconds, Finnegan says. "After six-and-a-half years, we think that's pretty close."
But that's not all. The trip also required one flyby of Earth (in 2005), two flybys of Venus (2006 and 2007) and three flybys (2008, and two in 2009) of Mercury itself, all to set up the spacecraft for its capture by the planet's gravitational pull on Thursday night. The trips were more than just opportunities to glimpse the scenery, they made it possible for the spacecraft to make its trip to the inner reaches of our solar system.
Mercury zips around the sun at 107,000 miles-per-hour, finishing a year in 58.7 days, while Earth circles at a more stately 66,600 mile-per-hour, completing a year in 365 days. Which might make you think that getting your spacecraft to speed up is the ticket to catching Mercury. But it is not so simple.
"When you are falling toward the sun, which wants to pull you in, you are picking up speed and you have to slow down," Finnegan says. Each flyby provided a "gravity assist" in aerospace engineering parlance, a way to pick up or drop some speed from a planet while circling around the sun, without burning any fuel.
Essentially, a gravity assist is a gravitational tug-of-war between a planet and a spacecraft, one that the big guy in the contest always wins in space, just like in life. Spacecraft mission designers have taken advantage of this inevitability since Mariner 10's 1974 visit to Venus. Here's how it works :
•Pass behind a planet as it circles the sun, and the planet's gravity will tug the spacecraft in the direction that both are headed, giving it a speed boost, or gravity slingshot.
•Pass ahead of a planet, and its gravity will pull back against the direction of the spacecraft, slowing the mission down.
NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, now headed right out of the solar system, used the gravity slingshot trick, for 35,700 mph speed boosts from Jupiter on their missions. MESSENGER's braking maneuvers on the other hand were much smaller (Finnegan compares them to "speed bumps") but they were absolutely necessary for the mission. "The majority of the energy we used to navigate was from the gravity assists," Finnegan says. "We could not have loaded enough fuel and still built the spacecraft, it would have been way too heavy, to just use rockets to get to Mercury."
So MESSENGER went like a stone skipping off the surface of a pond, slowing down with each gravity assist as it circled the sun, and shedding enough speed with each pass to put it into perfect position for settling into a gravitationally-balanced orbit around Mercury. In a sense, MESSENGER's final entry into orbit around Mercury was one last gravity assist, where it passed ahead of the planet, then fired its rockets to slow down and most important, line up the spacecraft into a successful planetary orbit.
"Through all the flybys, we effectively matched the speed of the planet," Finnegan says. "We wanted to slow just enough (with the rocket burn) for the planet to gently pull us into orbit."
Not too slow either, or the spacecraft would crash into Mercury. Instead, the planet essentially captured the spacecraft with its gravity, setting it on an egg-shaped orbit that takes MESSENGER to within 120 miles of Mercury's surface, but also sends it farther out in space, about 9,445 miles above the cool nighttime surface of the world, where the craft can cool off. The o rbit also follows an 80-degree tilt, with respect to Mercury's equator, unlike most planetary orbiters, which either circle the equator or poles of a world.
"A lot of the orbit is arranged so we can turn the spacecraft to Earth and transmit everything we find," Finnegan says. And a lot of it is arranged to keep a ceramic sunshade between the sun's 660-degree Fahrenheit temperatures and the spacecraft. "It might be room temperature behind the sunshade," he says.
In one romantic poem of the Middle Ages, Mercury, the Roman god, famously captured a nymph (named Cloris) with a magical net. Just so, Mercury, the planet, has now captured its own attendant. For at least the next year, the spacecraft will plumb the secrets of Mercury on a mission made possible through gravity, a magical net no matter the era.
Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.comBlog
I wrote some code to embed my tweets on my website. There’s a statement that would have made no sense in 1990. Actually, it barely makes sense now. But I did it. I’m proud of my site. I built it myself. Occasionally I get an email saying, “What software do you use to run your site and how do I get it?” I think the answer is: receive a Commodore 64 for your tenth birthday and no good games.
But that’s not why I’m writing. I’m writing because I decided to grow my own vegetables. A few people I knew were growing their own vegetables, and they kept yakking about how wonderful it was, not depending on manufactured supermarket vegetables, which are evil for some reason, so I thought what the hell.
For a while I was intimidated by the idea of growing vegetables. When I reach for a vegetable, I usually just want to eat it. I don’t want to be intimately involved with its creation. I worried I would end up spending more time tending to the health of fragile, overly complicated peas than eating them.
Then I saw an ad for genetically modified seeds. These promised to take the hassle out of growing vegetables, which seemed pretty intriguing. The tomatoes would be big and red and I wouldn’t have to do anything. So I got those.
This upset my hippy friends. Especially when I started having problems. My frankenfruit was supposed to be simple but after a few weeks the whole garden stopped growing. My cabbages were flaccid. My carrots were anemic. My spinach wouldn’t self-seed. It wasn’t supposed to self-seed. The genetics company had engineered it not to, so I’d have to buy new seeds each season. But I thought there should be |
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Story continuesJNS.org – Israelis prefer Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to invite the Yisrael Beiteinu party to join his governing coalition over inviting the Labor party, according to polls.
An Israel Hayom survey found Thursday that when asked to choose between the two parties, 48 percent of respondents preferred Yisrael Beiteinu joining the coalition, while 31 percent thought Labor was the better choice and 21 had no opinion the matter. But regarding Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman’s apparent appointment as defense minister, replacing Moshe Ya’alon, 46 percent of respondents opposed the move and 40 percent supported it.
A poll by Israel’s Channel 2 showed that 37 percent of respondents preferred seeing Yisrael Beiteinu join the Likud party-led government compared with the 24 percent who chose Labor, while 32 percent said neither party should join the coalition.Daniel Cross of the Demons in action during the 2014 AFL Round 11 match between the Melbourne Demons and Port Adelaide Power at Traeger Park, Alice Springs on May 31, 2014. (Photo: Sean Garnsworthy/AFL Media)
MIDFIELDER Daniel Cross will play on in 2015 after signing a new one-year deal with the club, after it was announced before Melbourne’s clash against Geelong at the MCG on Saturday.
Cross, who has played 223 AFL matches, including 13 with the Demons this year, has been a fine recruit for Melbourne after a distinguished career with the Western Bulldogs from 2002-13.
He played every match this year until he suffered a leg fracture against North Melbourne in round 14. The 31-year-old is expected to miss another three to four weeks with the injury, but he has become an important member of the team in 2014, hence his new contract.
Manager of football operations said Cross had earned the opportunity to play on next year.
“We brought Daniel to the club because we knew he could play a role for us on the field,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“He also had a reputation for elite preparation and we thought he could also add some leadership and help out our younger players.
“We’re very happy with what he’s done and we’re pleased to offer him another contract.”
Cross, a best and fairest winner with the Western Bulldogs in 2008, also finished runner-up four times and third on one occasion with the Dogs.
An All-Australian nominee in 2008, Cross was an International Rules series member in 2010 and a NAB AFL Rising Star nominee back in 2004.
He was also a member of the Dogs’ pre-season premiership team in 2010.1600 Penn and Ben and Kate Cancelled Before Given a Real Chance
BY: ORANGECHAIR
If you haven’t figured this out about me already, I love television. I think television is an art form or a new type of literature that we can study and learn from. I have always had a secret dream to work in television, whether its creating it or working at an actual network. The older I get and the more I look at television and television trends, the more I realize that I may not be cut out to work at a network. As much as I love television, I apparently do not understand it. Recently two of television’s newest comedies have been taken off the air and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. NBC pulled its new show set in the White House, 1600 Penn, and FOX cancelled my favorite new show of the year, Ben and Kate.
1600 Penn has only had time to air five episodes and so far, I have found it to be hilarious. With an all star cast, includinig Bill Pullman, Jenna Elfman and Josh Gad, this show was a nice addition to NBC’s Thursday lineup. The show follows the first family as the president tries to run the country and deal with a daughter pregnant from a one night stand, a new wife who is trying to be accepted by his kids and the PR nightmare that is his son Skip Gilchrist (Josh Gad). Balancing out NBC comedy Thrusday, 1600 Penn has a humor and tone that would appeal to a wider audience. The show has a family aspect but is less crude than Up All Night. This show could have been developed to fill one of the many holes that will exist in NBC’s comedy line-up next year with the Office and 30 Rock both ending. While the whole cast is great, Josh Gad shines, turning Skip into a hilariously charming character that can easily lead a comedy show. After being on air for only a couple of weeks, NBC didn’t give 1600 Penn a chance to pull a fan base before it was cancelled. I think NBC has made a huge mistake not trying to develop what could be a great show.
I have always had a problem with the way FOX has manged their shows. With an inability to properly air its dramas, FOX has mismanaged many show, the most notable being Fringe. While it has issues with its dramas, Fox has generally done a good job with its comedies but it messed up cancelling the funniest new show the year. What makes Ben and Kate so great is its brilliantly created core characters. You have Kate (Dakota Johnson), a single mother who is attempt to raise her daughter to be a strong, young woman. Charmingly awkward, it is easy to root for Kate in life, love and as a parent. Next we have Ben (Nat Faxon), the burn out brother who has moved back in with his sister. Absolutely ridiculous and always there to help Kate as well as coming up with new, wild inventions, Ben and Kate have great chemistry as a brother sister duo. The other two characters are the title characters’ best friends. First is BJ (Lucy Punch), a selfish, ditsy, Australian woman who is easily the show’s crude sense of humor. Second is my favorite character on the show, Ben’s best friend Tommy (Echo Kellum). Awkwardly and hopelessly in love with Kate, Tommy is Ben’s partner in crime. Best friends from childhood, Tommy and Ben still act like children. All four character mix together to create a charmingly hilarious show where they all work together to help Kate’s daughter Maddie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones).
Both cancelled shows are charming and clever and I don’t understand why either of them was cancelled. Both had the ability to appeal to a wide audience; both my mother and I watch Ben and Kate and that doesn’t happen with many shows. I believe both networks made mistakes cancelling their shows and wonder what next year’s comedy line-up is going to look like.
AdvertisementsA federal judge has ordered a Connecticut father and son to testify under oath at depositions and hand over documents about drones shown in YouTube videos firing a gun and deploying a flame thrower in their backyard.
Judge Jeffrey Meyer in New Haven ruled Monday in the case of 19-year-old Austin Haughwout of Clinton and his father, Bret Haughwout, who both have refused to comply with Federal Aviation Administration subpoenas seeking their testimony and documents. The judge ordered them to comply within 30 days.
"Because I conclude that the FAA has a legitimate purpose for its subpoenas and that the subpoenas are otherwise appropriate in scope, I will grant the petition," Meyer ruled.
Austin Haughwout uploaded the videos to his YouTube channel last year. One video, viewed nearly 3.8 million times, shows a flying drone equipped with a handgun firing rounds. Another video, viewed nearly 600,000 times, shows a flying drone with a flamethrower lighting up a spit-roasting Thanksgiving turkey.
Federal prosecutors, on behalf of the FAA, argued the subpoenas are part of a legitimate investigation into potential violations of FAA regulations banning people from operating "aircraft" in a reckless manner.
The Haughwouts' lawyer, Mario Cerame, told the judge that the subpoenas violate their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and questioned the agency's authority to regulate recreational drones.
It wasn't clear whether the Haughwouts plan to appeal Meyer's order. Cerame didn't immediately return messages Tuesday.
Cerame previously argued the FAA was wrong to rely on aircraft regulations to try to subpoena his clients about their recreational use of drones. He believes the case potentially has national significance because it would set a precedent on how much authority the FAA has over recreational drone use.
The FAA has no formal regulations for the recreational use of drones but says there are some requirements, including having to register any unmanned aircraft weighing more than 0.55 pounds and notifying airport operators before flying drones within 5 miles of airports. The agency proposed its first set of regulations for commercial drone use in June.
Meyer said in his decision that Congress has defined the term "aircraft" in "stunningly broad terms," but there is no dispute the weaponized drones in the videos raise questions about possible danger to life or property.
Fox News' Lissa Kaplan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.AT THE start of Donald Trump’s presidency bosses rushed onto his business councils, hoping to influence policies in their favour. Their ardour has cooled. When Mr Trump banned travel from Muslim-majority countries, withdrew from the Paris agreement on climate change and equivocated on racist protesters in Charlottesville, to name but a few occasions, chief executives roared their protest.
“Un-American,” declared Reed Hastings, Netflix’s chief executive, of the immigration ban. Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, told a reporter, “I am here because I am a refugee” as he joined protesters against the ban at San Francisco’s airport. “I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,” wrote Kenneth Frazier, boss of Merck, a pharma giant, after Charlottesville. “Isolate those who try to separate us,” added Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. Other executives have joined lawsuits to overturn Mr Trump’s policies and condemned his actions in memos to staff.
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Firms have been sucked into social and political debates before. Anti-apartheid campaigners mounted boycotts against firms that did business with the South African regime, for example. But it is happening more and more often. In 2015 came the news that Indiana was considering a “religious freedom” bill that would allow companies and non-profit organisations to discriminate against gay and transgender individuals. Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, a technology firm, criticised the law even though Apple itself has little presence in the state. Salesforce.com, another tech firm, applied sterner pressure, threatening to withdraw jobs. State bills discriminating against transgender and gay people have attracted strong opposition from firms headquartered across America, not just in left-leaning California—from Bank of America (North Carolina) to Dow Chemical (Michigan) and ExxonMobil (Texas).
Come halo or high water
The Trump era has made it even harder for executives to stay above the political fray. More than 1,400 companies and investors have signed a pledge to uphold the Paris climate agreement, in defiance of Mr Trump. Visa, a credit-card giant, and 3M, a manufacturing firm, are among those to have cut advertising from Breitbart News, a right-wing news site founded by Stephen Bannon, Mr Trump’s former adviser. One serial investor and director of a tech giant says that fired-up employees have made it extremely difficult to be seen to co-operate with the administration in any way at all.
That is a big shift. In the past companies did their best to remain apolitical. The commercial rationale for caution was best expressed by Michael Jordan, a basketball star, when he quipped that “Republicans buy sneakers too”. Companies believed that their main purpose was to maximise returns for shareholders, not to meddle in politics. “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” wrote Milton Friedman, an economist, in 1970. Lobbyists became increasingly adept at pushing policymakers towards lower taxes and fewer regulations; they said little or nothing about social issues.
No longer. The reactions to Mr Trump are reinforcing a longer-term trend for business to become more outspoken. Multinational companies in particular are more likely to combine their support for globalisation with the espousal of wider societal goals such as protecting the environment, ethnic diversity and gay rights. A small but rising number of firms have committed to a new corporate purpose altogether, declaring their objectives to be broader than mere profits. The past decade has seen the launch of “benefit corporations” which work to meet specific goals for society as well as for their investors; there are more than 2,300 of these around the world, with the greatest number in America.
Such trends are not confined to America. Companies in Europe have long had an expansive view of their social responsibilities; now worries about inequality and the resulting populism are strengthening that stance. Unilever, a giant Anglo-Dutch seller of consumer goods, for example, prides itself on treating staff well and supporting environmental sustainability. But the phenomenon is particularly marked in America, due to the number of giant firms headquartered there and because Mr Trump is so uniquely hard to ignore.
The controversies of Mr Trump’s presidency aside, there are two big structural reasons for firms’ newfound sense of purpose. First, many bosses feel they have little choice but to respond to their staff, who are increasingly vocal on political and on cultural issues. Second, companies’ main shareholders—institutions such as pension funds and asset managers—are themselves paying more attention to social objectives.
Start with the staff. According to a report from Weber Shandwick, a public-relations firm, “CEO Activism in 2017: High Noon in the C-Suite”, 44% of millennial American employees say they would be more loyal to their company if their boss took a public position on a societal issue, compared with 19% who would be less loyal. Weber Shandwick found that, globally, 63% of executives of prominent firms feel the need to have a position on issues such as immigration and climate change.
The real office politics
That position usually, but not always, breaks to the left. Large companies still tend to line up with the Republican party on policies that have a direct impact on their business—a specific regulation, for instance, or a tax provision. But many of America’s biggest companies have their headquarters (and most of their senior staff) in states and in metropolitan areas that voted for Hillary Clinton. Employees of large firms examined by The Economist usually gave more to Democratic candidates than to Republican ones (see chart for selected examples).
So it should come as little surprise that companies increasingly support causes that are traditionally associated with Democrats, including gay rights and environmental sustainability. More than 80% of the firms that opposed Mr Trump’s ban on travel from Muslim countries are based in states that voted for Mrs Clinton, as are the majority of the firms and investors that signed the pledge to uphold the Paris climate agreement. Staying neutral is especially hard for firms in Silicon Valley, where staff are often liberal.
“Heartland” companies, far from the liberal coasts, also face pressure to react to specific political events or to advance a wider agenda. On November 21st Doug McMillon, the boss of Walmart, a ubiquitous retailer, described the expanding expectations from various quarters for his company, such as advancing education. In 2015 Walmart moved to oppose a “religious freedom” bill like that in Indiana in its home state of Arkansas, stopped selling products carrying the Confederate flag after a mass shooting at Charleston and also stopped selling assault-style rifles.
Some firms are wholeheartedly conservative in their views. Charles Koch of Koch Industries, the second-largest private firm in America, for example, has spent hundreds of millions backing right-wing causes. And smaller conservative-leaning businesses have not held back from fighting cultural battles. In 2014 the Supreme Court ruled that “closely-held businesses” such as Hobby Lobby, a chain of crafts stores, could have religious beliefs and thus be exempt from laws that flouted them. As a Christian firm, it had objected to having to pay for insurance coverage for emergency contraception under the Affordable Care Act. Another case now before the Supreme Court—that of a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple—might end up exempting businesses from anti-discrimination laws if they violate owners’ spiritual beliefs.
Institutional investors add to the pressure on firms to get involved in political and social issues. In 2006 the United Nations issued principles for responsible investing, urging shareholders to consider environmental, social and governance factors. By 2015, institutions managing about $59trn had endorsed these principles. As pension-fund trustees and mutual-fund investors take social objectives more seriously, asset managers such as BlackRock and Vanguard have tried to woo them by launching new funds and indices focused on well-behaving firms. The assets managed under such criteria jumped to $22.9trn last year, from $13.3trn in 2012.
What does this all mean for companies? One danger lies in doing too little. Hollow posturing about corporate social responsibility is easy enough to expose. Employees and shareholders can hold companies to account using data or by consulting independent monitors such as the Human Rights Campaign, which scrutinises how firms treat gay and transgender employees, or the World Wildlife Fund, which tracks firms’ environmental work.
A second danger lies in alienating people on the other side of an issue, the president among them. Companies that have opposed Mr Trump risk being singled out by him. In August a single tweet from Mr Trump complaining about Amazon’s impact on conventional retailers (and jobs) wiped out $6bn of its market value.
Firms may also displease customers, who can more easily complain about companies and organise boycotts using social media. In 2015 Starbucks, a coffee chain, urged staff to begin conversations about race with customers; the attempt was widely ridiculed. More recently Keurig Green Mountain, a coffee-machine maker, withdrew advertising from a show on Fox News after its host failed to condemn Roy Moore, a Senate candidate accused of dating and assaulting teenagers. Mr Moore’s supporters then posted online videos of themselves smashing their devices.
Rage against the Keurig machine
These risks are not always as extreme as they might seem, however. Despite the occasional misstep Starbucks has thrived; its chairman, Howard Schultz, champions the idea that firms should serve both their shareholders and a broader set of interests, including staff and civil society. Angering Mr Trump, ostensibly the world’s most powerful man, may not have lasting effects, either. Amazon’s stock has more than recovered since his tweet in the summer. When Mr Trump criticised Nordstrom, a department store, its share price rose.
It seems unlikely that companies’ new activism will fade. Ignoring the issues that helped propel Mr Trump into office in the first place is becoming a less plausible option for many bosses. After the global financial crisis it was bankers who attracted most populist ire. Chief executives are still more trusted than politicians, according to a recent survey by Edelman, a public-relations firm—but that trust is eroding quickly.
Big multinationals such as Apple are under increasing pressure to eschew complex manoeuvres that reduce their tax bills. Sky-high executive pay is another focus of populist discontent. Firms are also having to grapple, often unconvincingly, with the question of how to help workers threatened by the spread of technology. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, is among those to have suggested the idea of a “universal basic income”—an unconditional payment to all citizens—to deal with stagnating wages and automation; critics say that could further disenfranchise the less-skilled.
As companies make their voices heard on social issues, they may start to do so in different ways. Corporate bosses have long given to candidates—Cornelius Vanderbilt, a 19th-century tycoon, for example, showered Ulysses Grant with cash. Firms themselves can now take a more active part in politics, thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission that businesses can spend unlimited amounts in elections (as long as they do not donate directly to a candidate).
They could also change how they lobby. Apple, Google and Amazon, some of the most politically vocal companies of the past year, have each more than quadrupled their annual lobbying spending since 2007. But most of the cash has gone on narrow business issues such as net neutrality, intellectual property and privacy. Aaron Chatterji of Duke University thinks there will be rising pressure, from staff and consumers, for firms in many industries to match their rhetoric with lobbying on specific societal issues in Washington, DC.
Mr Zuckerberg has taken a more direct approach. He has just concluded a tour of 30 states to try and connect with Americans of all backgrounds. Alexis de Tocqueville, in his own journey through America in the 19th century, observed what he called the country’s “self-interest, properly understood”—the idea that an individual’s attention to the common good served himself as well. Companies keen to protect their interests are increasingly taking that observation to heart.The Dalhousie University student charged with murdering a fellow student will remain in jail until he goes on trial in the spring of 2017.
William Sandeson is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Taylor Samson. His second bid for freedom was scheduled to begin Thursday in Nova Scotia's Supreme Court but his lawyer requested an indefinite adjournment.
That means Sandeson will remain in custody on remand until his trial begins April 18, 2017.
"There may not be another bail hearing at all. And the Crown consented to that today," said Crown prosecutor Susan MacKay.
In May, Sandeson's lawyer said he planned to propose around-the-clock security surveillance provided by a private company to monitor his client if he was granted release.
But MacKay said on Thursday the defence did not make that proposal to the Crown.
In custody for 11 months
Last August, Sandeson, who had been scheduled to start classes at Dalhousie University's faculty of medicine, was charged four days after Samson was reported missing in Halifax. He has remained in custody ever since.
Sandeson first applied for bail last year and his release was denied, pending his trial. He was ordered to stand trial following a preliminary hearing.
All of the preliminary trial and bail evidence before the court is protected by a publication ban.BOSTON -- During All-Star weekend the NBA unveiled a public data page crammed with numbers and statistics, some more familiar than others to the casual user. To the hardcore basketball fans that live on Twitter and League Pass, this was extremely useful. No more multiple browser tabs! All the shot charts, plus/minus data and line-up information in one place, and it's spectacularly easy to navigate.
The NBA didn't do this to help the true believers craft blog posts. What the league is doing, besides capturing page views, is making True Shooting percentage and the like part of the conversation for casual fans. This is roughly analogous to when baseball telecasts began listing OBP alongside batting average, home runs and RBIs when players come up to bat. Welcome to the normalization of advanced metrics.
I was reminded of this over the weekend when the city was overrun with geeks, quants and hustlers for the annual networking orgy known as the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. When gathered in multitudes they may seem like they run the world -- or at least The Fours where the nerds overran mystified Bruins fans at their favorite post-game watering hole.
The reality, of course, is much different. For every analytically inclined member of a team's front office there are several more who aren't interested. For every Hoopdata loving basketball writer (please come back, Hoopdata) there are crusty beat writers who don't care nothing about fancy-boy stats. And for every enlightened fan there are hundreds more who count the ringzzzz first, last and forever.
And that's where this whole thing breaks down in a self-congratulatory echo chamber of smugness and mistrust. The cultural divide is still strong, but it doesn't have to be. As Kirk Goldsberry mentioned in his presentation, we need to get better at communicating what the metrics mean and that's where the media comes into play. With a little more patience and whole lot less hubris, we can start talking with people instead of at them.
Step 1: Educate the broadcasters
There is no more direct link between teams and fans than their local telecasts and it's not as if hometown announcers need much prodding to rally the fanbase to the cause. If they can convince the fans that the refs have it in for them, they can just as easily explain why the mid-range game is deader than the '90s and the corner three is king.
Let's start small. Per-game numbers are more informed when adjusted for pace. Rebounding percentage is more telling than raw totals. If the broadcasters narrated the game with a few of these basic concepts in mind, fans would get a more complete picture of what's actually happening on the court and it wouldn't seem so mysterious.
There's a reason League Pass addicts hold the Orlando crew of David Steele and Matt Guokas with such regard. They are tremendous at filtering out the statistical noise and helping fans understand what they're watching.
This isn't rocket science, after all. Its just basketball and the wonderful thing about advanced metrics is once you get past the awkward acronyms and wonky-sounding labels, they include many of the same concepts that the great coaches of the past and present incorporated with their teams.
Step 2: Eliminate the myth of the magic number
All basketball statistics are context-dependent. Who's on the court, what's the score, how good is the opponent, are they on a back-to-back?... these are all important variables that need to be taken into account when making judgments about performance. In the rush to quantify everything, every single day, there's often a lack of critical perspective. (See: Rondo, Rajon and the Celtics are better/worse without him).
Hoop nerds understand that John Hollinger's Player Efficiency Rating is a box score mashup that doesn't reward defense as much as offense. They get that plus/minus is dependent on other factors. Context is always far more interesting than naked numbers and it's okay to acknowledge that we don't always know everything definitively.
To many, the lack of an all-encompassing number along the lines of WAR is proof that advanced basketball statistics have failed and the game is too complex to be broken down categorically. Frankly that's part of what makes them so appealing. It's a puzzle that can be broken down, studied and analyized. Every insight sends you scrambling in a half-dozen different directions.
The onus, fellow geeks, is on us to fill in the gaps and provide that context with all the tools at our disposal, which brings me to my final point.
Step 3: Don't forget the human element
Statistics help tell a story. When used correctly they offer a more complete portrait of performance, but too often a fundamental question is left out of the equation: Why? All the fancy shot charts, Synergy clips and intricate numbers only tell part of the story.
Many times I've heard numbers skeptics say something along the lines that this a human game played by people. Despite their dismissive tone, they're absolutely correct. What was the coach's motivation for running out various line-ups? Why did a player react the way he did in a certain situation?
Whether intentional or not, the numbers have a way of dehumanizing the participants. Spend time with any self-aware NBA player and it becomes clear that they understand how the game should be played and their role in the process. Kevin Garnett may not know his PER from his rebounding percentage, but he thinks the game in a way that would make any stat geek swoon and he has valuable insights to share.
Players are not data points and getting five people to work together in concert is an elaborate dance that depends on a whole host of factors not collected in the box score. The Celtics, for example, talk a lot about communication as the key element to their stifling defense. That speaks to trust, intelligence, awareness and so many other things that get glossed over as intangibles because we can't quantify them in the box score but are extremely tangible. All you have to do is ask.
Take this piece by Matt Moore on Andre Iguodala. Combining analysis, access and reporting tools both new and old, Moore took us into Iguodala's world in a revealing, insightful piece that was one of the best of the year.
We need more of that. We need to tell better stories. More than any breakthrough study or insightful quantitative analysis, that will help bring fans into the conversation and continue the revolution.
More in the NBA:
• Proud father Dell Curry talks to SB Nation about Steph's 54-point outburst
• What makes Stephen Curry special? His coach and teammates explain
• Sacramento is nothing like Seattle
• Watch the Miami Heat's Harlem Shake video
• Basketball jerseys with sleeves? Adidas must be stoppedThe Big Well
Greensburg, Kansas
For over 50 years the "World's Largest Hand-Dug Well" was just a big, rock-lined hole in the ground, 32 feet wide and 109 feet deep. It was dug in 1887-88 by men using picks, shovels, a pulley and rope, and half a barrel to haul up the dirt. A staircase and lighting were added in 1916, but it wasn't until 1939 that the Well was opened to tourists, who would pay for the adventure of walking down to its dank bottom.
Ten years after The Big Well opened to the public, the World's Largest Pallasite Meteorite -- discovered by a local farmer with a giant home-built metal detector -- was added to the Well's above-ground gift shop as a bonus attraction.
And that's basically how things stayed until May 4, 2007. That was the day that everything around The Big Well -- not just the gift shop but the entire town -- was blown to smithereens by a mile-wide mega-tornado.
Eleven residents died in the horror, but the below-ground Well suffered minimal damage, and the meteorite was one of the few things that survived obliteration of the gift shop. Greensburg mourned its dead, shook off its dust, and rebuilt itself as a "model green city." And after five years The Big Well reopened, now encircled by a museum dedicated to telling the story of the town and its disaster.
Driving into Greensburg to see The Big Well is an in-your-face reminder that you're in deadly twister territory. The little town is an odd mix of state-of-the-art green buildings and empty lots filled with weedy rubble. The Big Well Museum alone cost $3 million, and was designed as a vortex, with a new spiral staircase for the Well, so that it would suggest a tornado.
On the ground floor, displays recount the history of The Big Well and the giant twister. Vintage Big Well souvenirs -- obviously elsewhere when the storm hit -- are exhibited along with significant debris such as the town's wrecked tornado siren and a clock stopped at the moment that Greensburg was destroyed. The poor meteorite, a star in any other small town, has fallen to a distant third place in the reasons-to-visit-Greensburg museum's hierarchy.
Despite the Big Well Museum's new slick and serious veneer, the main attraction remains the odd thrill of walking down into The Big Well. Its interior is cool and humid; its bottom disappears into the local aquifer. Tiny balconies at various points along the spiral staircase allow visitors to lean in and look straight down without risking a fall -- although any dropped smartphones or cameras are goners. The bottom of the Well, as was the case before its remodeling, is littered with loose change. If you lean in too far while standing at the bottom, you may be conked by a penny hurled from above.
In the gift shop, chunks of the Well's old staircase are sold as souvenirs. We remember standing on it during an earlier visit when the town's tornado siren went off -- the same one now displayed in the museum -- echoing weirdly off of the Well's circular stone walls. Back then it turned out to be just a test -- but if another monster tornado does strike Greensburg, there's probably no safer place to be than down in The Big Well.Warner Bros Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures will open Ocean’s 8 — their female-driven caper spinoff of Ocean’s Eleven — on June 8, 2018. The pic will be directed by Gary Ross. Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, Sarah Paulson lead the cast. Warner Bros already had the date staked out on the release schedule as an untitled event film. The only other title Ocean’s 8 is battling against during that weekend is Paramount’s Transformers 6.
The film will be produced by Ocean’s Eleven director Steven Soderbergh, and Ross wrote the script with Olivia Milch. Ross and Soderbergh are longtime informal collaborators, serving as second-unit director on each other’s films and as sounding board on scripts and projects. Susan Ekins is executive producer and production senior veep Jesse Ehrman is overseeing the film with Silverman for Warner Bros. The millennial reboot of the Ocean‘s series has grossed $1.12B worldwide.The icy plains of Pluto resolved by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft stretch as wide as Texas, enveloping mountain ranges and bizarre hilly outcrops in a mosaic revealing one lobe of the distant world’s heart-shaped reservoir of exotic frozen carbon monoxide, nitrogen and methane.
The mosaic, posted here with permission, was created by Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer using seven scenes captured by New Horizons’ LORRI camera.
The ice field is informally dubbed Sputnik Planum, after the first artificial satellite sent into orbit around Earth. It is part of a larger feature tentatively named Tombaugh Regio, honoring Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto at Lowell Observatory in 1930.
In the middle of Sputnik Planum, views from New Horizons’ sharp-eyed black-and-white camera show blocks of ice delineated by dark troughs. The ice features, called “polygonal terrain” by geologists, taper toward the northern edge of Sputnik Planum, where streaks in the ice appear to be flows wrapping around barrier islands near a boundary with more rugged terrain.
“It’s pretty big,” said William McKinnon, a co-investigator on the New Horizons mission from Washington University in St. Louis. “In fact, it’s just about the size of the state of Texas, and all around the periphery, and in the center of Sputnik Planum, are geological wonders.
“At the top of the picture, it’s really different,” McKinnon said in a press briefing Friday. “There’s a rugged landscape there — a degraded landscape — and to a geologist’s eye looks like something that has been very deeply and extensively eroded. We can tell it’s old as well because you can see, with your own eye, various impact craters of large size.
“What’s really interesting to us is the actual interaction between the Sputnik Planum and this rugged terrain to the top,” McKinnon said. “If you look carefully at the image, you can actually see a pattern that incidates the flow of viscous ice towards the scarp or cliff boundary of the rugged terrain. We call these stream lines. We interpret them to be just like glacial flow on the Earth.”
Unlike glaciers on Earth, which are made of water ice, the ice flows on Pluto are likely made of a mixture of nitrogen ice, carbon monoxide ice and methane ice. Water ice at Pluto’s temperatures, which are around minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit, is immobile and behaves like a rock, but other types of frozen material can move, according to McKinnon.
Near the southern boundary of Sputnik Planum, the icy plain is bordered by two mountain rangers — Norgay Montes and Hillary Montes — named for Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary, the first two people to make a documented ascent of Mount Everest.
Scientists say the peaks are composed primarily of water ice, and measurements of shadows extending from Norgay Montes show the range to stand up to 11,000 feet above the surrounding plain.
A darker region on the bottom left of the mosaic, and near Pluto’s equator, is called Cthulhu Regio. Scientists believe it is part of a much more ancient geological unit than Sputnik Planum.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.To be directed by Pa. Ranjith, the film chronicles the story of a don, played by Rajinikanth.
Days after a leading Kannada producer said he planned to make a movie on Tipu Sultan and rope in Tamil actor Rajinikanth to star in, the BJP and hardline outfits in Tamil Nadu warned the actor against accepting the offer.
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Calling Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, anti-Tamil, some hardline groups said Tamil actors should avoid accepting any role in the movie.
Senior BJP leader L Ganesan told The Sunday Express that Rajinikan |
Texas and Georgia filter the internet wherever their Chromebooks are used.
But internet filtering doesn't always work, parents are typically cautioned. Even inside schools, network filters sometimes fail to block sites as administrators play a cat-and-mouse game with the ever-changing internet.
A school board in Topeka, Kansas, had to turn off its Chromebook filtering off school property. The filters interfered with students completing assignments from home, causing some assignments to be late or lost.
The board warned parents: your kids may now be roaming free online if you aren't monitoring them.
In London, the Thames Valley board completed a public tender to purchase internet filters. It sought technology that works anywhere a student uses a Chromebook.
"We are proceeding because we believe our vendor's product will function as promised, but we will be carefully monitoring this over the course of the pilot project," Moynihan said.
Manning prefers education over a technical solution because high school students can always turn to their own devices to freely surf the web, and because the board aims to help students come to grips with the internet they will know as adults. He said the board will monitor filtering technology and hasn't ruled it out.
"Even if we put device-level filtering on the Chromebooks for example, it would be very easy for (students) to put those aside and use their tablets and their phones to access content that might otherwise be filtered on our networks and on our devices," he said. "They need to know how to use these things safely."
Critics see inconsistency, saying the school board should impose the same internet controls outside schools that it feels the need to impose inside schools.
"More and more research is showing that unfettered access to the internet, especially for kids up to their 20s, can be extremely damaging," said Gary Tomic, a father of five who has raised Chromebook concerns with school trustees. "What I and other parents have been trying to get across to the school board is to wake up and take responsibility."
Tomic, a computer engineer who works in internet security, sees Chromebooks as useful if properly filtered. Unlike the school board, he sees technical solutions as widely available and affordable.
Tabitha Boronka's sister Salome, 15, is in Grade 10 and was issued her board-owned laptop a year ago at Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School.
"I like having a Chromebook. It's useful. It's convenient," Salome said. "I do school work. Sometimes I'll chat with friends. At home I use it for some personal stuff, email and stuff."
Salome is assigned homework through her computer. She completes it and submits it on the device. She can communicate with classmates about an assignment while they're doing it. She can email her teacher with questions.
"Sometime ads will pop up that aren't really appropriate," she said.
Like her mother Irina, Salome supports filtering her computer wherever she uses it, concerned about what lurks inside the internet. Her parents filter their home Wi-Fi.
"It's a useful thing for research and for school but it's also dangerous because if it's not filtered, anything can come up. Like everything possible," she said.
"I would say some kids would use (their Chromebook) irresponsibly because they have the whole internet at their fingertips now and because I know the way some people are."
jouthit@therecord.com, Twitter: @OuthitRecordHealthcare-NOW! is an education and advocacy organization that addresses the health insurance crisis in the U.S by advocating for the passage of national, single-payer healthcare legislation. Right now, the National Health Insurance Act (HR 676) is the only legislation that will create a national, single-payer healthcare system. We see healthcare as a human right, not a privilege tied to the ability to pay.We the Undersigned Support HR 676
Whereas: We spend over $2.3 trillion, or $7,500 per capita, for healthcare in the US, yet 42 percent of people under 65 have inadequate or no insurance coverage;
Whereas: The healthcare coverage in the United States is ranked #37 in the world by the World Health Organization and yet we spend almost twice as much as any other country, enough to cover everybody with excellent comprehensive healthcare;
Whereas: A bill has been proposed in Congress, HR-676, non-profit Medicare for All, that outlines a national healthcare program that will provide guaranteed, comprehensive, and affordable quality healthcare and prescription drugs to everyone in the country;
Whereas: Over 59 percent of physicians now support a national, single-payer health insurance system for everyone;
Whereas: HR 676 has been endorsed by 463 union organizations in 49 states including 116 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 39 state AFL-CIO%u2019s;
Whereas: Under this proposed plan, we can pay for a comprehensive national health care program with the same money we are now spending by removing insurance companies %u2014 and cover every single person in the United States;
And Whereas: The bill provides money for retraining and giving priority to those whose jobs as administrators in the insurance industry would be lost as a result of this shift;
Be it Resolved That: We call on our members of Congress to pass HR 676, non-profit Medicare for All, so our people and our nation can have the excellent healthcare system we deserve. Healthcare is a human right, and we call on our members of Congress to recognize that right.Thinkstock
Artificial-intelligence researchers have long struggled to make computers perform a task that is simple for humans: picking out one person’s speech when multiple people nearby are talking simultaneously.
It is called the ‘cocktail-party problem’. Typical approaches to solving it have either involved systems with multiple microphones, which distinguish speakers based on their position in a room, or complex artificial-intelligence algorithms that try to separate different voices on a recording.
But the latest invention, described in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, is a simple 3D-printed device that can pinpoint the origin of a sound without the need for any sophisticated electronics.
Abel Yangbo Xie/ PNAS
The device is a thick plastic disk, about as wide as a pizza. Openings around the edge channel sound through 36 passages towards a microphone in the middle. Each passage modifies the sound in a subtly different way as it travels towards the centre — roughly as if an equalizer with different settings were affecting the sound in each slice, explains senior author Steven Cummer, an electrical engineer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Water-bottle melodies
The way the disk works is simple, he says. If you speak across the top of a bottle that is partially filled with water, the air inside will resonate with the sound of the voice and attenuate certain frequencies, depending on the amount of water in the bottle. In the plastic disk, the innards of each sector are patterned with a honeycomb-shaped structure in which each hexagonal cell is cut to a different height. The result, Cummer says, is like having an array of bottles filled with different amounts of water.
The human ear is not able to distinguish how the sound is altered by different passages, says lead author Yangbo Xie, also at Duke. But the team wrote an algorithm that, by analysing each sound, can almost always tell which direction it came from.
The device is an 'acoustic metamaterial’: a structure patterned with smaller features and designed to affect the acoustic waves that pass through it. Bruce Drinkwater, a mechanical engineer at the University of Bristol, UK, calls the idea “a really nice one”. He says that the device’s bulk could be a limitation to its practical use, and that this version works only at relatively high frequencies. However, he adds that “there could be plenty of room to optimize the design for size in the future”.noun
Success is measured differently by most people and being "successful" is also viewed differently from one person to the next. My idea of success may be completely different from yours and hey....that's ok! In order to become YOUR idea of successful though, you must clearly understand what your definition of success is. There are a few ways to do that, find out what success means to you, and achieve it.
1.) Define success in your own words. Write it down. Whether it is getting the job that you have always dreamt of to starting an organization raising money to rescue dogs. Whatever it is, write it down and focus on that goal.
2.) Do research. We are not perfect and we do not know everything. Take time to research ways to go about reaching your goal and research the goal itself to see if that is truly what you want.
3.) Long and short term goals. Whip out that note book and write down a list of short term goals. Short term goals are achievements that you want to accomplish in a small period of time that are going to lead you to your final goal of success. Examples of this could include the following. Say you want to get back into shape. Short term goals would consist of things such as cleaning out the pantry and refrigerator of unhealthy food, making an appointment to see a nutritionist, and signing up for a membership to your local gym. Long term goals on the other hand require time and planning. If we are following the previously listed example of getting in back into shape, some of your long term goals may include participating in tough mudder, loosing 10 lbs, and fitting into those jeans that just don't quite fit anymore. These are all considered long term goals because it takes more time to actually achieve them rather than short term goals which you could do that day or that week.
4.) Cross thing off your list. Is it just me or is it amazing the gratification that you get when you are able to cross things off a list? You are able to see your achievements progress and notice how close you are getting to your goal. By doing this, it will help you see how close you are to your success!
5.) Ask for help- It's ok to ask for help! It doesn't make you weak or any other silly thing you think it reflects. Many people got to where they wanted to be with the help of others. Believe it or not there are people out there who want to see you do big things and become successful, enjoy and embrace assistance.
6.) Remember- All things worth having you must work hard for. Success usually doesn't happen over night and if it did I guarantee you that you wouldn't be as grateful for it compared to if you worked hard at it.
7.) Lastly, do this with passion. If this success that you want to reach is your passion, never loose that. Passion is what drives you, motivates you, and keeps you moving forward when things aren't going quite the way you'd like it to. If this is a passion of yours you WILL accomplish your goals. You WILL be successful.
What is your idea of success? What are your goals?Omarosa Manigault appears to have run afoul of new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who has taken steps to limit her access to President Trump as he tries to bring discipline to a chaotic West Wing, according to a news report.
She has been put on a so-called “no-fly list” that Kelly is keeping of White House aides he deems unfit to attend serious meetings, The New York Times reported.
A senior White House official adamantly denied the report, calling it "completely false."
Hers is the most prominent name on the list according to The Times report which describes her as a former “Apprentice” star with an ill-defined job in the White House.
The paper reported late Friday that Manigault's penchant for dropping into meetings to which she was not invited is what landed her on the no-fly list.
The person given the responsibility of enforcing it is Kirstjen Nielsen, Kelly’s brusque, no-nonsense long-time aide who is willing to be hated, the paper reported.
Her appointment was announced at a staff meeting Wednesday as part of Kelly's effort to foster a more disciplined environment inside a leaky White House.
But, the paper reported, the move has also left Kelly’s White House enemies seething, as well as plotting and griping to sympathetic members of the press.
It is Nielsen who sends out emails announcing internal policy and planning meetings that now contain a clipped addendum—“principals only” with a stern warning that any subordinates who wander in will be immediately ejected, The Times reported.
Manigault could not be reached for comment. A White House operator told Fox News that the office was closed and to call back Monday.
Last month, Manigault, who is the director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison, clashed with a veteran news anchor during a panel discussion on policing in black communities held at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in New Orleans.
Her conversation with anchor Ed Gordon became testy when he attempted to question her on President Donald Trump's policies around policing in communities of color. Trump had recently said some police officers were too courteous to suspects when arresting them.
The conversation quickly escalated into a tense exchange before Manigault left the stage. Several people in the audience, which included non-journalists, turned their backs in protest during the discussion.
“If you want to ask about the loss of my father and my brother and the issues I do, ask about my story,” she told Gordon. “I’m not going to stand here and defend every single word and statement. Ask questions about me or my father and brother.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Former NCW Chairperson Mohini Giri suffered injuries after she allegedly tried to shield a girl from being molested by a group of men in the Vasant Kunj area of New Delhi. The Delhi Police, however, have denied her claims saying there was no case of molestation and it was a road accident.
It was unclear when the incident took place as Giri has emailed the Delhi Police, which then ordered an inquiry into the case.
Giri says she was on her way to her son's house when she saw the young girl being molested by a group of men so she stopped her car and approached the group who then began hitting her for trying to intervene.
"I tried to stop a PCR van which was passing by but they refused to stop as they were taking their boss for some urgent work," Giri told CNN-IBN.
Finally, according to Giri, a police constable stopped and intervened in the matter. Giri also says that she was too shaken by the incident to approach the police and file a complaint.
But according to the Delhi Police, Giri's claims are false and she acted before understanding the situation. Rajiv Ranjan, DCP PCR narrates the following version of the incident to CNN-IBN.
"Two boys were on a scooter, and two girls, related to them, were on another scooter following them. The boy riding the scooter met with an accident with the pedestrian. He fell on the ground and sustained injuries. two men took him to the hospital by car. The two girls had also fallen.
Giri was passing by in her car and without realising what happened slapped one of the boys. The girl (boy's sister) intervened and asked why are you slapping my brother?
So there was no incident of molestation. If at all there was, who was the victim? Why would the police not act on a case when the victim could be identified? Such an activist should not stop herself from filing a complaint", he said.
Ranjan added that they were looking into Giri's claims that a PCR van was rushing their boss to some important work. "Two PCR vans were rushed to the spot, one took the injured boys to the hospital. The other waited till the local police arrived. We have not found any other PCR van passing by. We are still looking into it though", he said.
"An inquiry has revealed that the wife of the pedestrian got into a fight with Giri and then hit her", he said.
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.The First Amendment stands as a testament to one of the Founding Fathers’ core convictions: that man has an inalienable right to live out his deeply held religious beliefs, and that government’s proper role is to protect this and other inalienable rights.
In the words of James Madison, “Conscience is the most sacred of all property.” No matter how fiercely a government safeguards other property rights, it exceeds all proper bounds the moment it looks to “invade a man’s conscience, which is more sacred than his castle.”
Unfortunately, it seems several California legislators never got that memo.
In February, California state Sen. Scott Wiener introduced SB 219 in an effort to enact the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Long-Term Care Facility Resident’s Bill of Rights.”
This bill, which has already passed the California Senate, would impose criminal sanctions on individual staff members of nursing homes and similar facilities who “willfully and repeatedly fail to use a resident’s preferred name or pronoun,” or prohibit a resident from using a bathroom consistent with his or her gender identity.
It would also criminalize refusing to provide medical or nonmedical care specific to transgender individuals where doing so “unduly demeans the resident’s dignity or causes avoidable discomfort.”
While this “bill of rights” would be inserted into a section of California’s Health and Safety Code that arguably does not “criminalize” these actions, the bill itself amends another section—the Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly Act—to include prohibitions against violating the “bill of rights.”
Violation of this law is punishable by up to one year of incarceration and a $1,000 fine, regardless of criminal or civil penalties imposed by other code sections for the same violation.
The latest version of the bill, dated Aug. 21, provides no religious exemptions for facilities or individual staff members with sincerely held religious beliefs about human nature that run contrary to the bill’s ideological assumptions.
Nor does it exempt physicians associated with these facilities from being compelled to provide services to transgendered individuals, even if the provision of such services would violate their sincerely held religious beliefs or their clinical judgment as medical professionals.
Why This Is a Problem
This latest attempt to infringe upon First Amendment rights is particularly worrisome given the large number of religiously affiliated nursing homes regulated under California law.
Many religious denominations adhere to doctrinal statements directly opposed to the ideological assumptions of SB 219. For example, the Roman Catholic Church holds to a very specific position on gender identity, as was reflected in a January statement from the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
Catholics adhering to official Church teaching—and many doctrinally orthodox Protestants—believe that affirming a gender identity different from a person’s biological sex is contrary to the revealed law of God. They hold that a person’s biological sex, ordained by God, cannot be in conflict with any “truer or deeper sexual identity contrary to that bodily sex.”
For most religious communities, the refusal to affirm a person’s gender identity stems not from hatred of LGBT individuals, but rather from a deeply held conviction of who God is and what he has revealed about human nature.
These beliefs, and the right to act in accordance with them, lie at the very core of First Amendment protection.
Of particular concern is the fact that SB 219 touches upon not just one but several core First Amendment rights of nursing home facilities and their staff.
First, the bill both restricts and compels certain types of speech for staff members. This is not simply a matter of limiting what a person may say, but compelling him or her under threat of government sanction—a criminal offense, no less—to actively speak in a way that violates his or her conscience before God.
Fortunately, the Supreme Court has in recent decades increasingly strengthened First Amendment protections by routinely striking down content-based restrictions on speech, and regulations that compel a person to speak contrary to their religious convictions.
But in addition to compelling speech, SB 219 could both restrict and compel nonspeech medical practices that violate the conscience of staff members and affiliated medical practitioners. Contrary to the assumptions of many LGBT activists, there is no firm medical consensus on the causes of proper treatments for gender dysphoria.
Stripping the Rights of Doctors
SB 219 eliminates any room for physicians employed by nursing homes to use reasonable medical discretion, solely for the sake of not hurting a resident’s feelings. This degrades not only the medical practice itself, but the moral agency and professional autonomy of the practitioner.
Unlike prohibitions on certain types of treatment, SB 219 would actively force physicians to provide services to transgender individuals that many physicians strongly believe violate their Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm.”
The Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged the right of doctors to refuse the provision of services that violate the doctor’s conscience and perceived ethical standards. It explicitly stated in Roe v. Wade—which infamously held a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion—that “no party to the [abortion] should be required to violate personally held moral principles.”
It affirmed this reasoning in Doe v. Bolton, declaring that “a physician or any other employee has the right to refrain, for moral or religious reasons, from participating in the abortion procedure.”
Surely, this protection against the forced violation of conscience is not limited to abortion, but covers similar services to which a physician or medical service provider might object for moral or religious reasons.
This would seem to preclude imposing criminal sanctions on California physicians who refuse to provide transgender-specific treatment regimens that violate their religious, moral, or ethical creed, even though this refusal could cause the transgender individual to experience personal “discomfort” in violation of SB 219.
This Is About Conscience, Not ‘Oppression’
It is foolish to suggest—as too many are wont to do—that those opposed to SB 219 advocate the oppression of LGBT individuals, or that they do not affirm the dignity and humanity of such individuals.
They are simply affirming their own right to a free conscience, and to act in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs.
It is these rights, enumerated in the Constitution, that the lawmakers in California must honor.
This is not to flippantly deny the deep-seated and intensely personal nature of gender identity, or the real hurt often experienced by transgender people. It is, rather, to defend a most precious principle of American liberty—that which “protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of civil authority.”
There is no similar right to be free from offense.
If the inalienable right to conscience means anything, it must mean that one can’t be compelled to act against one’s own conscience under threat of criminal sanctions.
The dismissal of conscience rights in professional fields does not promote human dignity, but rather denigrates it by dismantling the very autonomy and moral agency of the one whose conscience is suppressed.
While it is laudable that Wiener and those sponsoring SB 219 wish to protect LGBT individuals from vitriol and hateful actions, they should not do so by forcing others to act and speak in ways that violate their own religious convictions.Now we get to the daughter of the champ… Videl.
Stats
Power: B Speed: S Reach: B Technique: S Energy: C
Ease of Use: S
Normals
Videl is quite fast with normals especially with the jabs so she can played aggressively. Average reach and mobility. Can’t teleport.
Signature Move (S Button)
Videl does a sway (of course) which makes her invincible to high, but the duration is very short so time it well! Pressing the button again will have a dodge that is invincible to mid attacks.
Special Skills
Ki Blast (D + S or j.S) – Videl puts her hands together to form a ki blast that remains stagnate. It doesn’t last forever and no more than 3 can be on-screen at once.
Baseball Slide (F + S) – Videl slides across the ground at a good distance. Good for avoiding higher attacks.
Special Attacks
Headlock Slam (QCF + L/M/H) (Performable In Air)- This is a command grab. Videls jump in so she can have the opponent in a leg lock and if she catches them, she places her hands on the ground to slam the opponent on their back.
Leg Lift (QCB + L/M/H) – A counter move. If it succeeds then Videl grabs the opponent and throws them over her.
Leopard Shoot (QCF + S, L/M/H (after), L/M/H (after)) – Videl does a longer steps-in which can be followed up with an uppercut which she can follow up by jumping forward if it connects and then follow up with a high kick.
Super Attacks
Volteks Aura (QCF + L+M or H+S) – Videl charges up to do a ki blast that surrounds pretty much her whole body. It has great pressure with matching pushback so try not go to near it, but it has short-range and leaves her somewhat winded after.
Videl Rush (QCB + L+M or H+S) *Uses 3 Ki Gauges* – Videl prepares to do a flying kick. If the hit lands then she elbows the opponent to the ground and rushes in to give the opponent a barrage of punches to the belly. She finishes it all off with a devastating knee drive.
AdvertisementsStevens, who turns 90 this month, is to retire at the end of the court's term in June [Reuters]
Stevens, who turns 90 this month, is to retire at the end of the court's term in June [Reuters]
He is considered the court's leading liberal, but has also often been able to find conservative allies.
The top US court's ideological makeup became more conservative following two appointments by George Bush, Obama's predecessor, with five conservatives and four liberals on the nine-member bench.
Stevens' retirement is unlikely to change that balance as Obama said he would name a successor in the liberal's mould.
Obama paid tribute to Stevens on Friday and said his nominee, like the outgoing justice, would know that powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.
"I will seek someone in the coming weeks with similar qualities - an independent mind, a record of excellence and integrity, a fierce dedication to the rule of law, and a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people," Obama said.
International ramifications
Ian Millhiser, an analyst at the Centre for American Progress, told Al Jazeera that the supreme court's makeup had international ramifications because it can decide on cases such as on the fate of Guantanamo Bay detainees and the way the US treats non-citizens.
Stevens' retirement is unlikely to change the ideological makeup of the top court [Reuters]
Stevens showed no tolerance for the notion that the US president could throw a person who may well be innocent into prison, a view also shared by Obama, Millhiser said.
"So I think the replacement for Stevens is going to be consistent in that regard."
Supreme Court appointments have become major political battles in congress since the high court decides contentious social issues such as abortion and the death penalty and high-stakes business disputes.
Among the handful of cases to be decided next term, the justices will consider whether vaccine manufacturers can be sued for damages.
Justices serve until they retire or die, meaning that Obama's choice – his second since taking office, having appointed Sonia Sotomayor last year - could shape the court for decades, long after he leaves office.
In the senate, which will vote on the nomination, Democrats praised Stevens and urged Obama to name someone who can continue his legacy while Republicans promised thorough scrutiny of any nominee.
Mitch McConnell, the senate Republican leader, said "Americans can expect senate Republicans to make a sustained and vigorous case for judicial restraint and the fundamental importance of an even-handed reading of the law".
Tough battle expected
The opportunity to make a second appointment to the high court in less than two years is a double-edged sword for Obama.
Obama says he wants a replacement seated for the court's new session in October [AFP]
It gives him a chance to leave his mark on the court but it could also dominate congress for some time and make it tougher for Obama's fellow Democrats to focus on the economy and job creation, issues which are expected to dominate November's elections.
It also could complicate last-ditch efforts by some Democrats and Republicans to win senate passage of compromise legislation to combat global climate change.
Last year, Obama named Sotomayor as the court's first Hispanic justice, replacing David Souter. She was confirmed on a largely party-line vote of 68-31, and Millhiser said the selection process for Stevens' successor could be positive if Republican senators showed integrity and exercised independent judgement to put nation above politics, like the nine who voted for Sotomayor.
An Obama administration official said the president was considering about 10 potential nominees to replace Stevens.
Among the leading candidates are Elena Kagan, the solicitor-general, and US appeals court judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland.
All are considered moderate liberals and could face varying degrees of Republican opposition, but even conservative activists said each would probably win a simple majority vote in the senate, where Democrats hold 59 of 100 seats.Boy, I sure am glad that the weather is starting to warm up for spring! I can never wear scarves because my goat-tee gets in the way. By the way: I'm the Goat, the final Toon Species Candidate of this election!I'vea lot to bring to Toontown: I'm no Van Goat, but I can create something that looks like modern art out of the cans that I chew! I should warn you that I'm a bit of a hill, although I have a real friendly face. I'm not too "gruff", and I certainly won't be a horn in your side.Now Toons, let's face it: Some candidates are just. I may be just a, but I have big plans for Toontown. As long as you keep the trolls away, I'll trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap across the bridge straight into Toontown!I'm the last candidate to create a post, and you can see I have plenty toabout. Don't be sheepish:ell it on the mountain that Goat deserves the vote!Remember, when you go into the Polling Place, vote for... Eh, whatever floats yourU.S. Open Cup by Jonah Fontela on Jun 8, 2017
Predrag Radosavljević, known more commonly by his merciful nickname Preki, is a legend of the U.S. Soccer scene. Imported from his native Serbia to play indoor in Tacoma, Washington in the early 1980s, the fleet-footed wizard, a set-up man of elegance and creativity, went on to become a champion in Major League Soccer with Kansas City and represent his adoptive USA at the World Cup in France in 1998.
Now head coach of St. Louis FC in the second-tier United Soccer League, Preki is taking cold, dead aim at the U.S. Open Cup the same way he did countless opposing defenders in his playing days. He spoke freely to ussoccer.com about being underdogs against MLS side Chicago Fire in the Cup's upcoming Fourth Round, the challenges of leaving his son on the bench and how he coaches the way the used to play: instinctively.
ussoccer.com: You opened your 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup campaign against amateur outfit Michigan Bucks in an indoor arena, admittedly an unusual environment for an 11v11 game. What did you make of the 2-1 win?
Preki: It was a challenge. I have to admit. We were up against a small team on a strange field. The surface was difficult. There were no locker rooms. No showers [laughs]. But we applied ourselves as professionals even having played three games in six days, with travel on top of that. We were happy with what we did and how we did it. And I have no complaints about the result.
ussoccer.com: It’s no amateur outfit up next for you and your team. Chicago Fire have won the Open Cup four times and are a big name in Major League Soccer…
Preki: The game against Chicago Fire is an exciting thing for us. It’s a chance and a big opportunity. We should use it to showcase ourselves and express ourselves as a team and as players. It’s a tough opponent and one who’s ahead of us in terms of talent, money and organization. OK, we admit this. But at the same time, it’s soccer and it’s 90 minutes and well, we’ll have fun and get right into them.
ussoccer.com: You know about the Open Cup as a player and a coach. What makes it special? Is there such a thing as Open Cup magic?
Preki: In the Open Cup anything is possible. It’s a one-game thing. If you catch a team on the right day or a team catches you on the right day, anything can go wrong. Or right! It all depends on those 90 minutes, or those 120 minutes. Whatever. Someone will win. Someone will lose.
ussoccer.com: How do you approach a game, as a coach, that you know needs to have a winner?
Preki: You have to take it seriously and put out as good a line-up as you can. It’s another competition and another trophy and that alone is a motivation you have to respect. We’re a small club playing against big clubs now, against Chicago Fire who everyone knows. But if we play the way we can it could be a surprise for them. We’ll have to wait and see.
ussoccer.com: It’s been a long time, nearly 20 years, since a lower-league team has won the Open Cup. Do you think that could change this year?
Preki: I don’t know if a smaller team is getting closer to winning the Cup. The differences between the top flight and the second division are still very big. Chicago Fire has one player that costs more than our whole club! We’re not talking about individual players costing more than other individual players, but one player costing more than a whole club! Finances matter in professional football.
ussoccer.com: Maybe you’re talking about Bastian Schweinsteiger, Chicago’s highly paid German World Cup winner…
Preki: It’s not just him, but yes he is one of them who earns more than our whole squad. He’s a world-class player. And if he plays, we’ll try to make it as difficult for him as possible. We’ll work hard to make his life difficult. Maybe he won’t care as much at this stage in his career. Maybe he’s not taking it all that seriously. You never know. Our guys are hungry and young and that can make a difference.
ussoccer.com: And giants can fall. It’s happened before…
Preki: Yes. In the Open Cup you never know what can happen. This is the beauty of it. Maybe the big team won’t take it as seriously as they should. Maybe they will rest players and take the smaller team lightly. And maybe it will cost them in the end. These factors all play into what happens.
ussoccer.com: Was the transition from coach to player a difficult one for you? You were something of a fiery renegade in your playing days…
Preki: The transition has been very natural for me. I really enjoy what I do and I love the game. I have a deep passion for it. It’s a challenge, yes, but nothing worth doing is easy. I love teaching the players and giving to them everything I have to give. I love to see them get better. The process has been easy because I love being around the game, influencing it.
ussoccer.com: What do you stress to your players? What are the keys to success for Preki?
Preki: I want my teams to be brave. Organized and ready, sure. But bravery is the key. You have to believe in what you can do. I want to press as much as we can and to attack. This is what soccer is all about. It’s not always easy in the second division because attacking players who can do all the amazing things cost a lot of money. So we have to teach from scratch. It’s a lot of work. But there’s nothing wrong with hard work.
ussoccer.com: Some were alarmed to see the surname Radosavljević on the subs’ bench for the game in Michigan. They worried that a 53-year-old Preki had put himself in the roster. But the Radosavljević in question is actually your son, Nick. What’s it like coaching your kid?
Preki: [Laughs] It’s difficult to coach your son. You have to separate the emotions of being a father from the job of being a coach. I’ve been able to do that. Nick’s a part of the group and he works hard every day. And when I feel he’s ready he’ll be thrown in at the deep end and we’ll see what he does with his chance.
ussoccer.com: Since you came to play Arena Soccer for the Tacoma Stars in 1982, how much has American soccer changed?
Preki: Everything has changed. It can be seen in the stadiums and the media, where people show up and pay attention and the game matters now like it never did before. When I look at all that stuff I find it amazing. You can’t turn on the TV now and not find a live soccer game from somewhere. I would never have predicted this.
ussoccer.com: What stands out for you from a playing career that spanned over 20 years and saw you become the only man to be named MLS MVP twice?
Preki: When I won the title in 2000 [with Kansas City] that was a special moment for me. It’s always something special when you win with a group you worked hard with for so long. The Open Cup win in 2004 was special too because those are things – trophies and titles – that you take away from your playing days and remind you of all the sacrifice.
ussoccer.com: What makes the differences between a title-winning season and a regular season?
Preki: You always have to put in the hard work and go hard for a long time, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll win anything at the end of all that hard work. So it’s the titles and the trophies that make it all special. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little of your ego to make the team better. That’s a lesson I learned. And it makes a difference.
ussoccer.com: Anyone who’s seen it remembers it. The Preki Move. You’re near the corner of the penalty area and stand the defender up. Everyone - the defender, fans and teammates - knew what was coming. You drop your shoulder and cut in left. It always seemed to work. Every time…
Preki: [Laughs]I don’t know how to elaborate on that move. When I played the game it was with natural instincts. I felt it inside and I’d read the defense and respond accordingly. There’s no way to write it down or to pass it on. I can’t tell you how it worked or why. It just came through reflex. A lot about this game is instinct and it can’t be taught.
uss |
section for nine years, and who was in charge of the government's "terrorism" portfolio post-September 11.
"We are waiting for the group to declare exactly what they want," she added.
"One of his strategies is to try and draw a distinction between French Muslims and French people in order to put pressure on the government and obtain more in the hostage negotiations."
Bin Laden's whereabouts are unknown, but in August, General David Petraeus, the US commander in Afghanistan, said he is "far buried" in the remote mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and that capturing him remains a key task.
Bin Laden is the world's most-wanted man, with the US offering a reward of up to $25m for information leading to his capture.On Tuesday, Wikipedia took the drastic step of replacing every Italian-language page with a statement warning that a law now under consideration by the Italian parliament could force the shutdown of the Italian edition of Wikipedia. In the English version of its statement, Wikipedia says the law includes "a requirement to all websites to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image." Wikipedia says this requirement is "an unacceptable restriction of the freedom and independence of Wikipedia," and would paralyze Wikipedia's bottom-up editing process.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is currently on trial for corruption and having sex with an underage prostitute. His government is trying to restrict publication of police wiretapping transcripts after Berlusconi was embarrassed by leaked transcripts of his own phone calls.
One of those transcripts show him expressing contempt for his country and a desire to leave it. In another, he directed a "crude insult" at German leader Angela Merkel. In a third, he boasted, of "'doing eight girls" in a night and joked that with all his sexual activity, he was only prime minister 'in [his] spare time.'"
Berlusconi's government insists the law would safeguard the privacy of all Italians.
Section 29 of the proposed legislation would force websites to post any corrections submitted to them. There's no provision for verifying the accuracy of the corrections, nor is there a process of judicial review.
Italian Wikipedia editors argue that they "have always been available to review—and modify, if needed—any content deemed to be detrimental to anyone, without harm to the project's neutrality and independence." And they argue that existing defamation law already gives adequate protections for Italians who are unfairly maligned by a website.
Italian-language articles are now available again, but a banner opposing the legislation continues to appear on the Italian Wikipedia home page. The protest statement was viewed 16 million times in the two days it was up.
Wikipedia says the Italian site is its fourth-largest, with more than over 800,000 articles and over 600,000 registered users.Downtown Boathouse, a nonprofit group that runs one of New York City’s free kayaking services, is under threat, it says, from private companies encroaching on the waterfront.
The Hudson River Park Trust is preparing to issue a request for bids on its key waterfront spots and Boathouse president Graeme Birchall is afraid they could lose out to corporate interests who could offer the Park Trust more money. Downtown Boathouse has an operating budget of about $30,000 and relies entirely on volunteer support to operate. "We’re a little nervous with this [RFP] that money matters," Birchall told DNAinfo.
According to DNAinfo, the last time the Hudson River Park Trust asked for proposals in 2005, it expressed interest specifically in nonprofit organizations that could run a “low-cost or free community boating component.” Birchall is worried that that language has been excluded from the upcoming request.
“Our objective was to put lots and lots of [people] on boats,” Bitchall says. By all accounts the have succeeded. In 20 years of service, Downtown Boathouse has, by their own estimation, served more than 300,000 rivergoers. "It would be sad if we end up with a waterfront that had no access to the water unless you were rich.”There’s another new patch for Gigantic and its making some significant changes to game mechanics as well as some Hero’s. To kick us off and if you can’t yet read the Beta forums, the patch notes are below. If you have already read the patch notes and want to jump straight to my analysis, hit this link and it'll zip you all the way down.
BIG STUFF YOU’LL NOTICE RIGHT AWAY
STAMINA
Made a number of adjustments to out-of-combat sprinting cost and stamina regeneration. Here are the new numbers:
Out-of-combat sprint cost: 8 stamina per second. (Characters have 100 stamina by default. The in-combat cost ranges from 12/s to 18/s, depending on the hero.)
Out-of-combat stamina regeneration rate: 30 stamina per second. (In-combat regeneration ranges from 15/s to 20/s, depending on the hero.
PING WHEEL
The ping wheel has been re-enabled and expanded to 12 options; let us know what you think, including how you'd like to see it expanded!
You can bring up the ping wheel by holding down C on the keyboard or X on the gamepad.
You can still use the generic white ping by tapping the button instead of holding it and selecting an option.
The ping wheel now allows you to cancel a ping by holding the button for 0.3 seconds and then releasing it while the center of the wheel is selected.
You can now ping slightly faster. Note that pinging too rapidly will lock you out for 10 seconds. This duration increases each time the lockout is triggered.
Current ping wheel options are laid out as follows:
Up: "Fight Here!" (Blue)
Up and Left: "Hit and run!"
Up and Right: "Hold this spot!"
Left: "Withdraw!" (Purple)
Right and Up: "Do not fight!"
Right and Down: "No help needed!"
Down: "Summon here!" (Green)
Down and Left: "Need to upgrade!"
Down and Right: "Help me summon!"
Right: "Danger!" (Red)
Left and Up: "I am leaving!"
Left and Down: "Need healing!"
TWEAKS YOU’LL NOTICE EVENTUALLY
BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS
Corrected some DPS exploits which could be utilized by Aisling, Charnok, Mozu, Tripp, Tyto the Swift, Voden, and Xenobia.
RESPAWNS
Reduced the amount of focus gained on respawn from 80 to 40. (Note: a single focus charge is 250.)
Killing all 5 enemy heroes (i.e. forcing a full team respawn) now adds an additional 10 seconds to their respawn timers.
DODGE
You can now dodge through other heroes. (Trying to dodge while out of stamina doesn't count!)
TALENT CHANGES
Path of Fury (affected heroes: Charnok, Wu, HK-206, Lord Knossos, Imani, Mozu)
Dominator talent: +5% damage for each kill without dying. Max +15% damage. (Formerly: +15% damage once you had 3 or more kills without dying.)
Path of the Survivor (affected heroes: Uncle Sven, The Margrave, Griselma)
Fringe Benefits talent: +10 armor when you are hit from long or medium range. (Formerly: based on damage type.)
Path of Solitude (affected heroes: Aisling, Wu, Tripp, Tyto the Swift, Mozu)
Angular Momentum talent: +15% damage from behind and after dodging. (Formerly: +20%.)
Path of the Legion (affected heroes: Aisling, Uncle Sven, Vadasi, Xenobia, Griselma, Voden)
Aegis talent: After using Focus, other nearby allies gain 250 HP shield (absorbs 75% damage taken) for 3s. (Formerly: 300 HP for 6s; skill no longer affects the caster.)
VISUALS
Fixed a number of condition visual effects which were missing or not functioning properly. The following effects should cause a glow on your hero:
Bleeding - Red
Immobilized - Purple
Frozen - Pale Blue
Burning - Orange Red
Poison - Toxic Green
Healing - Happy Green
HERO SELECT
In hero select, heroes now have a "hero type" field instead of a "difficulty" field.
MISTFORGE
"For some players, this will be the first opportunity to explore the ancient mountain shrine — and to experience a bigger map with more summoning circles and a separate Clash area."
Adjust the locations where cyclops walls will spawn.
Adjusted where power orbs spawn at the start of the map, and removed all orbs from the center of the map.
When rampaging, Guardians will no longer crowd the Forest / Garden areas. They will instead move to more open areas of the map.
Removed all but four destructible terrain pieces to test desync issues.
Added blocking volumes around the upper levels of the map to prevent characters with super leaps and teleports from escaping the world.
Gave new names to many pre-clash summoning circles. These will continue to change, and are open to feedback.
CANYON
Removed power orbs from center of map.
GUARDIANS
GENERAL
Increased the rate that power is stolen when a guardian is rampaging by 20%.
NAGA
NEW: Naga now uses a new model! Let us know what you think.
Naga now uses a new model! Let us know what you think. NEW: The Naga has been updated with a whole new arsenal of attacks:
Barrage - Long Range Attack - The Naga tosses large masses of dark energy. On hit, they deal 225 damage and create a slow/burning area of effect (AoE) field. Sweep - Medium Range Attack - The Naga throws 4 projectiles in a line that create a series of AoE fields in front of him. These last 6 seconds and apply slow/burning to enemies. Breath - Medium Range Attack - The Naga leans down and spews a cloud of pure evil, damaging any enemies it hits for 3 seconds. Corruption - Close Range Attack - The Naga pulses energy into its left hand to create a large field that lasts for 8 seconds and applies slow/burning to enemies. Slam - Close Range Attack - The Naga slams its right hand into the ground in front of it, tossing enemies away and dealing damage.
GRIFFIN
The Griffin's repeater attack (i.e. laser eyes) is now slightly less accurate.
SUMMONED CREATURES
GENERAL
Creatures will now channel their teleport skill to move to the Clash area. When channeling the skill, they will become invulnerable for 5 seconds. After moving, they will be invulnerable for an additional 5 seconds while they recover from their sudden position change.
Tripled the health regeneration rate for summoned creatures when they are out of combat from 15 hp/s to 45 hp/s.
Summoned creatures now have a 500 HP shield that renews every time they return to their summoning circle.
This is intended to force back-cappers to commit to fights against summoned creatures in order to kill them. Backcapping will still require a response from the defending team.
There is now a 1 second delay before creatures return to meditating after disengaging from an enemy.
Increased starting health percentage for young creatures from 33% to 40%.
Increased starting health percentage for adult creatures from 20% to 33%.
YOUNG BLOOMER
Updated visual effects of healing skills used by the Young Bloomer.
CERBERUS
Young Cerberus
Now properly uses the 'Howl' attack.
Cerberus Majoris
Vision range increased from 4000 to 4250. Raised health from 6000 to 6750 hp.
CYCLOPS
Yeti Cyclops
Reduced the height of the area of affect pools created by the Yeti Cyclops from 400 to 250. This was done to prevent players from being frozen when leaping over the pools. Raised health from 7500 to 8500 hp.
DRAKE
Young Drake
Now creates a 4-second fire field after using its siege skill (similar to the adult Fire Drake).
Fire Drake
Increased the base damage of its siege skill from 100 to 175 damage. Lowered the focus cost to purchase a Fire Drake from 3 to 2. Lowered health from 8000 to 7000 hp.
GENERAL
Sir Cador's attack range has been reduced from a giant radius to a normal melee attack.
SLASH (LMB/RT)
Fixed a bug which prevented the 'Spectral Might' and 'Spectral Defense' upgrades from functioning when Cador is in Aisling's blade.
TERRIFY (F/LS + RS)
Description updated to properly indicate that Cador alone will execute the skill.
HEAT WAVE (LMB/RT)
Burn Notice upgrade: reduced the base damage delivered by a fully charged shot.
Burn Notice upgrade: the skill no longer immediately adds a tick of burn damage on top of the regular damage dealt by Heat Wave.
PORTAL BEAST (RMB/LT)
Increased cooldown penalty for a dead pet from 12s to 15s.
PORTAL CALL (Q/LB)
NEW: Portal Trap: Create a trap that pushes foes and summons your farthest pet. Hit (Q/LB) again to immediately trigger the trap.
Now has trap functionality by default. By default you can only have one trap at a time. Reduced default damage dealt by the trap.
NEW: Portal Call upgrade: Reduces cooldown for (RMB/LT) if you have no pet to relocate. (Replaces the "heal pets when you relocate them" upgrade.)
Portal Call upgrade: Reduces cooldown for (RMB/LT) if you have no pet to relocate. (Replaces the "heal pets when you relocate them" upgrade.) NEW: Trapper Keeper upgrade: You can have up to 3 traps at once. (Replaces the "you can now make traps" upgrade.)
Trapper Keeper upgrade: You can have up to 3 traps at once. (Replaces the "you can now make traps" upgrade.) NEW: Trap Easiest upgrade: Your trap deals 5x damage and hits a much larger area. (Replaces the launch upgrade.)
DISPLACEMENT (E/RB)
Increased the maximum time that Griselma can remain in her Displacement portal from 3 to 4 seconds.
Griselma no longer collides with other characters while in her Displacement portal.
NEW: Conservation of Mass upgrade: When you enter your portal, you summon a Portal Beast. (Replaces the buff-your-pets upgrade.)
This upgrade will summon a beast even if your summon skill is on cooldown. It does not, however, allow you to summon more than the 3 beast cap.
Gift of Preservation upgrade: While in your portal, your Portal Beasts regain health.
Gift of Annihilation upgrade: While in your portal, your Portal Beasts attack rapidly.
NEW: Exit Strategy upgrade: Tap (E/RB) again to teleport forward. +5s cooldown if you teleport.
Exit Strategy upgrade: Tap (E/RB) again to teleport forward. +5s cooldown if you teleport. NEW: Escape Hatch upgrade: If you teleport, you emerge at your nearest trap within 15m of your entry point.
Escape Hatch upgrade: If you teleport, you emerge at your nearest trap within 15m of your entry point. Portal Collapse upgrade: If you teleport, enemies near your destination are stunned for 1.5s.
TALENTS
Level 3 Skill Specializations
Heel! (Q/LB) talent: When your Portal Beasts relocate, they are fully healed. (Replaces cooldown reduction talent.)
BULLET BARRAGE (LMB/RT)
Increased accuracy while fortified.
FORTIFY (E/RT)
Servo Boost upgrade: Fixed a bug that caused the fortify and un-fortify animations to not play correctly after taking this upgrade.
TALENTS
Level 3 Skill Specializations
Heat Sink talent: Fixed a bug that prevented this from working until you took other Rail Gun upgrades.
Heat Sink talent: Added numbers to the description.
GENERAL
Increased health to 1500.
SILENT SCOPE (RMB/LT)
Decreased base scoped damage by 20% for all ammo types.
Adjusted the multipliers applied to charged shots to accurately increase damage by 2.0 (formerly 1.6) and 3.0 (formerly 2.4) respectively.
Adjusted the order of upgrades available on Silent Scope:
Adjustable Scope upgrade: Staying zoomed in can grant you a 3x damage bonus.
Staying zoomed in can grant you a 3x damage bonus. NEW: Vital Organs upgrade: Scoped shots have 50% armor penetration.
Vital Organs upgrade: Scoped shots have 50% armor penetration. On The Mark upgrade: After a fully charged direct hit when scoped, your damage bonus starts at 2x.
Snapshot upgrade: You can fire scoped shots quicker. +50% damage for quick scoped shots.
Deft Hand upgrade: After a scoped shot, you can reload and fire again 20% faster. Combat Sniper upgrade: Increased move speed and +15 armor vs. projectiles while scoped.
Fixed an exploit that allowed you to rapid-fire scoped shots.
CYCLE AMMO (Q/LB)
Boom bolts now add 1s of burning instead of increasing base damage.
Die in a Fire upgrade: Burning from Boom Bolts now lasts for 2s and damage dealt has been increased from 50/tick to 75/tick.
Blast Radius upgrade: On hit, Boom Bolts ignite enemies near your target. Gain focus for each enemy hit set on fire.
SMOKE BOMB (E/RB)
Imani's Smoke Bomb can no longer be interrupted by exhausted/hard landings.
CHARGE FORTH (Q/LB)
Rush in Attack upgrade: No longer locks the direction of the charge when it starts; this should make it easier to aim the attack.
STAGGERING LEAP (E/RB)
Slightly increased the default leap range of the skill.
Increased the travel time at the peak of the leap to keep the speed at which he travels consistent.
TALENTS
Added Dimension (E/RB) talent: Reduced range added by the talent from 3000 to 2250.
(E/RB) talent: Reduced range added by the talent from 3000 to 2250. Added Dimension (E/RB) talent: Improved the reliability of the Dimention Door skill after purchasing this upgrade.
GENERAL
Reduced Tripp's base sprint speed to 680. (This is the same as Wu, but slower than Tyto.)
Increased the stamina cost when sprinting.
Decreased Tripp's base stamina regeneration rate.
BLADESTORM (F/LS + RS)
Reduced damage of Bladestorm by 25%.
TALENTS
Acrobatics talent: Dodging costs 15% less stamina and jumping costs 33% less stamina. (Was 33% less for dodging.)
SWOOP (RMB/LT)
Increased the travel time at the peak of the leap to keep the speed at which he travels consistent.
BLADE DANCE (Q/LB)
Deadly Dance upgrade: No longer adds damage every time this skill hits; the damage over time will now tick every 1 second, as intended.
ELASTIC OOZE (Q/LB)
Perfect Pitch upgrade: Corrected the visual effects and team indicators of the skill.
SMITE (RMB/LT)
Added a 2 second cooldown per attack. Vadasi can cast up to four attacks in a row (one for each arm) before the skill is set to a cooldown based on the number of attacks which were used.
Flameseeker upgrade: Reduced cooldown to 1 second per attack.
upgrade: Reduced cooldown to 1 second per attack. Meltdown upgrade: Reduced duration of the armor break from 4s to 2s.
ARROWED (LMB/RT)
Removed the Shatter upgrade.
upgrade. Altered the point at which Voden's arrows deal less damage upon impacting enemies. This distance at which damage begins to drop off has been reduced by 33%.
Longshot upgrade: When powered up, arrows fly faster (+10% projectile speed) and deal full damage at longer range.
POISON SPORES (RMB/LT)
Lowered the base duration of poison from 8s to 6s.
More Spores upgrade: Decreased the total duration of the poison cloud from 10s to 8s.
upgrade: Decreased the total duration of the poison cloud from 10s to 8s. Contagion upgrade: Taking the upgrade now adds a 5 second cooldown to Poison Spores.
GREEN MAN (Q/LB)
Voden's decoy now generates a tiny amount of focus when it hits enemies.
This change was more for consistency than balance; because the focus gain is small, Voden's focus gain from his own attacks was not changed.
Alternate Root upgrade: Reduced the range at which you can swap with your decoy from 25m to 20m,
upgrade: Reduced the range at which you can swap with your decoy from 25m to 20m, Alternate Root upgrade: Added a 1 second cooldown before you can swap with your decoy.
upgrade: Added a 1 second cooldown before you can swap with your decoy. A Ways Away upgrade: Reduced the summoning range from 17.5m to 10m.
HIDDEN SPRING (E/RB)
Burst Forth upgrade: Corrected the skill description to correctly say that it "pushes" enemies instead of "launches" enemies.
NATURAL ROOTS (R/LS + RS)
Voden's focus will no longer be interrupted by hard landings, dodging, or most other actions.
RAIN OF BLOWS (LMB/RT)
Reworked Wu's interrupt upgrade branch.
Flowing Fist upgrade: Can now also be triggered by Wu's focus skill. Pouncing Tiger Kick upgrade: This upgrade can now only be triggered once every 12s. Hop To It upgrade: Allows you to perform Pouncing Tiger Kick more often (every 8s). Kick It Up a Notch upgrade: Pouncing Tiger Kick now hits a larger area and can hit multiple foes.
CRASHING WAVES (Q/LB)
Intercepting Fist upgrade: Decreased the intensity of weakness from 50% to 25%.
upgrade: Decreased the intensity of weakness from 50% to 25%. Intercepting Fist upgrade: Increased the duration of weakness from 3s to 5s.
upgrade: Increased the duration of weakness from 3s to 5s. NEW: Enervating Palm upgrade: Second hit intensifies the weakness caused by Intercepting Fist (50% damage for 5s).
Replaces the Temple Strike upgrade, since having a stun gave Wu too much CC.
TONGUE LASHING (E/RB)
You can now hold E to target the skill. Note that this is an early implementation, and that the targeting cannot be cancelled except by dodging.
GAZE OF ENVY (LMB/RT)
Sap Strength upgrade: No longer increases the duration of the weakness, though still increases the strength of weakness caused by Gaze of Envy.
Analysis
If you're new to Gigantic or an existing player, I think it's important to see this update as one that's adding layers of polish more than making drastic changes to a multitude of Hero's. The Ping Wheel, Naga redesign and Mistforge are all greatly improving on the existing experience and having used the ping wheel and fought the redesigned Naga earlier this week, I can happily confirm both work wonderfully well. With chat currently disabled and players relying on Gamevox, the ping wheel already proved incredibly useful during yesterday's Guardian Arena. Being able to send quick prompts and alerts was invaluable, especially for the dangers of a roaming Tripp or enemy advance. The fact that the ping wheel also allows for greater depth when navigating it in different directions is a welcome surprise. It was difficult at first to remember which command combination provided which result, but further practice really helped. In time there's no doubting that in a public setting and especially when you're solo queuing, the use of the ping wheel will be fundmanetal for players.
On the subject of the new Naga, I have to praise the design of it. The original Naga looked fantastic but the new version has taken the serpent-like-beast to another level. With a brilliantly bright color palette that also manages to be dark and brooding, it's truly striking. The smoke pluming off his back is particularly impressive and his new set of skills finally making him a real threat. No longer will everyone want to be House Aurion in order to secure the Griffin and his lazer eyes.
Other notable and significant changes including adding shields to Creatures and adjusting stamina gains. Previously it was particularly difficult to sprint for lengthy periods when out of combat and on certain Hero's (certainly Griselma) you could only sprint for a few seconds before resorting to walking. You can now freely sprint for a considerable amount of time, leaving all players with a greater ability to travel the map but also improving the playing field for less agile Hero's. Perhaps it's just me as there's nothing in the patch notes, but it also feels like stamina regeneration when out of combat triggers much faster. Further investigation is definitely required.
Where shielding on Creatures is concerned, it has, to a large extent, already removed back capping. Although there's a side of me that sees back capping as a valid tactic, it's also incredibly frustrating because it forces team compositions that are capable of doing it to be forever defending. It's near impossible to effectively counter a well played Tripp from running laps around your back line. By providing Creatures with a shield, any Hero who wants to back cap now has to truly commit to trying to kill said Creature otherwise its shield will just replenish. This buys teams enough time to pin down the back capper or at the very least, scare them off. It's a very welcome change and although there's still a need to prevent the likes of Tripp back capping, it's less of a full time role.
As for Hero changes this patch, the biggest adjustments have affected Griselma and Voden. Although I'll produce a separate article covering Griselma over the weekend, I have to say that her changes are absolutely brilliant. Motiga deserve a great deal of praise for their Hero balance because it's calculated, considered and delicate. There's no sledgehammer here and what they do change always makes sense. I've championed changes to Griselma's Displacement and Portal Trap for a considerable period because they offered too little variety and too little flexibility. For the first time this week, I didn't take the teleport and instead used traps as a means of bunkering down and dealing huge damage. It worked out wonderfully well and combined with the speed in which you can now summon Portal Beasts or dart forward with Displacement, there's a renewed sense of vigor to my favorite granny.
For Voden, I think it's fair to say that he was in need of some gentle adjustments. Not only was he capable of dealing enormous damage but his ability to cause bleeding for long periods of time kept far too many enemies in combat. The removal of the bleed but replacing it with Longshot is fairly significant. His arrows now fire at lightning speed, have no dip in their distance traveled and deal full damage at their maximum range. It makes Voden a very powerful skirmisher. Even though his Poison Spores and Green Man Decoy have seen some minor tweaks (primarily in their cooldowns or duration) it hasn't had a detrimental impact on his potency but does bring him into line with other Hero's.
Before I finish this analysis, I think it's worth just briefly discussing Imani. She's undergone some significant number adjustments this update and I've not yet reached a decision on whether it's a good or bad thing. I suspect it's in part due to the fact that Mistforge has once again entered the rotation and due to its size, Imani has always been relatively safe at sniping from afar on such a large map (compared to Canyon). Yes she was capable of dealing huge damage with her Boom Bolts, but she's also much more fragile than the likes of Voden or Charnok. In testing I've done today, she's still more than capable of hitting for 800 damage on a "X3" scoped shot but I'm not entirely sure that provides enough of an incentive to take her over Voden, especially when you consider his kit.
Finally, I have to give mention to new visual effects on talents and awards given in game. All the artwork on them looks fantastic and awards are now easily identifiable during combat or when leveling up. It's a small but welcome addition - a bit like the damage reduction to Tripp's Focus!A powerful 8.5 magnitude earthquake struck near remote Japanese islands and shook most of the country on Saturday evening local time, although it occurred well beneath the earth’s surface and did not trigger a tsunami warning. Several people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and there were no reports of deaths or major damage.
The quake struck off the Ogasawara islands at a depth of 370 miles (590 km), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The quake was powerful enough to rattle most of Japan, from the southern islands of Okinawa to Hokkaido in the north. It caused buildings to sway in Tokyo about 620 miles north of the Ogasawara islands and temporarily disrupted some train services in the city. About 400 houses in Saitama prefecture, just north of the capital, were without power, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
On Sunday morning, a second earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck off Japan’s Izu islands, which are north of the Ogasawara islands, the US Geological Survey said. It struck at a depth of eight miles with its epicenter 390 miles south-east of Tokyo.
The earthquake was not strong enough to generate a tsunami warning or close enough to the islands to cause any significant damage or injuries, said John Bellini, a geophysicist with the USGS in Golden, Colorado. He said it was considered a separate seismic event and not an aftershock to the magnitude 8.5 quake that had struck hours earlier.One of the most pernicious effects of religion is the opposition of some faiths to modern health care. I’ve posted on this frequently, especially about American religious sects which prohibit health care, vaccination, and blood transfusions for children, children who have no ability to make medical choices. As a result, many of those children have died. Although these faiths might be considered “extreme,” the rest of us have made the laws that exempt their adherents from the necessity to take proper care of their children.
Even more horrible is the tendency of militant Muslims, particularly the Taliban, to murder those who are trying to vaccinate children against polio. This is happening in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and parts of Africa. It’s not just the shots, either—oral polio vaccines are considered just as un-Islamic.
The Guardian, the New York Times, and Jihad Watch report that another five vaccination workers—all Pakistanis—were killed in the last two weeks. As the Guardian notes:
Five female health workers vaccinating children against polio have been shot dead in Pakistan in a series of attacks blamed on Islamist militants. One victim was a 17-year-old schoolgirl volunteer. Four of the killings, which officials said were carried out by masked men on motorbikes, took place in the southern city of Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital, on the second day of a drive to eradicate the disease from the country. The fifth, of the schoolgirl, occurred in the violent western city of Peshawar. According to some reports, a sixth health worker, a man, was also killed in Karachi. It was not clear who was behind the shootings, but Taliban insurgents have repeatedly denounced the anti-polio campaign as a western plot.
The anti-Islamophobes can thus blame this on colonialism, but that’s a stretch, for anti-Westernism is a characteristic of Islamism (read The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright). And if that’s not enough, there are more explicit religious motivations for Islamic anti-vaxers. (By the way, midwives have also been killed.) As Jihad Watch notes:
The Times says that the Taliban “accuses the United States of using a drive to eradicate polio in the country as a cover for spying,” but that isn’t the only reason why they’re murdering polio workers. A Pakistani Muslim cleric has said that polio vaccinations are un-Islamic. And such “extremist” clerics are not just in Pakistan: in Nigeria, a Muslim cleric was arrested for playing a role in sparking the murders of polio workers.
From USA Today:
In Pakistan’s Northwest territories, where Taliban clerics have significant influence, polio vaccination teams are maligned as un-Islamic or Western purveyors of poison meant to sterilize Muslim women.
Without this Muslim opposition, the world was poised to eradicate polio from the planet, just as we have eradicated smallpox.
The Guardian adds:
Statistics released in October showed an improvement in the polio situation in Pakistan, with 47 children paralysed by the disease in 27 districts compared with 154 cases in 48 districts in 2011. However, in 2005 only 28 new cases were registered.
Just ponder what it’s like to be a paralyzed child. When I was young, and polio vaccines were new, we were often frightened by pictures of afflicted children confined in iron lungs. Only 47 paralyzed children may be an “improvement,” but those are 47 lives severely and unnecessarily damaged. And since polio is transmitted only between humans, the diseased are a reservoir to keep the virus alive, leading to a serious danger of outbreaks in the Middle East.NEED TO KNOW What is it? A medieval RPG/strategy game with turn-based combat
Influenced by: Darklands
Play it on: Quad-core CPU, 4GB RAM, GeForce GTX 560
Alternatively: Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes, Eschalon Trilogy
Copy protection: Steam
Expect to pay: $20/£15
Release: 2013 (Early Access)
Publisher/Developer: Aterdux Entertainment
Multiplayer: None
Link: Official site
Alpha and Early Access reviews offer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games. We may follow up this unscored review with a final, scored review in the future. Read our full review policy for details.
I knew that Legends of Eisenwald wasn't quite as it appeared not long after I began playing the tutorial. I'd captured a bandit who'd been terrorizing a local stretch of road, and after confessing and explaining that he was merely a pawn in a much bigger game, he asked if I'd spare his life. Unable to resist my Boy Scout impulses, I decided I would. The game had other ideas. "Honor does not demand that justice be abandoned," my character Sir Malygris intoned, before giving him a Ned Stark haircut. Well then.
Legends of Eisenwald, which has been kicking around on Steam Early Access since October 2013, isn't really an RPG at all. I don't feel like I'm the hero when I play; I'm just some random goon with a sword and a trust fund, going where the game tells me, doing what it wants me to, and then toddling off to the next entry on the list of Things That Must Be Done. There are some choices to be made, such as which vassals to tune up as an example to the rest, but individual quests are purely linear and have fixed outcomes, and won't progress until the previous step is made as required—steps that are often unclear.
In one case involving a woman whoring out her daughter, a rumor hinted that I could find them at Green Stone Street. But there is no Green Stone Street in the game; I can say this with confidence, because I spent an awful lot of time looking for it. In reality, it was just a scripted reference made by an NPC, and to trigger the next step in the quest (and this is a spoiler, so beware) I needed to sell a diadem I'd taken off a dead mercenary at some point prior, which had been lying, forgotten, at the bottom of my inventory. Not only that: After selling it, I had to engage in gossip in order to advance the quest, and if I gossiped before selling, I'd have to leave the city, return, then gossip, and then the quest would progress. But there was never any indication that these were the specific steps, in the specific order, required to move the action forward, and in fact were it not for the mercy of the Steam forums, I'd probably still have that stupid diadem in my inventory.
Combat is similarly obtuse. In battle, all melee fighters must, without exception, attack the enemy closest to them, so while they're all nominally under my control, I often have very little actual control over them. It's possible to pass a turn, but NPCs cannot move without engaging someone, nor can they pile on to one particular enemy if others are closer. The computer is stuck with the same restriction so it's not really unfair, but it leads to some ridiculous situations: Powerful mystics would occasionally conjure spirits within my ranks, and my soldiers were then obliged to stand and swing through them repeatedly, even though the wispy ghosts couldn't be damaged by their weapons—and while corporeal enemies were busy laying the thump on one or two of my fellows a few hexes away.
The Russian (I think) to English translations can be a little rough in places (not unreadable, just awkward, like Gunther Reike's analogy of a frog in a milk jug turning the realm into a wasteland), there's a graphics glitch after alt-tabbing, and NPCs sometimes refer to dead characters as though they're still alive in conversations. I could continue, but it starts to feel like nitpicking; the point is that it all feels very beta, much more than I would have expected from a game that's been on Early Access since October 2013, and while it's still being actively developed—the most recent update was posted on April 1—it's certainly not blazing along.
Yet for all of that, I've got more than a dozen hours in Legends of Eisenwald, and I'm actually looking forward to more. It's a lovely game, with a gorgeous day/night cycle, backdrops styled like oil paintings, and a beautiful soundtrack, and the four difficulty levels let me dig into it without having my ass handed to me repeatedly. And even though I don't think it's a particularly good RPG, it is quite a decent adventure. That admittedly stretches the definition of |
can be instigated by the parent, and then carried out by the other child or children trying to please her, to get a place in the sun or hold on to it:
"It was accepted in the immediate and extended family that my sister was perfect, so when things went wrong, or someone/something had to be blamed, that someone would be me. When my sister left the back door open, and the cat was lost, I was the culprit. My sister actively participated, telling lies about me, both in childhood and then long into adulthood. I don’t think my mother has ever said a cross word to my sister in forty years, but why would she have to? She had me, or at least she did, they did, until I cut them both out of my life five years ago."
Musings on trophies, winners, and losers
In soliciting stories from readers, I was struck by one thing: How many unloved and even scapegoated daughters commented on the fact that, in retrospect, they were happy that they weren’t the chosen Trophy Child. As someone who isn’t a therapist or psychologist, but has interviewed women on the subject of unloving mothers for more than 15 years, this struck me as noteworthy. Mind you, these women weren’t papering over their experiences or denying the pain of growing up excluded (in fact, they were very clear on that), or generally how dreadful their childhoods were. But — and this is important — many pointed out that their Trophy sibs didn’t have a shot of breaking the patterns of familial dysfunction while they did, because they had to deal.
There were lots of stories of Mom-mini-me’s, Trophy daughters who were every bit as controlling, high in narcissistic traits, and given to divide-and-conquer techniques as their mothers. There were stories of sons so hobbled by praise and protection — they had to be perfect, after all — that they were still living in their parents’ home 45 years later. Some recounted how the patterns had managed to pass through another generation, affecting the grandchildren of that Trophy-hunting mom.
Source: Photograph by Steinar Engeland. Copyright Free. Unsplash.com
On the other side, there were the daughters who’d found their voices and weren’t willing to shut up. Daughters who’d left those families behind and those who still felt filial obligation, but called it as it happened, free of denial. Those who found they could be the shining and supportive sun of a very different planetary system and worked hard at being conscious and aware, building friendships, support systems, and their own families. This isn’t to say they came out unwounded — they didn’t — but they have one thing in common: They’re less interested in what people do than who people are.
I call that progress.
Merci beaucoup to my readers on who contributed their stories.
Copyright © 2017 by Peg Streep
Read Daughter Detox: Recovering from an Unloving Mother and Reclaiming Your Life
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Read Mean Mothers.A departing Conservative MP says the federal government has committed to building a road to a remote aboriginal community along the Manitoba-Ontario boundary.
The Manitoba government and Winnipeg city hall have already committed to building a road to Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, but the federal government has so far refused.
Joy Smith, a Conservative who is not seeking re-election, says she has been told Ottawa will now commit money for the road.
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She says she received the message in a phone call with Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford, who is also the member of Parliament for the Shoal Lake area.
The reserve was cut off from the mainland a century ago when an aqueduct was built to supply fresh water to Winnipeg.
The community has been under a boil-water advisory for 17 years and has no all-weather road, leaving residents to rely on a treacherous ice road in winter and an aging barge in summer.In a recent letter to the editor, Sean Lowrie asks the essential question:
We are debating health care nationally yet we don’t ask the central questions of liberty. Ask what is the cost, ask who will pay, ask what regulations and panels there will be, but never forget to ask “does this jive with liberty?” Ask “is it permissible by our own Constitution?”
He’s got a pretty good answer too:
The answer bluntly is no, at least, not nationally. In Article I, section 8, the convention in Philadelphia granted a new Congress 18 powers, none of which entitle it to legislate health care or health services. Congress has never been given the power to entitle one person to another person’s labor or property. Yes, Congress often does so, but always illegally. Just because it has been normal to do so for the past 80 years doesn’t make it legal. The 10th Amendment forbids the federal government from taking any power not specifically given to it. Neither Congress, nor president, nor court, nor bureau has the authority to establish national health care.
While there are more than just the 18 powers in Article I, Section 8 (there’s about 30 powers throughout the Constitution, which you can find at this link), the principle remains the same – that which has not been delegated to the federal government is the sole domain of the states – or the people themselves. As the latter determines, of course.
Michael Boldin [send him email] is the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center. He was raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on twitter – @michaelboldin and Facebook. http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.comAn everyday rider can gain health benefits while riding at low intensity in the heat. So saddle up, drink plenty of water, and ride easy all summer long.
In Tucson, AZ, our worst summer days reach a scorching 110-degree heat (43 degrees Celsius) yet you will see daily riders braving the baking pavement on their way to work. If you want great tips for surviving the summer heat – and getting to the office looking fresh and professional – look to these desert pros for help.
You may already know the most important tip: stay hydrated. What you might not realize is that dehydration reduces your blood volume, making your heart work harder and making it more difficult for your body to regulate its temperature. Always drink water, even on short rides, and if you need a little boost, add some ice and electrolytes to the bottle to help you feel energized.
Dress for your climate. Lightweight, synthetic clothing will work in hot, dry regions but if you are dealing with humidity as well stretchy, clingy fabrics tend to get sticky, slimy, and hard to peel off after a ride. Wool is amazing in the heat – even though it’s thought of as a winter fabric. Wool wicks sweat well and breathes like cotton, but dries much faster. For punishingly sunny places, try long sleeve tops – shading your skin will keep it from feeling so sapped. Choose loose-fitting clothing when possible to let your skin air out and reduce chafing on longer rides.
Get your pack off your back and use a rear rack and panniers instead. A sweat-free back is worth the initial cost alone. If you have a shower at work, bring a quick-drying pack towel and a travel bottle of body wash. Most workplaces don’t have showers, so bring bath wipes, as they are a quick way to freshen up at the traditional office birdbath. To spruce up your coif, sprinkle a little dry shampoo or baking soda on your hair and bring a travel brush to brush it through.
In sun-baked Tucson, the intense heat can make a ride feel sluggish. A recent study from the University of Oregon compared the benefits of riding in hot weather to those of high-altitude training. After just ten days of riding in the heat, cyclists in the study had better circulation of oxygen to their muscles and better regulation of their core temperatures, similar to improvements made in high altitudes. While the study focused on athletic training, even an everyday rider will gain health benefits while riding at low intensity in the heat. So saddle up, drink plenty of water, and ride easy all summer long.
Emily Gindlesparger rides and writes in Tucson, AZ, where she loves using her bicycle for commuting and adventure. Gindlesparger has spent the past few years here sharing stories of human powered adventure in local publications.An ESPN radio host was arrested early on Wednesday morning after breaking into a condo in Wyoming.
Ryen Russillo was arrested by police at 4am in the town of Jackson.
Officers were called out at 3:30 a.m. to deal with a 'highly intoxicated male who was refusing to leave,' according to the Jackson Hole News & Guide.
Ryen Russillo has been charged with criminal entry in Wyoming and is being held in the Teton County Sheriff's Office
Russillo was in a condo bedroom with 'bloodshot eyes and slurred speech,' Jackson police Lt. Roger Schultz told the News & Guide. 'He couldn't coherently answer any questions,' Schultz said.
Ryen Russillo is currently being held in the Teton County Sheriff's Office and now has to post a bond and if he doesn't, he'll face a judge within 48 hours
Schultz confirmed that Russillo didn't force his way into the condo and the residents were unsure if they had locked the doors.
The Teton County Sheriff's Office confirmed to the Sporting News that Russillo was being held there on behalf of the Jackson police department.
Russillo didn't know where he was and thought maybe he was staying in the condo, police said.
He is currently being held in the Teton County Sheriff's Office and now has to post a bond and if he doesn't, he'll face a judge within 48 hours.
Criminal entry is a misdemeanor in Wyoming, with maximum punishments of six months in jail and a $750 fine.
Russillo currently hosts the The Russillo Show on ESPN and became a well-known sports radio figure working on Scott Van Pelt's ESPN radio show.This article is over 4 years old
Record haul of over 1,000 endangered sea turtles, all dead, were bound for illegal export to China
Vietnam’s environmental police have seized a record haul of over 1,000 endangered sea turtles which were being prepared for illegal export to China, an official said on Tuesday.
“The turtles were all dead,” said Le Hong Thai, an official of the Ministry of public security’s environmental police department.
“They were meant to be processed into handicrafts for export to China,” he added.
The raids were made on Wednesday last week in the resort town of Nha Trang on Vietnam’s south-central coast.
“The case is under investigation, so we cannot reveal the number of detainees or any other details,” Thai said.
Marine turtles are protected under Vietnamese law. Hunting and trading, including the storing, of any of the five native species (green, leatherback, loggerhead, hawksbill and olive ridley turtles) is a criminal offence.
Scores of Vietnamese have been arrested in regional waters over the past years for catching or trading sea turtles.
Nguyen Phuong Dung, the director of conservation group Education for Nature-Vietnam, welcomed the raid but said it must be followed with legal penalties for those involved.
Courts “need to send the message that Vietnam is serious about prosecuting and punishing” crimes involving endangered species, she said in a statement.
Environmental groups say Vietnam is one of the world’s worst countries for trade in endangered species – an accusation which it denies.
Police regularly seize hauls of ivory, rhino horn and exotic species including pangolins and tigers, but conservation groups say these represent just a small part of the trade passing through the country.A new extension adds native-looking Ubuntu Unity like AppIndicator support for GNOME Shell, a feature for which some, a feature for which some patches were submited more than a year ago, but they were rejected because the feature "conflicts with the design".
AppIndicators have are widely used now, with Ubuntu disabling the message tray (systray) by default, and popular applications like Dropbox or Steam come with AppIndicator support by default.
AppIndicator support for GNOME Shell is a GNOME Shell extension, which, like the name says, integrates AppIndicators into GNOME Shell and it's based on the original patches I've mentioned above, created by Giovanni Campagna.
The extension is a bit rough on the edges, but it generally works well and is basically the same as in Unity, but using GNOME Shell's theming / style.
Caffeine, Everpad, Variety, In my short test, there was only one AppIndicator that didn't work: ClassicMenu Indicator, which is probably related to its multiple submenus, but other than that, all the AppIndicators that I've tried worked as expected, and I've tried quite a few, including Steam, Calendar Indicator Skype (which uses sni-qt as it doesn't come with AppIndicator support by default - this is used by all Qt apps), Psensor My Weather Indicator and Dropbox. Even the Ubuntu Network Manager indicator (a system indicator) has showed up.
Dropbox
Variety Wallpaper Changer
System Load Indicator
Skype
AppIndicator extension for GNOME Shell comes with a configuration tool which you can use to set the AppIndicators position: on the top bar and/or in the Message Tray (you can even have some in the Top Bar and some in the Message Tray), as well as an option to hide some of the existing AppIndicators:
GNOME Shell AppIndicators in the Message Tray
According to its
support for oversized icons like the ones used by indicator-multiload (although this AppIndicator has worked in my test somehow);
labels are only supported on the Top Panel (so for instance, My Weather Indicator won't display the current weather text if used in the Message Tray);
overlay icons, icons pixmaps and tooltips. As you can see, however, the AppIndicator icons look a lot better on the top panel. The icons don't match those used in Unity though, so they don't have a consistent look.According to its GitHub page, the extension is missing the following features:
So what's next? Maybe proper Unity-like AppMenu ( global menu ) support? Some users sure hope so and this may be a step in that direction.
Install AppIndicator Support extension for GNOME Shell
by default, the AppIndicators will be displayed at the bottom, in the Message Tray. To change their position, use the built-in tool by clicking on the settings icon next to the extension name, either on the
The extension has just been released so you may find bugs. In case you do, report them @ Important:. To change their position, use the built-in tool by clicking on the settings icon next to the extension name, either on the website or in GNOME Tweak Tool The extension has just been released so you may find bugs. In case you do, report them @ GitHub
I've tested the AppIndicator extension using(in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail) and looking at the metadata file, that's the only GNOME Shell version it supports right now. Update: the theme should also work with GNOME Shell versions newer than 3.6 - simply change the GNOME Shell version in the metadata file under ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com/ (thanks to Mathias Rudolf for the confirmation).Now that it’s November 7th, on the east coast at least, free agency has officially begun. Qualifying offers (twenty of them) and option decisions marked the final key elements to set up the market. Here are a few notable reports as business opens:
The Braves will not pursue catcher Matt Wieters, Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com tweets. Atlanta has appeared at least to be a plausible landing spot, depending perhaps on what they decide with youngster Christian Bethancourt, but Gammons’ sources certainly make that possibility seem unlikely. Wieters received a qualifying offer today, so a signing team would need to sacrifice a draft pick to add him, though Atlanta’s top choice is protected.
will not pursue catcher, Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com tweets. Atlanta has appeared at least to be a plausible landing spot, depending perhaps on what they decide with youngster, but Gammons’ sources certainly make that possibility seem unlikely. Wieters received a qualifying offer today, so a signing team would need to sacrifice a draft pick to add him, though Atlanta’s top choice is protected. First baseman Justin Morneau is not entertaining thoughts of retiring and “definitely” wants to keep playing, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on Twitter. That had always seemed to be the case, since Morneau worked back from his latest head and neck issues just for a few weeks at the end of the year. The 34-year-old has looked good at the plate over the last two years and should draw plenty of interest — particularly from American League clubs.
is not entertaining thoughts of retiring and “definitely” wants to keep playing, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on Twitter. That had always seemed to be the case, since Morneau worked back from his latest head and neck issues just for a few weeks at the end of the year. The 34-year-old has looked good at the plate over the last two years and should draw plenty of interest — particularly from American League clubs. We’ve also heard some chatter that Morneau and the Twins could have mutual interest in a reunion, though Joe Mauer is entrenched at first. Morneau could theoretically slot in as the DH, but the club needs to find a way to get Miguel Sano into the lineup and still has the solid Trevor Plouffe at third. It’s possible, Berardino writes, that Sano could begin spending some time in the outfield in winter ball in an effort to open the possibility of him getting action there next season. Of course, the team’s handling of Sano and Plouffe likely won’t be dictated by the veteran Morneau, but it’s obviously intriguing to consider the possibilities.
could have mutual interest in a reunion, though is entrenched at first. Morneau could theoretically slot in as the DH, but the club needs to find a way to get into the lineup and still has the solid at third. It’s possible, Berardino writes, that Sano could begin spending some time in the outfield in winter ball in an effort to open the possibility of him getting action there next season. Of course, the team’s handling of Sano and Plouffe likely won’t be dictated by the veteran Morneau, but it’s obviously intriguing to consider the possibilities. Though the Angels did not extend a qualifying offer to third baseman David Freese, new GM Billy Eppler said that the team will at least look into a return, as MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reports. “We’ll engage him in the marketplace,” said Eppler. “We love what he brings on the field and in the clubhouse.”
did not extend a qualifying offer to third baseman, new GM Billy Eppler said that the team will at least look into a return, as MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reports. “We’ll engage him in the marketplace,” said Eppler. “We love what he brings on the field and in the clubhouse.” While the Astros have proven willing to act boldly to improve their major league roster, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle writes that it could be a relatively quiet offseason for the club. “With the exception of lefthanded relievers, there’s nothing I’d say we absolutely have to do,” explained GM Jeff Luhnow. “There’s a lot we want to do,” he added, perhaps suggesting that the organization might pursue some creative opportunities without feeling much urgency.A federal appeals court let stand Thursday a decision that it is unconstitutional to require firearms owners prove a “good reason” in order to carry legally a concealed handgun in the nation’s capital — a win for gun rights advocates that has the potential to send a significant Second Amendment case to the Supreme Court.
The D.C. government had petitioned for the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rehear a lawsuit against the city’s gun laws, but the court declined to revisit the 2-1 decision handed down earlier this year, noting that none of the 10 judges who considered the matter requested a vote on it.
The decision leaves in place the D.C. Circuit’s prior ruling, which found that the city’s “good reason” requirement was unconstitutional.
It also sets up the potential for the Supreme Court to take up the case as the decision creates a split with four other federal circuits that have found discretionary permitting schemes elsewhere are legal.
“Sometimes the most important thing a court does is not do anything,” said Adam Winkler, a University of California, Los Angeles law professor who has written extensively on the Second Amendment. “Because of what the D.C. Circuit didn’t do today, the Supreme Court is now far more likely to take a concealed carry case.”
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine said he was disappointed in Thursday’s decision but had not decided yet whether his office would appeal it to the Supreme Court.
“As we review options for the next steps in consultation with the mayor, the council and the Metropolitan Police Department, our primary concern will be ensuring public safety through reasonable gun laws,” Mr. Racine said.
But the circuit split created by the D.C. ruling is the type of scenario for which gun rights activists have salivated for years, with the hope that the Supreme Court would take up a case on concealed carry and rule to expand Second Amendment protections. Four other federal appeals courts have upheld similar restrictions.
The city’s law had required gun owners to prove they have a “good reason to fear injury” or another “proper reason,” such as a job that requires carrying large amounts of cash or valuables, in order to get a concealed carry permit. Under the city’s law, living in a high-crime neighborhood was not reason enough to justify approval of a concealed carry permit.
Second Amendment advocates who brought the lawsuit said the city’s law was so restrictive that most law-abiding citizens would be unable to obtain permits. As of June, the Metropolitan Police Department reported having granted just 125 concealed carry permits since the law took effect in 2014.
The city’s strict concealed carry laws have remained in effect while the D.C. Circuit was considering whether to rehear the case, so the ruling marks the first time the “good reason” requirements will be cast aside.
Mr. Racine said the requirement will remain in effect until the D.C. Circuit issues a mandate effectuating the ruling, which will likely take a week. All other city regulations regarding concealed carry permits will remain in place, meaning gun owners will still have to complete carry permit applications, pay applicable fees for permits and complete gun safety training requirements.
Attorney Alan Gura, who argued the case for some of the gun owners involved, said the ruling should force city leaders to give their attitude toward gun rights a hard look.
“Ten years ago, Washington D.C.’s political leadership tried to extinguish Second Amendment rights before the Supreme Court,” Mr. Gura said in a statement. “The result was D.C. v. Heller, a tremendous victory for the rights of all Americans. With the court of appeals again confirming the people’s right to bear arms, Washington, D.C.’s politicians must once again ask themselves whether it makes sense to keep resisting our fundamental rights.”
The ruling is the latest blow to the District’s efforts to curtail gun possession and use. The Supreme Court struck down the city’s near-total ban on firearms possession in 2008, and a federal court blocked an effort to ban the carrying of firearms in public in 2014.
D.C. lawmakers adopted the restrictive concealed carry regulations in response to the 2014 ruling, saying the particular firearms regulations were necessary to provide security in a densely populated city that is home to numerous high-ranking federal officials and regularly hosts high-profile dignitaries and large-scale protests.
Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said the group would like to see the concealed carry issue resolved in their favor at the Supreme Court because it would set national precedent.
“We have a win now and a chance for a bigger win,” he said. “But since we don’t get to control it, it’s up to D.C. now and we will wait and see.”
But Mr. Winkler said the significance of the D.C. Circuit ruling couldn’t be overstated.
“If the Supreme Court were to agree with D.C., it would mean a huge number of guns on the streets of major cities like Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles,” he said. “It could have a very big impact on gun policy.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.By Ezra Austin
For The Times of Trenton
PRINCETON -- Traditional American values and virtues have been eroded out of existence, Rick Santorum said in a Princeton University address.
In a lecture and question-and-answer session Tuesday before about 100 people, the former senator from Pennsylvania and presidential candidate elaborated on his views that popular culture, increased secularism, and the legalization of gay marriage have been detrimental to American society.
"The world is changing," he said. "The values and virtues that millions--and I would say the vast majority of Americans--have come to rely on are no longer there."
Santorum said rapidly changing social structures led to the election of President Trump.
"The president is a reflection of America," Santorum said. "The reality is Donald Trump tapped into something that allowed him to win this election, and a lot of it was fear."
Speaking about Trump voters, Santorum said: "They don't know what's next. They don't know how it's going to affect them. What they do see are American families disintegrating."
At the root of America's problem, Santorum argued, is weakening familial institutions. "We need stronger families," he said. "We need men and women to come together to support children that they have."
Princeton U. renames buildings to honor black Nobel laureates
Santorum also discussed faith as necessary aspect of American life. "I'm talking about the civilizing part of faith, the moral code part of faith that isn't there anymore," he said.
In the audience question portion, a student confronted Santorum on his position against gay marriage.
"I'm here to tell you," the student said, "that I was only at a disadvantage as a child of gay parents because of you and the crusade you helped lead against my family's right to exist."
"Obviously this is very personal to you, and I respect that," Santorum responded. "If we made every decision on any issue based upon one situation, we'd be changing the law every time someone came with a story on how the law hurt them."
Another student asked, "Previously in your lecture, you said the president is a reflection of America. Having run (for president) multiple times and lost multiple times, do you recognize that you might not be seen as a reflection of America?"
"Races aren't just about policies," Santorum replied. "They're about people's perceptions of you."
"I felt like I went out there, I gave it my best, I got a message out there," he said. "So Trump did it better than me. Good for him."
In his closing remarks, Santorum alluded to free speech on college campuses.
"Thank you very much for your attention. You guys were very polite," he said. "The last Ivy League I went to was Cornell, and you would have been ashamed of them."
"This is what should happen on college campuses," he continued. "Hopefully you learned some things, I learned some things. That's good. It's iron sharpening iron."
Follow NJ.com on Twitter @njdotcom. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Image caption Rents are rising, and so are tenants' arrears
Private rents in England and Wales rose by 0.5% in April, according to letting agency group LSL Property Services.
That pushed the average rent up to £709 a month.
It was the first recorded increase for three months, and left rents 2.4% higher than a year ago.
Rents are highest in London, where they have risen by 4.5% in the past year to an average of £1,032 per month, a rise that has left them 46% higher than the national average.
The figures are gathered from the rents paid on 18,000 homes.
David Newnes of LSL said the rental market had begun to "heat up" in April.
"As fewer tenants rushed to leave the sector, competition for rental accommodation intensified, and rents rose correspondingly," he said.
"Tenant demand will only strengthen, providing impetus for rental inflation in the long-term."
LSL noted that the level of arrears among tenants had become worse again, with nearly 10% of all rents late or in arrears.
"Many tenants' finances suffered in April as a result of seasonal spending over the Easter period, not to mention the increasing cost of renting," said Mr Newnes.
"Despite several monthly dips in 2012, rents are still rising at a faster rate than wages annually.
"With a faltering economy, and further public sector job losses to come, an increasing number of rented households will see their finances stretched," he warned.In the visual arts, composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or 'ingredients' in a work of art, as distinct from the subject. It can also be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art.
The composition of a picture is different from its subject, what is depicted, whether a moment from a story, a person or a place. Many subjects, for example Saint George and the Dragon, are often portrayed in art, but using a great range of compositions even though the two figures are typically the only ones shown.
The term composition means 'putting together' and can apply to any work of art, from music to writing to photography, that is arranged using conscious thought. In the visual arts, composition is often used interchangeably with various terms such as design, form, visual ordering, or formal structure, depending on the context. In graphic design for press and desktop publishing, composition is commonly referred to as page layout.
Elements of design [ edit ]
The various visual elements, known as elements of design, formal elements, or elements of art, constitute the vocabulary with which the visual artist composes. These elements in the overall design usually relate to each other and to the whole art work.
The elements of design are:
Line — the visual path that enables the eye to move within the piece
Shape — areas defined by edges within the piece, whether geometric or organic
Color — hues with their various values and intensities
Texture — surface qualities which translate into tactile illusions
Value — Shading used to emphasize form
Form — 3-D length, width, or depth
Space — the space taken up by (positive) or in between (negative) objects
Line and shape [ edit ]
Lines are optical phenomena that allow the artist to direct the eye of the viewer. The optical illusion of lines do exist in nature and visual arts elements can be arranged to create this illusion. The viewer unconsciously reads near continuous arrangement of different elements and subjects at varying distances. Such elements can be of dramatic use in the composition of the image. These could be literal lines such as telephone and power cables or rigging on boats. Lines can derive also from the borders of areas of differing color or contrast, or sequences of discrete elements. Movement is also a source of lines, where the blurred movement renders as a line.[1]
Subject lines contribute to both mood and linear perspective, giving the viewer the illusion of depth. Oblique lines convey a sense of movement and angular lines generally convey a sense of dynamism and possibly tension. Lines can also direct attention towards the main subject of picture, or contribute to organization by dividing it into compartments. The artist may exaggerate or create lines perhaps as part of their message to the viewer. Many lines without a clear subject point suggest chaos in the image and may conflict with the mood the artist is trying to evoke.[citation needed]
Straight left lines create different moods and add affection to visual arts. A line's angle and its relationship to the size of the frame influence the mood of the image. Horizontal lines, commonly found in landscape photography, can give the impression of calm, tranquility, and space. An image filled with strong vertical lines tends to have the impression of height and grandeur. Tightly angled convergent lines give a dynamic, lively, and active effect to the image. Strongly angled, almost diagonal lines produce tension in the image. The viewpoint of visual art is very important because every different perspective views different angled lines. This change of perspective elicits a different response to the image. By changing the perspective only by some degrees or some centimetres lines in images can change tremendously and a totally different feeling can be transported. Straight lines are also strongly influenced by tone, color, and repetition in relation to the rest of the image.
Compared to straight lines, curves provide a greater dynamic influence in a picture. They are also generally more aesthetically pleasing, as the viewer associates them with softness. In photography, curved lines can give graduated shadows when paired with soft-directional lighting, which usually results in a very harmonious line structure within the image.
Color [ edit ]
There are three properties of color. Hue, brightness or chroma, and value. Hue is simply the name of a color, (red, yellow, and blue, etc.) Brightness and chroma refer to the intensity and strength of the color. A high chroma color is more pure and less greyed than a low chroma color. The lightness and darkness to a color is the value. Color also has the ability to work within our emotions. Given that, we can use color to create mood. It can also be used as tone, pattern, light, movement, symbol, form, harmony, and contrast. [2] [3]
Texture [ edit ]
Texture refers to how an object feels or how it looks like it may feel if it were touched. There are two ways we experience texture, physically and optically. Different techniques can be used to create physical texture, which allows qualities of visual art to be seen and felt. This can include surfaces such as metal, sand, and wood. Optical texture is when the illusion of physical texture is created. Photography, paintings, and drawings use visual texture to create a more realistic appearance. [4]
Value [ edit ]
Lightness and darkness are known as value in visual art. Value deals with how light reflects off objects and how we see it. The more light that is reflected, the higher the value. White is the highest or lightest value while black is the lowest or darkest value. Colors also have value, for example, yellow has a high value while blue and red have a low value. If you take a black and white picture of a colorful scene, all you are left with are the values. This important element of design, especially in painting and drawing, Allows the artist to create the illusion of light through value contrast. [5]
Form [ edit ]
The term form can mean different things in visual art. Form suggests a three-dimensional object in space. It is also described as the physical nature of the artwork, such as sculptures. It can also be looked at as art form, which can be expressed through fine art. A form encloses volume, has length, width, and height, unlike a shape, which is only two-dimensional. Forms that are mathematical, a sphere, pyramid, cube, cylinder, and cone, are known as geometric forms. Organic forms are typically irregular and asymmetrical. This form can be found in nature, such as flowers, rocks, trees, etc., but can also be seen in architecture. [6]
Forms in drawing and painting convey the illusion of three-dimensional form through lighting, shadows, value, and tone. The more contrast in value, the more pronounced the three-dimensional form is. Forms with little value appear flatter than those with greater variation and contrast.
Space [ edit ]
Space is the area around, above, and within an object. Photographers can capture space, architects build space, and painters create space. This element is found in each of the visual arts. It can be positive or negative, open or closed, shallow or deep, and two-dimensional or three-dimensional. In drawing or painting, space is not actually there, but the illusion of it is. Positive space is the subject of the piece. The empty spaces around, above, and within, is negative space.[7] [8]
Principles of organization [ edit ]
The artist determines what the center of interest (focus in photography) of the art work will be, and composes the elements accordingly. The gaze of the viewer will then tend to linger over these points of interest, elements are arranged with consideration of several factors (known variously as the principles of organization, principles of art, or principles of design) into a harmonious whole which works together to produce the desired statement – a phenomenon commonly referred to as unity. Such factors in composition should not be confused with the elements of art (or elements of design) themselves. For example, shape is an element; the usage of shape is characterized by various principles.
Some principles of organization affecting the composition of a picture are:
Shape and proportion
Positioning/orientation/balance/harmony among the elements
The area within the field of view used for the picture ("cropping")
The path or direction followed by the viewer's eye when they observe the image.
Negative space
Color
Contrast: the value, or degree of lightness and darkness, used within the picture.
Arrangement: for example, use of the golden mean or the rule of thirds
Lines
Rhythm
Illumination or lighting
Repetition (sometimes building into pattern; rhythm also comes into play, as does geometry)
Perspective
Breaking the rules can create tension or unease, yet it can add interest to the picture if used carefully
Viewpoint (leading with the eye) [ edit ]
The position of the viewer can strongly influence the aesthetics of an image, even if the subject is entirely imaginary and viewed "within the mind's eye". Not only does it influence the elements within the picture, but it also influences the viewer's interpretation of the subject.
For example, if a boy is photographed from above, perhaps from the eye level of an adult, he is diminished in stature. A photograph taken at the child's level would treat him as an equal, and one taken from below could result in an impression of dominance. Therefore, the photographer is choosing the viewer's positioning.
A subject can be rendered more dramatic when it fills the frame. There exists a tendency to perceive things as larger than they actually are, and filling the frame full fills this psychological mechanism. This can be used to eliminate distractions from the background.
In photography, altering the position of the camera can change the image so that the subject has fewer or more distractions with which to compete. This may be achieved by getting closer, moving laterally, tilting, panning, or moving the camera vertically.
Compositional techniques [ edit ]
There are numerous approaches or "compositional techniques" to achieve a |
, Colt had been making their iconic 1911 pistols for nearly three-quarters of a century. In those days if you walked into a gun store and asked for a “1911” you would likely have received little more than funny looks, or perhaps a response of “a what?” Prior to the centennial celebration of the beloved John Moses Browning handgun, its first year of adoption by the U.S. Military was not how the gun was known to many. No, back then it was simply known as “the Colt Government model”, or often just “the Colt automatic”. Let that sink in for a moment. Colt had the level of brand recognition that made its name synonymous with a type of product.
That sort of cultural icon status is the very pinnacle of success for any company. Colt hopes to regain its former glory in similar fashion – by showing the world what it can do. The Combat Unit in 9mm is part of that effort. The evaluation copy of the Combat Unit came to me chambered in 9mm. It is also offered in the traditional.45 ACP. What you get from 9mm is an extra round of capacity from a standard sized magazine, and less recoil. Much less recoil in fact, because shooting 9mm in a 40-ounce handgun almost feels like it should have an orange muzzle. Add in the inherent ergonomics of the 1911 and the brilliant extras added by Colt and it’s downright fun.
Colt started by making this a tactical variant, which essentially means that it has a section of 1913 Picatinny rail on the dustcover. This rail allows the user to mount laser sighting aids, flashlights, flux-capacitors and the like. The tactical feel of the pistol continues rearward as you find very nicely cut 25 lines per inch checkering on the front strap of the frame.
Just aft of that is a top quality set of G10 grips made by VZ for Colt. The grips are aggressive in both tactile and visual ways, and in my opinion perfect for this pistol. The 25 lpi checkering continues on the mainspring cover, offering a secure hold for any bare or gloved hand. That mainspring cover is straight, just the way that the good Lord and John Browning agreed it should be. The integrated grip safety has a nicely shaped beavertail that sweeps up high for maximum grip depth, and a memory bump to ensure good positive engagement.
The controls on the Combat Unit are all high quality and function nicely. The standard width safety gives nice, crisp feedback when engaging and disengaging. I like that in a safety. Magazine release has a stiff and smooth press and drops the mags clean every time. The slide stop/release is nicely recessed into the frame of the handgun, a trend I’ve noticed on tactical variants lately and one of which I heartily approve. It just seems to feel better for a thumbs-forward grip, even if it’s all in my head. The trigger guard of the Combat Unit is quite noteworthy. It is nicely undercut to help keep that grip up high, and the front of the guard has a beveled flatness where, if you learned to shoot by watching fashionable 1980s cop shows on TV, you can put your finger. The sights on the Colt Combat Unit are genuine Novak’s. The rear is a blacked out low-profile sight with the trademark Novak wedge shape and anti-snag edges. The front sight is a night sight – a fairly low standard blade with a Tritium dot surrounded by a white ring. The hammer spur is combat style and skeletonized, and the front of the slide has cocking serrations that match the rear and are nicely functional. And finally, the magazine well is slightly beveled, but neither extended nor flared.
SHOOTING THE COMBAT UNIT
Even among 1911 pistols there are differences. Sometimes the differences are large, and sometimes small, but to the pistol shooter it is easy to feel those differences, however subtle. Some pistols just feel better in the hand, whether it be the grips, the checkering, the weight, or some combination thereof. The Colt Combat Unit nestled into my right hand like an old friend and felt at once comfortable, stable, and ready to shoot. Leveling the sights on target for the first time was a clear and focused picture, due to the highly visible front “dot” inside the blackout rear notch. It’s a very nice sight picture and good for both fast acquisition and careful aim. The undercut trigger guard and uplifted beavertail put my hand high up into the gun. The trigger pull has about 1/32” prep or “take-up” before you meet the wall of resistance. From there the break is crisp and clean at just under 5 lbs. with no over-travel. The muzzle lift is minimal, due to a number of factors including 9mm ammo, high grip, substantial weight, and dual recoil springs. That’s right – there’s a term you don’t hear often when discussing a 1911, but a key element of the gun’s design includes two nested recoil springs over a mil-spec short guide rod. This provides additional dampening of the recoil impulse, and Colt tells us that it will also increase spring life.
The Combat Unit is as fun to shoot as I expected it to be. The combination of the crisp trigger with short reset and the slight muzzle lift make this a fun double and triple-tap gun. It is also nicely accurate and produced good groups with casual off-hand shooting at 10 yards. I stretched the shots out to 25 yards for more serious evaluation and used five different popular loads while resting my grip on a bag.
The Colt Combat Unit didn’t like everything I fed it. Hollow point bullets gave it some trouble, most notably the SIG Sauer Elite Performance V-Crown 124 grain. Nearly every round would catch on the seam between frame and barrel ramp, due to the very large “mouth” of the bullet design. Speer Gold Dot also had similar problems to a lesser extent. Determined to learn the go/no-go tolerance of the pistol, I went ammo shopping and came back to the range with Hornady American Gunner ammo. It is a jacketed hollow point that has a much smaller mouth than many, and to my pleasure fired every round without any malfunctions. I shared these results with Colt, along with my layman’s diagnosis that the lack of a full feed ramp on the barrel was causing some ammunition to catch at the seam and bind. Colt disagreed with my assessment, but also agreed that some pistols just don’t like some ammo. On that point we are in sync. I also found that ammunition such as Hornady Critical Defense performs perfectly in the Combat Unit (it has a polymer filler in the hollow point cavity to prevent plugging in pre-target material – but also provides a semi-round nose property).
The only other anomaly encountered was the intermittent, but frequent, ejected case to the forehead. This seemed to occur across a variety of ammunition brands and loads, but was more prevalent with lower pressure rounds. While cleaning the pistol between range sessions, I inspected the ejector and noticed that it has a distinct curve toward the ejection port. Now, that could very well be how it is designed – or it could be bent. Colt indicates that the extractor should be checked after about 5,000 rounds and possibly adjusted. Regarding the ejector, Colt mentioned that this has been observed in their 9mm guns before and can depend on the magazine being used, and if they are really slammed up into place with the slide locked back. As my test sample had been used before, this might have been the case.
My personal conclusion is that if you obtain the Combat Unit with the plan to use it as your defense gun, buy several brands and types of ammo and find the ones that are 100% reliable in the gun. This is not profound advice, nor is it limited to this pistol – I would recommend that for any firearm that you plan to depend on, because ultimately I agree with Colt – some guns just don’t like some ammo.
One of the subtle advantages of a rail equipped 1911 is that the extra squared-off dust cover that accommodates the accessory rail also “packs out” the side of the frame just in front of the slide stop/release pin. While it might be a small detail, I find that it makes for a much more comfortable “thumbs forward” grip. This allows me to get my shooting grip locked in a few milliseconds faster, because I’m not searching for a spot for my thumb as I often do when shooting conventional 1911s.
JUST MY OPINION
The Colt Combat Unit is a very well designed and nicely made 1911 pistol. Chambered in 9mm, it offers the shooter a less expensive, less recoiling handgun that has all the bells and whistles of the modern tactical sidearm. Fit and finish is high quality, from the custom G10 grips to the black finish. Colt doesn’t specify the exact type of finish used, but in addition to a beautiful aesthetic, it also appears to be very durable. I like to see an extended mag-well on a gun that considers itself “tactical”, but that is a personal preference. In every other way, Colt has nailed it when it comes to the components and controls selected. The dual recoil spring assembly is a nice touch, and does seem to offer a noticeable benefit. The pistol field strips simply and easily, thanks to the short GI guide rod and a barrel bushing that can be turned by hand. The two problems encountered with the pistol were the feeding and ejecting issues. The ejection, I am convinced, is due to a damaged part. The feeding problems with hollow point ammunition is a bigger consideration. I was able to find ammo that it seems to like, but if one were to employ this pistol for defense of self and home, I would urge – strongly – that exhaustive testing be done with ammunition until you know you have a reliable combination. It’s a very nice pistol – but make sure it works reliably with the ammo you have.
For more information, visit http://www.colt.com/Catalog/Pistols/Colt-Combat-Unit-Rail-Gun.
To purchase on GunsAmerica.com, click this link: https://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.aspx?T=colt%20combat%20unit%209mm.A A
SEATTLE - A massive explosion and fire destroyed three buildings, damaged several others, sent debris flying for blocks and jolted people awake early Friday in the town of North Bend.
About the only good news was the time - 3:45 a.m. - when few people were in the business district of the Cascades foothills town about 30 miles east of Seattle.
"We are very, very fortunate that it happened in the early morning. If it was two hours later, the street would have been very busy," said Josie Williams, public information officer for Eastside Fire and Rescue.
A couple of minor injuries were reported at an assisted living facility where windows were blown out, she said.
It could take days to investigate the cause and estimate the value of the loss, she said.
It appears to be a natural gas explosion, Puget Sound Energy spokesman Andy Wappler said. A utility crew responded and shut off gas to three burning buildings, he said.
The blast also knocked out electrical service in the morning to about 1,500 customers, Wappler said.
The utility is working with the fire department and state Utilities and Transportation Commission investigators with information about natural gas service.
The building that exploded was not an active work site for Puget Sound Energy, and contractors don't always notify the utility, Wappler said.
"There was significant damage to multiple buildings," Wappler said. "It's a reminder to folks: If they smell natural gas, leave the building and call 911."
The blast leveled a former pizza restaurant under renovation. It also destroyed a barber shop and a separate building with three offices in the strip mall, Williams said. Debris was thrown 200 to 300 feet, blowing out windows and crumpling doors at a gas station and tire store. Flying debris also broke windows at a nearby apartment.
The manager of the gas station was one of the few people awake at the time. The manager heard alarms going off from the building before it exploded and called 911, Williams said.
The blast awakened North Bend residents, including three firefighters at the station about two blocks away, Williams said. In all, about 80 firefighters from various departments responded as the fire went to two alarms.
Residents told KOMO News they thought it might have been an earthquake or plane crash as houses rocked enough to knock pictures off walls. One woman said she heard the blast five miles away.
A nearby school was able to open as scheduled Friday, and residents were allowed back into the area after the fire was out and the area cleared.
"There was a lot of debris all over the road," Williams said. "It was huge. We're so fortunate it was early in the morning and not a couple of hours later."Morata will now join up with the squad on its pre-season tour of Asia.
A strong, quick and skilful forward adept at leading the line and bringing his team-mates into play, Morata’s movement on and off the ball make him a constant threat to opposition defenders, whether he is running at speed from deep or looking to strike in the 18-yard box.
His goals come in all forms - outstanding long-range efforts, poachers’ finishes, headers and one-on-ones. He is also comfortable on either foot.
Upon completing his transfer, Morata said: ‘I am so happy to be here. It’s an incredible emotion to be part of this big club. I am looking to work hard, score as many goals as I can and to win as many trophies as possible.’
Technical director Michael Emenalo added: ‘We are delighted to complete Alvaro’s signing and welcome him to the club. We believe he can make a great impact for Chelsea and look forward to seeing him in action.
‘Alvaro has proven class at the highest level and his quality will be a huge asset to Antonio and the squad.’Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) and their spouses takes the stage at a rally in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh as part of their bus tour following the Democratic Convention on July 30. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI | License Photo
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has steadily built her lead to 7.3 percentage points over Republican nominee Donald Trump, according to UPI/CVoter polling data released Monday.
Clinton has more than half the support of the respondents -- 50.4 percent -- compared with 43.1 percent for Trump. Respondents' choice of "others" remained steady at 6.5 percent.
Seven days earlier -- two days after the Democratic National Convention -- she trailed Trump 47.6 to 47.4.
But one day later, July 31, she reached 49 percent and has been hovering around 50 percent ever since.
Trump's biggest support was on July 24 -- three days after the Republican National Convention -- with 49.2, a 5.8-percent lead of Clinton.
In the latest sample, 1,475 adults nationwide were polled online, including 1,036 likely voters, from July 31 through Saturday.CANADA FALLS TO SPAIN IN GAME 5 OF RIO 2016 GROUP PLAY
RIO DE JANEIRO - The Women's National Team finished third in Group B at the Rio 2016 Olympics after falling to Spain 73-60. Canada will play France on Tuesday, August 16.
"It's a long tournament and we just have to leave this one behind us. We have to be at our best come the game against France," said Lisa Thomaidis, head coach of the Women's National Team.
"France is an opponent we know very well. We've played them a number of times over the last few years and we'll be well-prepared for them."
The starting line-up for Canada was Miah-Marie Langlois, Kim Gaucher, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, Tamara Tatham and Miranda Ayim. For full team roster, click here.
Nirra Fields led Canada in scoring with 14 points while also grabbing four rebounds. Spain was led by Alba Torrens, who scored 20 points with five rebounds. For full box score, click here.
With second place on the line, both teams came out with intensity. Spain was physical and won the early rebounding battle to set up putback opportunities. Canada's offence had its moments in the quarter, with excellent ball movement leading to shots at the rim. After one quarter, Spain led 17-16.
Canada's early offensive success dried up in the second quarter. Behind strong rim protection, Spain went on a 9-4 run over the first six minutes of the period. But a Raincock-Ekunwe lay-up provided a spark on offence and Canada clawed back to keep the quarter even until Spain hit a three at the buzzer. Spain led 33-29 at the half.
Spain's 12-2 run through the middle of the quarter put Canada down 12. Turnovers by the Canadian squad led to easy scores for Spain. Nurse, Achonwa and Fields came off the bench to key a pair of 6-0 runs, bringing Canada back within 2. Heading into the fourth quarter, Spain led 49-47.
Canada held the momentum going into the final period, but Spain quickly grabbed it back. The Spanish dug in and stymied Canada's attack, holding them scoreless for the opening five minutes of the quarter. The team would not back down, increasing the tempo to try for a comeback. The effort was not enough and Spain won 73-60.
The Women's National Team looks ahead to the quarterfinals, where they will play France on Tuesday, August 16 live on TSN. Game time is to be determined, follow @CanBball for updates.Researchers have identified a series of genetic variants that affect the severity of Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel disease -- but surprisingly, none of these variants appear to be related to an individual's risk of developing the condition in the first place.
Crohn's disease is one of a number of chronic 'complex' diseases for which there is no single gene that causes the disease. In fact, to date around 170 common genetic variants have been identified that each increase the risk of an individual developing the disease. The conventional wisdom has been that there exists a 'tipping point': if someone has enough of these genes, they become very likely to develop the disease -- and the more of the variants they carry, the more the severe the disease will then be.
However, in a study published today in Nature Genetics, a team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge has shown that this is not the case: genetic variants that affect the progression, or prognosis, of a disease operate independently of those that increase the likelihood of developing the disease in the first place.
"Genetic studies have been very successful at identifying genetic risk factors for Crohn's disease, but have told us virtually nothing about why one person will get only mild disease while someone else might need surgery to treat their condition," says Dr James Lee from the Department of Medicine at Cambridge. "We do know, though, that family members who have the disease often tend to see it progress in a similar way. This suggested to us that genetics was likely to be involved in prognosis."
The researchers looked at the genomes -- the entire genetic makeup -- of more than 2,700 individuals, who were selected because they had either had experienced particularly mild or particularly aggressive Crohn's disease. By comparing these patients' DNA, the researchers found four genetic variants that influenced the severity of a patient's condition. Strikingly, none of these genes have been shown to affect the risk of developing the disease.
The team then looked at all the known genetic risk variants for Crohn's and found that none of these influenced the severity of disease.
"This shows us that the genetic architecture of disease outcome is very different to that of disease risk," adds Professor Ken Smith, Head of the Department of Medicine. "In other words, the biological pathways driving disease progression may be very different to those that initiate the disease itself. This was quite unexpected. Past work has focussed on discovering genes underlying disease initiation, and our work suggests these may no longer be relevant by the time a patient sees the doctor. We may have to consider directing new therapies to quite different pathways in order to treat established disease"
One of the genetic variants discovered by the team was in a gene called FOXO3. This gene is involved in modulating the release of the cytokine TNF? -- cytokines are proteins released into the blood by immune cells in response to infection or, in the case of conditions such as Crohn's, to the body erroneously attacking itself. This FOXO3-TNF? pathway is also known to affect the severity of rheumatoid arthritis, another auto-inflammatory disease.
Another of the variants was close to the gene IGFBP1, which is known to play a role in the immune system. This genetic region, too, has previously been linked to rheumatoid arthritis, in a study looking at the presence of a particular antibody in patients -- presence of this antibody is associated with more severe disease.
The third genetic variant was in the MHC region, which is responsible for determining how our immune cells respond to invading organisms. This region has been implicated in a number of auto-immune diseases, including Crohn's, but the genetic variant that alters Crohn's disease risk is different to the one that affects prognosis. The variant the team identified, which was associated with a milder course of Crohn's disease, was shown to affect multiple genes in this region, and result in a state that is known to cause weaker immune responses.
The final variant occurred in the gene XACT, about which very little is known; however, in adults this gene appears to be mainly active in cells in the intestine -- the organ affected by Crohn's disease.
"This discovery has shown us a new way of looking at disease and opens up potential new treatment options, which could substantially ease the burden of Crohn's disease," says Dr Lee. "What's more, we have evidence that some of these prognosis genes will be shared with other diseases, and as such this approach could be used to improve treatment in a number of conditions."
The study has been welcomed by Crohn's and Colitis UK, who helped fund the study. "This is an exciting breakthrough which offers new hope for people who suffer every day from Crohn's and Colitis," says Dr Wendy Edwards, Research Manager at Crohn's and Colitis UK. "The research sheds new light on why some people with inflammatory bowel disease experience more severe symptoms than others which has been little understood until now."
As well as its implications for Crohn's and other diseases, the approach taken by the researchers has suggested that there is value in re-examining previous genetic studies. Around a third of the genomes of Crohn's disease patients analysed in this study had been collected for a previous study in 2007. By dividing the patients into groups categorised by disease severity, the researchers were able ask new questions -- and gain new insights -- from the old data.I fell in terror with The Walking Dead after Shane was killed (by Rick) at the end of Season 2. The zombie-apocalypse's bad-boy had been part of what I assumed would be the show's continuing narrative, the love triangle between him, Rick and Lori. I'd never read the graphic novels, so I was relying on the traditional arcs of TV dramas.
Most of the original cast has died since then (bye, Lori!), and what makes the show so palpable is its willingness to kill off major characters, bring in new ones, change locations, and follow-up with once-dropped storylines. Most dramas are afraid of such change. It's a nerve-wracking, tightly woven series, because like those survivors, you never know what, and who, is next.
Something bad happened on Season Six of cable TV's most popular show, and I'm not just talking about the survival of Carl. The writing got lazy and unhinged, with silly "tune in next week" Batman endings and major dramatic gaps, and so much sex in Alexandria City, it's like Desperate Housewives if Mary Alice physically strolled down Wisteria Lane.
I don't expect The Walking Dead's imminent cancellation anymore than I expect Daryl's imminent Day-of-Beauty spa treatment. And it still manages to create thrills. Regardless, if it keeps going downhill, I'll have to stop watching what used to be a Sunday favorite. Here, five reasons the Dead has stopped showing signs of life.
1. The Cheap-Ploy Cliffhangers: Sure, we all need a reason to get excited about next week's episode, but TWD is not only creating too many, the writers are also insulting the audience by not following through. Glenn's protracted guts or glory tease went on for weeks, and was made even more annoying by inserting the Morgan "Karate Apocalypse Kid" mini-movie in between. Most of us had figured out we'd been punked by the time Glenn's fate was resolved, but that didn't stop the creators from adding more dumb cliffhangers.
On the same episode that Glenn was left for dead, Rick was seen surrounded by walkers in such numbers an escape seemed impossible. How would he do it? Who knows. The next time Rick appeared he was running back to Alexandria, ahead of the herd.
On the second to last episode's ending, a gun went off behind Daryl with so much blood splattering it would be unfathomable that he'd survive. He did, somehow, but the details were lost because they only showed him later, alive, with some blood on his shoulder. To paraphrase Monty Python, "I guess it was just a flesh wound." The mid-season finale even had Jessie's son Sam scream out for his mom while navigating through a sea of Walkers, thus jeopardizing everyone's life. They ignored that scene when the series came back months later.
Setting up impossible endings and then not resolving them offends the viewers. It assumes they're too stupid to care, too forgetful, or just so in love with the show they'll forgive the lapses.
2. The Dumbing-Down of Characters: It took awhile for Rick and the Gang to navigate the new world order, but not very long to forget to keep their wits about them. If anyone kept count of how many times a character decided to wander off alone in search of a friend, supplies, revenge, or, heck, just for fun, send me an email -- I lost track. I know Rick loves Carol and Glenn loves Maggie and Morgan loves everybody, but what that camp really needs is the Governor's old guards to slug anyone who leaves camp. Remember when the original inhabitants of Alexandria were the naïve folks?
The second half of Season Six was a hodgepodge of characters running off into the Savior Sea, often just to prove a point. I loved Denise, but even her self-improvement supply run was so dense you could practically see the bulls-eye on her head -- oops.
3. The Peyton Place Subplots: I'm not sure what's in the zombie water, but after some time passed in Alexandria, and Carl managed to survive a gunshot wound to the eye with brain and bad hair intact, everyone fell madly in love. Michonne and Rick have zero sexual chemistry (she and Andrea had more spark), and their "Virginia Is for Lovers" scene -- I half-expected Starbucks coffee-foam-drinks -- was jarring.
Carol shacked up with one of the men from Alexandria without any notice (and with no time for us to care after it went awry), Spencer slept with Rosita, Denise and Tara were already hitched, and all the while Maggie and Glenn planned their happy little apocalyptic newcomer.
But the most senseless, bad soap opera love triangle took place between Rosita, Sasha, and Abraham. It wasn't just because Rosita's never had much of a role other than "Hot Hispanic Chick" or that, once again, Sasha and he have no chemistry, or that Abraham exudes about as much sex appeal as Eugene. The bigger problem was centralizing it into the storyline. Abraham is now contemplating settling down, and, frankly, there are more urgent matters to take care of inside the walls. Denise and Tara's gradual love felt more organic and understandably fragile, and the original love triangle was built into the show's premise, fraught with danger amid the world's cliffside precipice. The love plots are now sedentary.
4. Carol's Bizarre Transformation: Everyone's favorite cookie-baker monster-bedtime storyteller turned into Mother Trucking Teresa this season, complete with rosary beads and an Alexandria exit plan about as wise as George W. Bush's after Iraq. Here again, her transformation from survivalist to guilt-plagued Mom happened instantaneously, and defied her moralistic core. Carol is far too smart to leave camp in the middle of the night, because she'd know survival would be next to impossible and she'd know her friends would risk their lives to find her. And voila! Which brings us to...
5. The Season Finale: Let's see: Maggie's unborn baby is in trouble, while half the characters have already wandered off, a lunatic killer and his gang are seeking revenge and on the loose. What's the best plan? I know: Get in a camper and bring everyone along (save Gabriel and Spencer -- because they're qualified to keep Alexandria safe) to search for the doctor. And make sure to do it in broad daylight. Only Chevy Chase had a worse vacation.
By the time Negan finally showed up (Jeffrey Dean Morgan's deliciously evil entrance was the episode's highlight) to decimate one member of the gang, the only real surprise was which castaway he'd pick. It was a revelation the audience didn't get, yet again, because the show ended before the victim was revealed.
The shock-and-awe ending didn't work because the writers have lost our cliffhanger trust. Come October, when the show returns, I half expect to find that Negan's spiked club only grazed, say, Daryl, or ended up killing one of the saviors instead. Also, since some of the characters have never been fleshed out, their demise won't satisfy such a presumptuous finale. Rosita's still in search of a storyline, and Aaron, aka the gay character, came on the show and offended viewers who'd rather see two men kill than two men kiss, then slowly drifted off into the storyline abyss.Share. May shoot after The Martian but before Prometheus 2. May shoot after The Martian but before Prometheus 2.
Director Ridley Scott still plans on making Blade Runner 2 -- hopefully with Harrison Ford -- and it may be his follow-up to his very next movie, The Martian.
Scott praised the draft by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green during a chat with Entertainment Weekly. "It’s written and it’s damn good,” said Scott. “Of course it involves Harrison, who is a survivor after all these years—despite the accident (a joking reference to Ford's Star Wars injury). So yes, that will happen.”
Scott next shoots The Martian with Matt Damon starring so he thinks he will film Blade Runner 2 after that. So where does that leave Prometheus 2?
“That’s the problem,” the director told EW. “I’ve got a lot of ducks in a row. But they’re all written.”DeAndre Jordan comes to Dallas next week for the first time since the summer debacle where he very publicly broke his verbal commitment to the Mavericks. It might be the highlight to the Mavericks' season, truthfully, giving 19,000 Mavericks fans a chance to take out their frustrations by booing the living hell out of him.
About 30 minutes before Tuesday's game last night against the Raptors, though, Dallas played this video above on the American Airlines Center jumbotron. The stands were only sparsely populated at that point and the video did not reappear during the game itself, but the arena had been opened to the public. I'm told the Mavericks likely won't re-air the video and that they were also not behind the makings of it, with the cartoon appearing in July by Cleo Dog Productions, not the Mavericks' usual video production company, The Well Creative. But none of that matters, because airing it publicly on your jumbotron is the same as an endorsement.
My plea to the Mavericks is that they back as far away from this video as they can. Don't play it again, don't play it next Wednesday and certainly don't support it in any way.
Look, we can all agree DeAndre Jordan handled his free agency poorly. It's his right to change his mind on a verbal commitment, but he could have done so much more gracefully in a way that didn't involve emojis or shutting out Mark Cuban. The Mavericks have said and insinuated that he was immature and petty. At the very least, he was reactionary, not taking enough time to realize all he really wanted to do is return to Los Angeles.
This video is trash, though. Jordan is a 27-year-old who handled his free agency poorly; he is not a monster, nor did he commit a crime. Sure, Mavericks fans will be vindicated when they rain down boos on Jordan next Wednesday every chance he's shown on the big screen. They deserve that much. They understandably feel slighted. But displaying Jordan as a sniveling crybaby and taking shots at nearly a dozen NBA figures is well beneath a professional basketball organization. It's as petty and immature as the Mavericks are accusing Jordan of being. It makes Dallas look so tiny and so far below Jordan. And it's casually homophobic, too. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are "into" Chris Paul because... they hung out? Because they went on a vacation with each other? That's such a tired cliche.
Prior to the Mavericks' game against them last Thursday, Mark Cuban said "he didn't give a shit" about the Clippers. Clearly, if this is the video Dallas is playing in their home arena, he does and they do. If you enjoy the video, that's up to you. There's a couple of funny moments buried in there, and I'm not saying any Mavericks fans personally need to forgive and forget what Jordan did this summer. But nothing good can come from this video publicly being broadcast in the American Airlines Center.
So far, this video has only been shown once in front of a smattering of fans and I hope it stays that way. That was already a big enough mistake.A Democratic congressman apologized Sunday for a joke he made about a controversial photo featuring Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway.
Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, made the remark at the Washington Press Club Foundation's congressional dinner Wednesday evening. During his speech, Richmond referenced a controversial photo showing Conway kneeling on an Oval Office couch during a gathering.
“But I really just want to know what was going on there, because, I won't tell anybody,” Richmond said. “And you can just explain to me that — that circumstance, because she really looked kind of familiar there in that position there. But don't answer. And I don't want you to refer back to the '90s.”
GOP CHAIRWOMAN HITS BACK AT DEMOCRAT'S 'DEMEANING COMMENTS' ON CONWAY
Richmond initially denied he said anything inappropriate, but to others the remark recalled the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which had briefly been mentioned by the prior speaker, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
On Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel urged Richmond to apologize for the comments, which she called "disgusting" and "offensive."
"A snarky joke for you is just a reminder of the demeaning comments women hear every single day," Romney McDaniel said. "And trust me, it happens to all women."
Richmond said he decided to apologize "after a discussion with people I know and trust" and said he understood "the way my remarks have been received by many."
"I have consistently been a champion for women and women’s issues, and because of that the last thing I would want to ever do is utter words that would hurt or demean them," his statement said. "I apologize to Kellyanne Conway and everyone who has found my comments to be offensive."You are beautiful, no matter what they say.
Donald Trump campaigned against transparency and an adversarial press, and now he’s governing against them.
The GOP nominee didn’t just break decades of precedent by declining to release his tax returns — he also refused to be transparent about his own lack of transparency. Instead of stating plainly that he felt the public had no right to see his finances, the mogul endlessly regurgitated the demonstrable lie that he needed to wait for the IRS to complete its audit before he could release them. Meanwhile, Trump framed the media as his movement’s enemy, called for increasing the press’s exposure to libel suits, and tacitly encouraged his supporters’ attempts to intimidate campaign reporters.
Trump’s attitude toward the Fourth Estate has only soured since taking office. He has explicitly declared the mainstream media the “enemy of the American people,” refused to hold regular press conferences, and allowed his cabinet officials to ignore historic standards of media accessibility.
So, when the White House began phasing out routine press briefings in recent weeks, most saw the move as a logical extension of the president’s contempt for press scrutiny.
But what if the slow-death of on-camera press briefings has less to do with the shriveling of our democratic institutions than with the expansion of Sean Spicer’s waistline?
Chief White House strategist Steve Bannon has asked us to contemplate the latter possibility. As The Atlantic reports:
Neither Spicer nor deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders responded to queries about the changes to the briefings. Asked why the briefings are now routinely held off-camera, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said in a text message “Sean got fatter,” and did not respond to a follow-up.
There are a few reasons to question Bannon’s story. For one thing, Spicer isn’t the only person who gives press briefings, and it’s hard to see how his weight gain would have forced Sarah Sanders off camera. For another, Steve Bannon is a notorious liar who despises the media.
But the idea that Sean Spicer has been body-shamed out of the spotlight still holds a patina of plausibility. After all, the president infamously mocked the White House press secretary for his sartorial failings early in his tenure. And when Melissa McCarthy impersonated Spicer on Saturday Night Live, Trump was (reportedly) disgusted that his press secretary could be so convincingly caricatured by a woman.
So, sure: Bannon was joking. Press briefings are not being held off camera because Sean Spicer hates his body.
But some punch lines can leave a bruise. And some propagandists don’t like what they see in the mirror. And if you think that body-shaming your political opponents is funny, then imagine Sean Spicer watching this video through tear-glazed eyes.Tropical storm Alex comes just |
initiation and the consolidation of motor sequence learning during sleep [8, 23], while its facilitation with anodal tDCS seems to enhance the excitability from the ipsilateral M1 [24], which may be useful for treatment of PM disorders.
As previously mentioned, the cerebellum is also involved in locomotion through the regulation of motor processes by influencing the cerebral cortex, among other neural structures. During adaptive control of movement, as in the gait process, it seems that loops that interconnect reciprocally motor cortical areas to the basal ganglia and cerebellum allow predictive control of locomotion and they exhibit correlation with movement parameters [8, 25]. Regarding to studies about cerebellar stimulation, there is still not enough knowledge about the effects of tDCS on different neuronal populations and the afferent pathways, so results are variable among studies and their interpretation is more complex than for cerebral tDCS [26]. Furthermore, the topographical motor organization of the cerebellum is not clear yet [27]. Nevertheless, most studies base their experimental procedure on the existence of decussating cerebello-cerebral connections, even if there are also ipsilateral cerebello-cerebral tracts or inter-hemispheric cerebellar connections [28]. Hence, a cerebellar hemisphere is stimulated to affect cerebellar brain inhibition (CBI), which refers to the inherent suppression of cerebellum over the contralateral M1 [29]. For example, the supply of anodal and cathodal stimulation over the right cerebellum in [30] resulted in incremental and decremental CBI on the left M1, respectively. In contrast, there are some studies that suggest this expectation may be not always appropriate. In [31] it was shown that inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (a stimulation technique that provides magnetic field pulses on the brain [32]) over the lateral right cerebellum led to procedural learning decrement for tasks performed with either the right or left hand, whereas inhibition of lateral left cerebellar hemisphere decreased learning only with the left hand. In addition, results from [33] showed that cathodal cerebellar tDCS worsened locomotor adaptation ipsilaterally. These two studies may provide a reference for using cerebellar inhibition for avoiding undesired brain activity changes during motor rehabilitation, such as compensatory movement habits that might contribute to maladaptative plasticity and hamper the goal of achieving a normal movement pattern [34].
Even though, as mentioned in [35], deep brain structures cannot be targeted directly with noninvasive stimulation strategies like tDCS, some parts of the neural circuitry could be targeted with this kind of stimulation. For this purpose, diffusion MRI tractography, which is a noninvasive method for visualizing brain connectivity, could be useful. Despite its limitation on anatomical accuracy, diffusion MRI tractography may offer a guide for targeting white matter pathways [36]. In addition, this method has been already used to describe the cerebello-cerebral pathway, showing connections at the cerebellum, red nucleus, thalamus, and motor cortex [37]. Since tDCS results probably depend on the direction of the current flow respect to neuronal orientation [38–40], it can be hypothesized that orienting the electric field similarly as followed in the cerebello-cerebral tract may improve reproducibility of results.
Mental practice of specific motor tasks elicits the activity of part of the network within the motor control system [2]. For this reason, during both movement performance and its mental practice, there is attenuation of μ (8-12 Hz) and β (13-30 Hz) band power on electroencephalographic signals (EEG) [41] due to the desynchronization of neuronal activity at these frequencies. Hence, motor imagery (MI) is included in some experimental protocols focused on motor neurorehabilitation [42, 43], such as studies that use brain-computer interfaces for future therapies [44]. Note that the participation of subcortical structures is also observed in functional imaging studies during mental imagery [45].
Based on all these studies, it can be inferred that the stimulation of different parts of motor network may be useful in motor neurorehabilitation since brain conditions of stroke patients are heterogeneous in terms of the site and size of the possible lesions [46]. Hence, in this study it is proposed a montage approach that is aimed to stimulate different regions involved in locomotion: M1, PM, SMA and cerebellum, with the objective of targeting parts of the cerebello-cerebral pathway and establishing the current flow with a relatively similar orientation than the one at some portions of the tract [37]. In particular, this study proposes and evaluates a new tDCS montage that affects both the cerebellum and the feet or right-hand motor area to test its suitability for MI-based BCIs and motor neurorehabilitation. For this purpose, the proposed montage was first validated with simulations of the electric field that is produced by the montage. Then, the effect of current density on EEG classification into rest state or either right-hand or feet MI was assessed for three stimulation modalities: applying 10-minutes anodal tDCS before EEG acquisition over the cortical area that is associated with 1) right hand or 2) feet movement, and 3) stimulating with 4-seconds anodal tDCS during EEG recording either on right-hand or feet cortical areas before each performed right-hand or feet MI, respectively. This would allow determining the current range that may be needed to enhance MI detection with the proposed montage. Also, μ and β band power for tDCS modalities that could improve classification was compared with the no stimulation sessions in order to obtain an insight about the possible EEG changes that may lead to classification improvements.
The study here presented is part of the Associate Project - Decoding and stimulation of motor and sensory brain activity to support long term potentiation through Hebbian and paired associative stimulation during rehabilitation of gait (DPI2014-58431-C4-2-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund “A way to build Europe”, in which different approaches are being conducted in order to evaluate the potential positive results derived from a new tDCS montage upon motor rehabilitation. The proposed montage disposition is aimed to improve motor performance of both lower and upper limbs by enhancing the excitability of stroke patients’ motor pathways.CLOSE Rebecca Bredow, 40, of Ferndale, spent 5 days in jail for refusing a court order to vaccinate her 9-year-old son. John Wisely/Detroit Free Press
Rebecca Bredow, 40, of Ferndale, Mich., served five days in jail for refusing a judge's order to vaccinate her 9-year-old son. (Photo11: John Wisely, Detroit Free Press)
DETROIT — A Michigan mother who served five days in jail for violating a court order to vaccinate her son is heading back to court hoping to prevent any future shots.
Rebecca Bredow, 40, must convince Oakland County Circuit Judge Karen McDonald that avoiding future shots is "in the best interests of the child," her lawyer, Clarence Dass, said.
Bredow opposes vaccines while the boy's father, Bredow's ex-husband James Horne, wants the boy vaccinated.
"We plan on bringing in an expert," Dass said, adding that he had not confirmed yet who it will be.
Bredow likely faces a skeptical judge. McDonald's patience with Bredow seemed to wane earlier this month when she found Bredow in contempt of court for ignoring a Sept. 27 order to vaccinate the child.
McDonald said that Bredow had agreed in November to follow a pediatrician's advice on immunizations. But Dass disputes that, saying Bredow never agreed to that provision, which was included in court filings by a lawyer who no long represents Bredow.
"That was never placed on the record. It was done by the lawyers in chambers," Dass said. "She didn't know that was part of the order."
McDonald sent Bredow to the Oakland County Jail on the contempt charge, where she stayed just over five days before being released. When Bredow appeared in court after her release, she learned that her son had been given two vaccinations while in his father's custody.
More: Jailed mom 'devastated' to learn son was vaccinated
More: U.S. vaccine panel to discuss waning effectiveness, new shots
Uphill climb
Bredow's effort to avoid vaccines will be following a path another vaccine-averse mother, Lori Matheson, tried earlier this month. Matheson testified for more than a hour about her personal objections to vaccines before McDonald implored her to bring in an expert on their safety.
Matheson later brought in Dr. Toni Lynn Bark, an Evanston, Ill., doctor who said she's practiced in pediatrics, emergency medicine and adversonomics, the study of adverse reactions to vaccines.
McDonald questioned Bark's qualifications and refused to consider her a vaccine expert. McDonald did agree to let her testify about her own practice. McDonald hasn't ruled yet in that case. She scheduled a hearing for next month to hear more testimony.
More: What Australia's bad flu season might mean for us and other flu facts you need to know
More: California declares emergency to fight hepatitis A outbreak
Vaccine debate
The two cases highlight the conflict that follows when divorced parents disagree over vaccines that are administered to millions of children every year for illnesses like measles, mumps, chickenpox and other ailments.
Public health professionals overwhelmingly champion vaccines as a prevention tool that has saved millions of lives.
"Vaccines have reduced — and in some cases eliminated — many diseases that killed or severely disabled people in previous generations," Robert Wheaton, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, told the Detroit Free Press earlier this month. "Vaccines are safe, effective and benefit everyone."
A 2011 report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine reviewed more than 1,000 research articles on the topic and concluded that "few health problems are caused by or clearly associated with vaccines" and that "the evidence shows there are no links between immunization and some serious conditions that have raised concerns, including Type 1 diabetes and autism."
The report acknowledged that "vaccines are not free from side effects, 'or adverse effects,' but most are very rare or very mild."
Parental rights
Michigan law requires children to be vaccinated before they can be admitted to schools or other group settings, but it allows anti vaxxer parents the right to opt out for medical, religious or personal reasons.
More: Workplace worries: 10 jobs with the highest divorce rates
Medical objections typically require a doctor's note. Matheson, in her case, raised religious objections, noting some vaccines are cultured in the cells of aborted fetuses.
Dass said in court pleadings that Bredow "believes that the risks to vaccinations outweigh the benefits and, as such, does not wish to vaccinate."
The pleadings also claim that Horne agreed for years to not vaccinate the child until last November, when he changed his mind.
"The rationale behind his change in mindset is unknown," Dass said in the pleadings.
Bredow also is seeking to overturn a part of McDonald's order which changed the custody status of the child. Before she went to jail, Bredow had physical custody of the child, while Horne had visitation rights.
McDonald ordered the custody to be split 50/50. Now, the child stays at Bredow's Ferndale home on Monday through Thursday and with his father on Friday through Sunday.
McDonald hasn't scheduled a hearing yet on Bredow's request.
Follow John Wisely on Twitter: @jwisely
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2hh2hGtThings have been eerily silent for the Washington Capitals this summer. They haven’t made any additions to the club, with the buyout of Jeff Schultz and the departure of Mike Ribeiro being the only reasons that anyone has even looked in their direction this summer.
The latter situation there has left the Capitals with something of a vacancy right in the middle of their second line. Ribeiro came to Washington last summer via trade and had a brilliant season for the Caps, departing for big money during free agency. Which has left the Capitals to roll with Brooks Laich as a no. 2 center.
There are worse situations that the Caps could be in than having a guy like Laich as their no. 2 guy in the middle. He’s a solid two-way player and can put up some points, even if he isn’t the most offensively skilled player. While he’s a serviceable guy as a second line center, it’s hard to ignore the availability of a better option out on the free agent market.
Mikhail Grabovski is still without a contract after he was bought out by Toronto. We don’t know who he has talked to at this point, or what type of deal he’s looking for. But this might be an opportunity that the Capitals simply cannot afford to pass up, as he’d be a perfect fit.
Grabovski is coming off of a pretty terrible year with the Toronto Maple Leafs, at least by his standards, but that’s not necessarily his fault. He was criminally misused by the coaching staff of the Leafs, logging time as a third line center and playing more of a defensive role, for reasons beyond anyone’s ability to explain.
Prior to that season, Grabovski had posted back-to-back seasons of at least 50 points, including at least 20 goal in each. He’s not a big guy in the middle, but he plays a decent two-way game, is very talented offensively, and will win over half of his draws. Can’t ask for much more out of a 2C.
The Capitals should be all over trying to sign Grabovski at this point in the summer. With the money he’s taking home in the buyout, money shouldn’t be as much of an issue. He’d be a terrific fit and would allow Laich to slot in as a 3C, or perhaps play out on the wing. This is a can’t-miss opportunity for Washington.Last month, Micromax officially announced its plans to create a new mobile device brand - Yu. The devices using this brand are to be sold online only, emulating the business models of Chinese companies such as Xiaomi and OnePlus. The first smartphone in the series was then said to get unveiled sometime in December, and today we know exactly when that will happen.
Micromax has apparently started sending invites for its Yu event, which will take place on December 18. The invite itself doesn't reveal any details about the first Yu handset, as you can see.
However, according to Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma, "the phone is going to be a monster", as it will have "really cool specs". So we should probably expect a high-end offering for the new brand's debut.
Also on December 18 we should find out which Indian ecommerce sites will be offering the Yu phone, as Micromax has reportedly been negotiating with various companies in the field.
As for software, Cyanogen has committed to an exclusive relationship with the Yu brand from Micromax, which has even meant disappointing prospective owners of the OnePlus One in the subcontinent, who won't be receiving over-the-air updates for their devices running the well known custom ROM.
Source | ViaAnnouncing the Unofficial TBA Slack Bot Open Beta!
The TBA Slack Bot is a powerful integration into your Slack Team’s chat. It can look up and compile team and event information using the data provided by The Blue Alliance. It can also provide notifications for teams at competition.
Currently you can query:
Basic team (name, location) information
Detailed team information including competitions this season, rank, W-L-T, and awards
Current event status including current rank, last and next matches, or for teams not currently at an active competition, the last and next competition information.*
Note: our data is only as good as TBA, and for upcoming offseason events many of them do not list teams attending
We also support the ability to follow one or more teams in each Slack channel (including DMs)*. You can get notifications for:
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Match Results
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Note: notifications require the offseason FMS to be connected to the internet. End-of-event Summaries require awards to be posted to the FMS, as such they are only available during official competitions.
We wish to thank all the teams that have given us feedback and suggestions so far, (especially teams 3966 and 5012) some of them are already incorporated in tbabot now. We plan to expand the abilities to cover event lookups (and event stats) in the coming weeks.
Information in the Unofficial TBA Slack Bot can be found on its GitHub page:
https://frc5881.github.io/TBASlackBot/
Along with Installation Instructions and Documentation. We have also started a FAQ as well.
We have also Open Sourced the project under the AGPL 3.0 license. We welcome feedback and suggestions via our Issue Tracker or via the tbabot feedback command. Developers are welcome to fork the code and send Pull Requests with additional features as well. (We’ll even accept PRs to improve the website )
Teams looking to use our hosted tbabot should carefully read the Installation Instructions. Teams looking to host their own instance should refer to the README and design docs in the source.
Feedback from the teams using the bot so far has been exceptionally positive, and we thank them all. We’re happy to open access to the rest of the FRC community and hope it is as useful to you as it is to us.
Programming Group, Team 5881
Tech Valley High School DragonsManchester City have taken another cheeky dig at rivals Manchester United by trolling Marouane Fellaini on their French language Twitter account.
The official ManCityFra account posted a photograph of Leroy Sane obscured by the Mancunian fog as he trained on Monday ahead of City's EFL Cup quarter-final at Leicester City on Tuesday night.
They accompanied the picture by writing: 'If you find out who is hidden by the fog, you are unplayable...'
Manchester City's French Twitter account posted a picture of Leroy Sane training in the fog on Monday with the message 'If you find out who is hidden by the fog, then you are unplayable'. One reply said 'Fellaini' to which the City account responded: 'No, he is a football player'
Sane was pictured training in the Manchester fog ahead of City's EFL Cup trip to Leicester
The Manchester City France account couldn't resist a cheeky dig at Marouane Fellaini
Because the German winger's hairstyle has a similar silhouette, one Twitter user replied 'Fellaini'.
The City account couldn't resist a tongue-in-cheek response and wrote: 'No, he is a football player'. The post was retweeted and liked thousands of times by their followers.
It came a day after a video emerged of City players singing 'Park the bus, park the bus, Man United,' a song invented by their fans to mock Jose Mourinho's negative tactics in big matches.
City certainly have all the bragging rights at the moment as they lead United by 11 points at the top of the Premier League having won 17 of their 18 matches so far and drawing the other.
City lead United by 11 points at the top of the Premier League and remain unbeaten
Sane celebrates after City's 4-1 win over Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday
Fellaini in action during United's Premier League fixture with Newcastle this season
City fans and players have already mocked United boss Jose Mourinho for his negative tactics
They won 2-1 at Old Trafford earlier this month to take an even more commanding grip on the title race, with Pep Guardiola's side also playing by far the most attractive football.
Players and staff from both sides clashed in the Old Trafford tunnel after City's win after Mourinho stormed into the away dressing room to tell them to show greater respect in their celebrations.
However, one Twitter user pointed out that Fellaini actually has a far more impressive CV than Sane and didn't deserve the little dig.
While Sane won the FIFA Confederations Cup earlier this year with Germany, Fellaini has won the Belgian league title, the FA Cup, the EFL Cup and the UEFA Europa League during his career with Standard Liege and United.Great Lakes Brewery (GLB) – Enjoying a Few Beers From the Top Tier in Ontario’s Craft Beer Scene
An article by Noah Forrest
Just like in Quebec and most other provinces, Ontario’s beer scene is expanding more and more every month. New breweries and brew pubs are constantly being opened, some doing amazing things, and others, well, not so much. However, amongst all these new and older establishments, exists a brewery that has pretty much been there from the start. In my eyes, it remains one of the best of the lot, and of course, I’m referring to Great Lakes Brewery (or GLB). Over the years they have produced quality products that are not only innovative and delicious, but also actually available to be purchased quite easily.
The Ontario craft beer market – although expanding – can get a little repetitive with regard to what’s available, especially at your local LCBO. There are of course exceptions and they are producing amazing and innovative beers (Bellwoods for example), but they tend to be smaller breweries whose distribution is rather limited. GLB however, seems to be one that bridges the gap. Their “Canuck” American pale ale and “Pompous Ass” English ale are fantastic examples of beers that you can pretty much find at any LCBO around Ontario year round. However, Great Lakes also produce several slightly more specialized beers that are either periodically released at the LCBO, or released only at the brewery in limited batches. This kind of two tiered structure is a rarer model that (in my opinion) works quite well. It allows newcomers and people who don’t live in Toronto the ability to drink their products, while at the same time it allows GLB to create deliciously innovative beers that us geeks can line up for and savour quietly in our basements with the lights off. Most of the irregular GLB releases come from a project they call “Tank Ten.” It’s basically a tank that the brewers are able to use in order to produce new, creative offerings without the usual, larger production expectations.
At this point, I don’t think anyone in Ontario would question that GLB and it’s brewmaster Mike Lackey are the top tier in the province (and probably Canada) with regard to hop forward, American styled beers. They keep releasing these hopped masterpieces over and over, with very few that aren’t simply stellar. Today I’m going to examine five different beers; some are easily found on the shelves of your local LCBO, and others were brewery only releases that sold extremely fast. Let’s get to it.
Lake Effect IPA
Lake Effect is one of the many, many IPA’s that GLB periodically releases throughout the year. Usually, their canned IPA’s are brewery only, but this time Lake Effect had a much larger release, and was available at many stores around the province. Woot!
It pours out a beautiful foggy glowing orange colour with a nice fluffy head. The nose begins with a gigantic tangerine and apricot explosion, mixed with a bit of pine and vanilla accents. Strawberries and grapefruit also play a role in this extremely inviting, aromatic masterpiece.
The flavours mimic the nose, with apricots, peaches, clementines, and blood oranges, coupled with general citrus fruit, like grapefruit and lemon. It’s a fruit bomb! The finish is nicely bitter, but not so over the top that it hinders the delicate aromatic and flavourful hops. Instead, it compliments the flavour profile, helping dry out a bit of the fruitiness. The finish is loaded with grapefruit-like bitter resins and there is this beautiful general juiciness to the whole thing that really meshes well with the complete experience. I hope this is the start of a new GLB trend of canned IPA’s that are widely available.
Pompous Ass English Ale
Pompous Ass is an English Ale, but having had it before I can say that it’s definitely a modern take on the style. It has a surprisingly hoppy nose, with lots of citrus fruit, coupled with some earthiness, toasted grains, strawberries, light caramel, and biscuits. You certainly get the noble hops as well.
This one is very easy drinking, with a light body that goes down smooth. It has a sharp bitterness that is a bit aggressive for the style, but certainly complimentary to my tastes. The English style malt base works well with the slightly higher hoppy kick and is far drier than your average English pale, with no diacetyl to be found (which this style sometimes contains). It’s crisp, slightly malty, and delicious. It has a nice silky smooth body that provides a beautiful mouthfeel, while the English ale yeast lends a prickly phenolic earthiness that works to dry things out further.
Pompous Ass is generally always available at the LCBO and a definite go-to for me when I’m visiting Ontario. Even if you’re not really into English ales, or you find them boring, I still suggest giving this one a try – it’s quite special.
Life Sentence IIIPA
Life Sentence is a 10%, Triple IPA brewed in collaboration with Amsterdam Brewery, another successful Toronto based brewery. This was a small, brewery only release, but I’m hoping to see them produce it again. It pours out a deep orange colour with a massive sexy head. The aromas are dominated by citrus forward hops and general freshly cut tropical fruits. This is followed by some subtle caramel malts and a bit of earthy grass.
It starts off with a big citrus punch that attacks your senses, followed by a big malt base that doesn’t feel too sweet or cloying. The finish is resinous and bitter, but not over the top. There are loads of lemons, oranges and grapefruit, with some peaches and pine in the mix. Next is a great juicy component that adds a perceivable fruity sweetness without an actual sweet backing. The 10% abv is impressively integrated with the malt base, which is challenging without getting into the sweet and cloying side of things. This is a fantastic example of what collaboration and experience can produce. Bravo.
Apocalypse Much Later
Apocalypse Later is a monster of a beer. It’s 10% and loaded with extremely aromatic, citrusy hops. Picture a big and dry double IPA, but with dark malts. Now imagine taking that beer and aging it in bourbon barrels. The result is Apocalypse Much Later, and I’m very excited to try it (Thanks Brian for the trade!).
Wow, this nose is throwing so many things at me. To start, there are loads of big citrusy hops, mixed in with bourbon vanilla notes and damp earthy oak. There is some pine as well, and a cake batter thing, alongside a bit of booze. This is a really complex and strikingly potent nose – it’s huge!
Just like the nose, there is just so much going on here. The hops have certainly faded when compared to the fresh, non-barrel-aged version, however they are more present than I would have thought given the time in the barrel. Not only do the hops provide a bitterness, but also some big piney and citrus forward accents. The barrel is huge on this, adding nice vanilla and booze soaked oak flavours that mix in well with the medium/big body and dark roasted malts. The alcohol is certainly perceivable, but lends a good sharp character to the beer as a whole, and helps dry out the finish. This one was also a brewery only release, but I heard a second batch will happen at some point. Yeah!
Long Dong Pilsner
When I first started down the craft beer path of enlightenment, there was a period where I rejected Pilsners. It’s natural, given the years and years of only consuming the one style, and generally terrible versions of said style. However, over time I rediscovered them and fell in love with many craft interpretations of this Czech lager. I love me a hoppy pils.
Long Dong pours out a crystal clear, yellow colour with orange highlights, carrying a bone white head. There are lots of musty and earthy hops, with a nice citrus punch. It smells tangy and herbal, with just the right yeast profile.
It starts with a nice and crisp, Pilsner-esque flavour profile, but with a serious hop backing, which gives it a good kick on the finish. Just like the nose, Long Dong carries a big herbal noble hop presence, with saaz just killing it. It’s fruity and tangy with that lemon zest thing you get in a good lager. It’s crisp and clean, yet still complex, and I wish I had more of these to drink when the weather gets warmer. The mustiness sticks with you, leaving a long resinous finish, alongside that tangy herbal thing. There is lots of hay as well, mixed with some honey, but the whole thing is nicely dry. The balance is perfect and the extra bitterness and hop flavours don’t take away from the style in the least; instead, they enhance the experience and improve upon the the beer as a whole in my opinion.
The fun thing about writing this article is that although there are a few rare beers on the above list, there are also several that – presuming you live in Ontario – you can easily find when perusing the shelves of your local LCBO. So please, if you haven’t tried them yet, do so! In my opinion, GLB is one of the best breweries in Canada, especially in terms of hop forward, American focused IPAs. My only criticism would be that I’d love to see at least one year round IPA widely distributed across the province. If they were able to pull that off, I think we would see a lot of smiling faces.
An article by Noah Forrest
Photography by Noah Forrest
AdvertisementsGameMaker Forums Hacked – Unencrypted Passwords Leaked
Updated 22/04/2013 – ‘Exclusive: Interview With The GameMaker Community Hacker‘
The official GameMaker Community forums (GMC) have been inaccessible over the past 48 hours, and today YoYo Games, the developers behind GameMaker: Studio, have announced that this was due to the discovery of a successful hacking attempt. Between 5000-8000 user accounts are estimated to have been compromised by a password logging script which was introduced to the core files within the GMC’s forum software, IP.Board (IPB). It is also possible that the email addresses of all 216,000+ registered members have been compromised.
Mike Dailly, head of development at YoYo Games, addressed the issue today saying “We don’t know how long this has been active, or if they ever downloaded [the data], but to be safe I’d assume all username and passwords used on here are now known by someone else,” further advising users of the popular forum to “change your passwords as soon as possible.”
While passwords stored within the forum’s SQL database are hashed, the exploit was made directly to a local PHP file that processed login attempts. Incoming user credentials were therefore not secure. The forum’s long-outdated software has been blamed for the vulnerability, and YoYo Games have taken steps to upgrade IPB to a newer version now that the hack has been uncovered. This resulted in significant downtime on the forum over the past 12-24 hours. The forum theme has been reset to the default IPB theme, however this is only temporary.
The exploit, which is the largest that Game Maker Blog has ever reported, allowed the attacker to compile a significant list of private information which may be sold on the online black market. Websites operated by YoYo Games have been hacked multiple times in the past, however typically a rogue advertisement was introduced by the attacker, which may be considered harmless in comparison to this exploit. YoYo Games have only issued a brief announcement on the GMC regarding the hacking, so many users are unlikely to be aware that their details have been leaked.
Since the logging script recorded both successful and failed login attempts, users effected by the GameMaker Community forum hack should consider whether their other online accounts have also been compromised, and should take appropriate steps to address this problem as soon as possible.PlayStation All-Stars Developer Details Kat and Emmett in Depth
It seems as if we haven’t heard anything new about PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s upcoming (initially free) DLC for a while now. Well, if you’re aching for details on the new blood set to arrive “soon” then you’re in luck.
A SuperBot Entertainment developer going under the handle of Strider_Doom has posted a lengthy list of detailed Battle Royale notes for Gravity Rush‘s Kat, and Starhawk‘s Emmett Graves:
Kat: [She’s] mainly a rush-down character [who] specializes in mobility. She probably has the best mobility [out] of all the cast due to the different ways in which she can get around.
Her square attacks are her usual kick attacks.
Triangles are “gravity” themed moves, including her slide and gravity kicks!
Circle is “other” stuff, including gravity pull/push moves.
She’s a combo character! I like to compare her to a simpler Dante in terms of her combo ability. She has simple combos that build a decent amount of AP and more advanced combos that allow her to AP burst.
She has a really cool move with neutral circle. She summons 3 pieces of random debris around her that she can hurl at opponents. The hurling has no start-up, but she is extremely vulnerable while summoning [it.] This move unlocks her advanced combos, as you can throw debris between attacks. For any of you MvC2 / COTA players, think Spiral’s swords.
Her level 2 super is sick. It’s kind of like a reverse Sir Daniel’s level 2, except she fires downwards instead of upwards. She also has a bit of control over when and where she fires the stalagmites.
Emmett Graves: The point of Emmett is to bring his build and battle style to PASBR. He can utilize different weapon load-outs which he summons with triangle.
He can summon a turret to fire at opponents for extra AP. The turret is destructible, though.
He can also summon a Rift Extractor that generates AP, similar to PaRappa’s boombox.
His default weapon load-out is a standard rifle. He also uses a pistol in this load-out.
For close range battles his shotgun load-out is [the] best. [It] fires quickly, [he earns] 30 AP per hit, and you can fire in multiple directions.
Long range battles are best fought with the rocket launcher load-out. The rockets don’t travel super fast, but they’re aim-able and will travel the entire length of the screen.
Different load-outs will also have different grenades and mines to use.
His square attacks are melee based attacks that don’t change. They’re a bit limited, but rightfully so considering his other tools.
His level 1 super will change depending on which load-out you have, effectively giving him 5 supers total.
His level 3 is a transform super similar to Sweet Tooth. He jumps in his Hawk and goes to town! The Hawk has a machine gun, aerial mines, and melee attacks. What’s interesting is that circle will activate flight mode in which the Hawk flies off the screen and goes for a quick bombing run.
Flight Mode will immediately end his level 3. Why wouldn’t you try to get some kills first before activating Flight Mode, you ask?! Well, the amount of “bombing” that the Hawk does will depend on how many kills you’ve gotten so far. So, if you’ve already scored 3 kills with the Hawk’s other moves, the bombing run won’t be as effective as it would have been if you activated at only 1 or 2 kills.
Video-philes will also be pleased to know that Strider_Doom has confirmed that both Kat and Emmett will be showcased strutting their stuff in “New Challenger” videos similar to the rest of the cast (sans the first 8 characters). The DLC also includes a new stage called Fearless, a mash-up of Heavenly Sword and WipEout.
Are you excited for the upcoming free DLC? Whose play-style seems to suit you best? Let us know in the comments.
More on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale:More than 60 House Democrats are urging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne TillersonHeather Nauert withdraws her name from consideration for UN ambassador job Trump administration’s top European diplomat to resign in February Pompeo planning to meet with Pat Roberts amid 2020 Senate speculation MORE to rein in President Trump’s rhetoric on North Korea.
“We write to express our profound concern over the statements made by President Trump that dramatically increased tensions with North Korea and raised the specter of nuclear war,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Tillerson on Thursday. “These statements are irresponsible and dangerous, and also senselessly provide a boon to domestic North Korean propaganda which has long sought to portray the United States as a threat to their people.
“Accordingly, we respectfully but firmly urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that President Trump and other Administration officials understand the importance of speaking and acting with the utmost caution and restraint on this delicate issue.”
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The letter was organized by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and co-signed by 61 of his House Democratic colleagues.
On Tuesday, Trump promised to unleash “fire and fury” upon North Korea if Kim Jong Un continues threatening the United States.
“He has been very threatening beyond a normal state,” Trump said. “And as I said, they will be met with fire, fury and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
The statement raised eyebrows as it appeared to draw a red line at threats alone. Some also interpreted “fire and fury” as insinuating a nuclear strike.
Tillerson on Wednesday explained the rhetoric as a way to speak to Kim in words he understands.
“What the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un can understand because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language,” Tillerson said.
On Thursday, Trump mused that perhaps the “fire and fury” statement wasn’t “tough enough.”
In their letter, the lawmakers said Congress and the American people will hold Trump responsible if a miscalculation endangers U.S. troops or allies. They highlighted that a third of South Koreans, about 30,000 U.S. troops and more than 100,000 other Americans living in South Korea would be in immediate danger if North Korea counterattacks after a U.S. strike.
“To allay these concerns, the Trump administration should publicly declare its agreement with the constitutional requirement that any preemptive attack on North Korea must be debated and authorized by Congress,” they wrote.
They also said they support talks with North Korea, which Tillerson has said the United States is open to if Pyongyang halts |
pixels into one, and then re-interpolating back up to its full resolution. The trade-off is that you lose fine detail for the sake of lower image noise. OnePlus says that the system automatically switches to that second cam, but only in situations of less than 10 lux of light, which are quite rare. I’ve had a couple of reasonably good images in challenging lighting conditions with this phone, so I guess things are working as intended. I do like that these architectural changes are invisible to the end user: you still just point the camera at stuff and tap to shoot.
Two neat things about the OnePlus 5T’s camera interface: One is the ability to shoot by holding your finger on the fingerprint sensor on the back, ideal for people (like me) who prefer to shoot selfies with the rear camera. The other is the Pro Mode, which displays a histogram and gives access to manual ISO, white balance, and shutter speed adjustments. I’d be more enthusiastic about this latter part if I felt the camera had the potential to shoot photos that merit such finessing.
Ultimately, the OnePlus 5T’s camera lands in the territory of being serviceable. Decent, even. If you’re only looking at your photos on the phone itself, using them to Instagram a few sights or share moments with friends in a casual and unobsessive fashion, you’ll probably be just fine with the 5T. I have grown used to the higher standard of Google’s Pixel 2 camera, but that phone costs substantially more than this OnePlus device.
The portrait mode, which was terrible on the OnePlus 5, has improved dramatically
Portrait mode marks a return after a very poor debut on the OnePlus 5 and it’s much improved. OnePlus has scaled back the background-blurring effect, which helps to hide the errors when the camera miscalculates whether to blur or keep something in focus. But the system is a lot more robust now too: even in imperfect lighting, it usually identifies the face or object I’m trying to isolate from the background and it generally does the thing I want it to. As with all portrait modes, it’s still a work in progress that misses more than would be ideal, but at least now OnePlus has a respectable competitor, rather than a poorly executed feature. Bonus points for not needing to zoom in to capture a portrait shot — as the iPhone does and the OnePlus 5 used to — with the new camera setup on the 5T.
A note of caution about the front-facing camera: it has the beautification filter on by default — which results in flattening and lightening of skin tone and softening of detail to the point of obliteration — and if you want to take even semi-realistic selfies, you’ll have to tone that stuff down. For a while, I didn’t realize where to disable the (supposed) beautification and my selfies were taken in a world where there are no skin pores, no wrinkles, and absolutely no photographic detail.
Internally, the OnePlus 5T is almost painfully familiar: a Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip with Adreno 540 graphics is flanked by either 6GB (good) or 8GB (entirely excessive) of RAM, with a corresponding 64GB or 128GB of storage. No expansion options available, but you get two nano-SIM card slots. I like that OnePlus is among the first to support Bluetooth 5, which together with support for AptX HD makes this phone a good candidate to serve as your source for wireless music listening. That being said, OnePlus is staying faithful to its users by also continuing to include a headphone jack.
The battery hasn’t changed from the OnePlus 5, it still measures in at 3,300mAh, and the 5T’s highlight power technology is still Dash Charge, the rapid-charging solution that OnePlus says its users are delighted with. That’s all well and good, but you need to use the particular OnePlus charging cable and charger to get the benefit. If you’re like me and you travel a lot, have a billion cables, and prefer the convenience of charging both your laptop and phone with the same charger, all this Dash Charge action is kind of for naught. More to the point, people are starting to expect wireless charging from their flagship phones, and OnePlus, a company that prides itself on “only making flagships” is starting to fall behind on expectations. The right answer here is to just include both fast wired charging and wireless charging, as many of OnePlus' competitors now do.
My experience with the OnePlus 5T extends the positive impression I’ve traditionally had of the battery life of OnePlus phones. The company makes a point of optimizing its software down to a lean and efficient state that’s not too demanding on system resources and power. The time that Samsung might spend thinking of spots to add more Bixby bloat, OnePlus uses to file away an extra layer of clutter. The 5T has impressed me with its endurance, comparing favorably to the Google Pixel 2 XL, LG V30, and HTC U11. I can’t give you a precise ranking of each of those phones — because of how varied the “typical” day’s smartphone usage is — but I can tell you that all of them will get you through a full day and usually deep into the next one on a single charge. No worries on this front.
The best thing about the OnePlus 5T’s software is that the majority of its deviations from Google’s default Android settings are for the better. I’ve articulated a few of them already, including the more sophisticated and adjustment-rich camera software and the display enhancements. In terms of the Android UI, you can swipe down on the fingerprint reader to see your notifications, you can flip the order of your Android keys (or hide them entirely, as already mentioned), and you can double-tap the sleeping screen to activate it.
Face Unlock is the big discrete new feature in the latest software from OnePlus, using more than 100 identifiers to distinguish you from another person. (The company says it is different from the facial unlock features that have been in Android since version 4.0.) In all my testing, it never once gave a false positive of another person being able to log in to my phone with it. So that’s good. But it also let someone unlock the phone by merely flashing it at my face for a split second. That’s less good.
When it works, Face Unlock is fast enough to make the device feel like it’s never been locked at all
OnePlus warns that Face Unlock is not really a secure method to keep your phone locked down, and indeed the company only offers it for unlocking and doesn’t seek to exploit it for other things like payment authorization. In the constant struggle between convenience and security, this feature is firmly in the convenience section.
I find that Face Unlock usually works well, identifying me even in a perfectly dark room — the lock screen turns on, illuminates my face, and less than a second after that, I’m in — however it also has its struggles. In a club one night, the only way I could unlock the phone with my face was by having a friend point the flash on their phone at me. The 5T can handle the total lack of light, but it seems to be confounded by the cycling lights of an entertainment venue. Of course, unlike Apple’s “FaceID or bust” offering, the OnePlus 5T still has the fingerprint reader on its rear as a fallback biometric ID option.
When it works, Face Unlock is stupidly fast and it combines nicely with the double-tap-to-wake gesture. I think a lot of people will use it, enjoy it, and feel like they’re losing out on nothing relative to iPhone X users with their vastly more sophisticated FaceID technology. My opinion of this tech would probably be warmer if I didn’t have to maintain a tighter grip on security than Face Unlock would allow. I think the people who find other forms of security too fiddly might well be attracted by the ease of use here. To an authorized user, a phone with Face Unlock is (almost) the same as an unlocked phone. Room for improvement definitely remains, but this isn’t just some cynical Apple-chasing gimmick.
The OnePlus take on Android is a good one, but it’s built atop yesteryear’s OS
I am also a fan of the new Parallel Apps feature that OnePlus has implemented. It lets you clone social apps so that you can run a second instance of, say, Twitter or Telegram. This is a nice convenience for anyone looking to keep private and professional messages separate. This, together with the aforementioned Reading Mode, a Gaming Mode that disables all visual notifications, an Extended Screenshot facility, and a few other tiny tweaks to how Android works makes using the OnePlus 5T feel like a better, more complete experience.
Having laid out all the things I like about OnePlus’ gentle alterations of Android, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bemoan the fact that the OnePlus 5T doesn’t run the latest Android. Instead of Android 8 Oreo, which has been officially available for more than three months, buyers of the 5T will get Android 7.1.1 Nougat. I’ve written more extensively on the subject of why this is a problem, but here it’s sufficient to say that it just doesn’t breathe confidence in me if a manufacturer isn’t able to implement a new version of the OS within the space of three months. It doesn’t bode for future updates down the line.
The OnePlus 5T is a slightly great phone. In today’s world of superb mobile cameras, no phone can be truly great without having a great camera on board, and I don’t think the 5T has one of those. But pretty much everything else about this phone lives up to the aspiration of premium, flagship-tier quality. The 5T is a $499 phone doing admirable battle with devices sometimes twice its price. For anyone whose budget extends no further than this phone, I give it an enthusiastic thumbs up.Dear Santa, can I have an Apocalypse for Christmas?
The people who say that world is going to end in 2012 are about to be in for a big surprise – at least if you consider Family Radio Worldwide a reliable source. According to this nationwide Christian media organization, the world will actually end on May 21, 2011. Take that, Mayan calendar, you just got served.
Now it’s easy to discount people like Harold Camping, the 89 year old president of Family Radio Worldwide, as the kind of crazy but mostly harmless fringe Christian that the majority of reasonable Christians tend to ignore. However, as it turns out, the real problem is that they actually do ignore him. As far as I’m concerned, there is too little outcry from Christians in this nation against people like Harold Camping, a man who truly believes that the world is about to end and who broadcasts his Apocalyptic message on literally hundreds of radio stations across the country. Atheists, on the other hand, are chastised and derided at almost every turn by the religious for our attacks on the sacredness of Christmas – sometimes even by those who generally consider themselves socially moderate on other counts.
How can this be? How is it that every year at this time we have conversations about the “War on Christmas” that secular atheists like myself are supposedly waging, but at no point does the national media ever draw attention to what are essentially Christian doomsday cults? For the record, I love Christmas. It’s absolutely one of my favorite times of year, and I have no desire to impinge on the celebrations of it or diminish the joy others find in it. None other than PZ Meyers is with me on this one, by the way, noting in a recent blog post that one of the things atheists should do this time of year is, “have a good time, adopt good traditions like midwinter festivals as our own, and join in with the community.” That said, I won’t stand by and watch as the Harold Campings of the world wage real battles against ideals that I hold dear. You know, like the ability to hold a coherent thought or the desire to actually try to “know” things.
It’s important to note that Family Radio Worldwide stations are listener funded. And anyone who produces media content for an audience knows how difficult it is to effectively engage a reader or listener in a significant enough way that they act on what you’ve produced for them. For every person who takes the time to comment on a post, buy a product you’re selling, or donate to a radio station you run, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of others who sit by idly and take in your content but go no further. The fact that they’re taking it in at all though is a sign that they’re receptive to your message. So to have an organization that had, according to Wikipedia, a net worth in 2007 of $122 million signifies a very extensive listener base. And this is my point – Harold Camping is a nut, but more importantly he’s a nut with an audience; and his audience is very large. We ignore them at our peril.
Harold Camping’s audience is large enough that he broadcasts all over the United States and to many other parts of the world as well. This means that almost every one of us has likely met someone who truly believes what Mr. Camping is preaching. Sometimes we may know who these people are, but I’ll bet that most times we don’t. They could be your child’s teacher, or maybe your boss. In any case, many of them are certainly people of some influence. And this is what needs to be remembered and pointed out every day. It’s not acceptable to believe that the world will end on May 21, 2011 and still teach our children or run our businesses or lead in our governments. How could these people possibly think about and devise the kind of long term strategies these jobs require if they literally don’t believe there will be a long term?
I close with a Tale of Two billboards:
When I see images like the one above, I smile in agreement; but I ultimately see the futility of them. What Christians, even the moderate ones, see in a sign like that is little more than a group of people picking on their deep-seeded and important religious beliefs. Attacking the average person is this way is not going to win any support among them. Instead, I really believe that a more effective billboard to get Christians to start thinking about where the real problems in our country come from would be something like the billboard I made and posted below.
Signs like this will start to force moderate religious people to ask, even if only fleetingly at first, which side of the supposed battle between faith and reason they’re actually on. And once they begin to do so, I truly believe that most Christians will see that they have far fewer shared values with people like Harold Camping than they do with people like me. I mean let’s face it, none of the intelligent or reasonable Christians believe that the rapture is going to come on May 21, 2011 any more than I do.
Then again, there sometimes is a part of me that wishes that it would. At least then I could stop devoting any more thought to morons like Harold Camping and celebrate Christmas with my family in peace.Babymetal has a “no social media” policy for their shows. But even if you were allowed to take photos or videos during Babymetal performances, it would be a total waste of time and battery to attempt to capture the band’s perfectly coordinated choreography, video elements, and totally unique sound that somehow combines J-Pop with heavy metal.
Composed of Japanese teens Moa Kikuchi (AKA “Moametal”), 17; Suzuka Nakamoto (“Su-metal”), 18; and Yui Mizuno (“Yuimetal”), 17, the group is well on their way to total and complete world domination. The idol-slash-metal trio got off to an epic start when their eponymous premiere album debuted at number 2 on Billboard Japan and topped the World Albums chart, easily standing out with their hyper-fast vocals over a heavy metal band. Things have only gone up from there; the girls opened for Lady Gaga in 2014, announced an upcoming animated series of their own (talk about kawaii), and joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their winter UK tour. “I never thought we could get here so soon,” says Su-metal. “To be honest, it’s still unreal.”
The latest on the band’s impressive (and growing) resume? A sold-out world tour, culminating in a two-night extravaganza at Japan’s Tokyo Dome, attended by 110,000 utterly devoted fans.
The first thing I notice when I walk into the massive stadium is actually about a thousand things. With pyrotechnics, lights, multiple stages, and the girls’ red and black costumes (copied by cosplayers in the audience, natch), a live Babymetal show is sensory overload in its most kawaii form. Like a lot of Americans, I fell into a Babymetal hole after the trio shredded through “Gimme Chocolate” on The Colbert Show, but what I saw at the Dome was a completely different kind of fandom.
Half hardcore metal fans, half idol-maniacs, the crowd both nights headbanged, sang every lyric, and mimicked the girls’ dancing perfectly throughout every. single. song. Within a half second of “GJ!” starting, everyone (no exaggeration) raised their hands in the girls’ signature kitsune symbol and banged their heads perfectly, yet politely, to the beat.
Fans love Babymetal for their mix of sugary sweetness and heavy metal. With Gothic-Lolita uniforms, and lyrics about craving chocolate, ending bullying, and climbing the stairway to adulthood, Babymetal’s music is a far cry from what you might think when you hear the term “metal” music. The male-dominated genre has a notorious problem with misogyny and rape/murder fantasies, but Babymetal is taking the sound back, proving that women not only have a place in the genre, they can change it, too.
Photo: Tsukasa Miyoshi (Showcase), (C) Amuse Inc. / Toy's Factory
Of course, Babymetal — and female metal musicians in general — still have a long way to go. From message boards to major websites, debates for and against Babymetal rage on. Luckily, their kill ‘em with kindness approach to haters keeps the band going through the fire. “I don’t expect for people to like the same things, so I don’t feel a need to force people to understand who we are,” says Su-Metal. “That’s just the way life is!” adds Moametal. “Some people like us and some people don’t! There will always be people who will criticize you, but if you believe in yourself, that will become your strength.” That’s the nice thing about Babymetal’s positive vibes and strong self-confidence: it makes them pretty much untouchable.
Related: 10 Badass Female Musicians to Listen to in 2016As a true freshman at Florida in 2013, Davis played in all 12 games with one start, recording 24 tackles. As a sophomore in 2014, he played in nine games and missed three due to a torn meniscus, finishing with 23 tackles. [3] As a junior in 2015, he started 12 of 14 games, recording 98 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and one interception. [4] [5] [6]
On December 12, 2016, it was announced that Davis had accepted his invitation to play in the 2017 Senior Bowl.[7] Unfortunately, Davis was unable to attend after suffering a sprained ankle during his senior season. Davis was one of 29 collegiate linebackers who attended the NFL Scouting Combine, but was unable to perform any drills due to an ankle injury. On March 28, 2017, Davis attended Florida's Pro Day and performed all of the combine and positional drills for team representatives and scouts who attended. His 40-yard dash would've been the second fastest time among all linebackers at the NFL Combine. During the draft process, Davis attended private visits and workouts with the Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers.[8] NFL Draft experts and analysts projected Davis to be selected in the first or second round. He was ranked the second best inside linebacker in the draft by NFLDraftScout.com, was ranked the third best inside linebacker by NFL analyst Bucky Brooks, was ranked the third best linebacker by NFL analyst Mike Mayock, and was ranked the fourth best linebacker in the draft by Sports Illustrated and ESPN.[9][10][11][12]
Pre-draft measurables Ht Wt Arm length Hand size 40-yard dash 10-yd split 20-yd split 20-ss 3-cone Vert jump Broad BP 6 ft 1 in
(1.85 m) 238 lb
(108 kg) 33 1⁄ 2 in
(0.85 m) 9 3⁄ 4 in
(0.25 m) 4.62 s 1.57 s 2.64 s 4.29 s 7.39 s 38 in
(0.97 m) 10 ft 9 in
(3.28 m) 23 reps All values from Florida's Pro Day[13][14]
The Detroit Lions selected Davis in the first round (21st overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft. He was the second linebacker selected, behind Haason Reddick.[15]
2017 Edit
On May 12, 2017, the Detroit Lions signed Davis to a four-year, $10.96 million contract that includes $8.54 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $6.11 million.[16]
Davis entered training camp, slated as the starting middle linebacker. Head coach Jim Caldwell officially named Davis the starting middle linebacker to begin the regular season.[17]
He started the Detroit Lions' season-opener against the Arizona Cardinals and recorded nine solo tackles and recovered the first fumble of his career by Cardinals' running back David Johnson in their 35-23 victory.[18] The following week, he recorded six combined tackles and made the first sack of his career on New York Giants' quarterback Eli Manning in the Lions' 24-10 victory. Unfortunately, he left the game in the fourth quarter after suffering a concussion when Giants' wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. blocked Davis into Giants' running back Paul Perkins.[19] He remained in concussion protocol and missed the next two games due to concussion symptoms. On December 10, 2017, Davis made nine combined tackles an sacked quarterback Jameis Winston as the Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-21. In Week 17, he recorded a season-high 12 combined tackles, a pass deflection, and made his first career interception in a 35-11 win against the Green Bay Packers. He made his interception off of a pass attempt by Brett Hundley that was intended for Jamaal Williams and returned it for 12-yards before being tackles by Lance Kendricks to end the Packers' first drive of the game.[20] He finished his rookie season with 96 combined tackles (65 solo), three pass deflections, two sacks, an interception, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery in 14 games and 14 starts.[21] The Detroit Lions finished second in the NFC North with a 9-7 record but missed the playoffs and thus the team decided to part ways with head coach Jim Caldwell at the end of the season.There has been much ado — and rightly so — over the goings on at Fox News Channel - sexual harassment, hush money allegedly paid to victims, a string of high-profile resignations (some of which were really firings).
Less in the news is a lawsuit by 13 plaintiffs against Fox, alleging racial discrimination (although CNN covers the story here [but the author writes "Jim Crown" where we're guessing he meant to write "Jim Crow"]).
But even less in the news is a massive lawsuit against CNN. The class-action suit has been growing by leaps and bounds ever since it was first filed in December. Now, some 175 current and former employees have contacted lawyers about joining the case.
Only a few publications followed up on the story at the end of April, when the case exploded.
"The lawsuit against CNN, meanwhile, claims the company’s Atlanta headquarters is rife with racism," The New York Post wrote on April 27.
Minority employees had to endure bigoted remarks such as “It’s hard to manage black people” and “Who would be worth more: black slaves from times past, or new slaves?,” according to a complaint by former workers Celeslie Henley and Ernest Colbert Jr. filed in Atlanta federal court. Colbert Jr. also claims he was paid thousands less than white colleagues as a manager at the affiliated Turner Broadcasting System. Henley, a former CNN executive assistant, says she was fired in 2014 for complaining that black employees were being paid less than white counterparts.
Writes The Hollywood Reporter:
Unlike the lawsuit against Fox News, the one against CNN and sister companies is much broader, claiming among other things that African-Americans receive lower performance ratings in evaluations, that there are dramatic differences in pay between similarly situated employees of different races and that the promotion of African-American employees is blocked by a "glass ceiling." The complaint (see here) cites hiring and advancement statistics while alleging that African-American employees have endured slurs from superiors, including "It's hard to manage black people" and "Who would be worth more: black slaves from times past, or new slaves?" While the Fox News suit has grown by one additional employee, the case against CNN may soon become bigger by many multiples. That's because after the defendants moved for dismissal or at least a more definitive statement about specific allegations, also raising the prospect that some of the claims may be barred by statute of limitations or by plaintiffs not exhausting administrative remedies, the plaintiffs' attorneys told the judge of their wish to file an amended complaint. According to a plaintiffs' motion to amend that was filed March 23, "Since the filing of this action, counsels for the plaintiffs have been contacted by more than 175 people, both former and current employees of the Defendant, requesting to be members of the putative class action, all having similar complaints of intentional racial discrimination, discrimination impact and discriminatory practices employed by the Defendants." The attorneys also write that many of the potential members recently coming forward are within the administrative process at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and awaiting their 90-days right-to-sue letter.
The number of people now suing CNN is ten times higher than those suing Fox, writes Ken LaCorte on Mediaite — "yet how many stories have you read about that?"
CNN star Jake Tapper has clearly forgotten about the lawsuit against his own network:
When a company sends the clear signal that women are basically sub-human, vile behavior thrives even after top offenders are fired. — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 26, 2017
But hey, if it's not on CNN, it must not be news, right?The case for paper
Let’s get one thing out of the way: thumbs up for technology. I’m a fan and always have been. You have an Apple iPhone? Great. So do I. And I have an Apple Newton, too, just to show I was there before you, when it made no kind of sense. What you are about to read is not the rant of a technophobe. It’s just that, well, we’ve lost sight of something, which is this:
Paper is technology.
And for some applications, paper remains the best technology. It’s what I recommend to fuzzy-thinking friends who’ve allowed their multi-tasking devices to re-map their minds (or at least their attention spans). Start working on paper. Write things down. Let the page give you focus and clarity.
Paper is a great way to capture ideas. Where it excels, though, is in developing them. As a writer, I keep a journal. This is a fancy word for a bunch of paper bound in book form where I write down quotes, ideas, outlines, even drafts. I just happen to have reached the end of a journal I began about a year ago. Flipping back through the pages, I can see the development of ideas over time. Some of them went nowhere, some turned into articles or stories. In this journal there are about four or five novels in planning, too.
On my desk you’ll find legal pads, spiral notebooks, looseleaf paper, notecards. They all have their uses, but to me, the highest refinement of the technology is the bound blank book. It’s portable. It encourages lengthy entries. It’s archival. Since I use fountain pens I have to be choosy about paper quality (the liquid ink used in fountain pens and rollerballs will bleed through bad paper). As much as I love the idea of Moleskine, they’re out thanks to the iffy paper. I use Apica notebooks and Rhodia spiral pads, both of which are fountain pen friendly and affordable.
When you’re spending a year or more with a bound book, though, I prefer something a little nicer, both for the aesthetic benefits and for the greater durability of a leather cover. Bound books from Graphic Image are nice, especially if you get them during one of the annual sales. My favorite, though, are Smythson journals with their signature blue lightweight paper. This paper is a wonder of technology. Unlike other thin papers, it guards against not only bleed-through but show-through. However, Smythson journals (especially the ones large enough to write in) are pricey, and in recent years the leather colors have gotten a little flashy and feminine for my taste.
That’s why the Allan Journal has been such a welcome discovery.
Rediscovering the Allan Journal
Or should I say rediscovery? I’ve written about the Allan Journal before, both the original slipcased version and the newer generation. What I haven’t done is explain the unique niche the journals occupy, and why it matters. Let me attempt that now.
If you’re carrying a journal around with you, there are two qualities that become paramount: it should hold a lot of writing, and it should be as portable as possible. The appeal of a journal full of thin, lightweight paper is similar to the appeal of old Airmail stationery. Back when you paid by weight, lighter paper meant more words for less money. In a sense, you still pay for weight. Heavier, thicker paper is nicer to write on, but you’re left with either fewer pages or more bulk. More bulk is bad because it means your journal is more likely to be left behind. Fewer pages means that while your journal is with you, it doesn’t go back as far. An important component of the journaling process -- the process of developing ideas over time -- is being able to reference older notes.
One way to get around the limitations of a lower page count is to capture handwritten pages in software like Evernote, which can archive them, make them searchable, and provide access via smartphone wherever you go. I’ve started snapping photos of my journal entries and logging them in Evernote. It can read my handwriting better than I can. Even so, I find that I prefer flipping through the pages of a journal to searching via Evernote. With the bound book, I don’t need to know what I’m looking for. I can experience my writing as a reader would, rather than as an archivist.
All that to say, I really like portable leather journals with lightweight paper. Although the Allan Journals are expensive compared to Apica or Rhodia, they are extremely competitive when you compare them to Smythson or Design.y. In terms of quality, I don’t know of any journal that tops the ones from Allan. The bindings are excellent and quite durable. After being thrown into bags, carried in a back pocket, and quite deliberately abused, my tan goatskin Allan Journal looks basically new. I’m starting to wonder if it’s indestructible.
The journals also tend to be wider than comparable notebooks, which allows me to fit more words on each line. If you’re using a notebook to jot things down randomly, this isn’t such a benefit -- the extra width makes the smaller journal a little bit less pocketable -- but if you write in complete sentences, it’s a delight.
There’s one complaint about Allan Journals that always seems to come up. No, make that two. The first one concerns the writing on the cover. They say JOURNAL in gold letters on front, whereas most users seem to prefer having no imprint. My beloved Smythsons are imprinted with the word NOTES (they also offer a wide variety of other, even less appealing titles). Frankly, I don’t notice anymore. A blank cover would suit me better, and failing that smaller letters so the titling doesn’t stand out. But I’ll take these journals just as they are, too, because as they are, they’re great.
The second, more substantive issue has to do with the ruled lines. They’re tight, really tight. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any journal with more closely spaced lines than the Allan. To fit between the lines, your handwriting needs to be compact. If you’re using a fountain pen, medium nibs and above need not apply. These journals call for fine or extra-fine nibs. Why is there so little space between the lines? I have no idea.
Through trial and error, though, I’ve discovered the value of tightly spaced ruling in a carry-everywhere journal. With its high page count, thin paper, and tightly spaced lines, the Allan Journal will hold a vast quantity of writing. Assuming you can write small enough, carrying around a years’ worth of notes for reference is no problem at all. And if you can’t write small enough, just skip a line. Writing on every other line gives you the roomier feel of other journals.
Like the thin paper used in Bibles, the pages of the Allan Journal work well with ink. Using fountain pens, I haven’t experienced any bleed-through -- i.e., the ink doesn’t soak through the page. My writing stays crisp and tight, without feathering. Having said that, much like other thin papers (including the much-lauded Tomoe River paper beloved of fountain pen enthusiasts) your writing will show through on the reverse of the page, just as the text of Bibles printed on thin paper like this shows through. I write on both sides of the page, ignoring the show-through, but those of you looking for a more opaque surface will want to stick with thicker papers, or pony up for some of Smythson’s blue featherweight paper, which is the only thin paper I’ve found which doesn’t show through … at least, not much. Naturally, the ink used and the size of the nib will play a factor, too.
For a certain kind of writer, the type who wants to use one journal over a long period of time, rugged enough to carry everywhere but aesthetically pleasing, the Allan Journal is a near-perfect combination of features. Because of R. L. Allan’s focus on Bible publishing, the journals aren’t their main marketing focus, and therefore aren’t as well known as they deserve to be in the wider world. That’s too bad. When I see the way my fellow pen-and-paper fans enthuse over other journals, I can’t help thinking they would go wild over the Allan Journal. They're available from EvangelicalBible.com and direct from R. L. Allan.
What I Like
Superb binding that, if you ask me, outshines Smythson on aesthetics and quality. Excellent thin, FP-friendly paper.
What I Don’t Like
Super-tight line spacing that doesn’t play well with larger handwriting.
The Photos:
Above: The red journal goes great with the Allan NKJV1R in scarlet goatskin.
Above and below: the pigskin Allan Journal compared to the pigskin Smythson journal that's been in my pocket off-and-on for the past year. In terms of binding quality, I would actually give the Allan an edge. I like the synthetic lining better than the Smythson's paper lining.Codi Wilson, CP24.com
Paramedics say a 49-year-old man was found in a vehicle in the middle of the road in Etobicoke early Thursday morning after a suspected overdose.
Toronto Paramedic Services told CP24 that an ambulance was called to the area of Elmhurst Drive and Lagos Road shortly before 2 a.m. for a single-vehicle collision.
Reports from the scene indicated that a vehicle was up on a median in the middle of the road.
Paramedics say they transported one male patient to hospital in serious condition. He was unconscious but breathing when emergency crews found him and paramedics say they believe he suffered an overdose.
No other vehicles were involved in the collision.
Police say the man has been charged with impaired care and control and is expected to recover.Two reports on Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier hid Republican support for the across-the-board automatic spending cuts known as the sequester, reinforcing the right-wing narrative that President Obama is the one responsible for these cuts. In reality, a majority of Republicans in both the House and Senate voted for the bill that included the sequester.
Indeed, Republican leaders at the time touted the law as "a victory" and "a positive step forward" for reducing the deficit.
In a press release shortly after the Senate passed the Budget Control Act in August 2011, House Speaker John Boehner celebrated the law as "a positive step forward that begins to rein in federal spending" while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor touted the law as a "significant move" and said it "will finally begin to change the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars."
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan declared the law a "victory for those committed to controlling government spending and growing our economy."
In total, 174 Republican representatives and 28 Republican senators -- a majority of Republicans in both chambers -- voted for the Budget Control Act of 2011.
But in recent weeks, Fox News and other right-wing media outlets have been aggressively pushing myths about the sequester, including that President Obama is single-handedly responsible for the looming spending cuts.
On Wednesday's edition of Special Report, Fox News' chief White House correspondent Ed Henry framed a report on the sequester around the narrative that it was an Obama initiative and quoted Republican Congressman Randy Forbes blaming Obama for it. Though the report included Democratic Sen. Max Baucus saying that Congress shares the blame for the automatic cuts, Henry did not point out that Republicans not only actively supported the idea but overwhelmingly voted for the law.
In a later segment during the same show, Fox again covered up Republican support for the sequester. Discussing the consequences of the spending cuts, chief political correspondent Carl Cameron said, "President Obama, who first proposed the sequester, and his party, are trying to blame the GOP for dire economic consequences, in particularly to the military. But in 2009 he proposed spending $14 billion less than what the military is currently budgeted for should sequester happen." Cameron did not mention the Republican support.Failure by Britain's comprehensive schools risks fuelling the drift |
of the melanocytes in the hair follicle, which produces two types of pigment that provide a full range of hair colour, was spontaneous – but a former pharmacist reports this phenomenon following treatment for his coeliac disease. As several attest, it can be a feature of the regrowth of hair lost following a course of chemotherapy. There are also anecdotal reports that Kampuchea herbal tea can ''recolour’’ white or greying hair.
The reverse of this process, with sudden whitening of previously coloured hair, is well documented, with a couple of dozen cases reported in medical literature, all preceded by severe emotional stress – on the battlefields or following a shipwreck or rail crash. The South African dermatologist Ashley Robins, in his classic Biological Perspectives on Human Pigmentation, attributes this to a preferential loss of pigmented strands, with those left behind giving the appearance of sudden whitening.
SWELLING GONE
This week’s medical query comes courtesy of Mr WJ from north London, who several months ago developed a shiny, slightly swollen red tongue. Consulting the internet, as one does, he noted this could be a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency, but his family doctor pointed out that all his blood tests were satisfactory.
He decided none the less to self-medicate, with one quarter of a one-milligram tablet daily, supplied by his local pharmacy. His tongue not only returned to normal but he felt much more energetic, allowing him to deal with a series of accumulated household chores and minor repairs. Was this, he wonders, the placebo effect in action, or a genuine therapeutic response to subclinical B12 deficiency?
CAT'S KNOW BEST
Finally, a further instance of feline prescience – from a Siamese, this time – who, when accompanying his owner Ron Harris on a visit to a relative, insisted on sitting on his knee at dinner, despite being relocated on several occasions to his basket.
“On the way home, we were involved in a serious accident, the windscreen smashed and Tinker disappeared into the darkness. He was found several days later, still several miles from home but heading in the right direction.”
james.lefanu@telegraph.co.ukDuring an appearance on The Bernie and Sid Show this morning, Sheriff David Clarke fired back again at CNN for the report this past weekend about apparent plagiarism in his 2013 master’s thesis on homeland security.
The report from CNN’s KFile found that “Clarke lifts language from sources and credits them with a footnote, but does not indicate with quotation marks that he is taking the words verbatim.”
The Naval Postgraduate School said in a statement they would be conducting a review of the matter.
Clarke, who said last week he had accepted a job in the Department of Homeland Security, responded by slamming CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski on Twitter:
This @CNN hack @KFILE oppo research MO is to accuse plagiarism. I’m next. Did it to Rand Paul, Monica Crowley et al. https://t.co/KgoHKermpe — David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) May 20, 2017
Ample evidence of my previous tweet on @CNN political hack @KFILE. Guy is a sleaze bag. I’m on to him folks. https://t.co/D1kV8kg80G — David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) May 20, 2017
I just sayin’. This “hired gun” Kaczynski did the same with me”. Do I need to put that in quotation marks? https://t.co/aLxC3OCevQ — David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) May 21, 2017
On The Bernie and Sid Show today, Clarke said, “This is a political smear. That’s all this is. This is designed to intimidate me, it’s designed to try and weaken the confidence President Trump has in me.”
(In a separate interview flagged by CNN today, Clarke said he’s not sure whether this report will affect his chances at serving in the Trump administration.)
He called this a “character assassination attempt by some 2-bit college dropout,” referring to Kaczynski. (A piece on Independent Journal Review highlighted this as well yesterday, though their report ended up being edited and updated after getting Twitter backlash.)
Kaczynski initially responded to Clarke’s pushback on Sunday:
Clarke has not responded to our story yet, but did RT this: pic.twitter.com/QluYYFr4K4 — andrew kaczynski 🤔 (@KFILE) May 21, 2017
Here’s a good rundown from history professor at Case on seriousness of Clarke’s plagiarism https://t.co/2yHPtynQTp — andrew kaczynski 🤔 (@KFILE) May 21, 2017
A response from Clarke defenders is “he just didn’t use quotation marks” but that’s not what much of the work is https://t.co/jrRnB0CIGJ — andrew kaczynski 🤔 (@KFILE) May 21, 2017
Copy analysis, descriptions, etc. are not things you can defend this way as pic.twitter.com/sFMD1QtOxX — andrew kaczynski 🤔 (@KFILE) May 21, 2017
@SheriffClarke @journalsentinel It should be noted Clarke’s spokeswoman statement is inaccurate, as school guidelines specifically forbid what Clarke did. pic.twitter.com/zO0JQwP4uo — andrew kaczynski 🤔 (@KFILE) May 21, 2017
Clarke said today that “maybe from a formatting standpoint, the thesis isn’t perfect, but the content is there,” and he again noted how he’s not the first person to be the target of “these hired guns.”
He cited past examples of similar plagiarism reporting by Kaczynski and KFile against Rand Paul, Ben Carson, and Monica Crowley.
Both Paul and Carson admitted fault and said they would take steps to address the matter going forward. After the report about Crowley plagiarizing came out months ago, Crowley said in a statement that she would “not be taking a position in the incoming administration.” (She subsequently said this was a “political hit job” and claimed it had been debunked.)
You can listen to the audio above, via The Bernie and Sid Show.
[image via screengrab]
— —
Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comSo this is Utopia, is it? Well
I beg your pardon, I thought it was Hell.
-- Sir Max Beerholm, verse entitled
In a Copy of More's (or Shaw's or Wells's or Plato's or Anybody's) Utopia
This is a shorter summary of the Fun Theory Sequence with all the background theory left out - just the compressed advice to the would-be author or futurist who wishes to imagine a world where people might actually want to live:
Think of a typical day in the life of someone who's been adapting to Utopia for a while. Don't anchor on the first moment of "hearing the good news". Heaven's "You'll never have to work again, and the streets are paved with gold!" sounds like good news to a tired and poverty-stricken peasant, but two months later it might not be so much fun. (Prolegomena to a Theory of Fun.) Beware of packing your Utopia with things you think people should do that aren't actually fun. Again, consider Christian Heaven: singing hymns doesn't sound like loads of endless fun, but you're supposed to enjoy praying, so no one can point this out. (Prolegomena to a Theory of Fun.) Making a video game easier doesn't always improve it. The same holds true of a life. Think in terms of clearing out low-quality drudgery to make way for high-quality challenge, rather than eliminating work. (High Challenge.) Life should contain novelty - experiences you haven't encountered before, preferably teaching you something you didn't already know. If there isn't a sufficient supply of novelty (relative to the speed at which you generalize), you'll get bored. (Complex Novelty.)
People should get smarter at a rate sufficient to integrate their old experiences, but not so much smarter so fast that they can't integrate their new intelligence. Being smarter means you get bored faster, but you can also tackle new challenges you couldn't understand before. (Complex Novelty.) People should live in a world that fully engages their senses, their bodies, and their brains. This means either that the world resembles the ancestral savanna more than say a windowless office; or alternatively, that brains and bodies have changed to be fully engaged by different kinds of complicated challenges and environments. (Fictions intended to entertain a human audience should concentrate primarily on the former option.) (Sensual Experience.) Timothy Ferris: "What is the opposite of happiness? Sadness? No. Just as love and hate are two sides of the same coin, so are happiness and sadness... The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is - here's the clincher - boredom... The question you should be asking isn't 'What do I want?' or 'What are my goals?' but 'What would excite me?'... Living like a millionaire requires doing interesting things and not just owning enviable things." (Existential Angst Factory.) Any particular individual's life should get better and better over time. (Continuous Improvement.) You should not know exactly what improvements the future holds, although you should look forward to finding out. The actual event should come as a pleasant surprise. (Justified Expectation of Pleasant Surprises.) Our hunter-gatherer ancestors strung their own bows, wove their own baskets and whittled their own flutes; then they did their own hunting, their own gathering and played their own music. Futuristic Utopias are often depicted as offering more and more neat buttons that do less and less comprehensible things for you. Ask not what interesting things Utopia can do for people; ask rather what interesting things the inhabitants could do for themselves - with their own brains, their own bodies, or tools they understand how to build. (Living By Your Own Strength.) Living in Eutopia should make people stronger, not weaker, over time. The inhabitants should appear more formidable than the people of our own world, not less. (Living By Your Own Strength; see also, Tsuyoku Naritai.) Life should not be broken up into a series of disconnected episodes with no long-term consequences. No matter how sensual or complex, playing one really great video game after another, does not make a life story. (Emotional Involvement.) People should make their own destinies; their lives should not be choreographed to the point that they no longer need to imagine, plan and navigate their own futures. Citizens should not be the pawns of more powerful gods, still less their sculpted material. One simple solution would be to have the world work by stable rules that are the same for everyone, where the burden of Eutopia is carried by a good initial choice of rules, rather than by any optimization pressure applied to individual lives. (Free to Optimize.) Human minds should not have to play on a level field with vastly superior entities. Most people don't like being overshadowed. Gods destroy a human protagonist's "main character" status; this is undesirable in fiction and probably in real life. (E.g.: C. S. Lewis's Narnia, Iain Banks's Culture.) Either change people's emotional makeup so that they don't mind being unnecessary, or keep the gods way off their playing field. Fictional stories intended for human audiences cannot do the former. (And in real life, you probably can have powerful AIs that are neither sentient nor meddlesome. See the main post and its prerequisites.) (Amputation of Destiny.) Trying to compete on a single flat playing field with six billion other humans also creates problems. Our ancestors lived in bands of around 50 people. Today the media is constantly bombarding us with news of exceptionally rich and pretty people as if they lived next door to us; and very few people get a chance to be the best at any specialty. (Dunbar's Function.) Our ancestors also had some degree of genuine control over their band's politics. Contrast to modern nation-states where almost no one knows the President on a personal level or could argue Congress out of a bad decision. (Though that doesn't stop people from arguing as loudly as if they still lived in a 50-person band.) (Dunbar's Function.) Offering people more options is not always helping them (especially if the option is something they couldn't do for themselves). Losses are more painful than the corresponding gains, so if choices are different along many dimensions and only one choice can be taken, people tend to focus on the loss of the road not taken. Offering a road that bypasses a challenge makes the challenge feel less real, even if the cheat is diligently refused. It is also a sad fact that humans predictably make certain kinds of mistakes. Don't assume that building more choice into your Utopia is necessarily an improvement because "people can always just say no". This sounds reassuring to an outside reader - "Don't worry, you'll decide! You trust yourself, right?" - but might not be much fun to actually live with. (Harmful Options.) Extreme example of the above: being constantly offered huge temptations that are incredibly dangerous - a completely realistic virtual world, or very addictive and pleasurable drugs. You can never allow yourself a single moment of willpower failure over your whole life. (E.g.: John C. Wright's Golden Oecumene.) (Devil's Offers.) Conversely, when people are grown strong enough to shoot off their feet without external help, stopping them may be too much interference. Hopefully they'll then be smart enough not to: By the time they can build the gun, they'll know what happens if they pull the gun, and won't need a smothering safety blanket. If that's the theory, then dangerous options need correspondingly difficult locks. (Devil's Offers.) Telling people truths they haven't yet figured out for themselves, is not always helping them. (Joy in Discovery.) Brains are some of the most complicated things in the world. Thus, other humans (other minds) are some of the most complicated things we deal with. For us, this interaction has a unique character because of the sympathy we feel for others - the way that our brain tends to align with their brain - rather than our brain just treating other brains as big complicated machines with levers to pull. Reducing the need for people to interact with other people reduces the complexity of human existence; this is a step in the wrong direction. For example, resist the temptation to simplify people's lives by offering them artificially perfect sexual/romantic partners. (Interpersonal Entanglement.) But admittedly, humanity does have a statistical sex problem: the male distribution of attributes doesn't harmonize with the female distribution of desires, or vice versa. Not everything in Eutopia should be easy - but it shouldn't be pointlessly, unresolvably frustrating either. (This is a general principle.) So imagine nudging the distributions to make the problem solvable - rather than waving a magic wand and solving everything instantly. (Interpersonal Entanglement.) In general, tampering with brains, minds, emotions, and personalities is way more fraught on every possible level of ethics and difficulty, than tampering with bodies and environments. Always ask what you can do by messing with the environment before you imagine messing with minds. Then prefer small cognitive changes to big ones. You're not just outrunning your human audience, you're outrunning your own imagination. (Changing Emotions.) In this present world, there is an imbalance between pleasure and pain. An unskilled torturer with simple tools can create worse pain in thirty seconds, than an extremely skilled sexual artist can create pleasure in thirty minutes. One response would be to remedy the imbalance - to have the world contain more joy than sorrow. Pain might exist, but not pointless endless unendurable pain. Mistakes would have more proportionate penalties: You might touch a hot stove and end up with a painful blister; but not glance away for two seconds and spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. The people would be stronger, less exhausted. This path would eliminate mind-destroying pain, and make pleasure more abundant. Another path would eliminate pain entirely. Whatever the relative merits of the real-world proposals, fictional stories cannot take the second path. (Serious Stories.) George Orwell once observed that Utopias are chiefly concerned with avoiding fuss. Don't be afraid to write a loud Eutopia that might wake up the neighbors. (Eutopia is Scary; George Orwell's Why Socialists Don't Believe in Fun.) George Orwell observed that "The inhabitants of perfect universes seem to have no spontaneous gaiety and are usually somewhat repulsive into the bargain." If you write a story and your characters turn out like this, it probably reflects some much deeper flaw that can't be fixed by having the State hire a few clowns. (George Orwell's Why Socialists Don't Believe in Fun.) Ben Franklin, yanked into our own era, would be surprised and delighted by some aspects of his Future. Other aspects would horrify, disgust, and frighten him; and this is not because our world has gone wrong, but because it has improved relative to his time. Relatively few things would have gone just as Ben Franklin expected. If you imagine a world which your imagination finds familiar and comforting, it will inspire few others, and the whole exercise will lack integrity. Try to conceive of a genuinely better world in which you, yourself, would be shocked (at least at first) and out of place (at least at first). (Eutopia is Scary.) Utopia and Dystopia are two sides of the same coin; both just confirm the moral sensibilities you started with. Whether the world is a libertarian utopia of government non-interference, or a hellish dystopia of government intrusion and regulation, you get to say "I was right all along." Don't just imagine something that conforms to your existing ideals of government, relationships, politics, work, or daily life. Find the better world that zogs instead of zigging or zagging. (To safeguard your sensibilities, you can tell yourself it's just an arguably better world but isn't really better than your favorite standard Utopia... but you'll know you're really doing it right if you find your ideals changing.) (Building Weirdtopia.) If your Utopia still seems like an endless gloomy drudgery of existential angst no matter how much you try to brighten it, there's at least one major problem that you're entirely failing to focus on. (Existential Angst Factory.) 'Tis a sad mind that cares about nothing except itself. In the modern-day world, if an altruist looks around, their eye is caught by large groups of people in desperate jeopardy. People in a better world will not see this: A true Eutopia will run low on victims to be rescued. This doesn't imply that the inhabitants look around outside themselves and see nothing. They may care about friends and family, truth and freedom, common projects; outside minds, shared goals, and high ideals. (Higher Purpose.) Still, a story that confronts the challenge of Eutopia should not just have the convenient plot of "The Dark Lord Sauron is about to invade and kill everybody". The would-be author will have to find something slightly less awful for his characters to legitimately care about. This is part of the challenge of showing that human progress is not the end of human stories, and that people not in imminent danger of death can still lead interesting lives. Those of you interested in confronting lethal planetary-sized dangers should focus on present-day real life. (Higher Purpose.)
The simultaneous solution of all these design requirements is left as an exercise to the reader. At least for now.
The enumeration in this post of certain Laws shall not be construed to deny or disparage others not mentioned. I didn't happen to write about humor, but it would be a sad world that held no laughter, etcetera.
To anyone seriously interested in trying to write a Eutopian story using these Laws: You must first know how to write. There are many, many books on how to write; you should read at least three; and they will all tell you that a great deal of practice is required. Your practice stories should not be composed anywhere so difficult as Eutopia. That said, my second most important advice for authors is this: Life will never become boringly easy for your characters so long as they can make things difficult for each other.
Finally, this dire warning: Concretely imagining worlds much better than your present-day real life, may suck out your soul like an emotional vacuum cleaner. (See Seduced by Imagination.) Fun Theory is dangerous, use it with caution, you have been warned.With less than six months to go before Ontarians head to the polls, alarms are being raised over whether the province’s new campaign finance rules have succeeded in getting big money out of politics. The tighter laws came into force in January with an eye to bringing more transparency and accountability to political fundraising after criticism in the press and public over so-called cash-for-access fundraisers.
The new law in Ontario limits individual donations to a political party to $1,200 a year. People can also donate $1,200 each to a candidate in an election period, and to riding associations and nomination contestants in a year. ( Colin McConnell / Toronto Star file photo )
Among other things, union and corporate donations are outlawed and individual donations to a party are capped at $1,200 a year, down from $9,975. (People can also donate $1,200 each to a candidate in an election period, and to riding associations and nomination contestants in a year.) For the first nine months under the new rules, a significant chunk of donations to the governing Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives came from a small group of donors giving $1,000 or more, according to Democracy Watch, a national advocacy organization. Co-founder Duff Conacher said that’s “undemocratic” and a lot more than the average voter can afford. He contends wealthier contributors could still try to influence politicians at Queen’s Park.
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“A democratic system would not allow anyone to donate more than what the average person can afford to donate,” he said. According to Democracy Watch, the Liberals came in last of the major parties and raised $420,133 between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 of this year from 1,501 donors. Nearly 29 per cent of that was donated by 103 people, or 6.8 per cent of donors, who gave at least $1,000. The PCs far outpaced the Liberals and received more than $1.39 million from 4,151 donors over the same time period. Almost 33 per cent of the pot came from 391 people, or 9.4 per cent of contributors, donating $1,000-plus. “Those are big impact donations,” Conacher said. New Democrats bucked the trend somewhat. The party had raised $647,763 from 4,299 people, with only 22 people, or 0.5 per cent, donating more than $1,000 and accounting for 3.8 per cent of the total amount raised over those nine months.
It’s important to note that Elections Ontario has not yet audited political contributions and that parties have 10 days to disclose donations. Elections Ontario then posts that to its website in real time. The most recent figures available from Elections Ontario show that as of Nov. 28, the PCs locked in more than $2 million and the NDP about $914,350. As of Dec. 12, the Liberals had brought in over $1 million.
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Conacher wants the individual donations capped at $100, which is what it is in Quebec. The limit there was lowered from $1,000 to prevent corruption and address “straw man” donations from private companies. Conacher warned such donations could occur in Ontario — for instance, a corporation could use its employees to funnel contributions to parties. He said Elections Ontario should be auditing specifically for that possibility. Some experts are less concerned about the limits and more concerned with the potential for straw man-esque donations. Canada’s former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley, who gave input on Ontario’s revamped election finances act, said a $1,200 donation is a “reasonable amount.” “A $1,200-donation does not buy you strong access necessarily. (Parties) need a lot more than that to run a campaign,” Kingsley said. “Our system is based on a fine balance of public financing and financing from other sources.” As such, the new act — which got all-party support — also introduced a $2.71 per-vote subsidy for parties that got at least two per cent of the popular vote in the previous election. That annual allowance will be gradually reduced over the next five years, and then be reviewed. “Perfection is the enemy of the good. Here, we have something which is very good,” Kingsley said. He agreed donations should be closely monitored. “The only concern we have to have is to make sure they’re only individuals acting on their own, and not part of a group of people working together and who get reimbursed through some means by a firm, for example. It has to come genuinely from their own resources,” he said. Kingsley was backed up by U of T political science professor Nelson Wiseman, who also helped inform the legislation. Wiseman said concerns raised by Democracy Watch about the limits are “over the top.” “It’s just not a lot of money,” he said. The attorney general’s office maintained the relatively new rules are robust. “Ontario demonstrated its leadership in election finance regulation by introducing a number of measures that transformed the province’s political fundraising and spending rules,” spokesman Andrew Rudyk said in an email. Election day is June 7, 2018.As the Texas legislature meets for its biennial session, State Senator Konni Burton introduced legislation that would abolish civil asset forfeiture.
Taylor Millard blogs for HotAir:
Texas is looking to become the third state in the last year to abolish civil asset forfeiture, and replace it with criminal asset forfeiture. State Senator Konni Burton filed a bill last month which requires a felony conviction before law enforcement can gobble up someone’s property. It’s a major step in Texas’ fight for justice reform which has saved the state $3B (while crime rates are at record lows).
Civil asset forfeiture is a bit of a sticky wicket at times, because there are “tough on crime” groups fighting hard against it. The Federalist Society published a pro-asset forfeiture piece by then-federal prosecutor Stefan Cassella in 1997. Cassella called asset forfeiture very important because “federal law enforcement can employ [it] against all manner of criminal and criminals organizations.”
Forfeiture is also used to abate nuisances and to take the instrumentalities of crime out of circulation. For example, if drug dealers are using a “crack house” to sell drugs to children as they pass by on the way to school, the building is a danger to the health and safety of the neighborhood. Under the forfeiture laws, we can shut it down. If a boat or truck is being used to smuggle illegal aliens across the border, we can forfeit the vessel or vehicle to prevent its use time and again for the same purpose. The same is true for an airplane used to fly cocaine from Peru into Southern California, or a printing press used to mint phony $100 bills. The government also uses forfeiture to take the profit out of crime, and to return property to victims. No one has the right to retain the money gained from bribery, extortion, illegal gambling, or drug dealing. With the forfeiture laws, we can separate the criminal from his profits — and any property traceable to it — thus removing the incentive others may have to commit similar crimes tomorrow. And if the crime is one that has victims — like carjacking or fraud — we can use the forfeiture laws to recover the property and restore it to the owners far more effectively than the restitution statutes permit.
Sounds pretty compelling, right?
There’s just one problem…the asset forfeiture laws are being misapplied in cases where people who are not convicted of crimes, end up losing their property because prosecutors and police believe they “may have” been involved in/had knowledge of a crime. A Philadelphia family was forced out of their home because their son was arrested on drug charges, even though it didn’t appear they knew what the 22-year-old was doing. A Texas man had over 53-thousand dollars in cash donations for an orphanage and school seized after he was pulled over in Oklahoma.Lucy Turnbull of the Greater Sydney Commission in Parramatta Park. Credit:James Brickwood Parramatta City Council, under the control of administrator Amanda Chadwick, said the draft plan for the district that includes Parramatta "needs to go further than simply just listing all the current infrastructure projects that the government has committed to – this is not strategic enough and does not address long term chronic issues". Among many comments on the plan, the council said the commission had also failed to provide detail on new school infrastructure, "which needs to be addressed". Parramatta's comments are reflected among submissions trickling into the commission, which is chaired by Ms Turnbull, from other local governments. But the chief executive of the commission, Sarah Hill, suggested the council submissions showed the process undertaken by the organisation was working. Ms Hill said the commission needed to strike a "balance in getting the right level of detail". The balance was between providing a perspective on the future of the city but not imposing details on councils.
Chief executive of the Greater Sydney Commission, Sarah Hill Credit:Daniel Munoz "We are very mindful that the direction should be collaborative," Ms Hill said. She said she was "delighted" with the level of engagement so far with councils. Parramatta is also keen for more ambitious affordable housing policies than those proposed by the commission. In its draft plans, the commission proposed that the value of 5-10 per cent of rezoned land, above existing zoning controls, should be reserved for affordable housing. Some councils, including the Inner West Council under the control of administrator Richard Pearson, have pushed for more ambitious targets. The Inner West wants 15 per cent of new developments slated for affordable housing. Parramatta said: "Unfortunately, specifying a range of 5-10 per cent will only deliver 5 per cent." Parramatta said the target should be increased to 10 per cent of the total floor area of new developments – not just on the rezoned land – and 30 per cent of the total floor area on government-owned land.
The City of Canterbury Bankstown, under the control of administrator Richard Colley, also called for clearer and stronger affordable housing measures. And Mr Colley said the commission's proposal that 13,250 new dwellings should be built in the area within the next five years was "unachievable without upfront infrastructure support from the NSW government". Bayside Council, formed from the merger of Botany and Rockdale and under the control of administrator Greg Wright, made similar comments about the "broad and generic language" used in the draft plans. This language raises "possibility for inappropriate development outcomes by exploiting vague wording," Bayside Council's submission said. Another issue is the way in which the commission appears to be prioritising difference centres in the city. The arching theme of the district plans is that Sydney is a city of three cities – an eastern city, around the existing central business district, a central city around Parramatta, and a western city around the proposed airport at Badgerys Creek.
But some areas fear that characterisation has left them downgraded. Hornsby Council, for instance, is concerned that Hornsby Town Centre is listed only as a "district centre" rather than a "strategic town centre". "Classification as a district centre may restrict renewal strategies and discourage potential investors," Hornsby said in its submission. The City of Canterbury Bankstown is similarly concerned about Bankstown's classification. Ms Hill said the commission was continuing to engage with councils, and had seconded staff from local government to help work on the finalised plans. She said the 5-10 per cent affordable housing mechanism was "designed as a conversation starter... to facilitate affordable housing without killing housing supply." The commission was now "going out and talking people about have we got the level right," she said.The number of young male workers with no history of health problems who died suddenly in their sleep has risen sharply to 893 in the past decade from 231 in China’s central Guangdong province, according to a report.
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The manufacturing hub Dongguan city’s police recorded 893 cases of sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome from January 2001 to October last year. The number of deaths has tripled with a total of 231 such cases recorded from January 1990 to December 1999, the South China Morning Post reported.
The sharp increase came to light after researchers at Zhongshan School of Medicine based in Guangzhou released their analysis of police records of deaths in Dongguan over the past two decades.
The syndrome covers the deaths in their sleep of otherwise healthy adults with autopsies reporting no potentially fatal disease or injury. The men who died usually experienced an abrupt difficulty in breathing before death, the school’s studies into the syndrome said, but the cause remained unclear.
The syndrome is mostly noted in the Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. It first drew the attention of mainland medical scholars when an increasing number of migrant workers in Dongguan were reported to have died suddenly in their sleep in the 1990s. The recent analysis of cases in Dongguan reported a similar pattern to international studies, suggesting that young male manual labourers were at greatest risk.
More than 90 per cent of victims in Dongguan were manual labourers, the report said. It said that long working hours as well as poor sanitation and ventilation in their living and working spaces might have put the workers at higher risk.
Workers’ rights groups in Guangdong have long been concerned about the sudden deaths of migrant workers, which they believed were caused by overwork, according to Zeng Feiyang, the director of the Guangdong Panyu Migrant Worker Centre in Guangzhou. “It is especially hard to help the victims get compensation since the concept of overwork has not been recognised by Chinese law,” Zeng said.
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Factories owners could easily argue against the accusation, saying the victim’s colleagues were working for the same number of hours a day healthily, the study said. The analysis also found people aged 20 to 40, usually the breadwinners under heavy pressure, were at highest risk.
More than 80 per cent of the 328 people who died during 2001 and 2006, for instance, were aged between 21 and 40. More than nine out of every 10 victims were male, according to the report.We all know about vampires and werewolves, or at least we think we do. The legends and myths that inspired these monsters are sometimes surprisingly different, but no less chilling. In this series of posts, Monster Monday, we’ll investigate the monsters that have informed our modern notions, as well as some lesser known monsters. Today, we talk about the Cat Sidhe.
In Celtic folklore, a Cat Sidhe is a fairy cat. It is said to be as large as a dog and all black except for a white spot on its chest.
In many legends the Cat Sidhe is a malevolent spirit that can steal the soul of a recently deceased person before the gods have a chance to claim it by passing over the corpse before burial. Many Celtic burial rituals can be traced to methods of distracting the Cat Sidhe, such as leaping games, playing music, and telling riddles.
Another legend says that the Cat Sidhe will bless a house if the occupants leave out a saucer of milk for it on Halloween but curse a house that does not leave one.
In still other legends, a Cat Sidhe is not a fairy but a witch that can turn into a cat nine times.
Legends of the Cat Sidhe may have been inspired by the European wildcat or even be related to sightings of British phantom cats such as the Beast of Bodmin Moor.President Trump defended tossing paper towels into a crowd at a church in Puerto Rico last week.
Trump said in an interview with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) Saturday that media coverage of his trip to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria was unfair, using the incident during which he tossed the paper towels as an example.
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“They had these beautiful, soft towels, very good towels. And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people, and they were screaming and they were loving everything,” Trump said. “I was having fun, they were having fun.”
“They said, ‘throw ‘em to me! Throw ‘em to me Mr. President!’ " Trump said, before pantomiming shooting a basketball in the same way he tossed the paper towels.
“So the next day they said, ‘oh it was so disrespectful to the people.’ It was just a made-up thing. And also when I walked in, the cheering was incredible.”
“You were a rock star,” Huckabee replied.
Trump was filmed tossing the paper towels at one of his stops on his tour of Puerto Rico Tuesday, where he helped distribute supplies to victims of Hurricane Maria.
He also met with local officials for a briefing on recovery efforts after the storm, where he noticeably left San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who had criticized the Trump administration’s response to the storm, out of his praise for local leaders.
Trump also attacked the media coverage of his administration’s response to the storm, telling Puerto Ricans to “not believe the fake news.”Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- The tidal wave of "Finding Dory" overwhelmed the sputtering sequel "Independence Day: Resurgence," as the alien-invasion redux was drowned out by the popular Pixar release in North American theatres.
In its second week, "Finding Dory" easily remained on top with an estimated $73.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. That far surpassed the $41.6 million opening of "Resurgence," which debuted well off the pace off its 1996 original. The first "Independence Day" opened with $50.2 million, or about $77 million in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Of the week's other debuts, the Blake Lively shark thriller "The Shallows" rode a wave of good reviews to a better-than-expected $16.7 million for Sony. Matthew McConaughey's Civil War drama "Free State of Jones," however, disappointed with just $7.7 million, dealing a blow to the upstart studio STX Entertainment.
In a weekend full of ups and downs, the opening of "Independence Day" was the most closely watched debut. |
avocado, a remarkably flavourful roasted tomato and delicate little pea shoots. Also with a quinoa pancake that lacked flavour, but was improved by a smear of the house-made strawberry jam.
The Hipster Omelette is one of the city's best omelettes — not flat and thin, like most I've had, but almost French-style, puffy and soft, folded over cheddar, avocado, lightly curried chick peas and mushrooms (it's listed as an egg white omelette, which is sacrilege to me, but one can — and we did — ask for it to be made with whole eggs). The hash browns with them weren't exactly browned, but they were wonderful, tasting as though they'd just been just cooked and then given a quick turn in the pan. Other omelette choices might be the Blue Collar (multi-meats, onions and cheddar) or the Porker (pulled pork, cheddar, cumin tomatoes and roasted corn).
I have to declare my prejudices. I'm a traditionalist about potato latkes, and these were laced with shredded beets, which rendered them less crisp than the beet-less versions I know. They were good though — sprinkled with shreds of spinach and tiny cubes of sautéed red pepper, topped by a lovely dollop of crème fraiche and garnished with slices of fresh fruits. And, in fairness, I have to report that my friends thought they were wonderful.
Those on a quest for the ultimate clubhouse sandwich should investigate the Club Maison. It's a marvellous monster, packed inches high with fresh-roasted turkey (both white and dark meat), cheddar, a mustardy mayo and bits of cranberry. Also, instead of bacon, thick slices of wonderful braised pork belly, and plenty of them. Also good, the pulled pork sandwich, topped by roasted pineapple and raisin-cabbage cole slaw.
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I've never been a fan of spaghetti squash, but my friends love it and this version — tossed with feta, mushrooms, avocado and basil tomato sauce, and baked under a mozzarella topping — almost converted me. Other vegetarian options include curried chickpeas with either quinoa cakes or wild rice, or a curried chickpea and wild rice burger.
There are only three desserts, and the chocolate-peanut butter pie wasn't available on my visits. But the multi-berry pie of the week, on an excellent short crust was delicious, and the apple crisp with Jaegermeister ice cream was splendid. And oh yes, the coffee was good too.
Service has been pleasant but occasionally slow, whether in a less than half-full room, or in a room that was packed, as it often is these days. Come for a leisurely meal, not a quickie — the food is worth waiting for.
marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca
To see the location of this restaurant as well as others reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press, please see the map below or click here.
Restaurants marked with a red flag were rated between 0.5 to 2.5 stars; yellow flags mark those rated between 2.5 to 4 stars; and green flags mark those rated rated 4.5 to 5 stars. Locations marked with a yellow dot were not assigned a star rating.Hockey is the fastest paced of all major sports because its players rush to complete the game before the ice field melts into vinegar. Enjoy the acidic thrill of competition with this deal to see the Portland Winterhawks face off in the second round of WHL playoffs at Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Rose Garden Arena.
$26 for Two Playoff Tickets (Up to $56.50 Value)
The Winterhawks take on a playoff opponent yet to be determined. The value includes fees, and seating is in the 200 level, which is marked in orange on both seating charts. Choose between the following games:
Friday, April 5, at 7 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Saturday, April 6, at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Arena<p>
Doors open one hour before opening game time.<p>
The Scouting Report
For the last two seasons, the Winterhawks have earned the title of Western Conference champion. After knocking out the Everett Silvertips in a round-one series, the ‘Hawks have once again skated into the second stage of the WHL playoffs. The club owes its repeated success to a star-studded roster that includes center Ty Rattie, who earned a hat trick during an 11-4 walloping of the Silvertips in Game Four. Goalie Mac Carruth–who finished with the league’s second-best save percentage during the regular season–has continued to scare away oncoming pucks and stopped 12 of 13 shots in the round-one clincher.<p>Meet the adorable Everton fan who proudly sports a 3D-printed arm emblazoned with the logos of his favourite football team.
Kobi Sadler, two, from Moreton, Merseyside, was born without his right forearm and hand due to a rare blood flow issue affecting one in only 26,000 babies.
A month ago he was given a custom-made 3D printed arm - believed to be one of the smallest ever made.
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Kobi is pictured with and without his prosthetic arm, which has received thousands of views and comments from Everton fans on social media
Kobi's mum Kelly Sadler, 35, and dad Mike Sadler, 38, shared a photo of their son's blue and white prosthetic on social media and were amazed when they received support from fans across the world.
Postwoman Kelly, who is also mum to Kobi's big sister Bailee, five, said: 'At the time I was told about Kobi's arm I was shocked because I was worried it was something I'd done.
'But it was just one of those things - something blocked the blood flow to his arm.
'It happens to one in 26,000 babies and we were that one.
'When I got home I had a little cry, but then I thought I needed to be proactive. So I started to research what we could do to help him.
Kobi and his mum, Kelly, were invited to Everton to meet two of the team's players - Phil Jagielka (pictured right) and Ramiro Funes Mori (pictured left)
Kobi Sadler, two, from Moreton, Merseyside, was born without his right forearm and hand due to a rare blood flow issue affecting one in only 26,000 babies. A month ago he was given a state-of-the-art custom-made 3D printed arm - believed to be one of the smallest ever made
'I learned all about 3D printed arms for kids through a charity called Enable and made provisional enquiries with them about what we could do before he was even born.
'The design on the arm is great, it makes prosthetics cool.
'You can do them with all different designs, so and as he gets older he can decide on whatever design he wants.
'He's fine without the arm too, because he's never known anything different - it's just normal for him.'
Kobi has been wearing his royal blue-and-white 3D arm since last month as before then he would have been too young to understand what it was.
The arm, which features blue and white components and the Everton logo, took 20 hours to print and two hours to build
On Kobi's visit to Eveton club, he met several players, including Everton defender and Wales football captain, Ashley Williams
HOW THE ARM WORKS The arm was created for Kobi by Kelly and Mike's close friend Greg Lynch, 31, from Reading, after the family met Greg and his wife Tori through missing limb charity, Reach. Greg had a free template for a 3D printed arm designed by Team Unlimbited which he got from the charity Open Source. Various designs are available freely on the internet, and all Greg needed was the materials and a 3D printer to print the arm. For the materials, 3D printed plastic parts work like bones and a rubber coating acts as the skin. Fishing line is recommended for use as tendons. Elastic bands attached to the fingers enable them to move. Moleskin padding inside the cuff, and the cuff and forearm are stuck together using velcro.
The arm, which features blue and white components and the Everton logo, took 20 hours to print and two hours to build.
It was created for Kobi by Kelly and Mike's close friend Greg Lynch, 31, from Reading, after the family met Greg and his wife Tori through missing limb charity, Reach.
Kelly said she was ecstatic when Greg offered to make her two-year-old a 3D printed arm just like one he had created for his own son Oakley.
Mike's social media post about Kobi's Everton-themed arm received thousands of views and comments from fans - and even prompted a special day out.
It was a proud moment for Kelly, who found out Kobi would be born without his right forearm and scan during her 20-week pregnancy scan.
Kelly said: 'Through Reach I got in touch with a whole network of parents with children, and even some pregnant mums like me, it was really good talking to them.
'Tori and Greg's son has a very similar limb deficiency to Kobi, and he offered to make one for him as he'd done for his own son.
Kobi and his father (left) had their picture taken in front of the statue of Dixie Dean (left). Kobi kept a firm eye on the pitch (right)
His mother, Kelly, said: 'He's fine without the arm too, because he's never known anything different - it's just normal for him'
Kobi is pictured with his mother, Kelly, who was ecstatic when a friend, Greg, offered to make Kobi a 3D-printed arm
Kobi's mum Kelly Sadler, 35, and dad Mike Sadler, 38, shared a photo of their son's blue and white prosthetic on social media and were amazed when they received support from fans across the world
'He did it completely free of charge, he said that we're friends for life. He had a free template for a 3D printed arm designed by Team Unlimbited which he got from the charity Open Source.
'You can do them with different designs, so he said he would do one in Everton colours, and then I decorated it with logos all over for him.
'As Kobi gets older he can decide on whatever design he wants.
'This is so that he can get used to prosthetics for if he chooses to have one in the future.
'Kobi did really well on his first trip to Goodison.
'I've printed out all the comments we've had on social media so that Kobi can read them when he's older - we can't thank Everton and the fans enough.'
The Sadlers are determined nothing will hold Kobi back as he grows up, adopting the family motto, 'there is nothing we can't do.'
And Kelly even hopes to save for her own 3D printer to help other children with missing limbs.
Kelly said: 'We have books about being different and how awesome that is, and when we read them together Kobi always says, "look Mummy, he has a little arm like me".
Kobi and his parents, Mike and Kelly, were contacted by Everton to ensure Kobi's first experience at Goodison Park was one he would never forget
The Sadlers are determined nothing will hold Kobi back as he grows up, adopting the family motto, 'there is nothing we can't do'
'When we're out at places like the soft-play centre, other kids follow him around and ask, "why hasn't he got an arm?"
'His sister Bailee is really good with it, though, she explains to them, "it didn't grow in mummy's tummy." She looks out for him and is very informative.
'We're saving up for our own 3D printer as they are quite expensive, and I thought when we have one we might be able to help other kiddies in the area with missing limbs too.'
A spokesman for Everton Football Club said: 'When we saw the Facebook post from Kobi's parents and the inspirational story about his 3D arm, we wanted to ensure Kobi's first experience at Goodison Park was one he would never forget.
'We invited Kobi and his parents to Goodison to meet the players, enjoy a behind the scenes tour and give such a lovely young man the chance to kick a ball on the hallowed turf at Goodison Park.
'Evertonians are rightly proud of the club and Kobi having the club's crest on his 3D arm shows how passionate he and his family are about Everton.
'But, more importantly, we were keen to help in some small way to spread the positive message of Kobi's story and the way he and his family have dealt with the challenges he has faced.Sanctions Can Be Applied to Russia but It Is Illegal to apply Sanctions to Israel
Sanctions Can Be Applied to Russia but It Is Illegal to apply Sanctions to Israel
In 2007 two distinguished scholars, John J. Mearsheimer and Stehen M. Walt, published a book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. The book made a convincing but understated case that the tiny country of Israel, which consists of land stolen in the 20th century, has undue influence on the U.S. government and American foreign policy. http://www.amazon.com/Israel-Lobby-U-S-Foreign-Policy-ebook/dp/B000UZQIF6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455848615&sr=1-1&keywords=Walt+and+Mearshimer
The Zionist lobby went to work on the two scholars. They were called every name in the book despite having done nothing but show that Israel has too much influence over U.S. foreign policy.
Today Israel has even tighter control over the Western world and has had “democratic” governments pass laws that criminalize participating in boycotts of Israel for Israel’s ongoing illegal seizures of Palestinian land. If you want to see the raw naked power that Israel exercises over the U.S. UK, and French governments, read Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman’s article:
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/16/greatest-threat-to-free-speech-in-the-west-criminalizing-activism-against-israeli-occupation/
Israel is so powerful that the former chairman of the Israeli Central Bank, an Israeli citizen, is currently the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve in Washington.Members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team met Monday with the lawyer for President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, ABC News reported.
The meeting further raises the possibility that both sides could be discussing a possible plea deal, the network news reported.
The meeting comes just days after Trump's legal team confirmed Flynn's attorney, Robert Kelner, notified them he was unable to have privileged talks about strategy in the case.
According to ABC News, the confirmation by Trump's lawyers is a possible sign Flynn was preparing to negotiate with prosecutors.
But Jay Sekulow, a member of President Trump's legal team, told ABC News the break was "not entirely unexpected."
"No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about Gen. Flynn cooperating against the president," Sekulow said.
The New York Times reported Flynn's lawyers had been sharing information with Trump's attorney during the special counsel's probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
But the newspaper cautioned that termination of talks between Flynn's attorney and Trump's lawyers does not prove Flynn is cooperating with Mueller. However, the Times noted it is unethical for lawyers to work together if one client is cooperating and another is still under investigation.That will lave little room for growth both in economic measures and in most investment classes, Roubini said.
"There is that risk because the problems on the macro level are first in the euro zone. Then in China there is evidence of economic slowdown...Japan is in trouble and US economic growth is going to slow down," he said. "There is also regulatory risk because we don't know how financial reform is going to occur."
Investors then should focus on buying debt from countries that are solid economically.
"Apart from cash I would invest in short-term government bonds of countries that don't have a serious debt problem, countries like Germany and maybe Canada, a few other advanced economies that from a fiscal point of view are sounder than the weaker economies," he said.
As for Europe, he called fixing the debt problems in Greece and other troubled nations "mission impossible" and said tough decisions will need to be made.
"What needs to be done is clear. We need to raise taxes and cut spending. Otherwise we're going to get a fiscal train wreck," he said. "It's going to take years of sacrifices."
In 2006 Roubini predicted the impending housing bust and ensuing financial crisis. His predictions and comments are widely followed in financial circles.Apparently, it is illegal to share your Netflix password to others. A number of judges stated that violators can be imprisoned for providing the sensitive information even to family and friends only.
Three US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit judges ruled earlier in July 2016 that sharing Netflix passwords is a criminal act. The ruling stemmed from the long-pending case of United States v. Nosal, which focuses on David Nosal, a headhunter who formerly worked for the company Korn/Ferry.
Subsequently, Nosal left his job and recruited former colleagues who used the password of one person who remained in the firm to download information from Korn/Ferry’s database to be used at the new company. Nosal was charged with hacking under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for the deed.
Fusion cites that two of the Ninth Circuit judges ruled that it was unlawful to access data without authorisation. The third judge pointed out that all password-sharing activities should not be deemed illegal since ordinary citizens normally do these for regular activities that are not criminal in nature.
As for Netflix and HBO Go, their terms of service state that only subscribers must be streaming their content. Netflix recognised that a household can share one account and users can watch shows on six different devices.
Shows can also be streamed on up to two devices simultaneously, which can indicate that Netflix most likely allows members of the same household to stream or use the same password for one account. HBO One, however, is stricter by requiring app users to be a subscriber with an account in good standing with an authorised HBO distributor.
The Guardian notes Netflix and HBO in saying that password sharing is not a major cause of concern, although the industry allegedly lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to the practice. Some believe that sharing passwords and information has no significant negative effect on the market. It can actually serve as an effective marketing vehicle for new viewers.
More updates and details on whether password sharing on Netflix constitutes a federal offence are expected soon.Susan Sontag in 2002
Photo by JENS-ULRICH KOCH/AFP/Getty Images
This post originally appeared on Brain Pickings.
Ever since its invention in 1839, the photographic image and its steady evolution have shaped our experience of reality—from chronicling our changing world and recording its diversity to helping us understand the science of emotion to anchored us to consumer culture. But despite the meteoric rise of photography from a niche curiosity to a mass medium over the past century and a half, there’s something ineffably yet indisputably different about visual culture in the digital age—something at once singular and deeply rooted at the essence of the photographic image itself.
Though On Photography (public library)—the seminal collection of essays by reconstructionist Susan Sontag was originally published in 1977, Sontag’s astute insight resonates with extraordinary timeliness today, shedding light on the psychology and social dynamics of visual culture online.
In the opening essay, “In Plato’s Cave,” Sontag contextualizes the question of how and why photographs came to grip us so powerfully:
Humankind lingers unregenerately in Plato’s cave, still reveling, its age-old habit, in mere images of the truth. But being educated by photographs is not like being educated by older, more artisanal images. For one thing, there are a great many more images around, claiming our attention. The inventory started in 1839 and since then just about everything has been photographed, or so it seems. This very insatiability of the photographing eye changes the terms of confinement in the cave, our world. In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing. Finally, the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads—as an anthology of images.
More than anything, however, Sontag argues that the photographic image is a control mechanism we exert upon the world—upon our experience of it and upon others’ perception of our experience:
Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood. To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge—and, therefore, like power.
What makes this insight particularly prescient is that Sontag arrived at it more than three decades before the age of the social media photostream—the ultimate attempt to control, frame, and package our lives—our idealized lives—for presentation to others, and even to ourselves. The aggression Sontag sees in this purposeful manipulation of reality through the idealized photographic image applies even more poignantly to the aggressive self-framing we practice as we portray ourselves pictorially on Facebook, Instagram, and the like:
Images which idealize (like most fashion and animal photography) are no less aggressive than work which makes a virtue of plainness (like class pictures, still lifes of the bleaker sort, and mug shots). There is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera.
Online, thirty-some years after Sontag’s observation, this aggression precipitates a kind of social media violence of self-assertion—a forcible framing of our identity for presentation, for idealization, for currency in an economy of envy.
Even in the 1970s, Sontag was able to see where visual culture was headed, noting that photography had already become “almost as widely practiced an amusement as sex and dancing” and had taken on the qualities of a mass art form, meaning most who practice it don’t practice it as an art. Rather, Sontag presages, the photograph became a utility in our cultural power-dynamics:
It is mainly a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and a tool of power.
She goes even further in asserting photography’s inherent violence:
Like a car, a camera is sold as a predatory weapon—one that’s as automated as possible, ready to spring. Popular taste expects an easy, an invisible technology. Manufacturers reassure their customers that taking pictures demands no skill or expert knowledge, that the machine is all-knowing, and responds to the slightest pressure of the will. It’s as simple as turning the ignition key or pulling the trigger. Like guns and cars, cameras are fantasy-machines whose use is addictive.
But in addition to dividing us along a power hierarchy, photographs also connect us into communities and nuclear units. Sontag writes:
Through photographs, each family constructs a portrait-chronicle of itself—a portable kit of images that bears witness to its connectedness.
One has to wonder, however, whether—and how much—the family circle has been replaced by the social circle as we construct our online communities around photostreams and shared timelines. Similarly, Sontag notes the heightened use of photography in tourism. There, images validate experience, which raises the question of whether we engage in a kind of “social media tourism” today as we vicariously devour other people’s lives. Sontag writes:
Photographs … help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure. Thus, photography develops in tandem with one of the most characteristic of modern activities: tourism. For the first time in history, large numbers of people regularly travel out of their habitual environments for short periods of time. It seems positively unnatural to travel for pleasure without taking a camera along. Photographs will offer indisputable evidence that the trip was made, that the program was carried out, that fun was had.,.,
A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it—by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir.
Out of those souvenirs we build a fantasy—one we project about our own lives, and one we deduce about those of others:
Photographs, which cannot themselves explain anything, are inexhaustible invitations to deduction, speculation, and fantasy.
But Sontag’s most piercing—and perhaps most heartbreaking—insight about leisure and photography touches on our cultural cult of productivity, which we worship at the expense of our ability to be truly present. For most of us, especially those who find tremendous fulfillment and absorption in our work, Sontag’s observation about the photograph as a self-soothing tool against the anxiety of “inefficiency” rings terrifyingly true:
The very activity of taking pictures is soothing, and assuages general feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exacerbated by travel. Most tourists feel compelled to put the camera between themselves and whatever is remarkable that they encounter. Unsure of other responses, they take a picture. This gives shape to experience: stop, take a photograph, and move on. The method especially appeals to people handicapped by a ruthless work ethic—Germans, Japanese, and Americans. Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures.
At the same time, photography is both an attempted antidote to our mortality paradox and a deepening awareness of it:
All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.
This seems especially true, if subtly tragic, as we fill our social media timelines with images, as if to prove that our biological timelines—our very lives—are filled with notable moments, which also remind us that they are all inevitably fleeting towards the end point of that timeline: mortality itself. And so the photographic image becomes an affirmation of our very existence, one whose power is invariably addictive:
Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. …
It would not be wrong to speak of people having a compulsion to photograph: to turn experience itself into a way of seeing. Ultimately, having an experience becomes identical with taking a photograph of it, and participating in a public event comes more and more to be equivalent to looking at it in photographed form. That most logical of nineteenth-century aesthetes, Mallarmé, said that everything in the world exists in order to end in a book. Today everything exists to end in a photograph.
On Photography remains a cultural classic of the most timeless kind, with every reading unfolding timelier and timelier insights as our visual vernacular continues to evolve. Complement it with 100 Ideas That Changed Photography, the curious legacy of image manipulation before Photoshop, and the history of photography, animated.
For more of Sontag’s brilliant brain, see her wisdom on writing, boredom, sex, censorship, and aphorisms, her radical vision for remixing education, her insight on why lists appeal to us, her illustrated meditations on art and on love.From tiny open mics to some of the world’s biggest stadiums, Royal Blood have emerged as a modern rock success story. They have conquered the charts with two number one albums in under five years, and have breathed new life into guitar music.
So, how did it all happen? BIMM Manchester welcomed Mike Kerr (bass/lead vocals) and Ben Thatcher (drums) to Manchester’s Deaf Institute for a hotly-anticipated masterclass, ahead of their huge Manchester Arena show.
The duo – whose new single ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’ has just been released – left no stone unturned during an informative and entertaining interview with BBC Introducing Manchester’s Natalie-Eve Williams. She began by asking about the early days and Mike explained:
“All the energy went into trying to win people over. It became so tiring spending the gig talking about MySpace,” he said of trying to make it with their first bands – Flavour Country and Hunting The Minotaur. “With Royal Blood, we decided that we just wanted to have fun. We accepted playing the weirdest gigs, like a village farm fair, which didn’t go down well,” he added. “A lot of bands saw that X band are really popular, so let’s do what they do. We thought let’s do our own thing.”
But being unconventional soon paid off and the band moved fast to record the demos for their debut album for £500, with Pixies producer Tom Dalgety. The sessions gave birth to several tracks, including Figure It Out, which received little more than 20 views online. But perseverance soon led to Warner Chappell Publishing getting in contact, as Mike explained:
”We signed the deal, and this meant we could focus on writing more songs and go back to the same studio the same way we did the demos. There was a point where we did a UK tour, and I guess the venues were like 300 capacity, and it sold out… We were like this is mind-blowing!”
Ben later recalled their biggest show supporting Arctic Monkeys in Finsbury Park, with Miles Kane and Tame Impala in 2014.
On finding fame, Mike spoke of obtaining creative control, writing their first album and getting to number one: “I was just amazed we made an album out of bass and drums!”
We also heard of chance meetings with some of Rock’s superstars, including Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page – “It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life”.
But fast-forward three years – as well as a BRIT, Q Award, a Kerrang! Gong plus three NME awards – and the band’s sophomore album (often a make-or-break record) has received widespread praise from every direction. Was anyone ever in doubt?
After the interview, our BIMM students were given a chance to ask some burning questions themselves about the process of writing an album, getting used to hearing your voice on a record, and their influences.
Interestingly, the Q&A round unearthed that Mike had not originally planned to play bass and had been most inspired by guitarists:
“I only really played bass because Ben had a session job, and I really needed some money. That’s the only reason I ended up playing bass.”
Nevertheless, the combination of drums and bass has been Royal Blood’s USP and the heart of their ear-shattering sound. In November, we had the privilege of hearing it all first hand.
Their final piece of advice from Mike “Just do whatever you want to do, and don’t pull too much from other people… I think it’s about having fun.”Alaska Aces leading scorer Stephen Perfetto, who tops the ECHL in points per game, has earned his first promotion to the American Hockey League and is headed to the San Antonio Rampage.
The second-year center owns 7-15—22 totals in 13 games for the Aces and averages 1.69 points per game. He's tied for fourth on the circuit in scoring.
Perfetto emerged as a scoring threat when he became Alaska's first-line center two-thirds of the way through his rookie season. Combining Perfetto's hot start this season with his strong run late last season, he owns 13-31—44 totals in his last 37 games.
Perfetto, 25, delivered 1-5—6 totals in three games at Wichita over the weekend and helped the Aces (8-4-1) win twice. He has generated seven multiple-point games this season.
San Antonio includes former Aces forwards Garry Nunn, Alex Belzile and Turner Elson.
While the Aces were scheduled to fly home Monday, Perfetto wasn't the only Ace headed in another direction — rookie goaltender Michael Garteig was promoted to the Utica Comets, Alaska's AHL affiliate.
Garteig, 25, is also off to an exceptional start. He's 7-1-0 with a 2.39 goals-against average and.926 save percentage. He earned his first pro shutout with 36 saves in Alaska's 5-0 win at Wichita on Saturday and followed with a career-high 40 saves and his first pro assist in Sunday's 6-4 Aces win over the Thunder.
Garteig last weekend enjoyed a quick promotion to the NHL's Vancouver Canucks and served as a back-up for one game before re-joining the Aces in Wichita, Kansas.
After scoring revisions from Sunday's Aces win, Perfetto was credited with three assists and his right wing, Peter Sivak, was credited with two goals to give him a team-leading nine.LAS VEGAS (AP) — Entertainer Flavor Flav was jailed Wednesday on felony and misdemeanor charges after arguing with his fiancee and threatening to attack her teenage son with a knife, police said.
The 53-year-old former rapper, hip-hop and reality television star, whose legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr., was arrested about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday at a home several miles southwest of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas police Officer Bill Cassell said.
Patrol officers did not report that anyone was injured.
Drayton faces a felony assault with a deadly weapon charge carrying a possible penalty of up to six years in prison and a misdemeanor battery-domestic violence charge that could get him six months in county jail, according to jail records.
He was being held on $23,000 bail at Clark County jail pending an initial court appearance on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
Drayton, whose public persona includes wearing a big clock on his chest, was an original member of the politically and socially militant rap group Public Enemy in the 1980s and ‘90s.
In recent years he has starred in several reality TV series and lent his name and recipes to short-lived chicken and soul food restaurants in Clinton, Iowa, and Las Vegas.
He has a criminal history that includes arrests and convictions on traffic infractions, a month in jail for assaulting his then-girlfriend in 1991, and three months in prison for shooting at a neighbor in 1993.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC.In a recent It Got Better video, British actor Ian McKellen says coming out publicly made everything better.
McKellen, 77, is best known for playing Gandalf in the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies and Magneto in the X-Men films. He came out in 1988.
In the nearly 9-minute video, McKellen says he realized he was gay in his early teens.
He said that to publicly come out earlier than he did would have jeopardized his career.
“[Being closeted] didn't stop me [from] enjoying my life and having fulfilling relationships with other people, because in my circle there was no secrecy. And I started relationships and lived with other men quite openly,” McKellen said.
McKellen said that coming out publicly changed his life “totally for the better.”
“My relationships with my family were better. I was a better son. I was a better brother. I was a better uncle. I was a better friend,” McKellen said. “Everything was better.”The story is set in 1939, when adventurer Indiana Jones is on a worldwide race with Nazis for the lost city of Atlantis. Indy teams up with psychic colleague Sophia Hapgood to preven Hitler's minions from capturing the ancient power of the Atlanteans, which will determine the fate of a world poised on the brink of war.
- Story by veteran Hollywood screenwriter Hal Barwood, co-writer of Steven Spielberg's classic blockbuster Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- Players get to BE Indiana Jones on a thrilling quest for Atlantis!
- Explore ancient ruins & solve mysterious puzzles!
- Beat the Nazis in pursuit of the ultimate power to determine the fate of the world!
- Brand new HQ Environments, Characters and VFX.
- High quality music & sounds.
- Voice overs made by professional actors.
CHRISTMAS GIFT for all our fans and supporters! Thank you for a great year, we wouldn't make it without you!
Enjoy this mini game and let us know how you did! SHARE gameplay with the World!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016
WIN x86 / x64
warning: this is not a easy game! Think smart.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. JONES
WIN x86 / x64I recently stumbled upon a way to nudge anti-Trump zombies off the idea that 97% of climate scientists agree with each other and Trump is on the wrong side. I’m not arguing about the accuracy of the estimate because I have nothing to compare it to. I’m only concerned that people are trusting the fate of the planet to that estimate without knowing how it was derived.
I started with a quote from this article by Lawrence Solomon. He says…
“…a much heralded claim that 97 per cent of scientists believed the planet was overheating came from a 2008 master’s thesis by a student at the University of Illinois who obtained her results by conducting a survey of 10,257 earth scientists, then discarding the views of all but 77 of them. Of those 77 scientists, 75 thought humans contributed to climate change. The ratio 75/77 produced the 97-per-cent figure that global warming activists then touted.”
I assume the student discarded from the study the scientists who were least-involved with climate science. That seems entirely sensible, right? But I don’t know that to be the case.
But then I asked my test subject if it would be important to know the opinions of scientists in general, even if they were not directly involved in climate science. If, for example, 60% of scientists in general were skeptical of climate science, wouldn’t you want to know that? I assume scientists are better-equipped to judge other scientists, even in unrelated fields, at least compared to the public at large.
Next, I asked my test subject if he agreed with the following statement:
"The claim that 97% of scientists agree on climate science MIGHT be true, but I would need to know more about how it was derived to |
Imposters capability already in the viewer.
However, in terms of his experiment, Simon suggested that one way to improve things might be for the viewer to simply not draw everyone within a region; although how this would work, and the criteria used to determine what avatars are drawn and which aren’t, does require careful consideration. Simon suggested the viewer might simply skip drawing those avatars that are furthest away once a threshold number of avatars in the region has been reached. Another (suggest by a meeting attendee) would be for the control to be via the Max Number of Avatars settings within the viewer – so that once exceeded, avatars are again simply not rendered.
As noted, Simon’s work is purely experimental, and primarily aimed at helping the Lab understand what might be done to improve things where there are large gatherings of avatars, and to perhaps try out one or two ideas based on what they learn.
Simon’s Rendering Tricks
As a part of the discussion on avatar rendering, Simon handed out a note card of tips and trick for improving your performance when dealing with complex avatars. While this includes the debugs which will form a part of the new Avatar Complexity functionality, which will be appearing in a a Snowstorm RC viewer soon, as well as suggestions which may already be known, I’m including his suggestions in full here for reference:
From Advanced > Show Debug Settings, set:
RenderAutoHideSurfaceAreaLimit 0
RenderAutoMuteByteLimit 0
RenderAutoMuteFunctions 7
RenderAutoMuteLogging False
RenderAutoMuteRenderWeightLimit 350000
RenderAutoMuteSurfaceAreaLimit 150
In preferences / graphics, change “Max # of non-imposter avatars” to something like 8. Also try ctrl-alt-shift-4 to hide avatars, or ctrl-alt-shift-2 for alphas.
Note the two debugs shown in green are those related directly to Avatar Complexity and drawing avatars as “Jelly Babies”. Note that RenderAutoMuteFunctions must be set to 7 in order for this to work. Also note that the RenderAutoMuteRenderWeightLimit of 350,000 is purely an advisory starting point. The Lab estimate that this will reduce the very top 3% of very rendering-intensive avatars as solid colours. You may find you have to set the value somewhat lower in certain environments – such as night clubs and dance venues – in order for it to be effective. I’ve personally found that 150-200K tends to be required in very busy ballrooms, etc.
AdvertisementsHe arrived at Memorial Stadium Thursday morning in a limo, as fans, cheerleaders, and the Husker marching band greeted him and his family.
It’s story that is touching the hearts of many Nebraskans, and it’s a wish come true for 8-year-old Jack Johnson.
Jack battles a genetic disorder, and through the Make-A-Wish foundation, the youngster has fulfilled his dream of becoming a Nebraska Cornhusker football player.
“It’s a lot of stuff that we were told at a very young age for him was never going to be in his cards,” Jack’s father, Erik, said. “So for him to be able to experience this and understand what is going on is really special for us.”
Jack signed an official letter of intent to play for the Huskers earlier in the week, and on Thursday, he met with coaches, players, and toured Memorial Stadium.
But the experience doesn’t stop there.
On Saturday, he will join his teammates and take part in the tunnel walk tradition when Nebraska battles Maryland at 11 a.m.
“The whole experience has been nothing that you ever imagined,” Erik added.
Jack’s mother, Michelle, echoed the sentiment.
“We lived in Florida for 11 years, and this right here is exactly why we moved back,” she said. “This is the Nebraska way.”
Inside the stadium on Thursday, Jack addressed the media during a special press conference, and got to meet his favorite Husker player, senior wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp.
He was seen wrestling around with his brothers, playing catch with his dad, and signing autographs for adoring fans.
And when 1011 News’ Nicole Griffin asked Jack why he wanted to be a football player, his answer was straight to the point.
“Because I can practice a lot of it at home with my big brother DJ,” he said.Warren Buffett's big multi-billion dollar bet that stocks won't end up lower years from now gets some attention and analysis in this weekend's Barron's.
In an article headlined Here's How Buffett Spent 2007 (paid subscription required until Monday afternoon when it becomes free content), writer Andrew Bary points out that "for someone who has been publicly lukewarm on the equity market, Warren Buffett has been buying a lot of stocks for Berkshire Hathaway."
Bary notes that during 2007, Berkshire bought just over $19 billion dollars of equities, twice last year's $9.2 billion. That's an average of $75 million in buys for each business day. Berkshire's net stock purchases (stocks bought minus stocks sold) during the year totaled $11 billion.
But Berkshire is not just buying individual stocks. Barron's underlines the section on page 16 of Buffett's annual Letter to Shareholders in which he describes "various put options we have sold on four stock indices (the S&P 500 plus three foreign indices.)"Futuristic System Uses Eye Reflections to Identify Faces
In movies and TV, futuristic techniques are often used to identify and catch criminals – techniques that don’t yet exist because they’re beyond our current technological capabilities. Psychologists Rob Jenkins and Christie Kerr pushed crime-fighting technology forward a bit with an experiment in which they extracted identifiable faces from corneal reflections in photographs.
In the experiment, a group of people stood around a subject and a photo was taken of the subject’s face. The reflections aren’t even noticeable when the photograph is at regular size, but when they’re blown way up and cleaned up a bit in Photoshop, they reveal recognizable faces.
When the reflections were shown to participants who did not know the person in the photograph, the participants were able to identify the faces from comparison photographs 71% of the time. Participants who knew the people in the photograph where able to identify the faces 84% of the time.
This type of futuristic photographic identification could be useful in crimes like kidnapping and hostage situations in which the victims are photographed. By using software to closely scrutinize those photographs, law enforcement officials could gain valuable leads as to the identities of the perpetrators.
The catch is that the eye-reflection technique isn’t exactly practical yet. The researchers used a 39 megapixel Hasselblad H2D camera with a maximum resolution of 5,412 X 7,216, and the lighting and arrangement of the bystanders were all carefully orchestrated. These conditions would hardly be replicated in most crime situations, but personal cameras continue to improve in quality at a rather steady rate. One day, cops may be able to pluck a criminal’s identity right from the victim’s own eye.Inside a clandestine Mexican meth lab (big photo gallery)
Boing Boing readers following the violent convulsions of the drug war in Mexico, and fans of the AMC narco-drama Breaking Bad, will likely find these photos from a secret Mexican meth lab to be of interest (particularly in light of the TV show's most recent episode, "Salud.")
I can't find Jesse, Mike, Gus, or Heisenberg in any of these photos—but then, these images shot just today are the real thing.
Above: a full-face respirator gas mask hangs on a wall above plastic containers at the clandestine drug laboratory discovered in Zapotlanejo, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, September 23, 2011. Soldiers found 133 tons of a drug catalyst used in crystal methamphetamine production (phenylacetic acid, perhaps?) and 180 kg of crystal meth ready for consumption at the laboratory located on a ranch about 38 km (24 miles) east of Guadalajara, according to a local media.
The meth is no "Blue Sky," by the looks of it, and the modest gear would look out of place at the Pollos Hermanos superlab. Surely Jesse would not approve of the conditions, and it looks to be below even Don Eladio's standards. But again: this is real life.
(All photos in this post: REUTERS/Alejandro Acosta)KABUL (Reuters) - Heavy fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents that killed more than 30 combatants threatened a major northern city on Monday, officials said.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani participates in "The New Beginning in Afghanistan: A Conversation with H.E. Dr. Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" at Columbia University in New York March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
The battle on the outskirts of Kunduz, part of an intensifying wave of attacks after the departure of most foreign troops, led President Ashraf Ghani to delay his departure on a state visit to India by several hours.
Officials said hundreds of Taliban militants had attacked police and army checkposts in the province of Kunduz, the insurgents’ last stronghold before U.S.-led forces drove them from power in 2001.
Now they threaten to overrun parts of the provincial capital, after fighting that killed eight Afghan security personnel and at least two dozen Taliban, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.
“The threat level is very high, but with new reinforcements, our security forces have gained morale,” said Abdul Waseh Basel, the spokesman.
The insurgents overran seven army and police checkpoints in central Kunduz and two districts, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an emailed statement.
Presidential spokesman Ajmal Obidy said Ghani left for India late on Monday afternoon. He had delayed his departure for New Delhi to meet NATO’s Gen. John Campbell.
Battles were raging about 6 km (4 miles) south of Kunduz city, officials said. Islamist insurgents also broke into the city itself, in the southern district of Gul Tepa, Basel said.
Afghan security forces used artillery in defense.
“The sound of heavy weapons fired by Afghan forces can be heard in the city,” said Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini.
Fighting continued into the evening, but Afghan forces pushed the Taliban back with help from reinforcements from Kabul and other areas, said local army commander Qadam Shah Shaheen.
“We will win the fight soon,” he said.
Militants this month launched major attacks in another northern province, Badakhshan, and on Monday fired on a government delegation meeting soldiers there.
Their rockets and gunfire narrowly missed the group, led by Ahmad Zia Massoud, head of Ghani’s governance commission, a close aide said. The delegation withdrew by helicopter.
Afghanistan’s long war has also been complicated by some disgruntled Taliban commanders declaring allegiance to Islamic State, the Middle Eastern jihadist movement that controls swathes of Iraq and Syria.
NATO’s Campbell said that such reports had been increasing and “there’s a little bit of money passing back and forth”, but the coalition and Afghan government were working to prevent IS from sending weapons or fighters to Afghanistan.Getting rid of build tools
From: Pjotr Prins Subject: Getting rid of build tools Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2015 09:23:20 +0100 User-agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15)
Hi all, 2015 was a good year for GNU Guix - Guix has made immense progress. Some thoughts for 2016: I am a software developer by trade and for years I have struggled with build systems, such as configure/automake, cmake, Ruby RVM/bundler, Python virtualenv etc. etc. You probably know I have already ditched RVM/bundler and virtualenv for GNU Guix which is great :) Recently it dawned on me that for programming with GNU Guix there is no longer a need for configure/automake and cmake either! These tools really try to address the problem of targetting different (posix) build environments. If I only target GNU Guix I think a simple make will do again because there are only a few final targets (test, debug, install) and GNU Guix resolves all dependencies. This greatly simplifies the task of the software developer. I am not going to let tears over losing these complex build tools. And being a Linux guy I am happy to only target Linux. The different virtualization solutions make deployments on different systems quite easy anyway and trivial with Guix because it comes with all dependencies. Even so, my prediction is that eventually other systems will be targeted too. Even though there currently is not much GNU Guix initiative outside Linux/Hurd I think people will start working on other ports. The Guix/Nix back-end already runs on the BSDs, for example. So, it is mostly a matter of adapting the Guix front-end. Happy hacking in 2016 :) Pj.
reply via email toIn his 20-plus-year career as a comic book artist, Alex Ross has become one of the elite painters within the realm of superheroes and supervillains. His realistic portrayals of iconic saviors like Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man have dazzled fans, and his gouache paintings lend great depth and humanity to the otherworldly figures he brings to thrilling life.
Some of Ross’s most famous contributions to the medium include the 1994 mini-series Marvels for Marvel Comics, where, along with Kurt Busiek, he captured the world of superheroes from an everyday point of view. He worked on the iconic Astro City series, also by Busiek, and produced a plethora of cover art projects for both DC and Marvel Comics. He even created concept art for Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man films.
Most recently, Ross lent his talents to Marvel’s Secret Wars event. In this series, the Marvel Multiverse as we know it has been dismantled and put back together by none other than Doctor Doom. It is up to Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Miles Morales (Spider-Man), and the remaining heroes to team up and save the planet.
The Daily Beast caught up with Ross to talk about his spectacular career as a painter/comic book artist, the future of the Marvel Comic Book Universe, and his myriad upcoming projects.
Unlike most comic book artists, your style has a very high-end art feel to it. How did you manage to break into the comic book industry?
Really, where I come in is at the tail end of the painted comics experiment of guys trying to do it between the ’70s and the ’80s—people like Richard Corben, Jon Muth, and so many others. No one had really gotten through to the mainstream. And even when the mainstream publishers did do a series, they still kept it outside of the genre that they mainly published. It was more experimental. It was stories that were less the traditional fare, like Moonshadow. You have these things that were on the periphery. Even Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s Black Orchid series just barely shows you a glimpse of elements of the DC Universe—like Batman or Swamp Thing—that are colorful. Somebody like me had the basic illustration background, your middle-of-the-road American illustration, and the hunger as a fan to want to see the basics be represented. I’m reading these superhero characters anyway, why can’t they be the subjects of these paintings? Then, of course, the initial graphic novels based around Batman started to open those doors and I wanted to be one of the guys to push open those doors.
Comics today seem to be overtaken by dark, noirish themes, as opposed to the more colorful comics of the ’80s and ’90s.
These days virtually all the books being published take those tones. Too many, frankly. We’ve actually moved away from the bright color fun that comic books used to be. Now it’s all post-Watchmen. Everybody’s trying to make their stuff seem as serious as something like that. It was thought that after Watchmen came out in the ’80s we entered this dark comic spirit. Well, if you compare what’s being going on in the last 15 years of publishing versus the ’90s, we didn’t even know about dark back then.
It could also be a byproduct of people reading all those dark, post-apocalyptic stories. Do you think this trend is what led Marvel to reset their entire comic book universe with Secret Wars?
I don’t know how much of that “resetting their universe” is true. I’m on the other side of working on stuff post-reset and as far as I can tell, it looks exactly as it was just before the Secret Wars event. They are not doing a “New 52,” I can tell you that.
From the cover work you are doing with Marvel, in the current Secret Wars event and the upcoming All-New Avengers, Squadron Supreme and the Amazing Spider-Man series, what can you tell us about what has or hasn’t changed in the new Marvel Universe?
What I know is what I’ve been limited to doing, which is the cover illustration. This is still the Peter Parker who is picking up after he had the year or two that Doctor Octopus had stolen his body—that story is still canon. Nothing has rebooted about him. As far as I understand, the biggest change is that now you have Miles Morales in the regular Marvel Universe. Look at the Avengers lineup: Falcon is still Captain America, we still have a female Thor. Everything is still where our storylines last led up to. I’m not aware of any other major thing. I’m just a fan doing his part.
Marvel's Stunning Secret Wars Covers
And what was the process like then to come up with the covers for each of the new issues? Did you get to be in the writers’ room and pick a particular scene or character that you wanted to showcase on the cover?
Not at this stage of my career. I’ve had that before in various projects over the years—starting 20 years ago when I was doing covers for Astro City. I’ve had experience being so heavily involved with shaping the story that go under the covers I do, and it’s much of what I did at the beginning of my career. Now, with the stuff I do with Marvel, I’m largely getting directions handed over to me. “OK, this is what we think would make a great cover” and aside from a few things that are stand-alone shots of characters, I’m taking their directions. These are not necessarily my versions of these things. If I’m going to be doing The Avengers as I know them, they’re going to have the look and feel of the characters as they were designed in the ’60s, or something that regards that continuity from 40 to 60 years ago. I’m far less a contributing part of all of this, which in a way is a break because I’ve had so much to do with the other things I’ve worked on throughout my career. It’s a relief [Laughs]. I’m trying to learn to not care.
What was the process like when you worked with the video game industry?
In a few cases, they did not put me through the mill. In others they did. When I was working on the Watchdogs posters, they wanted to see a bunch of different options, multiple views, and pick their favorites. With something I was far less familiar with like that job, I did do all the alternative sketches. In the case of Call of Duty, which had a ton of elements requested within the piece, they wanted a color rough. And even within the color rough they made me do revision after revision after revision. When I do revisions I’m not working in watercolor; each time I take a Xerox of my pencil sketch and go over it with color markers to achieve the basic color hue that will be in the final painting. Sometimes it’s very easy and other times it’s extremely difficult. But I don’t do that in most jobs. That’s what makes comics jobs my most enjoyable kind of work because they don’t expect those things or demand them. In comics there is generally the sense of, “We just have to get this out here and get going.” I will find out after the fact with the comic books I’ve done covers for whether there is something wrong with the way my cover jibes with the interior.
Can you name a situation when that's happened?
In the case of Secret Wars #4, nobody told me they were making Doctor Doom wear white throughout the whole story. So, the cover I did with Doom at the center of it, I had to petition them to get my friend that does my scanning and swap it out with a white cloak to get rid of the green. They were like, “You sure you want to do that?” “Well, I would have gotten it right if you had told me in the first place! Let’s get it right.” [Laughs] And we got it done. I’d rather the stuff be correct than be weirdly egocentric to my own interests or tastes. There is no reason for the cover to not match the content of the comic book. Another example of this is Secret Wars #3, with the two Reeds on the cover. I did him with the contemporary costume with the square “4” on his chest. I was not told that the character would have a beard in the storyline. I had been reading the New Avengers book where he did have a beard, but I did not assume that that would remain the case throughout the new series. So, when I see the final comic books and he’s got a beard, part of me is just like, “Ugh, whatever. They don’t care, I guess I shouldn’t either.” I could have put a beard on him if it was important to link it up.
Speaking of contemporary versions of heroes, can you talk about the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man that you will be doing covers for? His costume is now slightly different and more high-tech.
To beg the forgiveness of the fans, who are often not happy with changes, this is the best I could conceive to do with the costume design that was a little change to what I want to see about it. I wanted to adhere to my idealized depiction of what John Romita Sr.’s artwork was with his character design. This whole look of the metallic shiny finish was actually taken from what the second Amazing Spider-Man movie costume looked like: a metallic-finished spandex. I thought it looked spectacular. I hoped I could paint something that had that kind of aesthetic to it, which is very hard to paint. The whole idea that Peter Parker now has some money and this corporation to run will be reflected in his new look. If you just do the tiny add-ons with the eyes that light up and the glow behind the spider symbol on his chest, that’s about as weak a tweak as I could imagine. Mostly what I feel was the dramatic work was the lines on the body—they have the straight-line effect, no longer the old school curved lines. It is now closer to what the costume of The Shocker is. Weirdly enough, that is, to me, a graphic representation of what I used to see happening in Romita’s art style. And you can even say I took it from the first Amazing Spider-Man movie costume, which was graphically very aggressive. They did these lines that had no curves to them. And mostly, I wanted the face to look like classic old Spider-Man.
So you got to have full control on this costume design for the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man?
Yes, and ultimately if the editors didn’t care for what I came up with, I don’t think I would’ve been on the job. I didn’t want to work on something that would have taken too much of an aggressive take in removing him from his roots. It wouldn’t have been a satisfying gig to me then. Whereas with the covers for the new lineup of The Avengers, almost nobody is recognizable to what you classically think of them, so I accept it in a way of, “Oh well, I like all these designs. It’s not technically The Avengers to me but I can enjoy myself working on this.”
Do you think that ability to let loose frees you more creatively? For example, in Secret Wars you are juggling so many different pieces on the page.
Well, since there was a lot of directive in the Secret Wars covers and each was built on what I was told by the editor, there was a lot of room to expand upon. In the case of issue #8 with Mister Fantastic and Doctor Doom, they requested just a big bang exploding outwards from the silhouette of a human figure, and within that put the battle between Reed and Doom. That’s all that was requested. The part that I expanded upon was, instead of just the explosion thing with stars and galaxies exploding and whatnot, how cool would it be to show fragments and moments from Marvel history that established what is happening now. For me, that was a way of expressing that the history of Marvel still stands. It was important for me to draw the Caucasian Nick Fury with the Howling Commandos because that was a part of history that should not be rewritten. It was cool. Why say that that is no longer there? To me, the fact that those little moments are in there meant that my collection as a longtime fan isn’t declared unimportant.
With the high level of detail in the covers, did you draw all of them by hand first and then add them into the computer?
I don’t know how to use a computer. I’ve never typed a single sentence or sent a single email by myself. Generally, I try to keep all my efforts to working on paper. Everything is gouache and watercolor. Then, I pack up the paintings to get scanned and send them to a fellow that does that for me. I used to send them to the publishers, and these days they don’t even have people there that know what to do if you send original artwork.
You’ve also done some concept art for the previous Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, right? Can you tell us about your experience on the project(s)?
[Laughs] That was not really petitioned from me. Basically, before they were making the movies, I was—like any other fan—hoping that it was going to look as much like the comic book version as possible. For me, that meant it should look like John Romita drew it. In the case of the movie, in its development stage, there had been so many wild extrapolations of costume. Think of the X-Men movie, where no one is really wearing the traditional superhero costume. You figure with Spider-Man, it has to be closer but still reinvent things. So, this artist I knew called David Williams had done a color sketch of it that I saw in his office and it bowled me over. It was this wild graphic design with Spider-Man in red and black, with black lenses for his typically white eyepieces—curved bug-eye lenses that held the same shape. I thought it was astounding in its graphic simplicity. It connected with the bug theme, and it was a good graphical stand-in for the classic eyepieces. So, with his agreement, I said I would try to represent this design to the moviemakers if I ever got an audience with them.
And you did?
Weirdly enough, they reached out to me—not about Spider-Man, but for the original Fantastic Four movie, which was years away from being done at that time. So, I never wound up doing any designs for the Fantastic Four, but I immediately petitioned them to consider this graphic design for Spider-Man. I sent the designs and got zero reply. Beyond the initial conversation with the producers, I never got a follow-up. Nobody said a word. So, the movie got made, they took a design that was certainly not mine or my friends. The one they went with in the film was actually taken from the Marvel Card series painted by the Hildebrandt Brothers, which was the first time ever that an artist had drawn the webs on the suit as if they were raised, as far as I’m aware, and that was what influenced the look of the film. With the other design approach that David Williams had done, all I did was re-illustrate new shots of that figure and put our names on it. We learned well after the film had come out that they actually ran a prototype costume of Williams’s design that was made in fabric to test out how it looked. They translated it into red and blue instead of red and black, but they obviously decided not to go with it and that was that.
That’s a crazy story. Well, would you ever be open to doing concept art for any of the upcoming Marvel films?
I don’t know if they would ever perceive me as having anything to really offer. The level of detail that comes from Ryan Meinerding—who has done work for all the Avengers movies, Iron Man and whatnot—Adi Granov and Phil Sanders and what they do digitally is stuff that my work can’t compete with in terms of complexity and graphic detail. I’m not sure if I would have what they are looking for. I have more of a bold and simple palette. So much of what gives life to my interpretation of these characters has to do with casting, and who the person is versus the costume. At this point, I just want to see a character wear a simple outfit—a shirt or even bare skin. These rubber costumes with armor are impressive but there’s a sense of graphic fatigue that comes from getting the same thing film after film, interpretation after interpretation. I’m not sure I would fit with the kind of aesthetic that seems to run the most dominant in that world.
As a fan, which of the superheroes that have been represented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are you the most satisfied by?
Well, I love Chris Evans so much in his portrayal of Steve Rogers. I don’t love any of the costumes they put him in, but I can still enjoy the movies he’s made. I also would be one of the people who said that if they didn’t get Benedict Cumberbatch to play Doctor Strange in the upcoming movie they would have lost everything. That would have been the biggest screw-up on Marvel’s part if they didn’t nail him down.Two Conservative MPs are in legal limbo after Elections Canada sent letters to the Speaker of the House of Commons asking they be suspended for failure to file campaign documents from the 2011 election.
“Those letters advised the speaker that an elected candidate shall not continue to sit or vote as members of the House of Commons pending the filing of complete and accurate returns,” said Elections Canada spokesman John Enright on Tuesday.
Shelly Glover, the MP for Saint Boniface, and James Bezan, the MP for Selkirk-Interlake, have both filed legal challenges in the Manitoba Court of the Queen’s Bench over their campaign returns.
The MPs will not be suspended from the House of Commons unless a judge rules against them in their case. Both MPs were in the chamber to vote on a witness-protection bill on Monday.
In an application filed May 24, Glover seeks an order forcing Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand to accept a revised campaign financial return she filed and declaring her compliant with the elections law – an order that would keep her in the House of Commons.
She says Mayrand has misinterpreted how payments for salaries to campaign workers were apportioned and how the costs of campaign signs “inherited” from a previous election should be accounted for in the return.
Glover’s campaign ended up just $660 below its legal spending limit, so even a small difference in accounting could have put it over the cap and in breach of the law. A similar problem with his campaign in Labrador lead to the resignation of former Conservative intergovernmental affairs minister Peter Penashue earlier this year.
Bezan’s campaign finished $17,000 under its legal limit but also included $28,000 in spending that it said was not subject to the limit.
Glover’s case is listed for a hearing on June 21. Her lawyer, David Skwark, declined to comment on the case.
The legal proceeding comes at an awkward time for Glover, who has been touted as potential cabinet material with a shuffle of the government’s front bench expected over the summer.
Neither MP immediately returned calls seeking comment on Tuesday. Nor did Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey.
Elections Canada’s auditors have been seeking more information from Glover and Bezan since soon after the 2011 election, but the two MPs have declined to provide the requested information.
“This is the back and forth we do with agents all the time,” Enright said. “Where the process does not lead to a properly corrected return, the CEO will officially request a correction to the return within a certain period of time.”
Paperwork on file with Elections Canada shows both campaigns made large payments to their affiliated riding association, with little detail about where the money went.
Candidate returns filed after an election typically contain a long, itemized list of payments made to suppliers for rent, advertising, salaries and other costs of running local campaigns.
But Glover’s return includes only nine payments, including two made to her riding association that represent the vast majority of her campaign spending.
The entries, dated election day, say that Glover’s campaign paid $73,139 to the St. Boniface Conservative Association, with no indication of who ultimately received the money.
That line-item had entries of $34,777 under “other advertising” – possibly a calculation of the signage under dispute – $18,257 for “surveys,” $1,333 for rent, another $9,226 for other office expenses, and $9,545 described as “miscellaneous expenses.”
Bezan’s return shows a series of payments to 10 individuals, and $53,254 in payments to his riding association, including $17,253.31 labelled “other,” and $26,221.30 labelled “amounts not included in election expenses.”
The Elections Act requires every campaign to show where all the money it spends during a campaign goes, and auditors spend months working with campaigns from all parties across the country, trying to make sure their returns follow the rules.
St. Boniface appears to be a hot spot in Election Canada’s investigation into fraudulent political calls in the last election. Glover’s Liberal opponent complained of fake Liberal calls harassing supporters during the campaign, and a few days before the election, the local riding association fielded complaints about Conservative calls misdirecting voters, according to Elections Canada emails obtained under Access to Information legislation.
The Speaker has consulted House Officials on the facts and the provisions of the Canada Elections Act and the court applications for Mr. Bezan and Mrs. Glover. The Speaker will await the decisions of the courts in the appeals before taking any action
The court applications filed by Bezan and Glover are the latest in a long series of legal battles the Conservatives have waged against Elections Canada and the chief electoral officer.
The Tories took Mayrand to court in 2006 for refusing to approve candidate claims for radio and TV ads at the centre of the so-called in-and-out scandal, and Mayrand recently pointed out at a parliamentary committee that the party has dragged its feet in co-operating with an investigation into fraudulent calls in the last election.
A federal court judge recently chided the party for engaging in “trench warfare” in a lawsuit related to fraudulent calls, and the CRTC noted last week the federal Conservatives had failed to reach a compliance agreement with the agency over its use of robocalls until fines were publicly announced.
The CEO makes the speaker aware of the provision, but parliamentary privilege will be the determining factor as to whether or not the member sits or not
A spokeswoman for Speaker Andrew Scheer said Tuesday that Glover and Bezan will continue to sit in the House for now.
“The Speaker has consulted House Officials on the facts and the provisions of the Canada Elections Act and the court applications for Mr. Bezan and Mrs. Glover,” said Heather Bradley. “The Speaker will await the decisions of the courts in the appeals before taking any action.”
Enright said Elections Canada recognizes Parliament has the ultimate authority over who sits in the House.
“The CEO makes the speaker aware of the provision, but parliamentary privilege will be the determining factor as to whether or not the member sits or not,” he said.
Former House of Commons procedural clerk B. Thomas Hall said Tuesday that the House could likely prevent the MPs from being suspended as the act requires, but it would look bad.
“If the House were to refuse to suspend the MP as required by the Canada Elections Act, the courts would probably not overrule the House,” he said. “However, politically that would look very bad for the majority in the House who voted not to suspend the MPs in question.”
Hall could not recall a similar case.
“I’ve never heard of that before,” he said.A newly completed PTR-91 rifle. Robert Libetti/Business Insider CEO Josh Fiorini and his gun manufacturing company PTR Industries, are right in the center of the national gun control debate.
PTR makes clones of the HK-91 semi-automatic rifle and is located in Bristol, CT. Bristol is about 45 minutes north of Newtown, where 20 children and six of their teachers were shot to death last December.
The debate grew more heated recently, when Connecticut passed the strictest gun control law in the nation on April 4th. As a response to that law, on April 9th, PTR announced its plan to leave Connecticut in an open letter to the state.
When we asked Fiorini how he felt after learning about the shootings in Newtown, he told us, while the tragedy left him and his employees devastated, he ultimately feels manufacturers are not the problem.
"I probably feel the same way an engineer at GM feels when he drives by a car accident," he said.
We visited PTR Industries to get a firsthand look at the company, their operation, and employees living on the front lines of the gun control debate.The New York Post editor fired after speaking out against a cartoon depicting the author of the president's stimulus package as a dead chimpanzee has sued the paper. And as part of her complaint, Sandra Guzman levels some remarkable, embarrassing, and potentially damaging allegations.
Guzman has filed a complaint against News Corporation, the New York Post and the paper's editor in chief Col Allan in the Southern District Court of New York, alleging harassment as well as "unlawful employment practices and retaliation."
As part of the 38-page complaint, Guzman paints the Post newsroom as a male-dominated frat house and Allan in particular as sexist, offensive and domineering. Guzman alleges that she and others were routinely subjected to misogynistic behavior. She says that hiring practices at the paper -- as well as her firing -- were driven by racial prejudices rather than merit.
And she recounts the paper's D.C. bureau chief stating that the publication's goal was to "destroy [President] Barack Obama."
The most outrageous charges, however, involve Allan. According to the complaint:
"On one occasion when Ms. Guzman and three female employees of the Post were sharing drinks at an after-work function. Defendant Allan approached the group of women, pulled out his blackberry and asked them 'What do you think of this?' On his blackberry was a picture of a naked man lewdly and openly displaying his penis. When Ms. Guzman and the other female employees expressed their shock and disgust at being made to view the picture, Defendant Allan just smirked... [N]o investigation was ever conducted and the |
, especially when referring to lost items or deceased persons. Sentence structures are typically SVO or SOV, but deviation from strict word order does not alter the meaning due to the synthetic structure.[112] Verbs are quite complex, and can be broken into four classes of verbs: animate-intransitive (AI), inanimate-intransitive (II), animate-transitive (AT), and inanimate-transitive (IT). Verbs are also prefixed and suffixed with various inflections, particles, and conjugations, so complex things can easily be described just by a verb.[113][114]
Alphabet [ edit ]
Comparison of Colonial Massachusett and Modern Wôpanâak alphabets Colonial Modern Colonial Modern Letter Values Name Letter Values Name Letter Values Name Letter Values Name A a /a/, /aː/, /ã/, /ə/ a A a /a/ a N n /n/, /~∅/ en N n /n/ na  â /aː/ â O /a/, /aː/, /ã/, /ə/ o B b /b/, /p/ bee Ô ô /ã/ ô C c /k/, /s/, /ʃ/ ſee (see) Ꝏ /uː/, /wə/, /əw/, /ə/ ꝏ 8 8 /uː/ 8 Ch ch /tʃ/, /tʲ/, /tʲᵊ/ chee Ch ch /tʃ/ cha P p /p/ pee P p /p/ pa D d /d/, /t/ dee Q q /kʷ/, /k/ kéuh Q q /kʷ/, /k/ qa E e /iː/, /ə/, /∅/ e E e /ʲᵊ/ e R r /r/, /n/ ar Ee ee /iː/ ee S s ſ /s/, /ʃ/ eſ (es) S s /s/ sa F f /f/, /p/ ef Sh sh /ʃ/ sha G g /g/, /k/, /dʒ/, /ʒ/ gee T t /t/ tee T t /t/ ta H h /h/, /∅/ H h /h/ ha Ty ty /tʲ/ tya I i /ə/, /iː/, /aːj/, /aj/ i U u /uː/, /a/, /ə/ u U u /ə/ u J j /dʒ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /tʲ/, /tʲᵊ/ ji V v /v/, /p/ vf (uf), úph K k /k/ ka K k /k/ ka W w /w/ wee W w /w/ wa L l /l/, /n/ el X /ks/, /z/ eks M m /m/, /~∅[/p/]/ em M m /m/ ma Y y /j/, /aj/, /aːj/, /iː/ wy Y y /j/ ya Z z /z/, /s/ zad Y (Þ) y (þ) /θ~ð/, /t/
The original alphabet devised by Eliot and used by the Indians of the mid-seventeenth till nineteenth centuries consisted of all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet as used in English, with the addition of the digraph Ch as a separate letter, similar to its role in Spanish prior to the 1994 Spanish orthographical reforms. The digraph 'Sh' does not receive similar treatment. Vowels could be marked with the acute accent ( ´ ) to denote stress or long vowels or the circumflex ( ˆ ) used to indicate the nasal vowel /ã/, but despite this prescriptive use, most literate native speakers, and even Eliot, used them interchangeably. The double O ligature 'Ꝏ' was used by Eliot primarily to indicate /uː/ as opposed to the short vowel /ə/, analogous to writing 'fꝏd' and'mꝏd' but 'cook' and 'rook,' however, Ꝏ was not considered a separate letter and often replaced with 'OO'. F, L, R and V only occur in loan words. Y as the representation of the runic letter thorn (Þ) was used in Eliot's time as a shorthand for Th, often written superscript or subscript in print to differentiate from Y. Although not included in the colonial alphabet, its use would likely have occurred in some English loan words especially from the oldest Indian documents. J and V, although not yet considered distinct letters in English of the seventeenth century, were treated as separate letters in Massachusett.
The alphabet in use by the Wôpanâak communities that participate in the language revival, the alphabet is much reduced and simplified. B, D, C, F, G, I, J, L, O, R, V, X and Z are not part of the alphabet, but remain in use for proper names and place names. Ch remains a separate letter, to which the digraphs Sh /ʃ/ and Ty /tʲ/ have been included. Â and Ô are considered letters, but restricted to represent /aː/ and /ã/, respectively and thus eliminating the need for the acute or circumflex. 8 replaces Ꝏ in the modern alphabet for ease of input and rendering on English typesets and is also considered a distinct letter. E is retained but restricted to represent /ʲᵊ/ whilst the digraph Ee is used as a separate letter for /iː/. The only letter with two sounds is Q, which represents /k/ in word-final positions and /kʷ/ elsewhere before a vowel for etymological purposes.
Writing samples [ edit ]
Many of the translations in the Massachusett language were of a religious nature, as the missionaries were hoping to win over converts by using the 'Indian language.' The following is an example of the Lord's Prayer as found in Eliot's 1661 publishing of the New Testament in Matthew 6:9:[115]
Nꝏshum keskqut quttianatamanack hꝏwesaouk.
'Our Father, who art in Heaven,'
Peyaumꝏutch kukkenau-toomoouk ne a nack okkeet neam keskqut.
'Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Nem-meet-sougash asekesuhokesu assnauean yedyee kesu-kod.
'Give us this day our daily bread,'
Kah ahquotaneas inneaen nummateheouqasu, neem machenekukequig nutahquoretawmomouag.
'and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,'
Ahque sag hompagunaianeem enqutchuasouqauit webe pohquohwaossueau wutch matchitut.
'and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'
Nuwatche huhahteem ketassootamouk hah nuumkessouk, kah sosamꝏuk michene. Amen
'For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.'
An excerpt from Josiah Cotton's Vocabulary of the Massachusetts (or Natick) Indian Language, where the English is his own writings, and the Massachusett that of his father, John Cotton, a prominent preacher to the Wampanoag:[116]
Q: Uttuh woh nittinne nehtuhtauan Indianne unnontꝏwaonk?
'How shall I learn Indian?'
A: Nashpe keketookauaonk Indianeog kah kuhkinasineat ukittooonkannꝏ kah wuttinnohquatumꝏonkanꝏ.
'By talking with the Indians, and minding their words, and manner of pronouncing.'
Q: Kah uttuh unnupponꝏnat wutinnontꝏwaonk ne munohonk neit kohtohkomukcouk?
'And what is the difference between the language of the Island [Martha's Vineyard], and the main?'
A: Mat woh nummissohhamꝏunasuh matta aꝏwahiteo webe yeu nꝏwahteauum yeug Indiansog mat wahtanooog usg Indiansog ut nishnow kuttooonganit.
'I can't tell or don't know, only this I know, that these Indians don't understand every word of them Indians.'
An example of records from the Praying Town of Natick, written in 1700 by Thomas Waban, a descendant of Waban:[117]
Eight noh July wehquttum Thomas. Waban seniar wutch neh
'July 8. Thomas Waban Senior requested on behalf of his'
wunneechonnoh'nneh Thomas waban Junior'onk noh
'son, Thomas Waban Junior, and he'
wachonnum'2'arcers medow -
'has two acres of meadow.'
Ne nan kesukokot wehquttum Jon wamsquon – wutch
'The same day John Wamsquon requested on behalf of'
Tomas wamsquon onk woh wachonum meddow kah
'Thomas Wamsquon, and he may have a meadow, and'
owachannumun'n4e nan ut – noh wehquttum – Isaak
'he has it. On the same Isaak'
wuttasukꝏpauin ne keesukot onk noh woh wachonnum
'Wuttasukoopauin requested, that day, and he may have'
two arcours ut wohquomppagok.
'two acres at Wohquomppagok.'
Conveyance of land from Soosooahquo to Noshcampaet, from Nantucket, in 1686[118]
Neen Soosahquo mache noonammattammen noshcampaet
'I Soosoahquo have bargained well with Noshcampaet,'
ta matahketa ahto ahkuh nukquepaskooe akerssoe wana
'At Mattahketa he has land, one hundred and'
nees akannu ta weessoonkiahkuh kattahtam meth wana
'two acres. At land by name Kattahtammeth and'
kabeaqut kashkututkquaonk neahmute kushinemahchak
'kabeaqut kashkuhtukqusonk neahmute that swamp is wide'
ne sechak wuttah naskompeat wessoonck ahkuh mussnata-
'the length of Naskompeat's land, (and) land by name Mussantaessuit,'
-essuit ne anneh kishkoh wessoonk ahkuh massooskaassak
'(and) the width of land by name Massooskaassak,'
wana wessooonk sakahchah nuppessunahqunmeth na-
'and by name Sakashchah nuppessunnahquemmeth as far as'
pache kuttahkanneth ahquampi 1686 month 10th day 3d.
'Kuttahkemmeth. The time was 1686, 10th month, 3d day.'
Vocabulary [ edit ]
Massachusett shares most of its vocabulary with other Algonquian languages. The following table, mostly taken from D. J. Costa's description of the SNEA languages, demonstrates the relationship of Massachusett with other languages, such as closely related Eastern Algonquian languages such as the Loup and Narragansett—both also SNEA languages—Penobscot, a representative of the Eastern branch of Abenakian languages, Munsee, a Lenape language, and more distant relatives, such as Arapaho, a Plains Algonquian language and Ojibwe, a Central Algonquian language.[119]
English Massachusett[120] Loup (Nipmuc?) Narragansett Penobscot[119][121] Munsee[122][123] Arapaho[124] Ojibwe[125] 'deer' ahtuhq attekeȣe nóonatch nòlke atóh hé3owoonéihii adik1'my father' noohsh nȣs nòsh n'mitangwes noxwe neisónoo noose 'canoe' muhshoon amisȣl mishoon ámasol amaxol 3iiw jiimaan 'hawk' owóshaog ('hawks') awéhle ('broadwinged hawk') 'awéhleew cecnóhuu gekek 'three' nushwe chȣi nìsh nahs nxáh nehi niswi 'thirty' swinnichak chȣinchak swínchek nsinska nxináxke nisimidama 'broken' poohkshau pȣkȣ'sau pokésha poskwenômuk ('to break') paxkhílew ('it breaks') tówo'oni ('to break') bookoshkaa 'dog' annum alum ayim adia mwáakaneew he3 anim(osh)2 'flint' môshipsq mansibsqȣe masipskw mahləs wóosóó3 biiwaanag(oonh)
1 As "deer", "caribou", or "cattle" in Algonquin language but "caribou" in Ojibwe language proper.
2 As anim for "dog" in Algonquin language and in Oji-Cree language, but animosh (anim with a pejorative suffix) in Ojibwe language proper.
English influences in the Massachusett language [ edit ]
Gloucester Old Spot sow and piglets, an ancient English pig breed and similar to the ones brought by the colonists. The Massachusett-speaking Indians adopted English terms for the animals as well as reliance on it for meat, since hunting lands were lost to English settlement.
With the arrival of the English colonists, the Indians quickly began to adopt English in order to communicate and participate in wider society by necessity as the English settlers came to surround and outnumber the Indians. The Indians adopted the new crops—oates, barley, wheatash, rye; animal husbandry and domesticated animals—oxin, gôates, maresog, hogs; tools and farming methods and material culture—chember ('chamber'), puneetur ('pewter'), patakoot ('petticoat'), coneeko ('calico' garments), etc. As the Indians began to lose their autonomy and were settled into the Praying towns, the Indians were forced to adopt Christianity—deacon, Bibl, Testament, commandment; colonial laws and courts—seal, mark, entered by, king, justice; naming customs—Junior, Senior; and eventually adopted English system of measurements—miles, arcours (acres); calendar systems—January, month, Tuesday, year; and self-government—jureeman ('juryman'), tithingman('tithe collector'), selectmons ('selectman'), consteppe ('constable') and economics—shillings, pence, monêash ('money'), deed, etc. In addition, many words were introduced by the missionaries unable to find or unaware of a suitable Massachusett translation, thus introducing the proper people and place names of the Bible and various concepts, many of which were later adopted by the Indians—horsumoh Pharoah ('Pharoah's horsmen'), shepsoh ('shepherd'), cherubimsog, ark, Moab, Canaane, Jerusalem, lattice, etc.[126][127][128]
moneash ('money'), pence, shillings and pay- as a verbal root for 'pay.' The reverse of a shilling from the reign of King Charles I (regnant 1625–1649), counterfeit. The adoption of the English currency system led to the adoption of('money'),andas a verbal root for 'pay.'
A number of words were borrowed in their English plural form, used in their singular, and pluralized to however the Indians assumed whether the term in question was animate or inanimate. For example, oxsin (oxen), peegs (pigs) and cows (cows) represented the singular 'ox,' 'pig' and 'cow' and but were rendered in the plural as oxinog (oxenak), pigsack (pigsack) and cowsog (cowsak) for 'oxen,' 'pigs' and 'cows.'[109][128] Mass nouns were also often adopted this way and appear in the plural, for example barleyash (barleyash), monêash (moneyash) and shottash (shotash) for 'barley,''money' and'shot' (fired). Most nouns encountered in their plural were realized this way. Other loans, most of which would probably been more commonly heard in the singular were also thus adopted, giving saut (salt), Indian (Indian) and plantation (plantation) for'salt,' 'Indian' and 'plantation.'[129]
Due to the complex consonant and vowel inventory of English in comparison to Massachusett, English loan words were pronounced in one of two ways. Those who were more proficient and bilingual in English likely pronounced them closer to English pronunciation with most speakers adapting it to local Massachusett phonology. This can be seen in US English, with more educated speakers or those with some French-language familiarity pronouncing the loan word guillotine as either anglicized /ˈɡɪləˌtiːn/ or /gē'əˌtiːn/ in approximation of French /ɡijɔtin/). This may explain the Massachusett doublet Frenchmensog and Panachmonsog for 'Frenchmen.' This can be seen in writing, where many loans were spelled in Massachusett, either roughly the same as in English or indicating adaptation. As /l/ and /r/ do not occur in the language, they were replaced with /n/, for example in pi n aquet and shaa n for 'b l anket' and'sha r e' or omitted altogether in citi, 'cide r,' and consteppe for 'constab l e.'[129][128]
The Old Courthouse of 1749, built on the site of the original Plymouth Colony courthouse of 1620. The Indians were forced to accept English laws and thus often pleaded their grievances to the courts to protect their lands.
English loan words were modified with the complex Algonquian noun declension and verb conjugation system, for example, ꝏmak (umark), 'her/his mark,' baansu (boundsuw), 'it is the bounds,' nukohtꝏmun (nucourtumun), 'we (exclusive) [held] court,' and nugquitglamwaan (nuquitclaim[w]un), 'I quitclaim it.' Some were used as adjectives or modifiers, such as stakkisohtug (stakesuhtuq) 'wooden stake,' applesank (applesôhq)[130] 'appletree,' Indian moewehkomonk 'Indian assembly.'[129]
Despite the relative influence of English, especially in the latter stages when the number of native speakers was quite few, written documents often showed little English vocabulary. This was in part because of the agglutinative native of the language, as new words could be easily formed to express new concepts, as well as possibly a linguistic statement. Many loans were in opposition with native vocabulary, although sometimes one or the other seems to have specialized uses. For example, although Friday and day were used in Massachusett, when not referring to formal dates, in deeds and legal documents, speakers could also use nequttatashikquinishonk (nuqutahshuquneehshôk) and kesuk (keesuk) in general usage. Similar specialization occurred with manitt (manut) /manət/ which meant 'god' or'spirit' and was later replaced by God or Jehovah manitt.[129] The importance of the English language to seek employment, communicate with English neighbors and participate in the affairs outside dwindling Indian communities and growing rates of intermarriage in the nineteenth century led speakers to switch to Massachusett Pidgin English, but through a process similar to decreolization, speakers eventually assimilated into the locally prominent speech of Eastern New England English dialects.[131][132]
Massachusett influences in the English language [ edit ]
Ondatra zibethicus or'muskrat' comes from Massachusett musquash or'reddish animal.' This rodent is native to most waterways of North America north of Mexico and was introduced to Europe for its fur where it is now an invasive pest. or'muskrat' comes from Massachusettor'reddish animal.' This rodent is native to most waterways of North America north of Mexico and was introduced to Europe for its fur where it is now an invasive pest.
After the failed settlement of Roanoke (1585) and the first permanent settlement at Jamestown (1607)—near speakers of Powhatan languages—shifted to New England with failed attempts at Cuttyhunk (1602) and Cape Ann (1624) and successful settlement of Plymouth (1621), Salem (1628), Massachusetts Bay (1629)—all in what is now Massachusetts and in the midst of Massachusett-speaking peoples—and a few other sites in New England. The earliest settlers struggled in the colder climate of New England, with their lives dependent on the Native American peoples for education on local agriculture, food aid, protection from less welcoming tribes and a market for trade. Through these close interactions, the English settlers adopted hundreds of words, probably hundreds more when compounds and calques of Massachusett phrases are included. The Algonquian loan words were known as 'wigwam words' with 'wigwam' coming from Massachusett Pidgin for 'house' or 'home.'[133]
Man carrying a baby in a modern 'papoose.' The term originally referred to Native American children.
Many of the common words such as 'papoose,''squash' and'moccasin' were popularized in 1643, even back in England, with the publication of Roger Williams' A Key into the Language of America and as a result, are often given a Narragansett etymology. Most words were likely borrowed independently until a common form won out, or re-enforced each other through similarity.[134] For example, New Englanders used 'wauregan' to mean 'handsome' and'showy' until the end of the nineteenth century from an SNEA R-dialect, most likely from Quiripi wauregan, but the first settlers in Massachusetts were already familiar with the older cognate form 'wunnegin' from Massachusett wunnégan[135] (wuneekan)[39][136] from N-dialect Massachusett. Furthermore, the English settlers of the failed Popham Colony, and later settlements in what is now Maine and New Hampshire encountered mos from Eastern Abenakian, whilst settlers in the rest of New England encountered mꝏs from the SNEA languages, ultimately coalescing into English,'moose.'[137][138] Other forms were shorted beyond recognition, with'squash' a shortened slang form of original borrowings 'isquontersquash' or'squantersquash' from Massachusett askꝏtasquash[135] (ashk8tasqash) or Narragansett askútasquash. Many of these 'Narragansett' terms were already known to the English settlers of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth, with William Wood recording pappousse and mawcus sinnus from Pawtucket speakers of Massachusett and published in his 1634 New Englands Prospect nine years before Williams' papoòs and mocússinass.
nasaump. Samp consists of kernels that are pounded or chopped roughly and dried, then boiled into a thick gruel or soaked as a side dish, similar to how it was prepared by Native Americans. Women in South Africa selling'samp,' the word crossing the Atlantic from Massachusett. Samp consists of kernels that are pounded or chopped roughly and dried, then boiled into a thick gruel or soaked as a side dish, similar to how it was prepared by Native Americans.
With westward expansion, many of the 'wigwam words' from New England and even the 'backward' grammar and syntax of Massachusett Pidgin English were carried westward by the descendants of the early colonists in communication with Native peoples, with the innocent meaning of these words changing to pejoratives or stereotypical language by the late eighteenth century as westward expansion and the pursuit of Manifest Destiny ultimately became a protracted genocide of mass killings and biological warfare. As the newly subjugated peoples of the frontier were often not Algonquian speakers and unfamiliar with these terms, they nevertheless resented the specific vocabulary used against them. Most notable is'squaw,' borrowed from Massachusett squa (sqâ) and simply meant 'female' in general. However, as it was used only as an insult, with connotations of the submissive, obedient Indian wife, the outspoken old Indian woman or the exotic temptress of the wilderness, and folk etymologies have been assigned that many contemporary people believe, such as the origin of the word from an old Iroquoian phrase for female genitals.[139]
Tribal groups, Native advocacy groups and social pressure has led to name changes of several species and place names, but'squaw' remains a common element in these domains. Similarly, many of the Algonquian loan words can be used to construct offensively, stereotypical sentences such as 'firewater,' 'bury the hatchet,' 'wampum,' 'papoose,' 'powwow' and 'brave,' especially when used in Native-specific contexts, were long used in the condescending, paternalistic writings of explorers, government anthropologists and agency reports and nineteenth century literature referencing the 'last' of the 'noble savages,' such as James Fenmoore Cooper's 1826 Last of the Mohegans which re-introduced many of the fading terms of the colonial period. Use of the wigwam words in these disparaging contexts were cited as one of the primary reasons for high drop-out rates of Native American high school students, often served by European-American teachers.[140]
Tautogolabrus adspersus, known in New England as 'chogset' from Massachusett chohkesit[141] (chahkusut),[142] 'it is blemished' or 'it is spotted.', known in New England as 'chogset' from Massachusett),'it is blemished' or 'it is spotted.'
The coastal dialects of Eastern New England English absorbed many more of these words due to longer interaction and the fact that they are spoken over the territory of Massachusett and related languages. The majority of Algonquian loan words fell into obscurity by the end of the nineteenth century, coinciding locally with the death of the last speakers of Massachusett as well as nationally with the complete subjugation of all of North America's indigenous peoples and policies, largely successful, implemented to eradicate Indian political units, languages and culture. Most of the local dialectal words suffered the same fate, but a legacy of it survives in the use of 'quahog' and 'chogset' to refer to the 'hard-shelled clam' or 'round clam' Mercinaria mercinaria and an edible wrasse fish, Tautoga onitis known elsewhere as 'black porgy,' 'chub,' 'blackfish' or 'oyster-fish.'[143] The dwindled vocabulary, only fifty or so terms from New England are still current and most only locally are nevertheless important for two reasons. Firstly, they represent the second oldest and largest corpus of Algonquian loan words after Powhatan, and are among the first true 'Americanisms' that began to differentiate American English.[138] Secondly, the Massachusett loan words resisted replacement to lexical borrowings from other indigenous languages. Although American English has since adopted 'tipi,' 'hogan' and 'quiggly hole' to refer to quite different housing structures, in the early part of the nineteenth century, referring to them all as 'wigwams' was commonplace as it was already adopted as the general word for an Indian dwelling. Similarly,'moose' was not replaced by Lakȟótiyapi héblaska, Navajo deeteel nor X̱aadas Kíl chask'w, but in fact replaced Tsinúk hyas mowitch with the corresponding Chinook Jargon word moose from Massachusett, via English, having replaced the original term.[138]
Most of the 'wigwam words,' including 'wigwam,' were not borrowed directly from Massachusett but instead were drawn from Massachusett Pidgin. Simpler in grammar, it also incorporated archaic word forms and forms from neighboring languages understood over a broader region. For instance, the English settlers used'sachem' and'sagamore' somewhat interchangeably to refer to tribal leaders or 'chiefs.' 'Sachem' is likely from Massachusett sontim or sachem (sôtyum) whereas'sagamore,' from Massachusett Pidgin sagamore (*sôkumô), either an archaic construction or from Eastern Abenakian sàkama, but all descend from Proto-Algonquian *sa·kima·wa. Similarly, the English settlers adopted'meechum' for 'food' and 'wigwam' for 'house' from Pidgin meechum (*meechum) and wigwam (*weekuwôm), with the proper Massachusett terms being meetsuwonk (meechuwôk) and wek (week), 'her/his house,' or wetu (weetyuw), 'house' (in general), respectively, with all forms descendants of Proto-Algonquian *wi·kiwa·ʔmi.[52][61]
Plants, Animals and Foods[144][145]
Indian Tools, Technology, Society and Culture[144][145]
matchit, 'bad.' From matchit [156] and verb base ( mat- ), 'bad'. [157]
and verb base ( ), 'bad'. papoose, from 'child.' Cf. Natick papaseit and Naragansett papoos. [158]
and Naragansett. moccasin,'shoe.' From mokus [159] /( mahkus ). [33]
/( ). netop,'my friend.' From netomp /( neetôp ).
/( ). peag,'money,' short for wampumpeag, referring to the shell beads confused for money by the English settlers. Also 'wampum'.
, referring to the shell beads confused for money by the English settlers. Also 'wampum'. sachem, 'chief.' From sontim or sachem [160] /( sôtyum ). [33]
or /( ). pogamoggan, 'club' or 'rod.' From pogkomunk. [161]
. manitou,'spirit' or 'deity.' Cognate with manitt [162] /( manut ) [163]
/( ) pow wow, 'Indian gathering' or 'gatherings' in general. Originally referred to a'shaman.' From powwow /( pawâw ), [33] 'he heals.'
/( ), 'he heals.' kinnikinnick, 'herbal smoking mixture.' Delawaran, but cognate with kenugkiyeuonk from ( keenuk- ), 'to mix.' [164]
from ( ), 'to mix.' nunkom, 'young man.' From nunkomp. [150] [153]
. totem,'spiritual, symbolic or sacred emblem of a tribe.' Cognate with wutohkit, 'belonging to this place.' [165]
, 'belonging to this place.' caucus,'meeting for political supporters'. Possibly derives from a form similar to kogkateamau, [166] 'he/she advises,' and ( kakâhkutyum- ), 'to advise others.' [167]
, 'he/she advises,' and ( ), 'to advise others.' hominy, 'nixtamlized corn' often eaten as grits. Cognate with ( taqaham- ), 'to grind.'. [168]
), 'to grind.'. mugwump, formerly used to mean 'kingpin' or 'kingmaker'; later to describe Republican bolters during that supported Grover Cleveland and now to politically neutral, independent people or bolters. Originally referred to a 'war leader.' From magunquomp. [169]
. toshence, 'last of anything' although once used in south-eastern Massachusetts to mean 'last child.' From mattasons, 'youngest child.' [150] [170]
, 'youngest child.' muskeg,'swamp.' From Cree, but cognate with Narragansett metchaug, 'thick woods.' [171]
, 'thick woods.' wickakee, 'hawkweed' also known in New England as 'Indian paintbrush.' Refers to several species of Hieracium. [150]
. pung, shortened form of tom pung, 'one-horse sleigh.' [150]
, 'one-horse sleigh.' tomahawk, 'ax' ('axe') or 'hatchet.' From Powhatan, but cognate with tongkong.[172]
Topographical legacy [ edit ]
Numerous streets, ponds, lakes, hills, and villages across eastern Massachusetts have Massachusett-language origins. The name of the state itself may mean 'near the big hill' or 'hill shaped like an arrowhead'. Very few cities and towns have Indian names, most ultimately linked to towns and villages in England, but the ones that probably have a Massachusett origin include Acushnet ('calm water resting place'), Aquinnah ('under the hills'). Cohasset (quonnihasset, 'long fishing point'), Mashpee (massanippe, 'great water'), Nantucket, 'in the midst of the waters', Natick, 'place of hills', Saugus ('the outlet, the extension'), Scituate, 'cold brook', Seekonk, and Swampscott, 'at the red rock' or 'broken waters'.[173] Other notable Indian placenames include 'Shawmut' (mashauwomuk, former name for Boston, 'canoe landing place'), 'Neponset' (a river that flows through the Dorchester section of Boston and a village of Dorchester, meaning unknown), Cuttyhunk Island (poocuohhunkkunnah, 'a point of departure'), Nantasket (a beach in Hull, 'a low-ebb tide place'), and Mystic River ('great river').[174]
Cities and towns [ edit ]
Cities known by previous names [ edit ]
Villages [ edit ]
Islands [ edit ]
Lakes and ponds [ edit ]
Rivers [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Little Doe Fermino, Jessie. (2000). An Introduction to Wampanoag Grammar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MS thesis.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MS thesis. Goddard, Ives. (1978). "Eastern Algonquian Languages" in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15 (Trigger, Bruce G., ed.). Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution.
, vol. 15 (Trigger, Bruce G., ed.). Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution. Goddard, Ives and Bragdon, Kathleen J. (eds.) (1989) Native Writings in Massachusett, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-185-X
, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-185-X Moondancer and Strong Woman. (2007). A Cultural History of the Native Peoples of Southern New England: Voices from Past and Present, Boulder, CO: Bauu Press. ISBN 0-9721349-3-X
, Boulder, CO: Bauu Press. ISBN 0-9721349-3-X Walker, Willard B. (1997). "Native Writing Systems" in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 17 (Ives Goddard, ed.). Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution.
Dictionaries and grammar [ edit ]
Grammar [ edit ]Setting a timer or alarm has been one of my favorite conveniences since I started using a Wear device regularly 6 months ago. Granted, they aren't must-haves in my life, but they do come in handy occasionally, and I find myself using them on Wear more often than I would on my phone.
Google is probably well-aware these features get a comparatively high amount of use on Wear, so they've completely revamped the UIs and even added some features that make these tools even more useful. While we haven't yet highlighted the new activity launcher in our Wear 5.1 feature spotlights, you can find dedicated listings in that launcher for the timer, stopwatch, and alarm that were not present in the old "start" UI of Wear 5.0.
Let's start with |
terms of what type of broadband it will get and when.
In general, the Australian public has not reacted well to the Coalition’s plans to modify the NBN policy.
In mid-February Shadow Minister for Communications Jason Clare presented to Federal Parliament the signatures of 272,000 Australians who want the new Coalition Government to build Labor’s all-fibre version of the National Broadband Network instead of the technically inferior version which the Coalition is proposing.
The news came as a new comprehensive study of public attitudes towards Labor’s National Broadband Network project published this month found the initiative still enjoyed very high levels of widespread public support from ordinary Australians, despite what the study described as an “overwhelmingly negative” approach to the project by print media such as newspapers.
In November, supporters of Labor’s all-fibre vision for the National Broadband Network project organised a national day of action on the issue, which saw thousands of Australians physically present Members of Parliament with copies of the petition. Supporters also raised tens of thousands of dollars for a pro-NBN advertising campaign in Turnbull’s local newspaper. A number of other surveys conducted over the past 2-3 years have consistently shown strong support for the NBN project amongst Australians, and even Coalition voters.
Before Christmas, respected telecommunications analyst Paul Budde heavily criticised the Coalition’s new preferred broadband deployment model, describing its “Multi-Technology Mix” approach as “a dog’s breakfast” of different technologies, which could turn out to be a “logistical nightmare” to deliver in practice.
This week’s episode on Twitter is also not the first time that Turnbull has faced heavy public criticism over the Coalition’s broadband plan.
An attempt by Turnbull in January to leverage a visit to Facebook’s headquarters in the US to communicate with Australians about the future of the digital economy via social media also backfired, with the Communications Minister’s official Facebook filling up with hundreds of comments slamming the Coalition’s inferior broadband policy.
opinion/analysis
So who’s right here? Well, there are arguments on both sides, but none of them lead down a good path for our Communications Minister.
Firstly, Turnbull is, of course, somewhat right. I’m a small business owner myself, and I have to say that I wouldn’t move to a rural area unless I was 100 percent certain I could definitely get broadband in that area — say, for example, if Labor’s fibre NBN had already been deployed there. Keady did check whether broadband was available in the area, but it’s still a bit of a gamble moving to a rural area, as the consultant found. The ‘lack of ADSL ports’ problem is a pervasive one in some areas in Australia.
There is a small degree of entitlement in Keady’s comments — entitlement which small business operators cannot afford.
However, there’s also a bigger picture here. As Communications Minister and in Opposition, Turnbull has repeatedly pledged to deliver better broadband to Australians, faster, cheaper and more affordably.
The Minister’s comments to Keady were not only impolite, they were an abrogation of that responsibility, as so many other Twitter users pointed out immediately. Sure, given that Turnbull has only been Minister for six months, he can’t be expected to take responsibility for the state of broadband in Ocean Grove. But as a politician, he might have been expected to apologise, to say that he would look into her situation and do what he could about it. That would have cost him absolutely nothing and no time — but would have stopped the Australian Twitterati from going into one of its oh-so-entertaining mass rages.
Turnbull’s not going to get very far selling the Coalition’s broadband plan to a skeptical Australian electorate if he doesn’t play nice.
This episode is symptomatic of Turnbull’s personality in general. The Member for Wentworth is very unusual amongst his colleagues in that he deeply understands social media and uses electronic communication to build a very close relationship with his constituents. His availability and charisma through such channels is what has led him to be extremely popular in the electorate.
However, when Turnbull is on the wrong side of the argument — as he is with the NBN issue — that relationship tends to turn on the MP, and Turnbull can be flippant or even a little bitter with his audience. I recognise the phenomenon, as the same thing happens to me as a journalist sometimes when the majority of Delimiter readers don’t agree with something I’ve written.
Turnbull needs to realise that his fundamental role is to be a representative of the people: And that means all the people, not just those who agree with him. You can’t lead by taking an antagonistic approach with your constituency. You can only lead by gently helping to steer the wave already created by your support base. And right now, the broadband issue is a major one in Australia. Turnbull needs to support people on this issue, not belittle them.
Image credit: Parliamentary Broadcasting, Julia KeadyLoading... Loading...
A report released recently by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows one in every 20 Americans misused prescription painkillers last year. This discovery is particularly relevant because the drug war, combined with changes to U.S. health care law, may have helped exacerbate the so-called opioid epidemic.
In 2015, an estimated 119 million Americans older than 12 used prescription psychotherapeutic drugs — a term used in the SAMHSA report to refer to “pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives,” though pain relievers were the most commonly used.
Researchers used that estimate, along with the data gathered from 68,000 surveys to produce the report. According to the report, “[a]ll estimates (e.g., percentages and numbers) presented in the report are derived from NSDUH [National Survey on Drug Use and Health] survey data.”
SAMHSA found the use of prescription psychotherapeutic drugs “in the past year was fairly common in the United States,” with about 44.5 percent of the population claiming to use prescription psychotherapeutic drugs in 2015.
The report also found one in every “14 Americans older than 11 misused or abused the drugs” and that about 2.7 million people, or at least 1 percent of the adult U.S. population, “have a prescription drug use disorder.”
While the report seems to confirm the increase in opioid use among Americans in recent years, it also unveils another seldom discussed point.
According to SAMHSA, “[a]mong people aged 12 or older, an estimated 18.9 million misused prescription psychotherapeutic drugs in the past year, representing 7.1 percent of the population.”
SAMHSA classifies “misuse” as any “use of prescription drugs that were not prescribed for an individual or were taken only for the experience or feeling that the drugs caused.”
The vast majority of those who misused the drugs claimed to have obtained them from a friend or family member, as shown in the graph below.
But the second most common way pain relievers were reportedly obtained raises more questions than answers.
Among those who sought access to opioids without actually needing them, 36.4 percent reached out to a doctor or stole the prescription from a health care provider.
According to Time, changes to U.S. health care law may have helped give patients addicted to opioids an easy way to go back to the hospital for more.
“As part of an Obamacare initiative meant to reward quality care,” Time’s Sean Gregory writes, “the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is allocating some $1.5 billion in Medicare payments to hospitals based on criteria that include patient-satisfaction surveys.” Some of the questions found in these surveys include: “During this hospital stay, how often did the hospital staff do everything they could to help you with your pain?” and “How often was your pain well controlled?”
To physicians who handle Medicare and Medicaid patients and refuse to fill in prescriptions when they ask for a particular painkiller by name, a defiant stand may lead to less funding or a loss of earnings.
“The government is telling us we need to make sure a patient’s pain is under control,” Dr. Nick Sawyer, a health-policy fellow at the UC Davis Department of Emergency Medicine, told Gregory. “It’s hard to make them happy without a narcotic. This policy is leading to ongoing opioid abuse.”
What started as an effort to help officials better gauge the quality of health care services, Dr. Sawyer appears to contend, may have led to a greater problem among patients who have become addicted to painkillers.
Since 1999, Time reports, “fatal prescription-opioid overdoses in the U.S. have quadrupled.” In 2014, opioids were involved in 60 percent of 47,000 drug overdose deaths. And while official reports on deadly incidents involving opioids in 2015 are yet to be released, SAMHSA reports that 12.8 percent of people aged 12 or older who used pain relievers in the past year — about 12 million people— “misused” the drugs.
According to a 2012 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, patients who often agree they are “satisfied” with they care they receive from hospitals and physicians are the ones who are more likely to spend more on prescription drugs. They also have higher mortality rates than those who claim to be dissatisfied with medical service.
From the study:
“In addition, patients often request discretionary services that are of little or no medical benefit, and physicians frequently accede to these requests, which is associated with higher patient satisfaction. Physicians whose compensation is more strongly linked with patient satisfaction are more likely to deliver discretionary services.”
If this remains true in 2016, and patients continue to ask for prescription painkillers by name — which is the case detailed in the Time article, “How Obamacare Is Fueling America’s Opioid Epidemic” — it might not be a stretch to consider many who obtained prescriptions without the need for opioids may have simply asked a doctor for help. This is an estimation SAMHSA’s own report seems to back.
But until a detailed study is carried out on this subject, it’s hard to pinpoint one single factor that has helped boost opioid use and abuse in the United States.
What we know for a fact is that officials continue to wage a war on drugs.
According to a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report released last year, most new heroin addicts have a history of prescription drug use, leading many to conclude that “[t]he turn to heroin is partially exacerbated by the government’s own attempts to curb the painkiller addiction it helped create.”
As lawmakers pass more legislation while also combating the opioid addiction crisis, those who are addicted to opioids and other drugs who do not have access to health care are forced to go to the streets for their fix. As the crisis becomes much more widespread and a greater number of former patients go after painkillers in the black market, dealers who are not concerned with product quality put the lives of these users in grave danger.
Are intricate, complex laws to blame for this vicious cycle? Or it all just a huge coincidence?
Help Us Be The Change We Wish To See In The World.A full load displacement of 100,000t makes the Gerald R Ford Class the world’s biggest aircraft carrier. The first carrier in class, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), was delivered to the US Navy in May 2017, while initial operational capability is anticipated to be achieved in 2020.
The CVN-78 features a 78m-wide flight deck equipped with electromagnetic aircraft launch system and advanced arresting gear. The carrier has the capacity to carry more than 75 aircraft and can accommodate 4,539 personnel including ship’s company, air wing and other support staff.
Gerald R Ford is powered by two A1B nuclear reactors offering 250% more electrical capacity than the Nimitz Class. The weaponry includes RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles, Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAMs) and Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS).
Nimitz Class, with a full load displacement of 97,000t, is the world’s second largest aircraft carrier. The first carrier in the class was deployed in May 1975, while the tenth and last ship, USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), was commissioned in January 2009. Each carrier of the Nimitz Class is designed to operate for about 50 years, requiring just one mid-life overhaul.
The 332.8m-long supercarrier features a 4.5-acre flight deck capable of carrying more than 60 aircraft. Each ship towers 20 stories above the water and can accommodate 3,000 to 3,200 ship’s company, 1,500 air wing and 500 other crew.
Nimitz Class is powered by two nuclear reactors providing a maximum speed of more than 30kt. The Sea Sparrow missiles, Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS) and Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAMs) mounted aboard the vessel defend against potential threats. The ships in Nimitz Class will be replaced by the Gerald R. Ford Class (CVN 78) next generation aircraft carriers from 2020.
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Displacing 65,000t, the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers are the biggest warships ever built for the Royal Navy. The first vessel in class, HMS Queen Elizabeth, began her sea trials in June 2017 and is scheduled to enter service in 2020, while the second carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, is scheduled to be operational by 2023.
The vessels in Queen Elizabeth class are three times larger than the Invincible Class aircraft carriers and can support the embarkation of up to 40 rotary and fixed wing aircraft. Latest technology and automated systems aboard the vessel enable operations with a streamlined crew of 679.
Each vessel in the class is armed with a Phalanx CIWS, 30mm guns and mini-guns for self-defence against asymmetric threats. The aircraft carrier is powered by two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines and four diesel generator sets providing a total installed power of 109MWe. The propulsion system will enable the vessel to sail at a maximum speed of 25kt.
The Admiral Kuznetsov is the only operational aircraft carrier in the Russian Navy. Built by Nikolayev South shipyard, Kuznetsov ranks as the fourth largest aircraft carrier. It has a full load displacement of 58,500t.
The spacious 14,700m² flight deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov can accommodate Su-33, MiG-29K and Su-25UTG/UBP STOVL fighters, as well as Ka-27S, Ka-27LD32 and Ka-27PLO helicopters. The ship can accommodate 1,960 ship’s company, 626 air group and 40 flag staff.
The Russian aircraft carrier is propelled by a steam turbine propulsion system, providing a maximum speed of 32kt. The weaponry is composed of AK-630 AA guns, CADS-N-1 Kashtan CIWS, P-700 Granit anti-ship cruise missile and RBU-12000 UDAV-1 ASW rocket launchers.
Liaoning (16) is the only aircraft carrier in service with People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China. Initially developed as part of the Admiral Kuznetsov Class for the Soviet Union, Liaoning was earlier known by the names Riga and Varyag.
Hong Kong-based Chong Lot Travel Agency bought Liaoning at an auction in 1998 with the idea of converting it into a floating casino but never completed the conversion. The uncompleted ship was transferred to the Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was later acquired by China and refitted in Dalian Shipyard, to serve as an aircraft carrier for the PLAN. Liaoning was finally commissioned into service in September 2012.
The aircraft carrier is armed with Type 1030 CIWS, HQ-10 missiles and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) rocket launchers. The vessel displacing more than 58,000t (full load) is powered by steam turbine propulsion. Its flight deck can house about 50 aircraft, including fixed wing planes and helicopters.
INS Vikramaditya, with a displacement of 44,500t, is the biggest warship in service with the Indian Navy. Commissioned into service in November 2013, it is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier acquired from Russia.
The warship measures 284m-long and 60m-wide. The short take-off, but assisted recovery (STOBAR) flight deck can carry more than 30 aircraft including a mix of MiG 29K/Sea Harrier, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea King, ALH-Dhruv and Chetak helicopters. The carrier is armed with anti-ship missiles, air-to-air missiles, guided bombs and rockets.
The propulsion system of INS Vikramaditya integrates eight turbo-pressurised boilers and four geared steam turbines generating a total output power of 180,000shp. The six turbo alternators and six diesel alternators aboard the vessel generate a total power of 18MW.
The Charles de Gaulle (R91) aircraft carrier, the first French nuclear-powered surface ship, is the largest warship in Western Europe. It is also the only nuclear-powered carrier in service outside of the US Navy.
The French aircraft carrier underwent a six-month refit, which was concluded at Toulon naval base in July 2013. It can support the operations of 40 fixed wing aircraft and helicopters including Rafale M, Super Étendard, E-2C Hawkeye, SA365 Dauphin, EC725 Caracal and AS532 Cougar.
The vessel with a full load displacement of 42,000t carries 1,350 ship’s company and 600 air wing. Its power plant comprises of two K15 pressurised water reactors and provides a speed of 27kt.
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São Paulo (A12) is the eighth biggest aircraft carrier, weighing more than 32,000t at full load. It is a Clemenceau-Class aircraft carrier currently operated by the Brazilian Navy. Originally commissioned by French Navy in 1963 as Foch (R99), the carrier was sold to Brazil in 2000.
The São Paulo can complement 1,920 crew, including 1,338 ship’s company and 582 Air Group crew. Its flight deck can accommodate 39 aircraft including fighters, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
The armament aboard the ship includes SACP Crotale EDIR systems, Simbad launchers and naval guns for protection against surface and aerial threats. The six boilers generating 126,000shp make São Paulo one of the most powerful conventional aircraft carriers in operation. The propulsion system of the vessel provides a maximum speed of 32kt.
The Cavour (550) with a full load displacement of 30,000t is the world’s ninth largest aircraft carrier. The Italian aircraft carrier (CVH) serves as the flagship of the Italian Navy (Marina Militare).
The Cavour features a 232.6m x 34.5m flight deck, which can accommodate fixed-wing aircraft such as AV-8B Harrier and JSF as well as EH101, AB212, NH 90 and SH3D helicopters. The vessel can complement 1,292 crew, including troops.
The armament includes short range defence systems, guns and decoy launchers defending against a variety of threats. The power plant integrating four 22MW AVIO/GE LM2500 Gas Turbines provides a maximum sustained speed of 29kt.
INS Viraat (R22), the tenth largest aircraft carrier in the world, is a Centaur-Class aircraft carrier operated by the Indian Navy. It is also the oldest carrier, serving as the flagship of the Indian Navy. It was originally commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Hermes in 1959 and sold to India in 1986.
INS Viraat has a full load displacement of 28,700t and carries up to 30 fixed and rotary wing aircraft, such as Sea Harrier, Westland Sea King, HAL Chetak and HAL Dhruv. It complements a crew of 1,350, including 43 officers.
The Bofors AA guns and Barak surface-to-air missile (SAM) launchers mounted on the Viraat aircraft carrier protect the ship from aerial and surface attacks. The steam turbine propulsion system provides a maximum speed of 28kt.
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A large naval contingent at this year’s Defence Security Equipment International proved to be one of the most popular attractions for visitors.
The world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise has been assigned to the scrapyard.Behold a perfect Silicon Valley denizen, an archetype: he's been written up in TechCrunch for his hackathon-organizing company. He's been fluffed in Business Insider. And now, inevitably, he's publicly savaged the homeless and generally less fortunate of San Francisco.
Greg Gopman, and his company, AngelHack, offer no apparent utility or value to our planet. It's a startup that begets other startups, a hackathon for hackathons, an engorged, vomiting ouroboros in reverse. His pride orbits around organizing the "largest hackathons" in history—and given that a hackathon doesn't mean much of anything, that's about as weighty as telling the world's longest knock knock joke, or blowing a trillion soap bubbles.
But Gopman thinks he's earned some sort of high social spot, from which he can type out horrid Facebook updates like this one:
Just got back to SF. I've traveled around the world and I gotta say there is nothing more grotesque than walking down market st in San Francisco. Why the heart of our city has to be overrun by crazy, homeless, drug dealers, dropouts, and trash I have no clue. Each time I pass it my love affair with SF dies a little.
He's very slightly right, in that large portions of San Francisco are full of people who need help. But help doesn't come in the form of ugly Facebook remarks—it comes in the form of help. To make it absolutely clear that he's condemning these people and not lamenting their situation, he writes further:
The difference is in other cosmopolitan cities, the lower part of society keep to themselves. They sell small trinkets, beg coyly, stay quiet, and generally stay out of your way. They realize it's a privilege to be in the civilized part of town and view themselves as guests. And that's okay.
In downtown SF the degenerates gather like hyenas, spit, urinate, taunt you, sell drugs, get rowdy, they act like they own the center of the city. Like it's their place of leisure... In actuality it's the business district for one of the wealthiest cities in the USA. It a disgrace. I don't even feel safe walking down the sidewalk without planning out my walking path.
You can preach compassion, equality, and be the biggest lover in the world, but there is an area of town for degenerates and an area of town for the working class. There is nothing positive gained from having them so close to us. It's a burden and a liability having them so close to us. Believe me, if they added the smallest iota of value I'd consider thinking different, but the crazy toothless lady who kicks everyone that gets too close to her cardboard box hasn't made anyone's life better in a while.
All emphasis added.
Somewhere, like a Jedi-ghost Obi Wan, Peter Shih is smiling with pride. But it's odd: I think many San Franciscans would say it's the hackathon organizers, not the destitute, that should be dragged off the sidewalk and pushed into the Pacific Ocean with a bulldozer.
Update: Want to help the people this guy hates? I've heard the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation is a good place to donate.
Photo: The PagemanBehind every strong man is an even stronger woman–especially if she is conservative.
Combine true empowerment, feminine virtue, ambition, maternal instincts, sass, and intelligence–and what do you get? A force to be reckoned.
How do most people respond to strong conservative women? Women, despite our competitive nature, like seeing other women succeed. We elevate our fellow females who are gutsy, smart, principled, and serious. Alternatively, men have a more mixed view of strong conservative women. If a man is insecure with himself, he despises them, trashes their character, and seeks to put them down. If a man is confident with himself, he recognizes their talents, beauty, charm, hard work ethic, and desires to surround himself with them.
Before suggesting our sector of the female gender is just as man-hating, delusional, or gender-driven as our counterparts comprising the female establishment, I suggest noting the differences. We respect difference of opinion, we believe women can chart their own course (career, motherhood, or both), we believe men complement us, and we wholly reject big government dictating our lives. More importantly, we don’t allow women OR men to bully us into submission, complacency, or gutter politics.
One man who isn’t afraid of strong conservative women is Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who expressed his admiration for strong women at last night’s CNN GOP Townhall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I particularly enjoyed what he said about strong women when answering a question on how he has made his campaign palatable to women.
“Listen, when you’re married to a strong woman professional, you see the nonsense that women deal with in the business environment. You see the garbage they put up with. And, it makes you mad. I’ve been blessed my whole life to be surrounded by strong women,” said Cruz.
He added, “I believe every issue is a women’s issue”
Below is the link to the full clip:
I have been blessed to be surrounded by strong women my entire life. https://t.co/q37kfueOtQ #GOPTownHall — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 30, 2016
Alternatively, who fears strong conservative women? Arguably Donald Trump and those entrenched in party politics on both sides of the aisle. Take into account Donald Trump’s attacks on Megyn Kelly, Carly Fiorina, Heidi Cruz, Amanda Carpenter, and Michelle Fields, just to name a few.
First, his attacks on Megyn Kelly came after she pressed him at the Fox News debate in August about his disparaging comments towards women–where she rightfully questioned his temperament as unpresidential. In typical Trump fashion, he lashed out at her and suggested she unfairly attacked him. (How dare someone challenge Il Trumpo? The horror, the horror!) He then disparaged Kelly by suggesting she had “blood coming out of her wherever” and has relentlessly attacked her integrity ever since. Then he proceeded to attack Carly Fiorina’s face. Not surprising for a guy who’s a notorious philanderer, has been thrice-married, and judges women on their appearance. Next came Trump’s attack on Heidi Cruz. How did Trump respond to an anti-Trump PAC with no clear affiliation to his competitor Ted Cruz? He threatened to “spill the beans” on Mrs. Cruz and proceeded to disparage her marriage to Cruz by coordinating a hit piece in National Enquirer suggesting the senator is unfaithful to her. (An insinuation of infidelity by Cruz, who is loyal and faithful to his wife, is pure hogwash and garbage.) Shortly after, conservative commentator and CNN contributor Amanda Carpenter was attacked by the Trump machine as one of Cruz’s “alleged mistresses” for speaking boldly against their antics. She immediately fired back and maintained her credibility as she always does. And then comes Trump’s attack on Michelle Fields, who was manhandled by Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Yesterday, he was charged with simple battery. And what does Trump proceed to do in response to this? He defames Fields’ character, calls her a liar, and openly mocks her for exposing his campaign’s violent tendencies.
All these women have not succumbed to attacks from the Trump machine. They, like many others out there, have stood their ground despite internet trolls, creeps, and malcontents hurling threats toward them and their families.
For someone who boldly claims “women love me” and “I take great care of women”, Trump has demonstrated the opposite with his blatant sexist, piggish attacks–behavior best exhibited by a petulant 5-year old child. Trump is threatened by people–including strong women–who don’t kiss his ring or fall in line with his bully tactics.
Similarly, powerful men at the helms of party politics in both Republican and Democrat circles fear strong conservative women but better conceal their discontent with them than Trump does.
Conservative women working in politics are unfairly castigated by those who fear them–especially if a woman is strong in her faith, has a good reputation, is cultured, is sharp, and refuses to engage in petty politics or gossip. Regardless if you live in D.C., L.A., or Chicago, if you are a strong conservative woman in politics, someone–usually an insecure man–will try to tear them down to feel better about themselves. They hurl insults, question one’s moral character, or suggest you’re sleazy if your career is taking off or if people are offering you praise. I’ve certainly experienced this unfair treatment as a college student and as a young professional, as have countless other women who are also political operatives. Unlike these brutes, we just don’t let this boorish behavior consume us or bother us. We take the moral high ground and press on.
The good ol’ boys in politics, regardless of party, fear strong conservative women–and they should. We’re a force to be reckoned with. Like our male counterparts who desire to reform politics with policies emboldening limited government, accountability, freedom, and anti-cronyism, strong conservative females are willing to stand up for what’s right when party officials renege on their responsibilities or when fake Republicans hijack our cause.SYDNEY (Reuters) - The euro languished at two month lows early in Asia on Wednesday, threatening to deepen its losses, while the euro zone debt crisis and heightened tensions in the Korean Pennisular helped underpin the dollar.
United States money printing plates are seen at the Museum of American Finance in New York October 15, 2010. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Already hammered by Europe’s inability to contain Ireland’s debt woes, the single currency shed 1.9 percent overnight to as low as $1.3359, putting key support in the $1.3333 area, the August high, in clear sight.
A break of that level could pave the way for a retest of $1.3232, the 61.8 percent retracement of the August to November rally, before $1.3000. It last traded at $1.3378, versus $1.3373 late in New York.
In the words of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the euro was in an “exceptionally serious” situation.
Investors took aim at Spanish government bonds on Tuesday, driving the premium over German benchmarks to a euro lifetime high after Madrid was forced to pay a high cost to sell short-term bills.
“Contagion from the Irish situation during the last few months was largely limited to Greece and Portugal. Not any more,” wrote Matthew Strauss, strategist at RBC Capital Markets, in a note.
The European Union urged Ireland to adopt an austerity budget on time to unlock promised EU/IMF funding, in response to a deepening political crisis that could derail the financial rescue to recapitalise the country’s banks and fund its public finances.
Further dampening risk appetite was heightened tension in north Asia after North Korea fired scores of artillery shells at a South Korean island on Tuesday, prompting Seoul to warn of “enormous retaliation” if it took more aggressive steps.
The dollar surged to 1,170.90 won, from around 1,125 won on Tuesday as investors dumped the South Korean currency.
“It just means the whole region is less attractive than it was before this,” said Sean Callow, strategist at Westpac Bank in Sydney. “Into year-end, only the brave will be nibbling at risk. That is negative for Asian currencies and negative for the Aussie as well.”
As investors took fright and sold riskier assets such as stocks, the yen and dollar benefited from the flight to safety. The Japanese currency was the best performer among the majors, chalking up gains against the dollar, euro and sterling.
The dollar briefly fell below 83.00 yen before recovering slightly to 83.13. The euro slumped to 110.69 from a session high of 113.68, reaching lows not seen since September 16. It was last at 111.19 yen.
The dollar index rallied toward 79.800.DXY, its best level since late September, having pierced Fibonacci resistance at 79.596, a level representing the 50 percent retracement of the August to November fall.
The next hurdle is at 80.533, the 61.8 percent retracement.
Commodity currencies also languished against the backdrop of heightened risk aversion. The Australian dollar slid to a four-week low of $0.9708 and was last at $0.9730, while the New Zealand currency plumbed $0.7584, lows not seen since October 29.
Investors are now looking to see how Asian shares fare and further losses will tend to keep the yen and dollar supported.Eric Boullier has praised Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button for the way they have responded to McLaren's slow start to the 2015 season.
McLaren has yet to score a point since switching from Mercedes to Honda power, though both the team and manufacturer warned of a slow period of adjustment at the start of the year. There has been clear progress since the season opener in Australia, though not enough to propel the team into the points, and Honda is ready to introduce an upgraded power unit for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Asked how the drivers were responding to a difficult situation, racing director Boullier said: "No, it's not difficult. They are doing a very good job... I'm very happy. They clearly extract everything they can from the car, no mistakes, it's very impressive to be honest."
Boullier says the patience of his drivers, who have three world championships between them, is down to the fact both men understand the fact the McLaren-Honda partnership is a long-term project to get back to the front of the pack.
"I don't see any issue with motivation with any of them. They see and they feel the progress and they both know how immature the project is and where we go, so they already have a view on short-term, medium-term, by the end of the year or even now we are starting to talk about next year, because we want them to buy into what we are doing but also be critical about where we go. It's good to have different opinions and points of view but they are very motivated, very professional and I have to say I'm 100% happy.""True Detective" season one. James Bridges/HBO Speculation has swirled about the future of "True Detective," but it looks like season three will be a go.
Entertainment Weekly reports that creator Nic Pizzolatto has written "at least the first two episodes for a potential third edition" of the HBO anthology crime show.
EW also says that David Milch, the mastermind behind HBO's "Deadwood" and the very short-lived "Luck," will be hopping on "True Detective" to help Pizzolatto.
While there is no official green light yet for the third season of "True Detective," it makes a lot of sense: While the second season of the series — starring Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, and Rachel McAdams — was critically panned, the show continued to be a relative hit for the premium-cable network.
The first season of "True Detective," starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, proved to be a massive success for HBO, driving huge ratings and spawning theories all across the internet about its central mystery.
HBO did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.Starting in 2016, both universities also offer the IUSD as a single degree program in both locations, with different study and exchange opportunities.
The IUSD program has been jointly developed and established since 2011 by the two partner universities University of Stuttgart and Ain Shams University, Cairo. The double-degree program with the first year in Stuttgart University and the second year at Ain Shams University in Cairo serves as its backbone and is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through the program “Development-Related Postgraduate Courses”. The double-degree program is supported by a high-profile advisory board and by various German, Egyptian and international organizations, including UNHabitat, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH), and CEDARE (Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe). These partnerships offer IUSD students numerous opportunities to test and develop skills in challenging and complex applied contexts.
It is open to graduates and young professionals from the fields of architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture and regional planning as well as to graduates with other Bachelor degrees and with relevant professional experience. Our philosophy is based on transnational learning exchange between students with different regional backgrounds applied to a specific urban reality. Our joint IUSD Lab ´s experiential learning hubs are based in Egypt (IUSD Lab Cairo) and Germany (IUSD Lab Stuttgart) and embedded into a network of international partner institutions and universities around the world.
The Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design is a Masters’ program hosted at the University of Stuttgart and Ain Shams University in Cairo. It trains and prepares a new generation of urban practitioners to face the tremendous environmental, cultural, socio-economic and governance challenges resulting from the dynamic urban transformation around the globe.
News
N-AERUS Conference 2018 in Stuttgart
08-10 November 2018
This year our Department of International Urbanism at University of Stuttgart is going to host the 19th N-AERUS conference from November 8-10, 2018.
Here to get further information.
IUSD Lecture by Michael Krause
14 June 2018
The SI and IUSD are glad to welcome Michael Krause talking about "Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrading in Cape Town, South Africa“.
Thursday 10.00h - 12:00h
Location: K1, 10th floor (room 10.07)
Here to get further information.
IUSD Lecture by Kurt Ackermann
01 June 2018
The SI and IUSD are glad to welcome Kurt Ackermann talking about "Growing food, growing community: Good Hope Farm and the new opportunities for urban agriculture in Cape Town, South Africa“.
Friday 10.00h - 12:00h
Location: K1, Labor 8 (room 8.06)
Here to get further information.
IUSD Lecture by Danielle Hoppe
15 May 2018
The ILPÖ and IUSD are glad to welcome Danielle Hoppe |
giestan," which he said was a country he had just created.He also said he was upset with Dallas police for "shooting the mentally handicapped." When the call taker asked if he had been diagnosed with anything, he said he had "a clear mind and a full heart."Dallas police said they suspect that LeGuin put devices, including propane tanks and jars filled with liquid, outside a home. Several had exploded. He told a 911 call taker that he shot one of them.LeGuin later surrendered to SWAT officers. He declined to talk to police after he was taken into custody, Cotner said.The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will assist in the investigation, Cotner said.Initial reports had indicated that LeGuin had told police he was part of the “sovereign citizen” movement, which believes the federal, state and local governments operate illegally.Wilkerson also said the family member got a call from a friend in Kentucky who had some concerning audio tapes along the same lines."There were no threats on the tape, but there was apparently some statements that were made that were anti-government where this individual talked about starting his own country and doing some things of that nature,” Wilkerson said.Wilkerson said Corinth investigators haven't heard the tapes firsthand.Police say LeGuin will be charged with seven counts of aggravated assault against a public servant. Leguin has owned his current home in Corinth since 1998, records show.The incident happened in Collin County, so the DA's office there will handle the prosecution. For now, LeGuin is being held in Dallas County jail in lieu of $350,000 bail.Dallas police posted audio of LeGuin's 911 call here.I’ve been following all of the exciting news coming out of the Image Expo this week, but my eyes always light up when I see mention of Saga writer, Brian K. Vaughan’s name. After speaking about his upcoming new series, Paper Girls, he shared his perspective on Image as a whole with the crowd. This was highlighted a few times throughout my Twitter feed.
So what exactly makes Image comics have this non-competitive feel, I wonder? Is it simply because there are so many people with different ideas coming together that they don’t have time to compete with one another? We know that they have a lot of creator owned comics, and as a reader, I happen to gravitate towards them more and more. Every Wednesday when I gaze at the new releases, if I spot a #1 issue from Image, I instantly grab it. Over the past few months, Image has released a few first issues that I found very intriguing: Drifter, Sinergy, The Humans and ODY-C come to mind. Maybe it’s just me, but it is nice to read some comics that focus on an original concept. Dare I say…sometimes I like reading things that don’t feature superheroes?
Deb Aoki quotes Vaughan as saying:
I’ve heard some complaints about how many new books Image is pumping out, but there’s nothing wrong with it to me. The more fresh ideas, the better! So, what do you think? Do you gravitate towards Image titles?
Christine Marie is a Staff Writer at Bleeding Cool, and bibliomaniac with a love for all things creative. She hopes to one day be a Superhero/Disney Princess/Novelist. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @AWritersWay or on her blog writerchristinemarie.wordpress.com.
About Christine Marie
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None foundNext time you go out for sushi in Los Angeles, don’t bother ordering halibut. Chances are it’s not halibut at all.
A new study from researchers at UCLA and Loyola Marymount University checked the DNA of fish ordered at 26 Los Angeles sushi restaurants from 2012 through 2015, and found that 47 percent of sushi was mislabeled. The good news is that sushi represented as tuna was almost always tuna. Salmon was mislabeled only about one in 10 times. But out of 43 orders of halibut and 32 orders of red snapper, DNA tests showed the researchers were always served a different kind of fish. A one-year sampling of high-end grocery stores found similar mislabeling rates, suggesting the bait-and-switch may occur earlier in the supply chain than the point of sale to consumers.
“Half of what we’re buying isn’t what we think it is,” said Paul Barber, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the study that appeared today in the journal Conservation Biology. “Fish fraud could be accidental, but I suspect that in some cases the mislabeling is very much intentional, though it’s hard to know where in the supply chain it begins. I suspected we would find some mislabeling, but I didn’t think it would be as high as we found in some species.”
It’s not just a question of being miffed that the wrong fish is on your plate — the fraud undermines environmental regulations limiting overfishing, introduces unexpected health risks and interferes with consumers’ decisions, the researchers noted.
Over the four-year study, only bluefin tuna was always exactly as advertised. While only one of 48 tuna samples was not tuna, different kinds of tuna occasionally swapped places, including two samples that turned out to be Atlantic bluefin tuna and southern bluefin tuna, species classified as endangered and critically endangered. Out of nine orders of yellowfin tuna, seven were a different kind of tuna, usually bigeye — a vulnerable and overexploited species, the researchers said. Salmon remained a largely safe bet, with only 6 of 47 orders going awry. However, all halibut and red snapper orders failed the DNA test, and in 9 out of 10 cases, diners ordering halibut were served flounder. About 4 in 10 halibut orders were species of flounder considered overfished or near threatened.
Although some short-term studies have suggested that fish fraud is declining due in part to stricter regulations, this study uncovered consistent mislabeling year over year, indicating seafood misidentification is not improving. While the current study took place in Los Angeles, previous studies detected similar problems nationwide, suggesting that the UCLA findings are widely applicable, said Barber, who worked with lead author Demian Willette and researchers from UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara. Willette is a UCLA assistant research scientist and a Loyola Marymount University biology instructor.
“If we don’t have accurate information on what we’re buying, we can’t make informed choices,” Barber said. “The amount of mislabeling is so high and consistent, one has to think that even the restaurants are being duped.”
For consumers trying to avoid threatened or overfished species, sushi fraud can thwart their efforts. For diners — especially pregnant women or small children — who wish to avoid high-mercury fish, mislabeling could harm their health. And some fish are riskier than others: a common parasite found in raw olive flounder, which replaced halibut on researchers’ plates a third of the time, has caused “rampant” food poisoning in Japan, the study noted.
The researchers used DNA barcoding, which uses a partial DNA sequence from a mitochondrial gene, to accurately identify the fish.
“DNA barcoding is becoming an increasingly popular tool to identify mislabeled products,” Willette said. “Our finding of a persistently high rate of seafood mislabeling should encourage consumers to demand strong truth-in-menu laws from local public health agencies. Citizen-science and crowd-sourced data also have real potential to keep the consumer informed.”
While some mislabeling could be unintentional, fraud could also result from the desire to skirt environmental regulations or the ability to sell a cheaper fish as a more expensive product, the researchers said. The global fish trade is a $135 billion industry, the study notes. New federal regulations governing monitoring of seafood imports went into effect Jan. 9 to address the problem. The UCLA study shows increased monitoring is needed, said Sarah Sikich, vice president of the environmental group Heal the Bay.
“As a foodie mecca, Los Angeles wields enormous influence,” Sikich said. “Fish fraud at L.A.-area restaurants and grocery stores can pose health threats if substitute fish are contaminated or contain allergens, thwart consumers who are trying to buy sustainable, and impede fisheries policy. This study points to the importance of measures to improve traceability and monitoring to reduce the prevalence of fish fraud.”
From 2012 to 2015, the UCLA researchers tested 364 samples of 10 popular varieties of fish used for sushi. Extending the project for four years was possible in part because it involved students from the UCLA class Introduction to Marine Science, in which Willette was an adjunct faculty member. The students were sent to sushi restaurants popular on the reviewing site Yelp to order specific types of fish from the menus. When their orders arrived at their tables, they asked the servers to confirm each fish type. Then they pulled out their forceps and scissors, snipped off a tiny piece off each kind of fish, and dropped it into prepared vials for DNA testing as part of the lab requirement for their class.
“It’s a very powerful teaching tool for them to collect this data themselves,” Barber said. “From an educational perspective, that has a massive impact. These students will never forget what they learned.”
The researchers did not release the identity of the sushi restaurants involved in the study, in part because they expect that most sushi restaurants would fare similarly, Barber said.
“The goal is not to point fingers, but to make people aware of the larger issue,” Barber said “I think it would be really cool to work with some restaurants to test their shipments so we can start to work out where in the supply chain the fraud is taking place. I would love to know what the restaurants think they’re getting from the suppliers.”China is second to the US in the number of academic papers produced
More than $100m (£63m) changes hands in China every year for ghost-written academic papers, according to research by a Chinese university.
The study, by Wuhan University, says Chinese academics and students often buy and sell scientific papers to swell publications lists.
Many of the purported authors never write the papers they sign.
China ranks second behind the United States by number of academic papers published every year.
In a country desperate to catch up with the developed world in science and technology, academic hacking has cast a shadow over its long-term innovative potential, according to BBC China analyst Shirong Chen.
Wake-up call
The market in buying and selling scientific papers has grown five-fold in the past three years.
Some hard-up masters or doctorate students are making a living by churning out papers for others. Others mass-produce scientific papers in order to get monetary rewards from their institutions.
Two lecturers from central China were sacked late last month after it was discovered that they had falsified 70 papers in two years.
Critics say part of the problem lies in the official requirement on academic publication for degrees and job promotions.
But the root cause lies in the erosion of an academic code of conduct, our correspondent says.
As the country is still debating why no scholars from mainland China have won the Nobel Prize, the latest study serves as a wake-up call for the country to clean up its act, he adds.HARRISON, NJ (Nov. 25, 2013) – The 2013 Supporters’ Shield champion New York Red Bulls unveiled their 2014 MLS regular season schedule on Monday afternoon. New York will open its campaign on Saturday, March 8, when it travels to BC Place to take on the Vancouver Whitecaps (Local TV TBA). Kickoff time of that match is 7:30 PM ET. A week later, the Red Bulls will hold their home opener at Red Bull Arena on March 15 against the Colorado Rapids at Red Bull Arena at 4:00 PM (TV: NBC Sports Network).
2014 Red Bulls Season Tickets are on sale now by calling 1.877.RBSOCCER or logging onto tickets.newyorkredbulls.com.
The full schedule and more information will be available shortly.
Each of the league’s 19 clubs will play 34 matches -- 17 at home and 17 away -- during 35 weeks. Within each conference, clubs will play the same number of in-conference and out-of-conference games.
Here are some notes on New York’s regular season schedule:
Notable fixtures:1. Director David Leitch has been around motion pictures for a while now. Early on as a stuntman, second unit director and most recently a co-director on “John Wick” (2014). Needless to say, he knows his way around a filmed fight scene. And this film features and unending supply of fight scenes. Some may be surprised to see that Charlize Theron is in all of those scenes. She’s earned her fighting chops is films like “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) and “The Fate of the Furious” (2017). But neither of those performances feature a non-stop ball-busting heroine like British MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton. Theron, who is also a producer, bought the rights to the graphic novel series “The Coldest City” on which the film is based. Set in Berlin in 1989 in the days leading up to the official integration of the east and the west, Lorraine is sent to recover a list of spies stolen from another agent who was killed. He also happened to be a former lover of Lorraine’s. It appears he was killed by the Soviets or their East German Stasi allies. Lorraine meets up with her MI6 contact, David Percival (James McAvoy) who seems to be a bit off kilter compared to Ms. Broughton. We know something went wrong early on as we see all of this action in flashback scenes. Lorraine is being debriefed in London by her immediate boss, Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and his CIA counterpart, Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman). The MI6 chief, “C” (James Faulkner), is looking on behind the one-way glass. Leitch and his cinematographer, Jonathan Sela set a color palate early on. Shades of blue when Loraine is in wind-down or recovery mode. Check out the scene (in trailers) when we see her pull her battered body out of a bathtub filled with ice cubes. When the action gets hot – including scenes with French character named Delphine (Sofia Boutella) – the red coloring is prominent. Another great character in the film is the soundtrack with songs from David Bowie, George Michael, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash and even Nena and Kaleida’s different versions of “99 Luftballons.” It all sounds great in Dolby ATMOS. While the spy list seems a bit too illusive, we discover that a potential defector called Spyglass (Eddie Marsan) also has the list…memorized. So he becomes a key element in the story. Lorraine’s mission becomes more complex as she is tasked to escort him from East Berlin to West Berlin then back to England. In a fight scene reminiscent of one out of a Paul Greengrass “Bourne” film or Gareth Evans’ “Raid” film or yes, “John Wick,” Leitch, Sela and their stunt coordinators pull off a 10-minute sequence that appears to be uncut. It’s amazing! As is Theron who never flinches. Well she does, but you understand what I mean. She does the work. What pulls the film back a bit from perfection is a convoluted story with too many changes in direction and absurd plot points. Don’t be too concerned however. Miss Theron has proven to be one of the best action characters on the screen today. Recommended.
Read moreA Powderhorn Park lawn artist who has long clashed with City Hall will get tossed out of his home on Thursday as city officials move to condemn his property and end his practice of using his front yard as an open-air gallery for controversial sculptures.
A provocative, dark and somewhat jumbled creation, the artwork has existed in one form or another for at least 15 years at Andrew Moore’s Bloomington Avenue S. home. For what Moore calls “reality art,” he uses random bits of garbage to protest issues such as gentrification, racism and poverty.
“I really would hate to throw it away,” Moore said as he looked over the yard last week.
He lost his home to condemnation on Monday after falling behind on utility bills. Moore made an 11th-hour deal with the We Buy Ugly Houses rehab outfit, and plans to sell the property before he’s kicked out on Thursday. Most of the sale proceeds will go toward fees owed to City Hall for code violations. Moore said he’ll walk away with $5,000.
The yard art has become a Powderhorn Park institution, said area resident Tony Balluff, who doesn’t know Moore personally.
Almost all of Andrew Moore’s makeshift yard art had a pointed political edge, touching on issues such as racism, gentrification, poverty and unemployment.
“It’s right in the middle between art and protest,” he said. Some people embrace it, but others tolerate it out of respect for Moore’s freedom of speech, Balluff said.
“It’s a huge installation, and it sometimes can be overwhelming,” he said.
Moore traced the roots of his yard art to being fired from the Re-Use Center, a salvaged-goods organization that once had an outlet at the Hiawatha-Lake mall. He protested his firing with signs outside the Re-Use Center’s front door and eventually moved the “reality art” to his house, where it took on other subjects.
The sculptures changed with the times as Moore added new pieces and took away others. His latest collection includes a section about Trayvon Martin, along with a baby doll with a toy gun, a casket, a torn U.S. flag and a surveillance camera trained on a globe.
Handwritten signs protest gentrification, unemployment and the racial makeup of the prison population.
“Sometimes the art was tough to look at, and people didn’t like it because it was very abruptly honest,” said neighbor Michael Bowen. “I think [Moore] was always supporting people that have a hard time in society. He represented some of the best of Powderhorn.”
Some of Moore’s work offended people, like the baby doll that he left hanging in a noose. Moore said it represented something truthful about the future kids face today.
“That’s been his right to do that. As much as putting Santa Claus and a reindeer in the front yard with elves, he can put some artwork in the front yard. I think Powderhorn’s going to miss him,” said Jeff Noyed, a social worker with the Jubilee Community Church, a block away from Moore’s house.
Moore said he has no plans to reinstall his sculptures elsewhere. The 55-year-old father doesn’t know where he’s going to live next, and has spent the past weeks making preparations for his two teenagers who live with him.
“I’m pretty sure not too many art galleries would want it,” said Moore, looking over his yard.
He has long sparred with city officials over the maintenance of the property in the 3200 block of Bloomington Avenue S. He said he is convinced that much of the friction rests with city officials’ unhappiness with the art display.
A couple of years ago, Moore lost his landlord license for failing to fix code issues. This summer, after months of not paying electric and water bills, he saw the utilities get shut off on his 124-year-old duplex. Moore said that last spring he lost county assistance that he once used to pay those bills. He thinks the assistance was shut off because of the art.
A city official confirmed that Moore’s house would be condemned due to the water being shut off.
Owning up to a criminal past, including drug offenses and prison time, Moore said the yard sculptures were something he could use to channel his anger.
“I’ve been blessed,” he said. “Through years of being in prison and believing in the Lord upstairs, and believing in my love for my children, that’s changed. It’s made me a better person.”In a garage on a busy road in Itabashi ward in northern Tokyo, Miyu Kojima has finished her day's work. It's a cold night in February. Cleaning products sit on one side of the garage; people's belongings are stacked on green trolleys and cardboard boxes marked "ToDo-Company" on the other. These items used to belong to the people whose homes Miyu and her colleagues have cleaned. They will be recycled or sold.
Miyu, who was 24 when we met, works for ToDo company, whose employees clean the homes of people who have died. Theirs has often been a "lonely death", known in Japanese as kodokushi.
It's an increasingly common phenomenon in a country with an ageing population, more elderly people living on their own and fractured connections. Miyu is the only woman and the youngest employee in the 10-person company.
"I mainly clean up these flats, apartments, houses where lonely death had happened and also organise their mementos," says Miyu, who is in her second year of work at ToDo. On average, those whose homes she cleans, she says, may have been lying undiscovered for a month or two; the longest, eight months. Sometimes, they clean the homes of people who died in hospital, were murdered or committed suicide.
After the bodies have been removed, she and her colleagues scrub down the home and sort through the belongings - they refer to themselves as memento organisers.
Miyu is chirpy and smiles often. She wears bleach-splattered sneakers. She got into this line of work after her father, with whom she had an uneasy relationship, died suddenly. "I thought I know what these families are going through, and I want to support them, help them."
Miyu started searching for companies that specialised in this kind of work. Most simply listed the required tasks, but then she saw a recruitment ad for ToDo and liked its emphasis on finding "the [right] word for these families".
Hirotsugu Masuda, who is in his 40s, started ToDo, so named because it's a job someone has "to do".
'Please rest in peace'
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Miyu says a typical day involves meeting in the morning, discussing roles so everyone can move quickly, then heading to the location in a team of about six. They usually finish a job around 3pm. Each one brings in $3-5,000.
"I do everything from the beginning to the end - I drive the truck and clean and talk to the families," Miyu says.
Before Miyu enters a home, she says a prayer. "The reason why I say a prayer before I get into the place is because I know these people died … and some people may have some regret," she explains. She prays for them to "please rest in peace".
At first, Miyu found the work tough. The scenes could be grotesque. Even after the body has been removed, hair and seepage from the corpse sometimes remain. The work can be physically demanding. But "what I find most difficult," she explains, "is to talk to the family. I don't know how much I can really ask or talk."
When someone dies of kodokushi, she says there's a sense of daily life that lingers. It's harder cleaning a house "where someone has been murdered or someone killed themselves", she adds, explaining that the air feels heavier in such places.
Summers are usually busier - that's when bodies that haven't been discovered for a while tend to be found because of the smell. In the past year, she thinks she's cleaned about 90 flats.
On an iPad, Miyu showed pictures of past jobs - the murky, brown outline of a body which had started decomposing and leaking onto a cloth mat; the skeleton of a cat; a grimy kitchen sink with used chopsticks resting inside. The Friday before we met, someone had died in front of their toilet. As a sign of respect, Miyu propped a bunch of flowers against the toilet seat.
"[While cleaning] l often think about who has lived here, what kind of life they had, what kind of job they had, and also what these families are thinking of this person."
Miyu says people tend to collect things: coins, stamps, coupons, shopping bags.
"I search for what these families are looking for or what's important to them - pictures and special things."
When they finish cleaning, they perform a final ritual of placing flowers, burning incense and praying. Once the place has been "reset", Miyu says "that's the time to say goodbye, so we do that sometimes with the family."
Miyu gives the mementos to the family. If they don't want them, ToDo takes them to a temple for a ritual to be performed on them and then they are incinerated.
"I feel sad when the family doesn't want to take these things, because it's something that this person left, and it's something memorable," she says.
In her opinion, demand for their work is increasing. Hideto Kone, vice president of Association of Dispositions Memento, estimated in February that there are around 4,000 of these companies across Japan.
"Every year I feel more that people have been disconnected from each other, and I think this losing of connection, losing of communication is the reason [behind kodokushi]," Miyu says.
A window into human relationships
At first, Miyu's mother was opposed to her job. But she's since come around.
Her boyfriend was also sceptical. "At the beginning, he was just telling me, 'Why are you doing this work? You can get cursed, haunted.' But I was like, 'I'm not doing anything wrong or bad. Why do I have to be haunted?'" she says. "And now he understands me."
She hasn't met any other women in this line of work and says people are often surprised to see her at these jobs. "I think it's not about my age; it's about my gender," she says.
Her profession has its advantages. Miyu moved to Tokyo for the job and Masuda went apartment hunting with her.
"The very first place we went to see, I could tell something was wrong before entering," she says. Inside, she said they saw the faint outline of a body on the floor and suspected a case of lonely death had taken place there. They asked the realtor who, Miyu says, "just smiled, and said, 'No, nothing had happened.'" Miyu says: "From that I learned, 'Okay there are many lonely death cases in Tokyo, and also, people want to hide it.'"
Her work has given her a window into human relationships.
"I see these people who don't really care about their parents or family (if they die) and some people don't even look at their mementos," she says. "As soon as they see cash, that's what they take..."
For Miyu, kodokushi is a phenomenon that doesn't just affect the elderly. "This is something that can happen to you, to me."
One case that has stayed with her was that of a woman in her 20s who died in her apartment along with her pet.
"The dog was dead in front of the entrance, and I could see him, he was opening his mouth and looking up, and he was obviously asking for help," she says, adding that the landlord told her that the dog had been "barking like crazy".
"I thought, I wish he could have realised something was going on," she says.
But it was her conversation with the woman's father that most affected her.
"He told me: 'I'd been really hard on her, been a really strict father, and I regret that'... I felt like I couldn't help him, I couldn't do anything for him … I felt really powerless," she says.
In many cases, Miyu says lonely death happens to people who have a poor relationship with their family and no one to ask for help. Society can also stigmatise those who die alone, she believes, as people may see the fact that they had no one around as a reflection on them.
Kodokushi is dying "alone and lonely", Miyu says.
For her, this profession is most revealing of family relationships.
"If the person is gone, then you can't do anything, and that's the time you realise how important this person was," she says.
"[Now is] your chance to communicate and have relations with your family and people."
*With additional reporting by Shiori Ito“Learners are classified based on their patterns of interaction with video lectures and assessments, the primary features of most MOOCs to date.” — Rene F. Kizilcec, et al.
It’s the first thing in the name. MOOCs are primarily massive. They reach huge numbers of students. “Graduating even 5 percent of 100,000 students in a MOOC provides many instructors with substantially greater reach than an entire lifetime of teaching in a conventional classroom.” Educause’s “What Campus Leaders Need to Know about MOOCs” starts with scale: “MOOCs (massive open online courses) are courses delivered over the web to potentially thousands of students at a time.”
With this massive scale comes great responsibility. Discussions of teaching at “mass” scale can set the tone and context of a conversation about pedagogy, a conversation with faculty, CIO’s, CEO’s, but also potentially, a conversation which limits the voice of students. Especially at a time when Diane Dagefoerde of Ohio State University can say “We have a couple of MOOCs going on right now… I’m sure we all do, right?” in an Educause Top Ten Issues in Higher Education IT webinar, we all need to be careful how this conversation begins. The quote that starts this article is drawn from a paper co-written by three Stanford faculty, and argues that a reasonable classification of learners in MOOCs can be drawn from interactions with video lectures and assessments (multiple-choice quizzes and unmoderated forums).
I find it difficult to express how silly I find this idea to be. Drawing conclusions about the interests and purposes of learners through video lecture hours, the virtual equivalent of “butts in seats,” discussions so bad one Coursera professor left a MOOC because of them, and multiple choice quizzes seems like an awfully scarce number of data points for a huge population. To be fair, the Stanford article by Kizilcec, Piech, and Schneider goes on to encourage pedagogical inventiveness, “Other innovative designs of MOOC instruction, content, or platform features — based on principles of the learning sciences or human-computer interaction — should likewise be subject to experimentation and evaluation.” Despite this call, Coursera’s founders and others have, more recently, continued to spread the message that data from the currently limited field of MOOCs can paint an accurate picture of students’ desires. Even some who decry the current quality of MOOCs write about new qualities arising in response to the presumed “intention of the learner.”
In a recent Educause article, Daphne Koller, Andrew Ng, Chuong Do, and Zhenghao Chen (all four work for Coursera, three of them are Stanford professors) expand and explain the Stanford classification, saying “retention in MOOCs should be considered carefully in the context of learner intent, especially given the varied backgrounds and motivations of students who choose to enroll.” They bring to the conversation a host of data and analytics from their impressively large user-base, as well as a framework established by Koller, et al. and Phil Hill for understanding the patterns of MOOCer behavior, based upon their activity in the MOOC.
Student activity, however, is not so limited. It is not predetermined only by the “type” of learner, its story is not told by automated data-gathering systems. Students are alive, they respond to quality, and the quality of a MOOC depends on the quality of the pedagogy, the quality of the content, how it is strung together, and how a community arises out of it.
And that is the problem. Koller, Ng, Do, Chen, Hill, Kizilcec, Piech, Schneider and others evaluate the intention of MOOC students by their behavior in those MOOCs, but miss one very important and obvious possibility: What if the students’ behavior in the MOOC is influenced by the quality of the resources and community they find there?
Students with great intentions — to complete, to engage in a broader community, to gather research for a project — will likely not continue to engage in a MOOC if the quality of the MOOC does not serve their intentions better than other resources. Instead of confronting this issue, Koller and others throw out the red herring of cost: “Since there is no financial cost or barrier to entry, there is little reason to believe that even a majority of the students who enroll in a MOOC intend to complete the class.”
But we are not only talking about completion, and these are not students who try for a few weeks and then trickle out as they get the piece of the course they wanted. Koller et al. also write that of the 50-60% of students who watch the first lecture, only about 15-20% ever submit an assignment. Phil Hill records the sharp drop-off of viewers after the first week. In a Bioelectricity MOOC, 8,000 students watched videos — but only 3,000 of those watched the week 2 intro. Hill reports that anything from 60-80% of the course are “lurkers” who participate in the first week, but by the second week, are gone.
I am also speaking from my own experience. I am what Koller, et al., would class as a “passive participant” and what Phil Hill would call a “lurker”, but I did not have the intentions those terms infer. I signed up for several Coursera MOOCs in the last quarter, one of which was the ill-fated Georgia Tech “Fundamentals of Online Education — Planning and Application” course.
I was excited — I am an educational technology professional, pursuing a graduate degree in educational psychology. Quality online learning is a daily point of discussion in my job and my life. I intended to complete the course. In the week before the course was set to start, I received an email asking me to join one of the discussion groups. Very good, I thought to myself, well-plotted group discussion is a much-used and much-praised component of online learning. I clicked on the “join group” link. The Google Spreadsheet was down. It had only been a few hours since the email arrived. The next email I received:
“It has been an exciting few hours. The course has just started and some of you have managed to delete entire rows and columns in Join A Group Google spreadsheet, removed people from their groups, crashed the Google server, and rebuilt the page back up. This is exciting for me because you are figuring out how to work with each other. I am also excited to see that you are personalizing your groups. So here are some suggestions and tips based on what we have seen so far:
You do not need a Google account to enter your name on the Google Spreadsheet.
If you get a “We’re sorry. Our servers are busy. Please wait a bit and try again.” message, please wait and try again. This just means there are too many people trying to access the site.
Make sure you enter your names in the correct cells. Some of you are entering your names in cells that have the Group numbers. Go back and make sure you are in a group with 19 other people.
Do not delete someone else’s name just because you want to be in that group. Find an empty cell to enter your name in.
Make sure you are still in the group that you signed up for. If for some reason your name is missing from that group, go to a different group.”
Note the language. “You managed to delete entire rows” “you removed people from groups” “(you) go back and make sure you are in a group” not “we failed to create protected ranges” or “we did not properly test-run our solution before trying it with 40,000 students.”
Let us be clear: The students did not crash the Google Servers. Google Spreadsheets have a stated limitation of 50 simultaneous editors per spreadsheet. The Fundamentals of Online Education course creators did not test their application with more than 50 students in a class of 40,000, they did not carefully read their infrastructure contracts, and they apparently did not realize that people would be able to remove others from groups they had already signed up for.
No matter, I thought to myself. I’ll play the lurker role for now and go watch some of the videos. Many articles have commented on the group failure, few have mentioned the quality of the videos for this course. I cannot return to the videos and watch them again, so my memory may be faulty, but this is what I remember: The videos consisted of a teacher speaking directly to the camera, against an (I assume, though am not sure) green-screen backdrop, overlaid with a cityscape, which created distracting visual artifacts around the low-quality overlay. The teacher stared directly into the camera, and delivered a dry lecture which was summarized in wordy bullet points in a faux-chalkboard font reminiscent of Comic Sans, on a faux-chalkboard background, complete with faux wood edging, below the teacher video. While I checked the second week’s video to see if the content was worth the ocular pain, the Google Spreadsheet fiasco continued. I soon received another email:
“I was hoping that the Google Spreadsheet would work after a day but it looks like it will not work at all for our purposes. So I have gone to Plan B. I have created a new Group Sign Up forum. To differentiate this from the groups on the Google Spreadsheet, the group names start with Group A and continues. You can join any group. It does not have to be in order. In order to sign up, look at the Posts. If there are 21 posts, join the next group that does not have 21 posts. If all groups are filled up, start a new Thread with a Group number or name.”
Curious again, I entered the course. As I suspected, and could have predicted, there was no way to sort threads by number of posts, threads did not cap at 21 posts, and several (likely because of both simultaneous posting, introductions happening in the boards, and aggravation) had more than 50 posts. There were groups AA, BB, XXZ, and others.
I fled to Reddit.
Then another email came, “All those who have joined groups, please stay in your groups. Those of you who still have not joined groups and would like us to assign you a group please click on the Assign Me A Group link on the left navigation. We will send you information on your group. I hope this helps to resolve some of the group issues.” I ignored it. I was unsurpr |
2014, Ruckwardt wrote to Crook County Circuit Judge Daniel J. Ahern informing him of “an agreement among the majority of the parties” to mediate the cases.
A state investigation concluded allegations of abuse at the school were founded, according to a November 2009 report by the Department of Human Services. The school closed that year in the wake of the investigation, which found students did not receive adequate treatment and were subject to sexualized role-play in front of peers and adults, sleep deprivation and extended “self studies” that forced students to undertake strenuous work projects and camp alone in inclement weather, according to the DHS report.
These practices formed an “emotional growth” component of the school’s curriculum that DHS found to be in violation of the school’s therapeutic boarding school license. Furthermore, the school did not provide sufficient services to students who needed mental health treatment, and in fact compelled students to re-enact traumatic experiences of abuse, according to the report.
In January 2013, Ahern ruled one of the cases could proceed after the defense argued it was brought forward outside the statute of limitations. In 2009, the state increased the age by which legal actions alleging child sexual abuse must be taken from 24 to 40.
— Reporter: 541-383-0376,
cwithycombe@bendbulletin.com
8906235Weave Scope is a zero-config, drop-in solution for mapping and monitoring your Docker containers, and the easiest way to visualize your cloud-native application. Weave Scope 0.7.0 is out today, with tons of great new improvements and features!
In the backend, we’ve overhauled how we track connections between containers, allowing Scope to detect ephemeral and extremely-short-lived communication. That’s handy for clients that make non-persistent HTTP connections, for example. We’ve added a lot of detail to the detail pane, including reverse-resolving IP addresses to give you a better idea of where your internet traffic is coming and going. We’ve also improved support for platforms like Amazon ECS—with plenty more on the way.
In the frontend, things are even more exciting. We’ve got new options to show and hide system containers, making it significantly easier to get a sense of how your application is behaving. We’ve made several iterative improvements on the rendering and UI, including more intelligent node layout, more intuitive animations during transformations, and a nice new radial mode when you click on nodes for more detail.
All that, plus some bugfixes, and several major performance improvements, make 0.7.0 a pretty major Scope release. Check out the complete changelog, or just download it and try it out. We think you’ll like what you see!Manila, The Philippines - The Philippine government has said it is willing to open the country's doors to minority Rohingya migrants who have fled Myanmar and Bangladesh, saying that it is committed to the United Nations pledge to protect asylum seekers and refugees.
"Let us not fall short of providing humanitarian relief and assistance that is asked of us, as we pride ourselves to be a compassionate and hospitable people," Senator Paolo Aquino said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
"We call on the proper international agencies to process the legal issues immediately for the welfare of the boat people," said Aquino, a cousin and political ally of President Benigno Aquino.
The statement came after Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Monday that the country has an obligation to admit and protect asylum seekers, even when the refugees do not have documents to prove their status.
“If there are boat people who come to us seeking the protection of our government, there is a process, there are existing mechanisms on how to handle these refugees or asylum seekers,” de Lima said in a statement.
The Philippine justice secretary's remarks came after a spokesman of the president was earlier quoted as saying that the refugees could be turned away because they do not have the necessary documents.
The statements were issued as other Southeast Asian nations continued to reject taking in more migrants stranded on boats off Southeast Asia's shores, despite growing international pressure.
Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia have been in high-level talks in an attempt to solve the refugee crisis after boats holding more than 2,000 migrants, including many Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis, landed in their countries in recent weeks.
UN agencies urged the three regional powers on Tuesday to step up their sea rescue operations and let desperate migrants reach land.
In a joint statement, joined by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the agencies called on the three countries to stop trying to push boats away from their territorial waters.
Authorities should "provide for effective, predictable disembarkation to a place of safety with adequate and humane reception conditions" and establish screening procedures to identify those in need of international protection as refugees, the statement added.
RELATED: Stranded Rohingya migrants say: 'We're dying on board'
The Philippines has a long history of hosting refugees from other Asian countries, and as far as Europe.
During World War II, then Philippine President Manuel Quezon ordered the admission of 1,500 Jewish refugees fleeing from the Holocaust in Europe.
Following the war and the communist victory in the civil war in China, thousands of Chinese refugees also settled in the Philippines.
In the 1970s, as Vietnam was engaged in a civil war, the Philippines also provided sanctuary to Vietnamese "boat people" building a Vietnamese village in the western island of Palawan. Most of the refugees were eventually resettled in other countries, many of them in the US.
With reporting by Ted Regencia from Manila.Military jets flying over Keene reportedly shook buildings and made a loud sound, but officials insisted they didn't cause a sonic boom.The Massachusetts Air National Guard said military jets doing practice exercises over Keene were responsible for the noise reported about 2:20 p.m. Wednesday. Officials said the jets were conducting low-level air defense training.Residents of Keene, Swanzey and nearby areas reported hearing the noise, describing it as sounding like an explosion and feeling like an earthquake.But the Massachusetts Air National Guard said the jets stayed at subsonic speeds the entire time. It said air traffic control officials and the pilots' on-board systems confirmed that the jets stayed at subsonic speeds.National Guard officials said the sound was caused by normal jet engine noise. They said the jets were flying at altitudes between 10,000 and 12,000 feet.12967056
Military jets flying over Keene reportedly shook buildings and made a loud sound, but officials insisted they didn't cause a sonic boom.
The Massachusetts Air National Guard said military jets doing practice exercises over Keene were responsible for the noise reported about 2:20 p.m. Wednesday. Officials said the jets were conducting low-level air defense training.
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Residents of Keene, Swanzey and nearby areas reported hearing the noise, describing it as sounding like an explosion and feeling like an earthquake.
But the Massachusetts Air National Guard said the jets stayed at subsonic speeds the entire time. It said air traffic control officials and the pilots' on-board systems confirmed that the jets stayed at subsonic speeds.
National Guard officials said the sound was caused by normal jet engine noise. They said the jets were flying at altitudes between 10,000 and 12,000 feet.
AlertMeThe Heroes of the Storm trailer for Lord of Blood Elves, Kael’thas has been released by Blizzard. The video trailer has been able to gather a huge following just in a day of its release, providing insights to the powers of Kael’thas.
The trailer showed the known abilities of Kael’thas such as Phoenix and Pyroblast. However, the one which was seen to be the most deadly and cool (until now) has been the ‘Gravity Lapse’ which levitates the enemies in the air and then Kael’thas perform some more of his magic and all of them fell to the ground….DEAD.
Another intriguing part of the trailer was the never ending battle seen between Kael’thas and the Lich King. Even though the ability seems a strong AOE, it is still anticipated as a regular ability. What more Blizzard has in their bag for Kael’thas is unknown but what is at hand is AWESOME at the least.
The trailer for Kael’thas can be seen below:
Say goodbye to your MOBA lag with Kill Ping. Download your free trial now!Spoilers for all of Game of Thrones Season 5 ahead.
For people who love such a brutal, bloody show, Game of Thrones fans sure are a hopeful bunch. We’ve already discussed at length why basically everyone believes that Jon Snow will be back, even though we saw his blood pooling around his head at the end of the Season 5 finale. But the former Lord Commander isn’t the only Westerosi character benefiting from some serious crossed fingers. After all, this is a show that just introduced a zombie version of the Mountain—can’t everyone, theoretically, live forever?
Maybe, but in reality, there are a few firm answers. Even as everyone continues to swear that Jon really is dead, director David Nutter, who helmed the season finale, is offering a few firm answers on some of the other apparent cliff-hangers. Based on his words, here’s what we really do know for sure.
Stannis is dead. “It would have been gratuitous,” Nutter told Variety about his reasons for cutting away before Brienne’s sword separated Stannis’s head from his body. “You really got a sense that Stannis had nothing else to live for. Brienne’s lifelong mission had come to an end. It’s a situation in which Stannis was ready to die and prepared to die.” (Yes we’re sorry about it, too.)
Sansa and Theon are definitely alive. Their Thelma and Louise moment seemed a little dicey, given that we had just seen Myranda offed by virtually the exact same fall, but Nutter promises “it’s safe to assume they survived that jump.” Book readers pretty much knew that—as VF.com writer Joanna Robinson has explained, even though Sansa isn’t involved in the book, Theon survives a similar fall.
Myrcella is a goner. It seemed pretty clear she wasn’t long for this world, no matter how fast Jaime turned that boat around back to Dorne, but show-runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss confirm her death talking to Entertainment Weekly, and suggest that Cersei won’t necessarily be leading a war party to Dorne for revenge. “In her mind, Myrcella was taken away from her by Tyrion; she still blames him for Joffrey’s death, and he is directly responsible for Myrcella going to Dorne,” says Benioff. “So in her worldview, both of her children’s deaths are to be laid at his doorstep. This is one more thing to motivate her homicidal hatred of him.”
But Trystane may make it to King’s Landing. It would be convenient for Jaime to “eye for an eye” this situation and kill Trystane, conveniently located right there on that ship, to get immediate revenge for Myrcella’s death. But talking to E.W., Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who, granted, isn’t a show-runner and says he has no knowledge of Season 6) suggests that Trystane will survive the journey, only to meet Cersei’s wrath. “Cersei has someone she could enact revenge on—Trystane,” he said. “He’s supposed to take his father’s seat on the council.”
Meryn Trant is definitely dead. You probably weren’t wondering, but just in case, Nutter tells The Hollywood Reporter that “the killing of Meryn Trant needed to be as honest and real and grotesque and powerful as possible.” Nutter says it was the show verging a bit into Quentin Tarantino territory, which is both true and hopefully not inspiration for Tarantino to work a murderous girl prostitute into The Hateful Eight.Conservationists, local governments and Southern Gulf Island residents are celebrating a new regional park.
Their successful fundraising campaign has allowed for the purchase of 26 hectares on Mayne Island known as St. John Point.
"Together we have assured the protection of this magnificent stretch of Coastal Douglas Fir landscape and over two kilometres of coastline," said Malcolm Inglis, president of the Mayne Island Conservancy, in a news release.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CRD?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CRD</a> to Purchase St. John Point Property on Mayne Island <a href="https://t.co/5l5QTw3ep6">https://t.co/5l5QTw3ep6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mayneisland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mayneisland</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MIConservancy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MIConservancy</a> —@crd_bc
Mayne Island is located about 40 kilometres southwest of Vancouver and can be accessed by ferry.
St. John Point on Mayne Island is owned by three brothers, two of whom are United States residents. Prior to the sale, locals used the area informally.
Now, it's been purchased through a partnership between the Capital Regional District (CRD) on Vancouver Island, the Mayne Island Conservancy Society and American Friends of Canadian Land Trusts.
The CRD is giving $2 million towards the purchase through a park acquisition fund that has bought 4,608 hectares of land in the region since it was established in 2000.
Locals raise $2.1m
Local residents — around 1,000 people live on the island — have raised $2.1 million.
"It was a huge, positive, full community effort," said Michael Dunn with the conservancy, which ran a campaign to support the purchase.
It described protecting St. John Point and turning it into a regional park as a, "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
The site was offered below market rate and that's when the American Friends of Canadian Land Trusts came in.
The group was able to offer a tax receipt to the American owners of the property for the amount by which they reduced the price, which is considered a donation.
Bi-national collaboration
"St. John Point will be a model for other Canadian government agencies and conservation organizations seeking a way to acquire properties owned by Americans," said Sandra Tassel from Friends.
"The landowners' commitment to maintaining the natural character of St. John Point and willingness to donate a substantial percentage of the appraised value made this effort possible."
St. John Point is described as a pristine nature area with shoreline bluffs, a small beach and and a trail network through mature forest stands.
Only four per cent of Mayne Island is protected land. The addition of St. John Point brings that amount up to more than five per cent.
The sale closes on Dec.15. An official opening is being planned for sometime in the new year.About
Kids you love will love playing with Margo the Momma goat and her two kids playset, and reading about the excitement on the farm when the animals discover Margo is kidding.
Margo, the toy goat, gives birth to her two kids the same way Margo the real goat did. This gentle, authentic birth process helps children learn the real facts of life as they’re having fun helping Margo with her kidding. Helping Margo kid encourages pretend play and stimulates children's imaginations.
The storybook, Are You Kidding?, is a 37-page easy reader completely illustrated by six-year old Vivi, who was the inspiration for the toy. Vivi won last year’s PBS Kids Go! national book contest, so young readers are in for a real treat. The book includes an introduction to dairy goats for young readers. Here’s a dramatic reading of the book, with voices by the whole family.
Our Inspiration: As the parent of an inquisitive daughter who loves animals and wanted to know where babies came from, I improvised by sewing sock-wombs into her stuffed animals. Then we moved to a little farm we call Gardenagerie and watched our first doe, Margo, have her first litter of kids.
Please support Are You Kidding? Kickstarter only charges you if we reach our goal. We’re asking for your support because in order to get this project off the ground, we need to order over a thousand toys from the manufacturer. So if you’re thinking of a kid who might love Margo and her kids, don’t wait! If we don’t make our goal, it’ll always be just a dream. We’re ready to go. The book is done; the toy prototype looks great. All we need is your support. Thank you and please tell your friends.Interview by Karlos Zurutuza:
This is a translation of the interview that appeared today on the Spanish edition of Vice News
Salih Muslim Muhammad (born Kobani, Aleppo, 1951) is co-chairman of the Democratic Union Party-PYD, the political force that has led the uprising of the Kurds in Syria since the war began, in March 2011.
After spending 12 years as an oil industry engineer in Saudi Arabia, Muslim returned to Syria in the 90s to work clandestinely — Kurdish political parties were banned. By the time he became president of the Democratic Union Party, in 2010, he’d already paid for his political dissent with torture and imprisonment in Assad´s prisons.
It is not the first time Vice News has talked with Muslim, but this time we wanted to hear first-hand his take on the role his people are playing in a conflict that started five years ago.
This week marks five years since the beginning of the war in Syria. Could you possibly predict predict such a mess?
At first it was difficult to figure out what this “great game” was all about and we were not able to recognize the actors on the ground. After five years of war the situation is still chaotic, but today we know who is who. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar as well as Western agents fed the monster of Jihadism in the country, no matter if we talk about Jabhat al Nusra (Al Qaeda´s affiliate in Syria) or ISIS. Today, the monster has reached such a scale that is has become uncontrollable. Regarding our position in the conflict, the Kurds in Syria had been fighting for our democratic rights in a country ruled by a dynastic and despotic regime. But a few months after the uprising we realized that many who were siding with the insurrection were coming from the mosques and we thought that those were not good travel companions for us.
Both Kurds and Islamists were reportedly released from prison by Assad at the beginning of the revolt. Do you confirm such claims?
It´s true, but obviously for different reasons. In the case of the Kurdish prisoners, they weren´t that many but Assad probably released them because he wanted to avoid having problems with us. In the case of the Islamists, it is not unreasonable to think that he wanted to use them to drag the conflict from a political arena to a religious matter; to turn what could have been a peaceful dialogue into an armed confrontation. And there was no possible confusion because many of them were the same members of Al Qaeda that the regime had sent to fight in Iraq over the past decade. Further on, those same Islamists would receive support from several of those countries I mentioned earlier. In the case of Turkey, time has proved that Ankara used the Islamists to fight the Kurds.
Your bet for neutrality has led to an engagement in clashes with both government and opposition forces. Do you still think you took the right step?
Time has proved us right. During these five years we have lost many of our youth fighting but today we know that if we had not taken such position, Syria’s Kurds would not be alive. Today we are part of the Syrian Democratic Council alongside Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens … It is a political organization fighting for a democratic and secular state which is growing steadily all across Syria, from the north to Deraa, in the far south.
The YPG (People’s Defence Units) are an important agent within the Syrian Democratic Forces, the military wing of the organization you mention. Do they act in coordination with the Russian airstrikes?
There´s no military coordination with Russia but there´s a communication line at a political level, as evidenced by the recent opening of a PYD delegation in Moscow. Russia knows that we are part of a future of decentralized Syria, and that is the message we want them to convey to Assad. If the latter remains determined to treat us the same way he did before 2011, we will be ready to defend ourselves.
You have also received military support from the West but, for the time being, there has been no political backing. Why?
The West is fully aware that the Syrian Democratic Forces are an important and reliable active on the ground, hence the military support. Unfortunately, they have not yet approached us at a political level while they keep their ties with Saudi Arabia, Turkey… However, we do hope political relations to materialize among us in the future.
Is this the reason why you have an office in Moscow but not yet in Washington?
We have very strong contacts in the United States and we are willing to open a permanent delegation as soon as conditions allow it. We´re also looking forward to open other delegations elsewhere to ease communications between us and the rest of the world.
What´s your take on the ceasefire in force since last February?
Unfortunately it has hardly affected us. We continue clashing with ISIS in Jazeera canton and with Jabhat al Nusra, Ahrar al Sham and other related groups in northern Aleppo. They said they would respect the ceasefire but they haven´t. And there´s also the Turkish siege on Kobani and Afrin, which is yet another eloquent proof of Erdogan´s belligerent stance towards the Kurds, either in Syria or in Turkey. The same mentality that destroyed Kobani under the name of ISIS is destroying the Kurdish cities in Turkey under the name of the Turkish Special Forces. There is no difference between them.
In a report published last October, Amnesty International charged Kurdish forces with war crimes against the Arab population for allegedly supporting ISIS.
That was a report based on testimonies from informants who were across the border in Turkey. Those who visited the area in question gave a completely different assessment. Interestingly, the report was published while clashes were still going on, which also raises several questions about its veracity. Actually, many among those Arabs were fighting alongside the Kurds against ISIS. Moreover, the displaced Kurdish and Arab families have returned to their houses and villages.
Last year you managed to connect the cantons of Jazira and Kobani. Is linking these two with the westernmost canton of Afrin a next step in your strategy?
Rojava extends from Afrin all the way to Derik in the east but this doesn´t mean that Kurds are compact all across the area. There are Kurds, but also Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen, Armenians… that´s why we are now talking about a federal model for northern Syria that would include all its elements.
A scenario that Turkey seemingly wants to avoid at all costs. Do you fear an invasion of your territory from Ankara?
I do not think Turkey will dare to make such a move because it would no longer be a Kurdish domestic affair but an international issue. Turkey is a NATO member and Syria has the protection of Russia. All these recent attacks and skirmishes from the other side of the border are nothing but desperate moves from Ankara.
You have accused the KDP (the ruling party in the Autonomous Kurdish Region of Iraq) of working closely with Turkey. What is your assessment of the role your Kurdish neighbour has played during these five years?
They opted for working with Ankara rather than helping their own people on the other side of the border. The Kurdish government of Iraq continues to hamper the arrival of vital supplies for us such as food and medicines, as well as the free movement of our people. I hope they reconsider their attitude. As representatives of the Kurdish society they should start by defending their own people and stop obeying Ankara´s orders.
The Democratic Confederalism model that you have enforced seems like a valid alternative in an emergency situation but do you think it can still be a viable option in a peace scenario?
The fact that decisions are taken directly by the community implies that we´re talking about the right decisions. Unlike other political models, the Democratic Confederalism does not impose a system; it eases the co-existence with our neighbours. When sovereignty rests with the people, and if there is a sincere commitment to democracy and the neighbouring powers cease to interfere in the decisions of the Syrians, then we will reach to an understanding and a country in peace. Returning to your question, our most immediate goal is to change the mentality of the people and it is something we have already done with many of our Arab, Turkmen or Assyrian neighbours … The Democratic Confederalism doesn´t root in the “nation-state” concept but in that of the “democratic state.” Unfortunately, changing the mentality that roots in monolithic types of government can take a very long time.13th Age in Glorantha is a hardbound full-color 196+ page roleplaying supplement that brings the award-winning 13th Age rules to Greg Stafford’s mythic world of Glorantha. 13th Age in Glorantha teams up the original designers of 13th Age, Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet, with their 13th Age comrade Ash Law and with the designer at the heart of the new Gloranthan renaissance, Jeff Richard... not to mention the marvelous Gloranthan artists who follow Jeff’s art direction.
The book's classes, monsters, and rules are compatible with existing 13th Age games while opening new doors to myth-crawling adventure in the legendary setting of Glorantha. As a standalone supplement, 13th Age in Glorantha doesn't repeat the rules presented in the 13th Age core rulebook; you will need the 13th Age core rulebook to play.
What will 13th Age in Glorantha include?
Full rules for what Glorantha calls heroquesting and 13th Age phrases as mythcrawling: station-by-station adventures inside the dangerous myths that shape the world
phrases as mythcrawling: station-by-station adventures inside the dangerous myths that shape the world A new icon relationship system for Gloranthan gods and runes (usable with the icons of core 13th Age )
) New classes and class variants such as the Wind Lord, the Berserker, and the Earth Priestess
Other class variants to reflect the powers of Gloranthan gods and heroes
Dangerous Chaos monsters for any campaign, including broo, scorpionmen, dragonsnails, Chaos demons, and new corrupted creatures of Air, Earth, and Death
Many other monsters that are no less dangerous but slightly less icky!
Gloranthan One Unique Things
Advice for creating unique Gloranthan campaigns that draw on as much or as little of existing Gloranthan lore as you like
A gazetteer chapter with playable encounters and myths
Many other playable myths in each main chapter
A sample Gloranthan adventure set in the Chaos nest of Snakepipe Hollow
As much new art as we can muster, meaning more great pieces like the illustrations from Guide to Glorantha by Jan Pospisil shown in our intro video and Starbrow's Rebellion below
But wait! There's more!
We are also introducing The Glorantha Source Book, a 128+ page full-color hardcover book that is the perfect companion to the the 13th Age in Glorantha rulebook. Containing no gaming rules, it is a wonderful resource for people wanting to begin their journey into the mythic world of Glorantha.
The Glorantha Source Book will include:
Introduction to Glorantha and the Runes
Cosmology, History, and a summary of the Gods of Glorantha
Overview of the major regions of the world with a focus on Dragon Pass and surrounding lands
Who's who in the Hero Wars - the dramatic conflict at the end of the 3rd Age of Glorantha!
Want to learn more about what we're bringing to 13th Age in Glorantha? Visit the www.13thAgeInGlorantha.com page.
Surrender at Starbrow's Rebellion by Jan Pospisil
Why We Need Your Help
The teams behind both 13th Age and Glorantha have published beautiful and bigger-than-expected books recently, in large part because of the creative power and freedom provided by successful Kickstarters. We are small companies. 13 True Ways and the Guide to Glorantha wouldn't exist without our communities. Your enthusiastic support, playtest feedback, and participation keeps us inspired and gives us the freedom to create books that help you create special campaigns. If recent history is a guide, you're also going to seed 13th Age in Glorantha and its new styles of gameplay with ideas we wouldn't have come up with on our own! We can get there, but only if we do this together, as a tribe.
As usual, we will provide playtest preview PDFs of the book(s) you pledge for as the chapters come together. Playtest feedback means a lot to us.
See pledge tiers for higher rewards.
Add-On Rewards
We've got a few add-ons that are cool things, a couple that are funny, and several that will help you shape the project. Consider the following rewards and add the appropriate amount to your pledge. If you're choosing add-ons that involve pitching us ideas for the book, you'll want to message us after making your pledge. Whatever you add, when the Kickstarter campaign is over you'll officially be asked which add-ons you want.
+$3 - Inspire the Hero Band: You just bought Rob Heinsoo a yerba mate drink to push him onwards. Or maybe it was a latte for Jeff Richard or an americano for Jonathan Tweet.
+$15 - Explore Glorantha: Get the PDF version of the Glorantha Source Book.
+$20 - Unfold the Map: Get a folded 22" by 34" heavy stock gloss poster of the new Dragon Pass map created for the 13th Age in Glorantha book thanks to the Making a Mythic Map stretch goal. Shipping is included. (Optional: If you prefer a map without folds, let us know and we'll send it rolled in a mailing tube. Shipping will be additional; see shipping note below.)
+$30 - Find the Source: Get a hardcover copy of the Glorantha Source Book as well as its PDF. (see shipping note)
+$40 - Hunt Monsters: Get a hardcover copy of the 13th Age Bestiary as well as its PDF. (see shipping note)
+$40 - True 13: Get a hardcover copy of 13 True Ways as well as its PDF. (see shipping note)
+$45 - Hero Twins: Get a second hardcover copy of 13th Age in Glorantha. PDF also if that's relevant. (see shipping note)
+$45 - The Basics: Get a hardcover copy of the 13th Age core rulebook as well as its PDF. (see shipping note)
+$50 - Most Loyal Thanes: When we set-up this add-on, we thought it was for people who would want to stand alongside one of three major gods in the book's opening credits. But after some requests to broaden our perspective, we're willing to let you specify any of the divine retinues you would like to be credited in as a patron group. So this add-on isn't just for Humakt's Lone Warriors, Heroes In Orlanth's Hall, or Ernalda's Queens of the Land. If you'd like your name appearing in Polaris' Star Captains, Yinkin's Pride, or Zorak Zoran's Death Lords, or any other Gloranthan god's retinue, we'll handle it.
+$75 - 5 of 13th Age PDFs: Get all five current 13th Age books as PDFs. That's the 13th Age core rulebook, 13 True Ways, 13th Age Bestiary, Shadows of Eldolan, and Book of Loot.
+$75 - Way of the 13 Beasts: Get printed copies and PDFs of both 13 True Ways and the 13th Age Bestiary. (see shipping note)
+$150 - 5 of 13th Age Books: Get all five current 13th Age books as printed books and PDFs. That's the 13th Age core rulebook, 13 True Ways, 13th Age Bestiary, Shadows of Eldolan, and Book of Loot. (see shipping note)
+$150 - Guide & Atlas: Also known as the Gloranthan smorgasbord, this add-on gets you printed and PDF versions of the two-volume Guide to Glorantha and the softcover Argan Argar Atlas. (see shipping note)
SHIPPING NOTE: We do not want to overcharge or undercharge for shipping. Postage for add-ons will be calculated after the conclusion of the Kickstarter. The cost may be very small, depending on your backer level and the weight of the physical items. A separate additional payment for postage may be necessary. If the additional postage cost is unacceptable, we will refund the cost of the add-ons.
- Creative Contributions -
The following add-ons provide our backers with the opportunity to add custom content to the project:
+$500 - Pitch-a-monster: Send us an idea for a Gloranthan monster. We will design and stat out that monster, and include a small drawing for you.
+$600 - Patron of the Arts: Art director Jeff Richard will work with you to turn a Gloranthan scene of your choosing into a full-color art piece for the book. You'll get a signed print of your illustration (free shipping).
+$1,000 - Pitch-a-counter: Pick a counter* from a Gloranthan board game such as Dragon Pass, and we'll stat up creatures related to the band, unit, or monster on the counter—and we'll give you a unit-relevant credit in the book. (*Superheroes and other Infinity rune creatures excluded, and a few other creatures may end up covered already by stretch goals.)
+$2,000 - Pitch-a-myth: Suggest a new myth for Glorantha! We'll turn it into a fully playable myth with full color art, monsters, heroquest rewards and whatever other attention it deserves.
Stretch Goals!
We'll add five additional full-color pieces from one of our top artists to 13th Age in Glorantha.
The raging hyper-violent undead-friendly troll god of war joins the Berserker class as a third option. Yes, that means we'll do Elder race Uz stats also.
It's the Crimson Bat, the gargantuan and oh-so-hungry Chaos demon that the Lunar Empire parks as far from its own heavily populated heartland as possible. Also evil bat priests. And since this is 13th Age, some of the bat cultists ride smaller-but-still-enormous bats. Aieee! Includes a couple different versions of the Bat, ranging from starved-and-shriveled to inhaling-regiments.
A full chapter on using Gloranthan trolls as PCs, with playable myths and a new Uz* class that taps into many troll goddesses and gods. (*Also accessible to Darkness-rune humans!)
Draft 1 of the map by Darya Makarava
We’ll use the detailed maps from the Guide to Glorantha as the basis of a new color map of Dragon Pass, executed in a side-view landscape style to support the gazetteer chapter’s location-based adventures and location-relevant myths. The map will appear as at least a two-page spread in the 13th Age in Glorantha book. In addition, all backers at the $35 pledge level and above will receive the map as a PDF. [[For a good look at this draft, visit http://www.13thAgeInGlorantha.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Draft-Map1.jpg]]
Thanatar is a Chaos god whose severed head and undead-ish body survived independently for so many ages that the pieces cannot rejoin even now that they have been reunited. Thanatar’s worshippers are still rebuilding the Severed God’s knowledge-base one severed head at a time, so we’ll have stats for headhunter cultists, severed head ghosts, Doom Seeker initiates, Doom Master priests, and the Voice of Atyar, as well as notes on the cult’s underground complexes, and a heroquest that might just cost someone their noggin.
We heard the pleas. We changed course. Glorantha’s adventurous feathered curiosities enter 13th Age as a playable race! We’re not doing any duck-myths as playable myths, not in this book at least. Instead, we’ll present a mini-adventure set in the zombie-haunted waters of the Upland Marsh. One version of the duck legend is that their hunters keep zombies from overrunning the center of Dragon Pass. Your campaigns will determine their own truths.
We’ll create distinctive silhouettes to show the shape and relative size of the monsters in the book. Each monster entry will have at least one such silhouette in addition to any other illustrations, appearing next to a human silhouette for scale. As a bonus, anyone who pledges $35 or more will receive a digital file containing the monster silhouettes.
They talk well, but they’re still monsters! The Comet Seers, Blue Moon School, and Spell Archers should complicate the PC’s deaths. And the Crater Makers might just drop a chunk of the Moon on everyone the PCs ever loved. (FYI, Lunar warriors like the Granite Phalanx soldier and Antelope Lancer are in the monster chapter already, no stretch goal necessary.)
We welcome the Chaos goddess Krarsht to the banquet! We’ll stat up cult assassins, devouring maws known as krarshtkids that dig out weird dungeon complexes, the Tongues of Krarsht, and Krasht myths that are eating the Godtime one myth per mouthful.
13th Age in Glorantha already includes a short sample adventure set in Snakepipe Hollow, as well as a duck-backers’ mini-adventure in the Upland Marsh. This stretch goal adds a higher-level adventure for perspective. The Lunars and the Scorpionmen have clasped hand to pincer in an unholy alliance to overturn a myth in which a great Orlanthi hero defeated the Chaos goddess Bagog and cut off her stinger. Raid your enemies directly or cut them off in a heroquest into suddenly hostile myths.
It’s time to unleash the 40-year storm that Greg Stafford started brewing in White Bear & Red Moon! We’re unleashing powerful pieces of Glorantha’s Hero Wars board games, setting them loose in 13th Age in Glorantha: the magicians of the Sartar Magical Union! It’s the Orlanthi answer to the Lunar College of Magic - a dizzying array of bush priests, earth |
parts of the evaluation in a different room. My wife and I disagree about our obligation. I feel we should replace the frame, as our son broke it. She feels differently, saying the doctor should have the room more kid-proofed as this facility exclusively sees children with behavioral issues. Clearly the office could have done more, but my son is still the person who caused the frame to fall. What are your thoughts?
—Anxious Dad
Dear Anxious,
I agree with both you and your wife. Sure, this was an accident, but it’s gracious to offer to replace a frame your child broke. I sincerely hope that if you do, this doctor waves off your gesture and says the diplomas should have been placed out of reach and not to worry about it. (And do not offer to replace the frame unless you can afford to do so.) You are understandably anxious—your little boy is being evaluated for a serious developmental condition. Once you decide whether or not to make an offer about replacing the frame, neither you nor your wife should put any more emotional energy into fretting over something so unimportant. It sounds as if the doctor handled this with aplomb, understanding that after half an hour of testing, anyone would want to stand up and stretch.
—Prudie
Discuss this column with Emily Yoffe on her Facebook page.
More Dear Prudence Columns
“Cad Cam: My husband tried to record my friend undressing—and then told us about it!”
“Jerks Incorporated: A cute guy at work pretended to like me—just to make me the company laughingstock.”
“Better Laid Than Never: My beau is a 30-year-old virgin. How do I get him into the sack?”
“Once Upon a One-Night Stand: I slept with my new crush’s brother long ago. Should I come clean?”
More Dear Prudence Chat Transcripts
“Bugs Bunny Is Satan: In a live chat, Prudie advises a woman whose son’s friend is forbidden from watching cartoons.”
“Won’t Stand for It: In a live chat, Prudie counsels a woman annoyed at her husband’s erectile problems.”
“A Wee Problem: In a live chat, Prudie counsels a woman worried her young son’s wetting himself is a sign of sexual abuse.”
“Bridling Bride: In a live chat, Prudie advises a man whose fiancée wants to be in his family’s photos at the wedding.”New Japan's Shinsuke Nakamura and Danny Brown: Separated at Birth? Melton Sharpe
This Saturday, May 17th, the Hammerstein Ballroom will play host to an exciting historic night in professional wrestling. New Japan Pro Wrestling, the second biggest wrestling company on the planet, will be facing off against respected American wrestling promotion Ring of Honor for a rare cross-promotional international flavored internet pay-per-view, appropriately titled War of the Worlds.
For a lot of the Japanese talent, it’s their first time competing in the states. If you’re unfamiliar with Japanese pro wrestling, known by fans stateside as “Puroresu,” the biggest difference can be seen in their “Strong Style” of combat (the emphasis on the “fight” elements of wrestling where they hit really, really hard) which Ring of Honor comes closest to of any American organization to emulating. Also notable from New Japan are the elaborate entrances from their colorful characters. To help familiarize you with the New Japan talent before Saturday’s event, which has been sold out for months but is still available on iPPV, we’ve matched the wrestlers with who their equivalent is in the hip-hop world. This is our hip-hop guide to War of the Worlds.
Shinsuke Nakamura
Hip-Hop Equivalent: Danny Brown
When we first saw Shinsuke Nakamura, our first thought was how much he resembled Detroit’s Danny Brown…down to the same haircut and mannerisms. The more we watched of the reigning IWGP Intercontinental Champion, we realized his unorthodox style in the ring was comparable to Brown’s too–as eccentric as it is effective. While Nakamura is billed as “King of Strong Style,” fans have taken to calling him “Swagsuke,” as seen from the above must-see clip of his entrance. This Saturday, Nakamura will be taking on ROH fan-favorite and current indie “it”-wrestler Kevin Steen.
Jushin "Thunder" Liger Ring of Honor
Jushin “Thunder” Liger
Hip-Hop Equivalent: E-40
Longtime wrestling fans may have seen Jushin Liger during his runs in North American promotions throughout the ’90s. His colorful attire and persona, originally based on an anime character, and his innovative moves in the ring make him one of the most influential professional wrestlers of all time. Sort of like how Bay Area legend E-40 has launched countless pieces of hip-hop slang over the years and set numerous trends. Liger’s famed shooting-star press maneuver perhaps the closest physical equivalent to E-40’s trademark flow. This weekend, Liger challenges ROH’s Adam Cole for his World Heavyweight Championship.
IWGP Champion AJ Styles Ring of Honor
AJ Styles
Hip-Hop Equivalent: Macklemore
North American wrestling fans probably recognize AJ Styles for his decade on top of Spike TV’s TNA Wrestling promotion. Since parting ways from them last December, Styles has gone the independent route, making appearances wherever he wants for top companies around the world. Not unlike Macklemore making an impact for indie musicians by scoring a plethora of Grammys this year, Styles has taken home some gold of his own by winning New Japan’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship last month, the first American to do so since Brock Lesnar. Styles is set to defend his belt against frequent rival “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin, who Styles has never vanquished in an ROH ring.
“Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada
Hip-Hop Equivalent: Rick Ross
One of the fastest rising stars in all of puroresu, Kazuchika Okada exemplifies evil excess. A former two-time champion, his status as “Rainmaker” comes from a creative English-to-Japanese-to-English-translation of the act of “making it rain,” as his ring entrance is accompanied by money falling from the sky. There’s plenty of rich lavishness in hip-hop, but only Rick Ross and his Maybach Music really does comparable justice to Okada’s cocky rich jerk persona. As seen in the above clip, Okada’s coming to the ring accompanied by a giant velociraptor and an absurdly oversized sword sounds like something right out of a Rick Ross lyric. Both are also the biggest bosses we’ve seen thus far, meaning whomever Okada is facing will have their work cut out for him. “Rainmaker” isn’t the only interesting English title of Japanese talent this Saturday, as we’ll also be seeing Russian/Cuban tag team “Forever Hooligans” and Kushida of the fast-paced Back to the Future-themed team “The Time Splitters.”
Bullet Club – “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows
Hip-Hop Equivalent: Action Bronson & Smoke DZA
The wrestling obsessed Bronson had to make an appearance on this list somewhere and his brute force on the mic and chemistry with frequent collaborator Smoke DZA is just like that of Bullet Club’s “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows. Both heavy hitters, Anderson’s badass enough to get away with firing an imaginary machine-gun (complete with sound effects) after being announced and still come off intimidating. Gallows you may recognize from his stints in WWE/TNA or from the 2014 documentary The Wrestling Road Diaries 2. Combined, their sheer ruthlessness paints the type of violent imagery that Bronson and DZA lyrics are made of. The Bullet Club will defend their IWGP tag-team titles against Sandy Fork, Delaware’s favorite masters of Redneck Kung-Fu, The Briscoe Brothers.
The Young Bucks, youth gone wild. Ring of Honor
The Young Bucks
Hip-Hop Equivalent: Odd Future
Young. Obnoxious. Brash. Crass. Any description you could put on vile hip-hop instigators Odd Future you could just as easily slap on Matt and Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks. Known for being wildly disrespectful cocky punks in a promotion based on honor, they’ve mastered the art of getting a rise out of people with sheer chaos and perfect teamwork. Originally from California, the Bucks used to famously get a rise out of super-serious wrestling crowds by entering to Hanson’s “MMMBop,” eerily reminiscent of Tyler, the Creator’s obsession with Justin Bieber. While they prefer neon green tassels to Supreme hats, they also have gold around their waist in the form of the ROH tag team titles that they’ll be defending against the sarcastic and stiff team reDRagon.
Gedo and Jado, New Japan's Atmosphere Ring of Honor
Gedo & Jado
Hip-Hop Equivalent: Atmosphere
It seems for as long as the underground hip-hop world has had viable legs, there’s always been Atmosphere. The duo of rapper Slug and producer Ant, as well as their label Rhymesayers, have laid the foundation and blueprint for what it means to be a successful independent hip-hop entity, and have remained elder statesmen ever since. New Japan’s Gedo and Jado debuted with the company in 1989 and have been a constant driving force in their rankings for over a decade. Fittingly, the “World Class Tag Team” is squaring off with Roderick Strong and BJ Whitmer who, along with Jimmy Jacobs, comprise the stable of ROH’s own longtime loyalists, “The Decade.”
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Hip-Hop Equivalent: Kendrick Lamar
Just as Kendrick Lamar has rejuvenated the hip-hop world by showing all that could still be done on a rap record with 2011’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, Hiroshi Tanahashi has lead the charge for New Japan’s new generation. Endlessly exciting, inspiring and popular with both casual fans for his sheer charisma and diehards for his multifaceted sheer talent, Tanahashi, like Lamar, seems to be the refreshing choice everyone can agree on. He’ll be exemplifying what makes New Japan so exciting against ROH’s Michael Bennett.
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The Top 15 Things That Annoy the Crap Out of Your Local Sound GuyIf you are a Disney nut (*cough* Eric Ford *cough*) then chances are that you’ve been spending a lot of time making bad ass theme parks in the recently-released Disney Magic Kingdoms (Free). Even if you hate free to play city-builders, the allure of Disney’s iconic characters and the over-the-top production values are hard to ignore. Well, I think we’ll be seeing a similar situation with Disney Magical Dice, which is more or less Monopoly with Disney characters. Check out the trailer.
Now, even if you hate Monopoly the board game, how can you not be drawn to all that Disney magic? If this sort of thing looks up your alley, you can actually check out the official website for Disney Magical Dice and pre-register for the game, which according to the website at the time of this writing nearly 60k people have already done. You can check out some additional screens of the game there, too. No word on when Disney Magical Dice is set to launch, but if they’re cranking up all the pre-registration stuff and dropping trailers, I’d guess it’s not too far out.The Back to the Future films have been a little more in the public eye this week, in case you've been off the internet for the last few days. Universal Pictures knew it would be, too, and played into that as much as they could, including putting the films back in theaters for the weekend, starting with Wednesday's "Back to the Future Day," the day Marty and Doc Brown arrived in 2015.
Well, the gambit paid off, with almost $5 million grossed in a day for a franchise whose last film came out 25 years ago. That included $1.65 million domestic, $1.4 million in Germany (all three films took the top three spots in the box office there), and number 1 in Italy at $585,000.
It's a testament to the franchise, and the fans who made the day into an international event. There were 45 million posts on facebook about "Back to the Future Day" on Wednesday, and only 1 million of those were from us here at ComicBook.com, so we feel good about that. In New York Wednesday night, the cast and crew reunited for a special talk and screening of the films.If there was ever a food in need of a sexy makeover it would be gefilte fish. The frumpy divorcée of Jewish cuisine, gefilte fish gets no love and practically no one wants it in their mouth. And can you blame them? It’s a slime-encrusted fish nugget! Don’t get me wrong, I love pungent, briny Jewish food as much as the next Hebrew school graduate, but I just can’t get past the goo factor. But it's time to stop sipping the Maneschewitz haterade. For gefilte, things are about to change.
A trio of passionate young foodies in New York recently started their own business known as The Gefilteria, with the goal of transforming the dish from fish's red-headed stepsister to its hot, slutty cousin.
The Gefilteria's Gefilte Crostini Nitzan Ziv
In case there are any non-Jews randomly reading this article (good for you!), a little background on gefilte: It is made up of ground whitefish and is usually eaten on high holidays such as Passover or Yom Kippur. We tend to smother it in horseradish to burn off any of the original flavor so all you really taste is a ball of fire.
When I first heard about Gefilteria I was overwhelmed. I went through a whole slew of grief emotions: anger, confusion, denial and finally acceptance. How can the least popular food I’ve ever eaten be the foundation for a business plan? Are they stuffing it with weed? Are these pot fish balls? I don’t understand. I had to investigate. I contacted one of the co-founders, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, who was kind enough to enlighten me.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but Jeffrey Yoskowitz would make an amazing cult leader. He’s handsome, slender, bearded and persuasive as hell. After listening to him talk about gefilte fish for a couple of hours, I was convinced that it’s not just a food, but a revolution. When I asked him why he chose to make gefilte fish he responded, “Gefilte fish is still laughed at, it’s called ‘the sausage of the sea.’ All my Sephardic friends joke about how gross it is. But I grew up loving it. My grandmother made it fresh all the time and I thought, why not reclaim it?”
Savvy enough to jump on the artisanal bandwagon that is sweeping the New York food scene, Jeff and his partners decided to bring old-world Jewish food into the 21st century. Their eats are sustainable, local, organic and also pretty to look at. When I asked Jeff how he came up with the idea to make gefilte fish he said it came out of casual conversations. He would ask friends, “Wouldn’t it be incredible if there was sustainable gefilte fish? There is sustainable kosher meat, there’s sustainable vegetables, the community is becoming aware of this, but gefilte fish is still in a jar.” And so the green gefilte movement was born.
Starting in March, Jeffrey Yoskowitz and his partners Liz Alpern and Jackie Lilinshtein began selling their goods at a pop-up store in Brooklyn. The fish was an instant fan favorite. The place was so packed they ran out of gefilte. It wasn't long before both The New York Times and New York Magazine stopped by to give a review. When Passover rolled around and orders were through the roof, they knew they were in business.
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After talking at length with Jeffrey I realized I needed to do less chatting and more eating. So on an extra-humid New York summer day, I sweated my way down to The Hester Street Fair on the Lower East Side. I made my way to the Gefilteria booth and ordered the old-world sampler plate, which includes garlic peppercorn sauerkraut, borscht, and a gefilte fish crostini with sweet beet horseradish. Finally, a chance to taste fresh gefilte for the first time in my life!
I closed my eyes, took a bite and immediately started throwing up. I kid, I kid. Obviously, the food was elegant and gourmet exactly as I expected. It had a nice two-tone color of white and pink (for the salmon) and a clean, delicate taste. I’m not a food writer, so I won't use fancy words like toothsome and piquant. All I can say it is tasted yummy and I would totally eat it again.
As for the other people ordering from Gefilteria, they were practically having a religious experience. A woman named Hillary McGrath took one bite of the gefilte crostini and seemingly went into a trance. I’ve never seen fish affect someone like that.
“This was the first time in fifty years that I had that same exact sensory feeling as I had eating my grandparents gefilte. It really brought me back to my childhood," she said by way of explanation.
Then a group of hunky Australian Jews (swoon!) came by to taste the food. Blue-eyed Aussie Jew, if you are reading this: I am disease-free and great at ping pong.
I chatted it up with David Gyorki, one of the hot boys from Down Under, who explained that he and his crew had been at Gefilteria's opening in March and were so impressed they came back for more.
“As soon as I tasted it, I was hooked. Gefilte fish for life.”
After a fun day of eating and flirting with international Jews, I decided to ask Jeff one final question. Completely projecting my own issues, I asked, “Do you ever have moments of existential crisis about what you’re doing with your life?”
He answered, “I have crises all the time. I mean, all these people I went to college with are now at Yale Law School or they are successful journalists and here I am making gefilte fish. But someone’s got to make it.”POPULAR
PzKpfw’s and Ausf’s
VK’s and E’s
L/XX’s, KwK’s and PaK’s
Jagd's, StuG's and artillery guns
Other abbrieviations
Captured vehicle naming and numbering
Tank names
The original source for this information was the book 'The Tiger Tank’ by Roger Ford, with bits added by myself.Getting confused by all this VK3001 (H) and PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf E and L/56 business? Then read on, for all shall be explained.The 2nd-generation tanks with which Germany fought WW2 were called Panzerkampfwagen (Literally translates to ‘Armoured battle vehicle’. The Germans have a habit of sticking words together to create bigger words, as you’ll see) and were initially abbreviated to ‘PzKw’ but this caused some confusion, as personnel carries were known by the abbreviation ‘PKw’. Armoured battle vehicles therefore became designated ‘PzKpfw’ or ‘Pz.Kpfw’, though not until halfway through the war. A Roman numeral was used to distinguish one vehicle type from another – PzKpfw IV, for example – and models or versions were distinguished by a capital-letter alphabetic Ausführung (meaning model or design) number, usually abbreviated to Ausf. The Ausf designators were not always allocated in alphabetical order, the original Ausf suffixes of the Tiger were ‘H’ and ‘P’, and these referred to the designers Henschel and Porsche. And yes, this is the same Porsche that makes cars, but that does not give you the right to refer to you 911 as your ‘PzKpfw CMXI Ausf P’. Subvariants sometimes received an Arabic number after the alphabetic designator: PzKpfw IV Ausf F2, for example. Ausf number could be changed retroactively; the PzKpfw VI Tiger Ausf H became the PzKpfw VI Tiger Ausf E. Similarly, the King Tiger lost its VI Roman numeral number, simply becoming the Tiger II.From 1938 prototype and experimental tanks first received a ‘VK’ designator, followed by a 4-digit number. The first pair of numbers was the approximate weight in tonnes, while the second pair differentiated one prototype from another. When an identical specification was given to two or more manufacturers, a simple abbreviation of their name was used in brackets such as in VK3001 (H). There are two potential meanings for 'VK', the first: Versuchskonstruktion (‘Experimental design’.) The second: 'Vollkettenfahrzeug' ('Full-tracked motor vehicle'.) It seems likely that it should stand for 'Versuchskonstruktion' as they were experimental designs, however this could mean literally any design, 'Vollkettenfahrzeug' would specify what type of design it was, making this meaning likely also. Interestingly enough, many books state that it means 'Vollkettenfahrzeug', whereas many internet sources state 'Versuchskonstruktion'. I personally have no idea which one it actually is, so I'll leave it up to you which one you choose. From 1943 onwards, experimental tanks and those under development were given a simpler ‘E’ (for Entwicklungstyp meaning ‘Developmental type’) designation, followed by an approximate weight-class. As a side note, the ‘DB’ in ‘VK3002 (DB)’ stands for Daimler-Benz.I’ll start with KwK and PaK, as these are the easiest to explain. Simply, KwK stands for ‘Kampfwagenkanone’ (Battle vehicle gun. I.e. The gun on a tank) and PaK stands for Panzerabwehrkanone (Armour defence gun. I.e. Anti-tank gun). In artillery guns, the calibre is not the diameter of the barrel, but instead refers to the length of the gun. (The Germans measure this from the rear of the breach to the muzzle. If a muzzle brake is fitted, it is not included.) A gun with 56 calibres has a barrel 56 as long as its nominal bore (the bore width usually excludes the rifling.) The calibre is expressed as 'L/(Number)', e.g. L/71. The 'L' stands for 'Länge' (Length). The number after KwK show the year the gun was first tested. (To save myself typing out 'gun first tested in...' I shall use'model'.) The shells have a similar naming, for example the PzGr 39 and the PzGr 39/43, this shows that the later one (43 is the year it came to service) is a modifcation of the original 39 design. So for the KwK 36 8.8cm L/56 we have tank gun model 1936, with a bore of 8.8cm (The Germans measure artillery gun diameters in centimetres, as opposed to millimetres) with a calibre of 56. (So the total barrel length is 56 x 8.8cm, equalling 4.928 metres.) Tanks of the same type but with different guns were differentiated by a reference to the main gun, either by its nominal bore, by its own type designator or by its calibre. So a PzKpfw III with the 7.5cm gun may be referred to as a PzKpfw III (75). Tigers were often differentiated from King Tigers by reference to their main guns. The Tiger being PzKpfw VI (8.8cm KwK 36 L/56) and the King Tiger the PzKpfw VI (8.8cm KwK 43 L/71).The ‘Jagd’ bit in ‘JagdTiger’ and ‘JagdPanther’ comes from the German word Jäger (Hunter). Thus a PanzerJäger is a tank-hunter - I.e. a tank-destroyer – and this simply gets abbreviated to ‘Jagd’ and put in front of the chassis which the PanzerJäger is based upon (So a JagdPanther is based on the Panther chassis.) StuG stands for ‘Sturmgeschütz’ (Assault gun, ‘sturm’ literally means storm, in this sense meaning ‘to storm’) and the III or IV distinguishing whether it was based on a PzKpfw III or PzKpfw IV chassis. StuH 42 stands for ‘Sturmhaubitze 42’ (Assualt Howitzer model 1942). As for the artillery guns; sIG means 'Schweres Infanteriegeschütz' (Heavy infantry gun.) leFH stands for 'Leichte Feldhaubitze' (Light field howitzer) and sFH means 'Schwere Feldhaubitze' (Heavy field howitzer.)In general, most of the abbrieviations and/or words you need can be found here, however if you cannot or have one to suggest that isalready on that website, feel free to make a reply about it.FuG stands for '[FunkGerät' (Radio Unit).FlaK means 'Fliegerabwehrkanone', 'Flugzeugabwehr-Kanone' or 'FlugabwehrKanone' (depending the source) meaning 'Air defence canon' i.e 'Anti-aircraft gun'.PzB means 'Panzerbüchse' (Anti-tank rifle)PzSpWg stands for 'Panzerspähwagen' (Armoured reconnaissance vehicle)SchPzWg or Schütz Pz Wg means 'Schützenpanzerwagen' (Armoured troop vehicle.)Source: Achtung Panzer!You may have noticed some odd lettering appear after German tank names that do not match the initials of any tank producers or designers, the chances are that it is a foreign tank pressed into German use. In order to classify captured/foreign equipment, a numerical block system was introduced. All vehicle were divided into following categories.200 - armored cars300 - halftracked vehicles400 - armored halftracked vehicles600 - fully-tracked artillery tractors630 - armored artillery tractors700 - tanks800 - gun carriers / self-propelled gunsIn addition numbers were followed by letters. Letters were used to recognize the previous user (not a producer) of a certain piece of the equipment. For example: Panzerkampfwagen T-34 747[r].Czechoslovakia - (t) - TschechischBelgium - {b} - Belgien (The odd brackets are to avoid theemoticon and embolding things.)France - (f) - FrankreichGreat Britain / Canada - (e) - England / KanadaHungary - (u) - UngarnItaly - (i) - ItalienNetherlands - (h) - HollandPoland - (p) - PolenSoviet Union - [r] - Russland (Square brackets to avoid ®)United States of America - (a) - AmerikaHere are the definitions of some of the tank names (Yes, I do realise some are obvious, but 'Tiger' could mean 'Desk' in German for all some people know):Hummel – Bumble bee (Though Hitler hated this name, he thought it too 'cute'.)Grille – CricketWespe – WaspMarder – Marten (A ferret/weasel thing.)Bison – BisonHetzer – Agitator or Baiter.*Maus – MouseFerdinand - Ferdinand Porsche (Designer)Elefant – Elephant (This was the same vehicle as the Ferdinand.)Luchs – LynxLeopard – LeopardPanther – PantherTiger – TigerNashorn – Rhinoceros (This was sometimes known as 'Hornisse' meaning 'Hornet')Brummbär - Growler***There are two meanings to the word "hetzen" in Germany. One is a social meaning which would roughly translate to "stir up hatred" (by saying bad things about someone/something). The other one is a special type of hunting with dogs, that is usually done to hunt down red deer with the intention to make the deer become tired so that he can't run away anymore. It seems that this is the more likely meaning, but I didn't want to put this in and ruin the neat look of the list.**Brummbär" was never used by the germans, it was the nickname the Allied Intelligence gave it. The germans used the nickname 'Stupa' wich was just a contraction of the term:rmnzerWell, that concludes this gateway to understanding all those German tank names. I hope you found it useful, and please tell me if anything is wrong, whether it is something factual or simply an grammatical or seplling error, it’d be much appreciated, and I’ll give you a mention below. (I have a feeling I've mixed up the terminology regarding bores and calibres, but I'm not sure, clarification is appreciated.)Thanks to:2ndPzDiv, Lert, Blizzard36 and Itum for helping with the meaning of 'L'.PostMisanthrope1 for confirming the meaning of 'DB'.stygium for the meanings of sIG, leFH and sFH.gorbi and Djerin for helping with the meaning of 'VK'. (Though they provided opposite views, making me confused.)derkb for explaining the numbering of guns and shells.Christian_Ankerstjerne for the meaning of PzSpWg and SchPzWg.seraph013 for the meaning of 'Hetzer'.xthetenth for (t) meaning 'Tschechisch' and for reminding me about the foreign tanks section.boxtosser for 'Hornisse' meaning 'Hornet'.austrian_avenger for the meaing of 'FuG'.Djerin for the hunting spin on 'Hetzer'.theta0123 for the meaning of 'PzB'.Reanoe for correcting the meaning of 'KwK'.MetalForever for the meaning of 'FlaK'.Kameho for the info on 'Brummbär' and the Hitler fact regarding the 'Hummel'.These are all great people!Things I shall add in at some point:- SdKfz- The shell names (E.g. PzGr.)- Names of equipment (E.g. 'Ketten' meaning 'tracks'.)- Any other odds and ends I feel appropiate.Flickr/The Shopping Sherpa Ikea's "Galant" desk, favored by startups everywhere, will soon disappear from Ikea stores.
"As of now, we are not producing any more Galant desks," Janice Simonsen, Ikea's U.S. product public relations representative told Business Insider.
Ikea is phasing out the Galant desks and replacing them with a new, similar-looking series of desks. The Bekant will start appearing in stores next week, and will be available in all Ikea stores by October.
The Ikea website is already referring to the page displaying the rest of its Galant desks as "the Galant/Bekant system."
The Galant desk, minimalistic in its design and easily customizable, is used the world over—most notably in the offices of startups. Tomorrow Focus, the publisher of the Huffington Post in Germany, has several news rooms full of the desks. Business Insider does, too.
As early as November 2013, Ikea forums began buzzing with rumors of Ikea discontinuing the Galant desk line. Similar rumors of the Galant's demise resurfaced on Twitter earlier this summer.
"People will like the Bekant just as much, if not better than the Galant line," Simonsen said.Some Upper West residents say it's a good idea but others are concerned that it could mean fewer parking spots. Gus Rosendale reports. (Published Monday, Feb. 1, 2016)
A proposed bike lane for a Upper West Side thoroughfare is stirring up some fierce debate among residents worried about traffic bottlenecks.
New York City recently announced plans to build a protected bike lane on Amsterdam Avenue between West 72nd and 110th streets. The proposal, part of Mayor de Blasio’s “vision zero” initiative to reduce pedestrian injuries and fatalities, would reduce the four-lane road to three while creating a separate lane for cyclists, but it’s left some worrying about congestion on the uptown-bound roadway.
“There’s a lot of trucks and deliveries,” said Patricia Trevisoni. “Not a good idea.”
The bike lane mirrors ones seen across the city – including a block away on Columbus Avenue -- and is set to be built this spring. But some people in the, including community advocate and cyclist Joseph Bolanos, are hoping a petition will stop the project because the roadway is used by commercial vehicles.
“They’re going to narrow down four lanes of commercial traffic down to three,” Bolanos bemoaned.
Others say that the change will make Amsterdam Avenue safer for everyone and will better meet the needs of people living on the Upper West Side.
Among the supporters is City Councilman Mark D. Levine, who wrote in a letter to community board 7 that the current design is unsafe for pedestrians, cyclists and cars alike and that one with protected bike lanes would address issues for all travelers. The full letter was posted to the Streetsblog NYC website.
Marjorie Borba said she agrees with Levine’s assessment.
"I would love it,” she said. Totally missing a bike lane here."Numerous studies show how men and women are treated differently at work, and how these differences affect behavior. This roundup of research articles, six in total, explores why women don’t apply for roles if they’ve been previously rejected; what wearing sensors in the office reveals about gender bias; how marriage impacts women’s careers (and vice versa); how VCs talk about male and female entrepreneurs differently; and why women choke less than men (at least when it comes to tennis).
We publish a lot of articles based on new research (you may have noticed). This year, some of our most viewed and shared stories were based on studies about women — and, more specifically, stories looking at differences in how men and women are treated, and behave, at work. I’ve summarized six below, including one where the office is actually a tennis court.
The question: Why do fewer women end up in senior positions than men? Is it because they have fewer mentors? Less face time with managers? Or aren’t as proactive as men in talking to senior leaders?
The methodology: An analysis of email communication and meeting schedule data for hundreds of employees in one office over four months. One hundred employees were given sociometrist budgets (similar to the ID badges worn by all employees) to track in-person behavior, including movement, proximity to other badges, and volume and tone of speech.
The results: No perceptible differences were observed in the behavior of men and women. They had the same number of contacts, spent the same amount of time with senior leaders, and allocated their time similarly. They also spend the same amount of time in online and face-to-face conversations. Yet women weren’t advancing and men were.
The conclusion: “Our analysis suggests that the difference in promotion rates between men and women in this company was due not to their behavior but to how they were treated. This indicates that arguments about changing women’s behavior — to ‘lean-in,’ for example — might miss the bigger picture: Gender inequality is due to bias, not differences in behavior.” –Stephen Turban (former data scientist, Humanyze), Laura Freeman (data analyst, Humanyze), and Ben Waber (Humanyze CEO, visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab)
Read the full article.
The question: Are actions that lead to professional success viewed less favorably in the heterosexual marriage market?
The methodology: Career center questionnaires were completed by 355 incoming business school students (241 men and 114 women) regarding their job preferences (desired compensation, hours of work, and days per month of travel). Students also rated their leadership abilities and professional ambition.
The results: When single women were told their answers would be viewed by just their career counselors, single and married women gave similar answers. When they were told their answers would be viewed by both counselors and peers, however, single women lowered their desired salary (from $131,000 to $113,000 on average) and the number of days they were willing to travel (14 days vs. 7). The hours they were willing to work per week dropped by four, and they also reported less professional ambition.
The conclusion: “Taken together, our results suggest that single women avoid actions that would help their careers because of marriage considerations, and that marriage considerations may be an additional explanation for gender differences in the labor market. Many schooling and initial career decisions…occur early in life, when most women are single. These decisions can have labor market consequences with long-lasting effects.” –Leonardo Bursztyn (University of Chicago), Thomas Fujiwara (Princeton University, and Amanda Pallais (Harvard University)
Read the full article.
The question: The initial aim of the research was to help financial decision makers develop better processes. But as the data was collected and analyzed, a more gendered pattern began to emerge.
The methodology: Observations of closed-room, face-to-face discussions of final funding decisions among Swedish government VCs. In total, 125 applications (99 from male entrepreneurs and 26 from female entrepreneurs) were discussed between 2009 to 2010.
The results: The VCs’ rhetoric often reflected stereotypical ideas about women having qualities opposite to those considered important to being an entrepreneur, with VCs questioning their credibility, trustworthiness, experience, and knowledge. When they spoke with men, the VCs’ language borrowed from stereotypical beliefs about entrepreneurial potential.
Women were also only given 25% of the applied-for amount; men received an average of 52% of what they asked for. Women |
they certainly scream “unethical.” As secretary of State she should have had no financial conflicts of interest with doing what is best for the country.
Moreover, while Hillary is perfectly happy to lecture the American people about “women’s issues” in the United States, she also appears perfectly happy to accept donations to the Clinton Foundation from countries with records of terrible abuses against women. Saudi Arabia has been especially gracious and, according to media reports citing foundation disclosures, has given $10 million since 2001.
Additionally, the Friends of Saudi Arabia, co-founded by a Saudi prince, gifted the Clinton Foundation at least $1 million. It strains credulity that someone with this judgement will carry out policies that will defend American ideals and strengthen U.S. influence abroad, and it is hard to fathom the kind of deadened conscience required to accept donations of this sort, especially when she knew they would be scrutinized during a White House bid.
4. Hillary Clinton Is Zealous for Hyper-Liberal Causes
Those dismayed by the Obama administration’s edict to schools to allow boys and girls into the bathrooms, dressing rooms, and showers of the opposite sex had better take heed. Under a Hillary administration we should expect more of the same.
Think she might at least leave people alone who disagree with her radical leftist views? No chance.
Hillary Clinton’s life has been dedicated to pushing left-wing causes. She has spent decades pushing for socialized medicine and, as she likes to remind supporters, “before it was called Obamacare it was Hillarycare.” She is ardently anti-gun and hostile toward the Second Amendment. Her support for abortion goes far beyond the typical pandering we have come to expect from Democrat politicians. She is a Planned Parenthood-promoting passionate defender of the “right” to kill preborn babies up until the very last days of pregnancy. When asked if she is satisfied with Roe v. Wade she answered, categorically, in the affirmative.
Think she might at least leave people alone who disagree with her radical leftist views? No chance. In fact, she has argued that “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.” Hear that, Christians? Hillary Clinton is not merely agreeing to disagree with you—she’s calling on you to change your religion.
In fact, in a contest of liberal causes versus religious liberty, she’s on the side of forcing those with deeply held religious beliefs to violate their consciences. For example, while speaking to the Human Rights Campaign in 2015 she mocked the notion that business owners can refuse specific services that violate their deeply held beliefs. Most recently, after the Supreme Court’s decision to kick back to the lower courts the Little Sisters of the Poor case involving Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate, she tweeted:
Every woman, no matter where she works, deserves birth control coverage. This shouldn’t be a question. #SCOTUS -H— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 16, 2016
5. Hillary Clinton Will Push Her Agenda Through the Supreme Court
The next president of the United States will appoint as many as four Supreme Court justices. Four. Just imagine the damage four more left-wing activists could do from the Supreme Court for the next several decades.
Thanks to a column penned by Harvard Law School’s Mark Tushnet, we don’t have to work too hard to think about what they might be like. He has outlined it for us. Steve Hayward has done us a service by pulling out the most stunning portions. Here’s just one.
The culture wars are over; they lost, we won. Remember, they were the ones who characterized constitutional disputes as culture wars (see Justice Scalia in Romer v. Evans, and the Wikipedia entry for culture wars, which describes conservative activists, not liberals, using the term.) And they had opportunities to reach a cease fire, but rejected them in favor of a scorched earth policy. The earth that was scorched, though, was their own. (No conservatives demonstrated any interest in trading off recognition of LGBT rights for ‘religious liberty’ protections. Only now that they’ve lost the battle over LGBT rights, have they made those protections central – seeing them, I suppose, as a new front in the culture wars. But, again, they’ve already lost the war.).
I concur with Steve’s suggestion that “Senate Republicans should read this statement aloud in a hearing of the Judiciary Committee prior to announcing that it will confirm no Democratic appointees to the Supreme Court.” Of course, this is only possible if Republicans keep the Senate.
In the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, dissenting in the Obergefell decision that imposed gay marriage nationwide:
[I]t is not of special importance to me what the law says about marriage. It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact—and the furthest extension one can even imagine—of the Court’s claimed power to create ‘liberties’ that the Constitution and its Amendments neglect to mention. This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves.
Hillary Clinton has a record of deadly foreign policy blunders, judgment so poor she effectively allowed U.S. adversaries to take state secrets, corruption so deep she feels no shame in receiving piles of money from countries with appalling human rights records, zealous advocacy for left-wing causes, and interest in stacking the Supreme Court with activist judges. These are all worth keeping in the front of our minds as we navigate the next several months leading up to the conventions and the general election.Horror loves a whodunnit. And, teen solo slasher Happy Death Day prepares to deliver a slice. Yes, we’re only one sentence in and I’ve already served up a cake pun. Two puns. I’ll stop.
Happy Death Day dares to follow in the mammoth footsteps of both the wildly and not-so successful ventures of teen-targeted terror. We’re not going to try to differentiate between the great and not-so, because one could argue I Know What You Did Last Summer is so bad it’s good (me. I will). But, we can talk Scream.
It’s no argument that Wes Craven’s case of the Ghost Face reigns supreme above a mountain of modest attempts. Scream succeeded where others did not. Daring to be fresh, new, and self-aware. This was in a genre that at the time was only delivering carbon copy flicks to an age group having just discovered the joys of a disposable income. There is a lesson to be taken from Scream. Teen horror is a dime a dozen; to rise above the box office and now, the all-mighty the tomato — you’re going to have to wow the kiddies.
Will Happy Death Day fly with the tindering, streaming, memeing under-25 bunch? We’ll have to wait and see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntxS1bBg5o0
Tree Gelbam (Jessica Rothe) is a care-free sorority girl who wakes up on the wrong end of a hangover. She slinks from the bed of charming do-gooder Carter (Israel Broussard), holding only hazy memories from the night before and a charming case of bed-head.
We quickly love-to-hate Tree. She would fit in nicely with the bee-yotches of Mean Girls, or the not so sweet Sorority of Scream Queens. Tree goes about her day; ignoring do-gooders, shaming a date from hell, and smashing cupcakes left and right (a travesty to cupcakes everywhere). She’s self-centered, but something cracks beneath the surface. We learn she’s been hiding the fact that it’s her Birthday, and catch her ignoring calls from Daddy.
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After a tour around campus and a rendezvous or two with our cast of characters, it’s plot time. Tree heads to a party, opting to take a questionable route alone at night. Cue the Bayfield Baby, our masked assailant. After a short and creepy tussle in an underpass, Tree wakes up in hangoverland. Again.
We again follow Tree throughout her route as she works through some ‘maybe a murder victim’ amnesia. Hungover in Carter’s bed. Campus quad. Cupcake. Late for class. Party time. And, Appearing from the shadows like a bad memory, Babyface is back. The masked murderer succeeds in killing Tree a second time. And instead of meeting her maker, Tree is sent back to round one. And again. And again. Tree gets stuck in a loop, every night kicking the bucket in inventive ways only to wind up back at the beginning. But as the death count piles up (or does it?), the wounds start to come back with her. Time is running out and Tree must track her killer and solve her own murder before she runs out of lives.
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Overall, Happy Death Day is a fun, action-packed hour and a half. Without breaking the wheel, it delivers a rowdy slasher that youths will surely eat up. The unique structure of this film provides fun from the first death to the final and will connect to its underage audience with pore-taste jokes and feel good moments. Movie-going audiences will turn junior detectives attempting to solve this pleasantly macabre murder mystery.
Though the ‘varsity whodunnit’ sub-sub-genre may be a little tired for the seasoned horror fan (clutching tightly to their copies of Scream 2), this film will find its home with a crowd just discovering horror. And for them, it will be a treat.
3/4 eberts
Happy Death Day is directed by Christopher Landon, who co-wrote the film with Scott Lobdell. Jessica Rothe stars. The film opens wide in theaters this Friday, October 13th.
P.S- I’m being super vague about my thoughts on purpose #sorrynotsorry. You can hear our full opinion on next week’s Episode of Nightmare on Film Street Podcast. Download it wherever podcasts lurk. Or, you know.. on this website.
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The idea for Tykoon came from the other co-founder, Doug Lebda, the founder of LendingTree. While he ran into the usual chores and allowance hassles as a father, the big frustration for him was watching his eldest daughter spend real amounts of time in virtual online worlds using real money to buy fake things. With Tykoon, he wanted everything to be real.
While the site, which is aimed primarily at 7- to 10-year-olds, is not a bank and does not tap into parents’ checking accounts, it’s supposed to mimic a bank in some respects. Parents can set an allowance level and automatically “deposit” virtual dollars into three categories, Save, Give and Spend.
You can connect earning an allowance to the completion of various chores or tasks. Or, if you’re like me and you don’t want to connect chores with an allowance because you believe that children ought to do chores without any expectation of getting paid, you can track tasks and allowance separately.
None of the above is particularly unique. Things get more interesting, however, when children want to cash out. They can make a request to their parents to use money from their “Spend” account in Tykoon’s Amazon.com store or take money from their “Give” account for a charity. At that point, parents pay with their own credit cards and Tykoon subtracts the virtual money from the proper categories.
Tykoon handpicks products and nonprofit groups for children to choose from, which is annoying if your children want something that Tykoon hasn’t preapproved or are fond of a cause that the site does not list. The upside, however, is that children don’t end up in the sex toy aisle at Amazon. In fact, children can’t do a single thing — move money, mark a chore as complete or buy anything — without a parent approving or confirming it.
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Still, why such a strong focus on actual transactions? To Mr. Bruinooge, children under 18 are perhaps the largest unbanked population in the United States. But his target market is one that will not make deposits until they have their first regular jobs. “Tykoon is the bank of mom and dad until you transact,” he said. “So we wanted to allow kids to have everyday experiences that they can learn from.”
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Striving to make enough to buy or give (or earn extra privileges, like more television or Internet time, which is another option) turns out to be a compelling enough proposition that some parents find themselves getting requests from their children via Tykoon for more chores to complete.
That ought to warm any parent’s heart, at least at first glance. But here’s the uncomfortable thing about it: Those requests may well come via an e-mail generated by Tykoon on a computer or tablet or smartphone that your child was using, not via an actual conversation.
To me, the biggest mark against sites like this is that they make money less tangible. Children ought to learn to handle it and count it and watch it grow slowly over time in piles inside a see-through storage container. They need to resist (or give in to) the temptation to take it out and blow it all or lose it by accident. At least, they ought to do all of this for a couple of years after starting to receive an allowance.
And as much as I love automating my own financial life, one reason sites like Tykoon haven’t quite set the world on fire yet may be that plenty of parents want to keep their children away from screens if the real-world alternative, like a jar, is a reasonable one.
“I’m not trying to win a battle for screen time,” Mr. Bruinooge said. “I’m trying to create a utility. The most time one would spend on the site is to see what’s in the Tykoon store.”
That’s a fair point, though the toolishness of Version 1 of the site is what gives a few other experts pause. Sara Fenske Bahat, a former banker and regulator who is working on a technology start-up related to families and money, worried that Tykoon felt more like a task management site than a money site. “I realize you have to start somewhere and that it makes sense to begin with the parents,” she said. “But to me, it’s like TurboTax. It’s very spreadsheet-y.” A new version of the site should fix some of this.
Neale Godfrey, the author of the classic children-and-money book “Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees,” wondered why Tykoon didn’t take more of a gamelike approach. “A typical kid is out there playing Angry Birds,” she said. “So how do you get the eyeball of that child as a parent and say to them that ‘This is what I want you to do?’ ”
Ms. Godfrey has her own answer to the question, an app coming out next month called Green$treets: Unleash the Loot, that is intended to both entertain children and teach them about money while connecting parents and other grown-ups to the endeavor. It’s aimed at 5- to 8-year-olds. “I went with the little ones, because the older ones are an impossible group,” she said.
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Mr. Bruinooge said that Tykoon was already planning on bringing in some game-design talent to help make the experience more engaging. To pay for it, he’s exploring business models beyond the small payment Tykoon gets as an Amazon affiliate.
One likely possibility is to partner with major banks that would pay to offer their own versions of Tykoon, something that FamZoo is already doing with credit unions. Tykoon’s founders and their investors have tentacles into many of the biggest for-profit banking institutions, and partnering with any one of them, if it happens, could put the site squarely in front of untold numbers of parents.
In a perfect world for those customers, graduates of Tykoon with, say, five years of good behavior under their belts would one day be eligible for no-fee checking accounts or a rock-bottom rates for private student loans.
But in reality, teenagers and college students are among the most error-prone of all banking customers. The best test of all for sites like Tykoon will be whether their heavy users learn to be so patient, persistent and thrifty that they make no money mistakes at all as young adults.Participants in the annual Barkley Marathons are allotted just 60 hours to claw through more than 100-miles of unmerciful wilderness, enduring extreme temperatures and changes in elevation that equate to climbing up and down Mount Everest. Twice. Since 1986, only fourteen out of over 1,000 participants have finished the event.
In "Barkley 100," filmmaker Brendan Young's spellbinding documentary on the world's most ruthless trail race, veteran Barkley-runner Ed Furtaw says the event is "purposely adjusted and created to be at the limit of possibility." And Furtaw would know. In 1988, the accomplished ultramarathoner became the first person to complete the then-55-mile event. The next year, Gary Cantrell – the race's cigarette-smoking creator and director, who comes across as the kind of sadist you'd love to share a beer with – responded by nearly doubling the course's mileage. A competitor would not complete the newly updated 100-mile route (which, given that participants must navigate not by GPS, but by map and compass, is often experienced as 130 miles or more) for another six years.
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The Barkley, in other words, is not impossible, but it's close. In this way, the event is presumably different from the Kobayashi Maru test, the infamously "unwinnable" mission simulation administered to Starfleet cadets in the Star Trek Universe.
In both cases, however, what is said to be "possible" or "impossible" ultimately boils down to technicalities. The various ways in which Starfleet cadets have circumvented the Kobayashi Maru's "irremediable" circumstances indicate that the test is a no-win scenario in name only. Similarly, with a completion rate of less than 2%, The Barkley is, for all intents and purposes, an unfinishable race. "All the other big races are set up for you to succeed," Cantrell is famous for saying. "The Barkley is set up for you to fail."
Of course, neither the Kobayashi Maru nor The Barkley is about "winning" or "losing," as such. The objective of the Starfleet test is not for the cadet to rescue the Kobayashi Maru, but to evaluate that cadet's constitution in the face of a seemingly impossible task. It is, by its nature, an exceptionally revealing test of one's personal makeup. The most individualized of assessments.
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That Cantrell allows not just elite athletes, but anyone, to race the Barkley suggests his race serves a similar purpose. People who run the Barkley, he says, thrive on challenges, and while most of them are used to succeeding, "they're not afraid to try something where they'll probably fail." It appeals to them, he says, "to know that they have to fight the odds."
"It comes down to each person's individual mental strength and physical capability," Cantrell says in the documentary, his eyes bright and mischievous:
We set up the lottery so that it's not just for the elite athletes, because I think everyone should have chance to really put themselves to the test. And you haven't really tested your limits until you try something you can't do. Then you know where your limit is. It's right there where I quit. That was it.
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[Brendan Young - "Barkley 100"]Jackie Chan’s (成龍) son Jaycee Chan (房祖名) and Taiwanese actor Kai Ko (柯震東) were arrested for drug use by mainland authorities last week in Jaycee’s Beijing luxury home. According to recent reports, Jaycee’s Beijing home located at the NAGA Shangyuan, which was purchased at over 8.1 million RMB, was Jackie’s gift to Jaycee on his 28th birthday.
The Chinese media reported today that Jaycee admitted to taking marijuana since 2006. The 32-year-old told authorities that he tried the drug for the first time when he was in the Netherlands eight years ago.
Kai Ko said he tried marijuana for the first time at Jaycee’s home in 2012 and has been using the drug for the past two years.
Jackie Chan Could Not Visit Son
Jackie and wife Joan Lin (林鳳嬌) allegedly arrived at Beijing earlier this week in hopes of visiting their son. However, as the investigation is still ongoing and Jaycee is under criminal detention, he is only allowed to see his lawyer. It is said that Jackie and Joan are currently arranging lawyers to help their son. Jackie and Joan have not spoken publicly about the incident and could not be contacted.
Yesterday, reporters phoned Joan’s good friend, Taiwanese actress Chen Chen (甄珍), who said that she too failed to contact Joan. She tried to call her, but Joan would not pick up her phone. She said, “This worries me a lot, but I know she must be in great pain right now.”
Sources: Ming Pao; Ming Pao
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.Landmark decision from German high court outlaws male circumcision
A German court just ruled that infant male circumcision is illegal and can subject the perpetrator to prosecution for assault (just like for infant female circumcision)! This is a huge victory for the anti-circumcision movement and children’s rights.
Male circumcision removes the foreskin of the penis. The foreskin contains most of the high sensory nerve endings in the penis and operates as a natural protective buffer and a lubricant.
The national medical associations in Finland, Sweden, Holland, South Africa, and elsewhere have called for a ban on infant male circumcision, which is gynecologically equivalent to removing an infant girl’s clitoral hood and which is illegal in many countries. A recent report by the Dutch Medical Association explains that the male foreskin is an important erotogenic structure for which no medical benefit justifies its routine removal, that it is comparable to certain forms of female circumcision and that it violates children’s rights to bodily integrity.
German high court ruled against male circumcision for religious purposes. Those who cut boys for religious reasons can now be prosecuted for assault, including doctors. Now, neither parents nor the right to freedom of religion guaranteed in the Basic Law can justify this procedure. This is the first time a German court has confirmed punishment for a religious practice.
Every year in Germany, several thousand boys are circumcised at the request of parents. In the U.S., even the majority of boys – largely independent of the religion – are circumcised right after birth. Worldwide, about one-quarter of all men are circumcised. However, massive worldwide resistance is mounting to end the horrific practice of circumcising young boys.
The court was not deterred by the fear of being criticized as anti-Semitic and anti-religious. This decision will shape the future of the debate and hopefully lead a shift in religious consciousness in respecting the fundamental rights of children, all children, not just girls.
Muslim and Jewish organizations surely see the decision as interference with the right to freedom of religion. Both religions are integrated into German culture and have considerable influence. Regardless, at least in Germany, the question of criminalization of religiously motivated circumcision will be regulated by the Federal Constitutional Court.
In this case, a Muslim doctor circumcised a four-year-old boy at the request of the parents. Two days later the boy was still bleeding. The mother took to the emergency room. The prosecutor became aware and indicted the circumciser. After the district court found the procedure to be legal, she appealed. Subsequently, the district court found “serious and irreversible impairment of physical integrity” and ruled in favor of the mother and botched circumcision. Unfortunately, botched circumcisions happen all too often, destroying a young boy for life.
Here is a discussion about the ruling in German. http://community.babycenter.com/post/a34433890/circumcision_now_illegal_in_germany
Also see: http://ncfm.org/2011/04/issues/genital-integrety-circumcision/
This article was re-posted with permission of NCFMSEATTLE -- This is a story about four friends. One is famous. He moved across the country, to the West Coast, for the life most dream about, to become rich and meet models and own a mansion and star in commercials. His closest confidants call him Russ.
The other three came with him. Or for him. Bros, for life, they are. There’s the worrier and the funny guy and the dramatic one. Sort of. They don’t like to be typecast, and they all pursue their own endeavors. But for the moment, they remain most focused on the same thing, on the career that brought them out here and the spoils that came with it.
Teams that could leap into playoffs | Preseason Week 3 winners, losers
To be fair, this only sounds like Entourage, the hit HBO television show. It’s not that, not exactly. But it’s close.
This is a story about Russell Wilson, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback, and those closest to him and their plans. Wilson, obviously, won the Super Bowl last February, and that meant more commercials, more requests, more interviews, more engagements, more signatures, more book proposals, more football camps, more selfies. It meant more of everything -- except close friends. Wilson is done there. He surrounds himself with people who knew him before his world expanded, before he became a brand.
Away from the team facility, aside from family, Wilson can count his inner circle on one hand. There’s his agent, Mark Rodgers; his two best friends from childhood, Scott Pickett and Casey Wadkins; and his personal assistant, Mark’s son Matt, who Wilson introduces as his Chief of Staff. Because quarterbacks are like presidents. Of course.
As his opportunities ballooned, Wilson kept his crew this small on purpose. He followed roughly the LeBron James Model for World Domination Through Sports. Keep your friends close. Train them to do more. Remain wary of outsiders but utilize the best when necessary.
All young celebrity athletes that reach the highest levels of sports must confront how they want to handle what comes out of that. Some only hire outside experts, build teams to build a brand. Most turn to friends and family, in addition to outsiders, for the same reasons Wilson did, for familiarity and trust.
“It’s very rare for him to meet people and have them say anything other than, ‘Awesome, yes, great idea,’” Matt Rodgers said. “No one treats him like Russ. They all treat him like Russell Wilson.”
The Setup
Pickett, Wadkins and Matt Rodgers all live together, in a house east of Seattle. Their abode is a storage unit and fraternity house and an office all at once. Boxes of T-shirts and memorabilia line every room throughout the summer. A black Labrador named Cooper scampers about. They last saw the floor of that living room, clean, not buried under boxes, months ago.
Their season is Wilson’s offseason.
This arrangement didn’t exist last year, before Wilson won a championship and the demands on his time increased exponentially. This time last year, Wilson showed up to commercial shoots by himself, unaware that could seem unusual. Now, his Chief of Staff is always with him.
Matt Rodgers did not want to follow his father into the agent business. He always wanted to work in film, starting at Elon University in North Carolina. Then his dad needed someone to film Wilson, and so Matt did, for several months, and he sold four episodes to the NFL Network.
Entourage was the TV show that inspired Rodgers to become a filmmaker, but the act of putting something on TV was different. It was hard. It could be boring. Making TV was a whole lot of standing around. Rodgers found he liked life inside the circle more than he liked documenting it.
After the Super Bowl, Wilson needed help. He had 25 various commercial shoots and photo shoots and appearances scheduled between February and July. North Carolina State retired his jersey. The Seattle Children’s Hospital welcomed his weekly visits. His schedule fell to Rodgers, who, like Wilson, is 25. “He values youth and loyalty,” Rodgers said. “I’m probably underqualified at times to be doing what I’m doing.”
KING: Why 'Hawks won't repeat | Rams' options with Bradford out
Pickett and Wadkins already helped Wilson run his football camps, but this offseason they also moved to Seattle to assist with more. That and put on eight camps in three states and two countries. They call them Passing Academies, and these academies have VIP tents with catered food and merchandise for sale and more sponsors than an Olympics.
Wadkins played baseball at Wake Forest. He grew up on the PGA Tour. His father, Bobby, was a professional golfer. So was his uncle, Lanny, who won the PGA Championship in 1977 and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2009.
Wadkins is used to fame, then, to the way the public interacts with athletes. He is not awed by the attention Wilson receives, and Wilson respects that. He also saw golfers whose private lives did not match their public images, guys who seemed too good to be true -- and were. He knows people think the same thing about his buddy, Wilson. “Russell’s consistent,” he said. “It’s not a façade. He’s not hiding anything. You kind of fall into these patterns. Muscle memory and all that.”
Then there’s Pickett, Wilson’s oldest friend. They met in kindergarten, at recess. Pickett works for Wilson’s financial advisor, who is based in Seattle. He’ll shoot Wilson the straightest.
None of them love the Entourage comparison, even if it’s both obvious, fair and Wilson’s favorite show. Pickett is most like E, the character played by Kevin Connolly, the star’s best friend, smart but predisposed to worry, always freaking out. Wadkins is a bit like Turtle, played by Jerry Ferrara, in that he’s more laid-back. Although he will search Twitter every morning to gauge reactions.
No one will cop to Johnny Drama tendencies, those of the brother of the show’s star, the one prone to antics. Rodgers is probably the closest. He’s a few months older than Wilson and calls him Baby Bro, just like Drama on the show. The others tease Rodgers about the amount of clothes in his closet, or the number of shoes he owns. “I’ll own some of the Drama,” he said. “I probably worry more like E.”
“He takes his wardrobe very seriously,” said Victor Wise, another friend of the group. “He’s definitely the pretty boy of the bunch. But you can tell they’re all close. They’re like a family, with Russell at the head.”
That’s the crew. That’s how they’re set up. “It’s a lot of good faith,” Wadkins said. “I don’t want to say unprofessional, but it lacks some professionalism. We’re friends. There’s not a lot of contracts. You’re going with the flow, learning as you go.”
The Strategy
Wilson never sleeps. He spends the time he could be sleeping talking about how he never sleeps, or making T-shirts that say #NoTime2Sleep. That’s part of his persona, part of an image, but it’s also because he wanted to capitalize this offseason on the Super Bowl triumph. For a quarterback slated to earn $662,434 in base salary for 2014, the time for commercial pursuits is now. His star may never glow brighter than this offseason. That’s not the plan, but …
“He wants to do all of it,” said the older Rodgers, his agent. “The truth of the matter is, he’s not going to be a 25-year-old, Super Bowl-champion quarterback his whole life. There will be time to do other things, like learn three languages. We need to worry about what we can do now."
There was no shortage of options. What seemed like every Christian church group in America called. So did hundreds of companies who sought Wilson as a pitchman or wanted him to speak to their executives, and dozens of authors who wanted to pen his book. One random February morning, Mark Rodgers counted his Wilson-related inquiries. He stopped at 100. It was 11 a.m.
Wilson handpicked several of the companies he endorsed. His team went to Alaska Airlines and noted the similarities between Wilson and their company -- smaller than competitors, chasing more established counterparts, on the rise. He also didn’t like the Beats By Dre advertisements that featured the San Francisco 49ers being harassed by crowds of Seahawks fans, or seemed to, anyway, so his team went to Bose and sought a deal. Wilson turned down one major fast food franchise because he didn’t eat there. As with the crew and why he moved them here and what they do for him, every commercial was chosen for a purpose, as part of a larger strategy. Wilson is meticulous like that.
The Entourage helps with everything -- food, drapes, schedules, dogs, training, you name it. They keep autograph seekers away when Wilson requires privacy. They act as friends and bodyguards and deliverymen and errand boys and chefs. They say no so he does not have to. All that and one other thing that Wilson struggles with -- golf. Wadkins is trying to help with that.
“He’s abysmal,” Wadkins said. “But he can hit it a mile.”
***
Shortly after the Super Bowl, Wilson attended a Brooklyn Nets game, and when the cameras found him, he was courtside, next to Jay Z. Rodgers’ phone blew up with text messages, warnings, all. Colleagues urged him to run down to the court, lest he lose Wilson to Jay Z, who recently went into sports management. But Rodgers said he never worried.
“Frankly, I don’t think he needs a big-time guy,” Rodgers said. “The big-time guy is not going to do what we’re doing for him.”
Wilson selected his agent through a Google search. He wanted to play football and baseball, same as Jeff Samardzija, and so he typed Samardzija’s name and agent into the search engine. He then called Rodgers, who at that point knew Wilson as a quarterback but not a middle infielder. They’ve worked together ever since. Rodgers was there for Wilson when his father died. “No one can ever replace my dad,” Wilson said. “But if there’s another figure like that in my life, it’s Mark.”
That’s the way Wilson prefers to operate, his style heavy on loyalty and friendship, the Entourage undertones evident, if not entirely accurate. Sometimes, his friends will leave their house and all the boxes and head to his house and all the space. They will play video games or sit out by the lake, all the sorts of things that 25-year-olds do in between their plans to rule the world. How long that will last is anyone’s guess. But for Wilson, it works, for now.
“We’re here to help,” Wadkins said. “It’s not all dependent on Russell. He’s learning as he goes, too. It’s not like I see us being 30 and all still living in the same house.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It worked for Vincent Chase.Share. Won't work on older models. Won't work on older models.
Nintendo has confirmed Xenoblade Chronicles is set to be released on the new 3DS and 3DS XL consoles announced earlier today.
The company has confirmed the upgraded hardware, particularly the CPU, means its possible for Monolith's open-world RPG to be run on the new handhelds. The older models will not be able to handle the game.
Exit Theatre Mode
At the moment, all we know for certain is that Xenoblade Chronicles will hit New 3DS in Japan next year, but there's no word on when or if it'll head West. Seeing as the new handhelds aren't expected on these shores until next year anyway, it could be a bit of a wait before we get to take it for a spin.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS First Trailer Pics 7 IMAGES Fullscreen Image Artboard 3 Copy Artboard 3 ESC 01 OF 07 01 OF 07 Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS First Trailer Pics Download Image Captions ESC
At E3 this year, the much-anticipated sequel for Xenoblade Chronicles was given a new name, Xenoblade Chronicles X, as well as a 2015 release date.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.Give Me My Remote TV News Prop 8: The Musical – The Big Stars COME OUT…to Sing!!
Prop 8: The Musical – The Big Stars COME OUT…to Sing!!
Stop what you are doing RIGHT now, turn up the volume on our computer and enjoy Prop 8: The Musical – a new video from FunnyorDie.com. Oh and you might notice a few familiar faces, like Neil Patrick Harris, Jack Black, Rashida Jones, Allison Janney, just to name a few.
See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die
And well since we are naming names, here are the other stars involved:
California Gays and The People That Love Them
Jordan Ballard, Margaret Cho, Barrett Foa, J.B. Ghuman, John Hill, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Rashad Naylor, Nicole Parker.
The Frightened Villagers
John C Reilly as a Prop 8 leader, and Alison Janney as his wife. Kathy Najimy as his second wife. Jenifer Lewis as a riffing Prop 8’er. Craig Robinson as a preacher. Rashida Jones, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke as Scary Catholic School Girls from Hell. Katharine “Kooks” Leonard, Seth Morris, Denise “Esi!” Piane, Lucian Piane, Richard Read, Seth Redford, Quinton Strack, and Tate Taylor as The Frightened Villagers.
Jack Black stars as Jesus Christ |
the caveat that he is still waiting for news on the player today. Powell will be suspended for Sunday's match against LA due to yellow card accumulation.
Jack Jewsbury is still in a walking boot and experiencing some soreness, Porter said, and looks unlikely to be back for Sunday, but will hopefully be available for the final match against the Rapids.
Dairon Asprilla was kept out of the 18 on Wednesday by the performances of other players, Porter said, not because of injury. Porter singled Michael Nanchoff out in particular as a player whose contributions and attitude in training pushed him into the 18. Nanchoff made a brief appearance for the Timbers against RSL, coming on in the 89th minute for Darlington Nagbe to help put the game away.
Guest Players
Danny O'Rourke was the lone non-first team player on the pitch today.If you thought you missed your chance to buy Bitcoin when the price broke $6,000 for the first time Friday, there’s one argument that might convince you otherwise.
It’s not for the faint of heart. But with the Bitcoin price up more than 42% this month alone, and up 20% from its low just three days ago, the cryptocurrency’s returns have beaten just about everything available on the stock market, defying repeated warnings from the likes of J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon and former Fed chair Ben Bernanke. As of midday Saturday, Bitcoin was trading at nearly $6,200. Now, investors are fretting they’ll miss out on the windfall of a lifetime if they wait any longer.
Historically, of course, legendary investors such as Warren Buffett have advised against buying assets when their price is high, arguing that the best way to make money is to buy low, and, ideally, sell high. Yet a chart created by an influential analyst and investor illustrates why he predicts the Bitcoin price could go higher still — and in fact, may reach as high as $7,400 before its next significant dip.
The Bitcoin price chart mirrors a near-perfect Fibonacci sequence, a sign that the cryptocurrency could rise higher still, according to technical analysis. Chart by JC Parets, All Star Charts
The Bitcoin chart relies on technical analysis, a field of investing that is somewhat controversial because buying decisions are based on the movement of a particular stock or other asset, rather than on the fundamental valuation or future opportunity of the underlying company or security. While some investors reject this approach as trying to time the market — a notoriously difficult task — there is evidence that it can sometimes pay off.
And if there were ever a time to use technical analysis, it might be with Bitcoin, whose price is not tied to any company, nor pegged to any other currency or asset, nor even related to an actual use case. What’s more, the Bitcoin price, which largely trades on hype and abstract visions of its long-term potential, is not only exceptionally volatile, but tends to trade in an unusual undulating formation that enthusiasts have come to call “waves” — where a correction of as much as 30% is common between new highs.
In this case, JC Parets, a chartered market technician who is the president and founder of All Star Charts, observed that the price of Bitcoin has moved upward at intervals resembling the Fibonacci sequence, a famous mathematical pattern that also occurs in nature in everything from the inner spiral of a seashell to pinecones.
“Talk about Fibonacci—I mean, dude, does it get any cleaner than this?” Parets said last week in a presentation at the Stocktoberfest conference, hosted by the financial social media site Stocktwits in Coronado, Calif. With Fibonacci, the length of the next segment is equal to the sum of the two preceding segments. In Parets’ chart above, he shows that Bitcoin’s rallies, since the price surpassed its 2013 high, have followed a similar pattern, where each new leg up corresponds to a percentage increase as predicted by the Fibonacci series.
“I mean, guys, this is like to the penny,” Parets added. He breaks it down further in the chart below.
With each new Bitcoin rally, its price has moved up in predictable increments corresponding to the Fibonacci sequence, a famous mathematical pattern.
The prediction only holds, Parets maintains, if the Bitcoin price remains above roughly $4,700. But as long as it does, he believes Bitcoin could rise to at least about $7,400, as indicated in the chart. For now, though, Parets is giving Bitcoin a more conservative price target: $6,500.
“I don’t care if Bitcoin triples or goes to zero, I really don’t care at all, but from a risk-reward standpoint, I love it long,” he said. “If we’re above $4,700, we want to be long with a target of $6,500 — that’s a great risk-reward, let it go to zero after that!”
One caveat: Parets’ Bitcoin price prediction does not have any timeline attached, which means it could happen imminently, or not for years — as long as it continues to mirror the Fibonacci sequence.
“Yes, theoretically, it can hit our targets tonight,” he told Fortune after Bitcoin passed the $6,000 mark. “Who knows?”Iran: Regime admits to holding 1000 teachers in prison
Written by Staff Writer on 15 August 2015.
NCRI- A deputy in regime’s Ministry of Education admitted to holding over 1,000 teachers in prison.
Mostafa Nasseri declared this shocking statistics quoting the Prisons Organization, but refrained from revealing the number of teachers held as political prisoners in Iranian regime’s prisons and dungeons. (Fars New Agency, affiliated with IRGC – 12 August 2015)
Surely the number of imprisoned teachers exceeds this number and regime’s officials are providing smaller figures for the horrendous number of hardworking and noble educators in detention due to the extensive protests by country’s educators.
The Deputy Minister of Education absurdly attempted to allege that these one thousand teachers are in prison because they have not paid up their loans or are broke. However, this alone, is enough reason for the infamy of regime’s leaders who are plunderers as it shows that the educators who are to bring up the new generation and who are responsible for advancing culture and knowledge that would in turn diminish crimes in the society are themselves poor and living under the poverty line. They have failed in providing the minimum livelihood for their families and have ended up in prisons of this corrupt and criminal regime.
But what have compelled regime’s officials to acknowledge they are keeping one thousand teachers in prison are the escalating protests of the educators. The gathering of teachers, before all else, aims at securing the release of their imprisoned colleagues. Any protest by teachers against the suppression and crackdown, much like their protests against their deplorable living conditions caused by living on under the poverty line wages, will be met by charging them with “propaganda against the system” and “activity against the national security”. This will be followed by prison sentences and torture in the prisons of this antihuman regime. This is the reality that the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Prisons Organization that is tasked to detain, torture and suffocate any opposition voice, are trying to cover up.
Following widespread and nationwide protests of teachers in May 2015, Mr. Esmail Abdi, General Secretary of the Teachers Association, was threatened by regime’s intelligence ministry that if the protests continue, he would be arrested. Since the protests continued, regime’s intelligence agents arrested Mr. Abdi on June 27, 2015 as he was leaving the country to participate in the Canada International Conference on Education (CICE). He was imprisoned and even his lawyer was not permitted to meet him..
Mr. Rasoul Bodaqi that was arrested in 2009 and condemned to six years in prison has not been released although his sentence was over on August 6, 2015. The intelligence ministry brought up fresh fabricated charges against him to bar his release. Messrs Aliakbar Baghbani, Mahmoud Baqeri, Alireza Hashemi, Abdolreza Qanbari and many other imprisoned teachers are just guilty of trying to restore the rights of educators and protesting against oppression and injustice. So far, the protesting educators have been sentenced to prison, exile, prohibition to teach, reduction of wages, etc.
While astronomical thievery by regime’s leaders and officials is a subject of constant infighting of regime’s factions and the poverty line stands at 3.7 million toman, teachers’ wages is merely one million toman.
In their assemblies and protest gatherings, including the one on July 22 in front of regime’s parliament, teachers were carrying placards that read: “No to prison, no to threat, no to getting fired; imprisoned teacher must be freed”, “teacher does not belong in prison”, “teacher’s security should be provided”, “honor, livelihood are our undeniable rights”, “bread, dwelling, honor”, “teacher’s future must be provided for”, “political prisoner must be freed”, “effective insurance is our undeniable right”, “we want wages above poverty line”, “Mr. Rouhani doubt your justice!”, “hungry till when?”, “social and economical humiliation of teacher until when?”, “our wage is in no way proportional to the back-breaking inflation”, “we demand removal of prejudice at various levels of education”, “teacher is vigilant and hates prejudice” and “teacher will die, but will not accept prejudice”.
Ms. Soheila Sadeq, Chair of the Education Committee of National Council of Resistance of Iran, urged international institutions defending the rights of teachers and educators to take action and demand the immediate release of all oppressed and caring teachers that have been deprived of attending their classes and are imprisoned because of the religious despotism that rules Iran.
Education Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 14, 2015
Related News:
Over 200 teachers from across Iran arrested in Tehran protest
Teachers protest across Iran despite Khamenei’s threats and oppressive provisions
Print EmailVancouver Whitecaps FC are mourning the passing of Travis Selje on Friday, May 5 after his vehicle was struck in a tragic car crash in Cloverdale, BC on Wednesday. Travis was a much loved former Residency player, teammate, and friend of many at the club and throughout the BC soccer community.
Selje, 17, was a member of the Whitecaps FC Residency program from 2012 to 2016, moving through Pre-Residency and up to the U-16 squad last year. Prior to joining the club, Selje played for his hometown Surrey United from 2005 to 2012, winning three league championships in 2009, 2011, and 2012. He rejoined Surrey United this past year.
The Celebration of Life for Travis Selje has been planned for Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 2 p.m. at the Cloverdale Baptist Church (18685 64 Ave Surrey, British Columbia). All are welcome to come and pay their respects.
It is with extreme sadness that we pass along the news that Travis Selje passed away at 1:20pm this afternoon surrounded by family & friends — Surrey United (@SurreyUnitedSC) May 5, 2017
Travis will forever be a part of the Whitecaps FC family. The club wishes to offer condolences to the Selje family and friends at this difficult time.It was inevitable...
...We've seen the calls of then Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, one month prior to the Chelyabinsk meteor incident, for a Russian asteroid monitoring and defense system, a system whose capabilities for defense against other kinds of threats were clear. More recently, as I've been suggesting, the BRICSA nations would have to beef up their space security systems if they are to put into place viable mechanisms of international electronic financial clearing. Clearly, these countries, Russia in particular, are interested in by-passing London and New York for international financial clearing.
It now appears that the next step is being taken in this elaborate spatio-geo-political dance, for Mr. Putin, President of the Russian Federation, is calling for precisely such a space defense system, and notably, he has directed his commentary specifically to the threat posed by emerging American technological capabilities:
The Return of "Star Wars"
As the article notes, some $616 billion, over half a trillion dollars, is being spent by Russia in this effort, to culminate in 2020, and already upgraded defense systems are being put into place around Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk in Siberia, and oddly enough, Kaliningrad(the former German Koenigsberg), in East Prussia.
It's the latter that, from the geopolitical context, is highly significant. The Kaliningrad Oblast, essentially the northern sliver of East Prussia(the southern half having been absorbed by Poland), is crucial to the Russian ability to project power into the Baltic region, but more importantly, would be necessary to any Russian defense of the Baltic pipelines supplying energy to Europe, which pipelines run through - you guessed it - Germany, from any aggressor(and there is only one country mentioned by name in Mr. Putin's remarks folks).
The article, however, admits to something else, equally significant, and that is that a variety of countries are developing such capabilities, but that only the US has deployed them. The indications, while only implied, are clear: Moscow thinks a Cold War over its missile defense systems can be avoided, probably because it has read the tea leaves, and realizes that other nations are busy developing similar defensive technologies out of similar concerns over the USA's Mafia-style "protection racket", or "system of alliances."
In short, the USA, which outspends the military spending of the next eight great powers combined, might have thus created the very thing it was intended to avoid: a new arms race. Thus, if there's any prediction to be made here, one can watch for (1) potential Russian offers to expand its air defense zone to other nations, perhaps by offering the technologies to do so, (2) Ramped up Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, and European commitments to missile defense systems.
See you on the flip side.BANGALORE: In today’s era, it is ‘Peace’ which every nations of the world longs for. Keeping this in mind, the Institute of Economics and Peace has compiled the Global Peace Index 2014 by disclosing the names of the 10 World’s most peaceful nations.A central European nation, Slovenia is the tenth most peaceful country in the world. It is a parliamentary republic and a member of the European Union and NATO. Slovenia’s status as the peaceful nation is attributed to its funding for the United Nations peacekeeping missions, number of police and security officers, level of low criminality in society and less internal conflicts.Moreover, with its wonderful cities like Maribor and Ljubljana teeming with unique culture, Slovenia is a fantastic travel destination. The security system along with the beauty of nature and architecture makes this country so attractive not only for tourists, but to investors as well.A Scandinavian nation, Norway has garnered 9spot in the list of most peaceful country of the world in 2014. According to the Global Peace Index, it is one of the safest places to settle down. Norway is the country with the highest level of human development in the globe where its government always places peace at the forefront of the priorities of the country. As per the GPI of 2013, this country has peace rating 1.356 which is really a good rating.Arguing whether Serena Williams is the greatest women’s tennis player of all time has grown stale. At this point—21 Grand Slam titles and three decades of dominance in—if you aren’t willing to coronate Serena, even as a slew of veritable tennis gods are, there is likely little she can do to sway your opinion.
But that’s fine. Because now, after completing her second Serena Slam at 33 (ancient, in tennis years) and showing no signs of relinquishing her dominion over women’s tennis, there’s a more irresistible point to promulgate: That Serena Williams is the greatest athlete of our generation. The most superb sportsperson we’ve seen since Michael Jordan.
No-no. That wasn’t invitation for dispute—be quiet; I’m doing the toast.
Other names will no doubt be tossed into the conversation: the Tigers, Bradys, and Kobes. Yet when assessing the tenants of true sports immortality—accolades, longevity, cultural impact, X-factor contributions—you realize none compare to Serena across the board.
Serena Williams is the greatest athlete of our generation. The most superb sportsperson we’ve seen since Michael Jordan.
But before stating her case as the greatest athlete sans sport let’s briefly address those still clinging onto the notion that she’s not even the greatest tennis player. They’re easy to spot, often pointing to Serena's grand slam total being behind Margaret Court (24) and Steffi Graf (22). What those detractors often ignore however is the fact that Court, while great in her own right, played before the modern “open tennis era,” and won 11 of her 24 grand slam titles at Australian Open tournaments unattended by a majority of the top players in the world. They also disregard how Graf herself made a considerable trophy haul after her biggest rival, Monica Seles, was stabbed at the height of her career by a mentally ill Graf-obsessed fan. This is, of course, in no way Graf’s fault, but let’s call a spade a spade. During the three years prior to the stabbing, Seles won 8 of 12 majors. Graf? Two. Seles would go on to miss two years and return a shell of her former self. Graf, in turn, would win 10 of the next 15 majors.
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Image via USA TODAY Sports / Susan Mullane
Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim, perhaps the best tennis writer in the country, most expertly made Serena’s G.O.A.T. case five years ago: "Head-to-head, on a neutral surface (i.e. hard courts), everyone at their best, I can't help feeling [Serena] crushes the other legends... She would blow through Evert. She wouldn't allow Navratilova (who looks like a pixie next to Serena) a chance to attack. She would tee off on Graf's slice.”
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Semantics aside, Serena is the most gifted woman to pick up a tennis racket. Semantics considered, she’s the greatest athlete we’ve witnessed in the last twenty years.
Who else? What other athlete has been more consistently dominant, magnetic, principled, or badass? Tiger’s supremacy was prolific, but he’s since crumbled beneath the weight of adversity, unable to reclaim his top form (or a championship) since his personal life became chaotically public. Kobe is an indomitable champion, but will most likely end his career without having sniffed a championship in half a decade. Mayweather will likely retire undefeated, yet stands as one of the more despicable figures in sport, a spectacle more known for a juvenile life outside the ring than his anodyne presence within it.
Serena exists as hyperbole actualized.
Serena exists as hyperbole actualized. She, and her sister Venus, literally made women's tennis primetime TV (what up, Deion). There isn’t an athlete on the planet of which winning is more readily expected. The footnotes of her success—the sheer mercilessness of her dominance—are nearly insulting. Serena has played 269 matches in the last five years. She has won 249 of them. She is currently on her 124th consecutive week as the No. 1 tennis player in the world (247th overall) and has amassed nearly $70 million in earnings (excluding endorsements). The common quip is that every match she plays rests solely on her racket. She’s off? Maybe if you have the match of your life you can beat her. She’s on? You don’t stand a chance. This is not how professional sports are supposed to work, yet, this is exactly how immortality does in fact operate.
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Her serve is Thor’s hammer, the most devastating stroke in the history of the game. A shot as legendary and impossible as Kareem’s skyhook or AI’s crossover. The lazy pretense has been to say Serena has existed in an era devoid of competition, the truth is to acknowledge she has had no competition over at least two distinct eras. Her rivals have come, gone, retired, procreated, un-retired, became coaches, re-retired—all while Serena continued to collect hardware. Longevity? The Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears ruled music when she won her first tennis tournament. Garbiñe Muguruza, her opponent from the Wimbledon final, was six.
Further still, amidst the never-ending accolades on court, it is Serena’s ability to overcome adversity off the court that even further separates her from her contemporaries. It’s a history of grit and perseverance in the face of hardship and oppression that work to transcend her from A Sports Figure to The Sports Figure.
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Image via USA TODAY Sports / Susan Mullane
Moreso than any of the previously mentioned names, Serena stands with a largely unblemished personal record. Save an on court tirade here or there, which would never be mentioned as a standout pejorative if she were a man, Serena has largely exemplified the Golden Girl status we yearn for from our biggest stars, yet with little actual acknowledgement—a direct manifestation of the racist sexism she’s had to deal with her entire career. There are no scandals. No Deflategates, no private indiscretions; just winning. She is beautiful yet routinely mocked, intelligent but often marginalized, confident yet frequently diminished.
The reality is that Serena’s story, of learning tennis alongside her sister from a father whose sole goal was to acquire generational wealth for his family, is a classic iteration of the American Dream. The Williams Sisters' ascension from the cracked courts of the Compton ghetto to the lawns of Wimbledon and beyond, in spite of the integral injustices operating to conserve the Country Club Correctness of American tennis, stands as the most remarkable narrative in sports today. Never in a million years was a ward of America’s most treacherous terrain ever supposed to Crip-walk on the All England Club (after winning an Olympic gold medal, no less). Yet there she stood—and here she stands—as she has for the past twenty years: unapologetic, unrelenting, and unrivaled. Completely unable to be stopped by anyone, anywhere.
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Serena Jemeka Williams. There is, simply, no other that can compare.
Aaron Randle is a Howard U bred writer living in Kansas City, Mo. He's on Twitter at @aaronronel.India's biometric state ID system has been leaking citizens’ data for months. When this information surfaced in April 2017, it stoked fears that the system could be used as an instrument of surveillance against Indian residents.
The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), which administrates the system known as Aadhaar (meaning foundation in Hindi) maintains that it only collects minimal personal data and stores it securely. But critics have firmly expressed doubts about these claims.
Repeat after me: Aadhaar is surveillance technology masquerading as secure authentication technology. — Sunil Abraham (@sunil_abraham) February 24, 2017
The implications of these leaks, and of any system flaw in Aadhaar technology, are substantial, especially for Indians who depend on the Aadhaar system in order to authenticate their identities when they use any number of government services. The Aadhaar system has become the gatekeeper of state systems and services ranging from voting to financial savings to food subsidies.
The digital sphere is now starting to see a pushback against Aadhaar critics through articles and blogposts that describe concerned citizens and privacy experts as the ‘anti-Aadhaar brigade‘ and accuse them of publishing “half-truths” and “spread[ing] confusion to advance their own interests.” One such article was even featured on the UIDAI website.
Some of the most well-researched critiques of the system have come from the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), an inter-disciplinary research organisation in Bangalore that has now become a target of the pro-Aadhaar lobby. Shortly after CIS released a report that pointed out security flaws in the Aadhaar ecosystem, the UIDAI accused the organization of hacking into the Aadhaar system themselves.
In fact, CIS had investigated databases of four specific government websites. Three were available publicly, the fourth one was accessible by simply changing one of the URL parameters. Following the accusation from UIDAI, CIS clarified that the Aadhaar numbers along with other sensitive personal financial information like bank account details were made available by government websites themselves, putting a sizeable portion of Indian citizens at risk of financial fraud.
The Press Trust of India (India's largest news agency) referred to it as a “flip-flop”, which was contested by researchers at CIS.
Points to note: 1) As per OED, this was a “leak”. So PTI report this morning on our clarification is 100% wrong on that. 1/ https://t.co/ywhCzVZFn3 — Pranesh Prakash (@pranesh) May 19, 2017
Independent technology news platform Medianama reported that the accusation by the UIDAI is regrettably consistent with previous actions in which they filed a case against a journalist for exposing flaws in Aadhaar's enrollment mechanism.
A website called ‘Support Aadhaar‘ and its Twitter handle sought to collate opinions supporting Aadhaar and quell those speaking against it. However, most of their messages appear to evade or deflect the concerns that critics have raised by touting the benefits of the system and portraying critics as having a poor understanding of the benefits of technology.
Many Twitter users have also begun noticing patterns in the pro-Aadhaar posts:
Delicious irony, when those fighting for privacy list themselves on their site, but pro-surveillance (ahem, @UIDAI) stay anonymous. pic.twitter.com/dQchSby6zQ — Aravind R S (@aravindet) May 5, 2017
“About” page is still devoid of info. Domain reg. info is anonymized. Now safe to conclude that this is just astroturfing. https://t.co/gmzUieFFnH — Nilesh Trivedi (@nileshtrivedi) May 17, 2017
Meanwhile, several critics of Aadhaar have repeatedly been trolled by anonymous handles on Twitter:
1 / @TheKenWeb throw your ethics/ code of conducts books, suggest you burn them, look at your house first – full of horse shit you talk — Indiaforward (@Indiaforward2) May 3, 2017
.@hasgeek Three guiding principles of Hasgeek and @jackerhack Greed, Profit & Deceit Got to know from people who have worked with them in the past! — Rahul (@criticrahul) May 8, 2017
These ‘sock puppet’ accounts seemed to be targeting those who criticise Aadhaar on social media.
So many sock puppet accounts have popped up to defend Aadhaar, almost all of them have fewer followers than tweets. — @kingslyj (@kingslyj) May 7, 2017
One of the most active trolls issued an open challenge to reveal their identity with just their Aadhaar number.
@KunalWalia @SupportAadhaar @sharads @UIDAI You challenged me to give you my Aadhaar # and I did that. Now pls unmask me. Pls compromise my privacy! If you can't pls stop bullshitting. — Confident India (@Confident_India) May 5, 2017
Technology entrepreneur Kiran Jonnalagadda accepted the challenge and found that ‘@Confident_India’, one of the many anonymous troll Twitter handles, is Sharad Sharma, the co-founder and director of iSPIRT Foundation (Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable), the software lobby that built the backbone of the Aadhaar ecosystem.
Sharma accidentally tweeted a denial from the troll account which has since been deleted. He then tweeted again from his personal handle which was captured.
@Product_Nation You can't make this up.@sharads accidentally tweeted his denial from *another* anon troll account (then deleted it) Boss, stop digging. pic.twitter.com/URzZzKkU4p — Karthik Balakrishnan (@karthikb351) May 18, 2017
iSPIRT officially denied allegations by Jonnalgadda that the “evidence presented is a deliberate misreading of our intent to engage with those speaking against India Stack.” India Stack is the digital infrastructure that has been built over Aadhaar.
But several other Twitter users have confirmed that Sharma's phone number is linked to ‘@Confident_India’.
@nixxin @Confident_India I looked up the number @jackerhack has shared in his tweet on FB, and … pic.twitter.com/ZDldC28yAG — Manish Singh (@refsrc) May 17, 2017
By their own admission, iSPIRT seemed to have an officially sanctioned project intended to systematically challenge anti-Aadhaar campaigners in online platforms. But they refuse to term these actions as “trolling”.
However, Sharma later made an apology for trolling and called it a “lapse of judgement”:
On my flight back from the US, I reflected on my recent behaviour on Twitter…. I unreservedly apologize to all who were hurt… more below pic.twitter.com/IinZIg2yi2 — Sharad Sharma (@sharads) May 23, 2017
CIS Executive Director Sunil Abraham seemed to appreciate the message. He tweeted:
Bravo to @sharads for this! All of us at @cis_india look fwd to collaborating with @Product_Nation & @sharads to serve Indian s/w sector. https://t.co/TEz0fxnloo — Sunil Abraham (@sunil_abraham) May 23, 2017
Others were less forgiving:
This all was public. Even today people by congratulating an apology are enabling future abuse & intimidation. This will happen again. — Apar (@aparatbar) May 23, 2017
That this has gone on so long points to a serious lapse in governance at iSpirt. An apology is not enough. Actual change is needed. 6/6 — Kiran Jonnalagadda (@jackerhack) May 23, 2017
iSPIRT is an initiative which finds far-reaching support from several IT industry leaders in India. What is worrying is that there is still no clarification from iSPIRT on the identities of the other anonymous trolls and their position on trolling against genuine concerns raised by citizens.
Query for those who support #Aadhaar:
2. Is using trolls and anonymous accounts the best way to make a case for #Aadhaar? — Saikat Datta (@saikatd) May 19, 2017
More than a week after the trolling revelations, iSPIRT announced on its website, the results of an investigation carried out by an Internal Guidelines and Compliance Committee over the allegations against Sharma of operating the anonymous handles, ‘@Confident_India’ and ‘@Indiaforward2′. Jonnalgadda was one of the trolling victims who testified in the internal meeting. A summary of the investigation was posted bafflingly by the accused himself in which he says that project Sudham has been dissolved and that he has been told to not make public appearances on behalf of iSPIRT for four months while he remains Director and the face of the organisation. FactorDaily reported that iSPIRT members on the condition of anonymity said that Pallav Nadhani (Founder, Chief Executive, FusionCharts) and Naveen Tewari (Co-founder, InMobi) who quit iSPIRT were upset with their excessive focus on India Stack.
One wonders whether this kind of behaviour would be treated differently if it took place offline. Is intimidating those who appear to be ‘detractors’ the most effective way of dealing with criticism? Why is a software lobby taking it upon themselves to defend the idea of Aadhaar and India Stack through such means?
Many are hoping that experts on both sides of the issue can find a way to debate questions around the privacy and security of Aadhaar's technology — that affect some 1.3 billion people — in a more democratic way.If taxes on electronic cigarettes make it into the 2016 city budget, the new fees will be more about positioning Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a bulwark against youth smoking than fixing Chicago's bottom line.
A $1.25 tax on the sale of the battery-powered devices and an accompanying 25-cent tax on each milliliter of nicotine-containing fluid would raise about $1 million a year for the financially beleaguered city, according to estimates by anti-smoking advocates working with the alderman who proposed it.
Emanuel repeatedly has passed measures aimed at keeping young people from smoking, and he could burnish that reputation by framing an e-cigarette tax as another deterrent in his crusade against Big Tobacco.
But the move would come with the potential downside of adding to his reputation among many Chicagoans that he's a mayor who piles on lots of smaller taxes and fees to try to make ends meet, even as he also preps a massive property tax hike.
Emanuel has had e-cigarettes in his cross hairs before, spearheading an ordinance that added them to Chicago's indoor smoking ban. So far, he hasn't committed to taxing the devices, but said this week that "it's one of those revenue items we're looking at very seriously."
Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno, 1st, floated the e-smoke tax idea, saying he sees it as a way to try to fight the increasing use of the products among teens. He was joined at a news conference last week by health care professionals who said they are a gateway to heavier smoking in large part because they come in sweet fruit and candy flavors and don't carry the stigma attached to tobacco.
"Big Tobacco is now going at our youth in a different way, through technology and through vaping and through e-cigarettes," Moreno said. "And it's our intent, both as a revenue stream, but more importantly, to also make it more cost-prohibitive for our youth to be able to access nicotine."
On the other side, supporters of the electronic devices say they are helping wean adults from traditional tobacco.
"This plan is only estimated to raise $1 million to deal with Chicago's financial woes. That's a drop in the bucket," said Gregory Conley, president of electronic cigarette advocacy group the American Vaping Association. "So why, in a city with a high adult smoking population, do they want to attack these products that have become an effective way for adults to stop smoking?"
Moreno's proposal wouldn't hit electronic smokes nearly as hard as conventional cigarettes in Chicago. Disposable e-cigarettes are sold for around $10 at many downtown convenience stores, with each device purporting to contain as many "puffs" as two to four packs of tobacco cigarettes. The alderman's ordinance would add $1.25 to the cost of the devices, plus 25 cents for each milliliter of nicotine-containing liquid already loaded into the smoking canisters when they're bought.
Ten milliliters of nicotine liquid — enough to load a reusable e-cigarette several times — can be bought separately for around $8. The per-ml tax would increase that price by $2.50.
Compare that with regular smokes, which come with federal, local, state and county taxes totaling $7.17 per pack in Chicago, highest in the nation. The tax burden includes a 50-cent-per-pack increase Emanuel included in his 2014 budget.
Moreno said he wanted the tax to be higher on disposable e-cigarettes, which studies show are favored by younger people. With the city portion of the tax on conventional cigarettes now at $1.18 per pack, he said he tried to keep the total tax burden lower for the pricier reusable electronic smoking kits more often used by adults.
The e-cigarette tax would put Chicago near the forefront of adding local taxes to the products.
At the state level, Minnesota taxes e-cigarette products that contain nicotine at the same rate as tobacco products, 95 percent of the wholesale cost. North Carolina, a tobacco-producing state, taxes the liquid nicotine at 5 cents per milliliter, and Kansas is set to institute a 20-cent-per-ml tax starting next year. And the City Council in Washington, D.C., recently changed the definition of "tobacco products" in its statute to include electronic cigarettes so they can be taxed at the same rate as cigarettes.
Moreno, who often has chewing tobacco tucked in his lip, also wants to tax smokeless tobacco like Cook County does under a 2012 change County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made to tax those products the same as cigarettes.
Moreno said adding chewing tobacco could bring in $20 million or more a year. But he's waiting for the city Law Department to weigh in on whether state law allows municipalities to tax smokeless tobacco.
"They feel like we're on firm ground with (a tax on) e-cigarettes, maybe not as firm with smokeless," Moreno said. "I think we should go ahead and tax smokeless tobacco, and then if somebody sues us that would maybe convince state lawmakers to get moving on changing the law so we're definitely able to tax it."
Law Department spokesman John Holden said in a statement that the department is continuing "to evaluate the legality of any potential taxes that can reduce tobacco use." Emanuel has been noncommittal about a smokeless tobacco tax, telling reporters to wait for his budget address Tuesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in April that e-cigarette use had tripled nationwide from 2013 to 2014 among middle school and high school students. The percentage of students who said they had used e-cigarettes at least once in the past 30 days went up from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014, from about 660,000 to 2 million students, according to the CDC.
And the CDC found that between 2010 and 2013, the percentage of American adults who had tried e-cigarettes rose from 3.3 percent to 8.5 percent.
But Spencer Read, who works at Lakeview e-cigarette store 4:19 Smoke & Vape, said most of his e-cigarette customers are adults trying to kick smoking, people who buy liquids containing very low concentrations of nicotine.
"The harm is not there," he said.
Chicago Tribune's Rachel Crosby contributed.
jebyrne@tribpub.com
Twitter @_johnbyrneThe EU is drawing up plans for a no deal Brexit scenario, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said in an interview published on Sunday (12 November).
Talking to France's Journal du Dimanche newspaper Barnier warned that people should prepare themselves for the possibility of Brexit talks |
the sale is especially good, you might consider buying multiples and storing them for later. That way you can incorporate it into a later meal plan, and reduce the need for buying it later at a higher price. Make sure you stick to your list while at the grocery store so that you aren’t impulse buying.
Other Tips for Saving Money on Food
As you prepare your meal plans, here are some more frugal tips for saving money on food:When you exit the Pennsylvania Turnpike just north of Pennsylvania, on Main Street in working-class Norristown, you’re in the overwhelmingly Democratic 13th congressional district -- at least for a couple of miles. The help-wanted signs are in Spanish; people walk past the Premier Barber Institute, bail bondsmen, and the 99-cent stores wearing branded short-sleeve shirts from their chain-store jobs.
But come around a corner and up and hill and suddenly the neighborhoods turn leafy and green. Suburban-looking dads walk large dogs with flowing tresses. The houses are lovely and set back from the road. This three-quarter-mile stretch is in one of the nation’s most infamously gerrymandered districts, Pennsylvania’s reliably Republican seventh, a one-time swing district so wildly drawn that it resembles Donald Duck kicking Goofy. Signs warn drivers not to tailgate.
Then the neighborhood shifts again and the demographic becomes slightly more downscale. A beer depot and gun store let you know you’re in Pennsylvania’s sixth, another Republican district, which divided suburban Montgomery and Berks counties to create a seat just competitive enough to tantalize Democratic hopes, without fear of actually going blue.
One road, one mile, three different neighborhoods, three different districts -- each one surgically crafted by partisan mapmakers to maximize Republican advantage. It’s detail like this -- the sophisticated packing and cracking of Democratic voters, the squiggly, backtracking district boundaries -- that has made it possible for a largely blue state to send an overwhelmingly Republican delegation to Congress (currently 13 of 18 seats), even in years when Democrats get more votes.
That precision, in turn, is driven by Big Data. You can create districts this skillfully when you know a lot about who lives where, and how they are likely to vote. Mapmakers have more information than ever when they create these basic building blocks of our democracy. Some of this information is public, such as detailed demographics from the census, public-record databases, voting records and precinct-level voting results. But some of it is purchased: consumer preferences, magazine subscriptions, insights gleaned from social media.
A lot more information is about to become available. Earlier this week, Donald Trump signed a repeal of Obama-era privacy restrictions that had been scheduled to become law at the end of this year. Those rules would have required internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast to get your explicit permission before selling your web-browsing history and other personal data collected every time you visit a site or conduct a Google search.
How will this affect the next round of redistricting in 2021 (or sooner, in states like Wisconsin that face court-ordered redraws in 2018)?
No one knows how the ISPs will respond. While they lobbied for the right to market and monetize these histories, they’re not likely to expose individual records, most experts suggest, but rather to build models based on this information and sell those profiles to advertisers. And yes, political parties are likely to be pretty interested in these details.
“From a political perspective, it certainly enhances a campaign’s ability to microtarget to individuals based on their internet usage,” says Tom Bonier, the CEO of TargetSmart, a data-driven political marketing firm that works with Democrats. “I think it will enhance our ability to understand these people, and therefore from a redistricting perspective, our ability to understand certain levels of geography.”
Bonier believes that huge companies doing massive ad campaigns -- McDonald’s and Microsoft -- are likely to line up first and become the largest clients for this information. Political parties, he says, will be much smaller players in comparison -- though they will find it valuable.
“It would certainly provide a depth of understanding of an individual’s motivations, of their partisanship, their ideology, their intensity,” he says. “If they could produce a synthetic variable to say, ‘This is a person who tends to consume information from sites like Breitbart or Microsoft, that’s gold. But McDonald’s isn’t going to be interested in that, and that’s where most of their ad revenue comes from.
“There’s no question that this will produce a greater depth of understanding of individuals and geography than we currently have now. That greater depth of understanding allows mapmakers to create more refined maps that are likely to produce the outcomes they desire.”
Tom Hofeller, the genius mapmaker who has led Republican redistricting efforts over several cycles, suggested to me that when it comes to personal data, the cat’s out of the bag regardless of the new rules.
“This is, essentially, a variation on the proposal to use'micro-targeting' data from redistricting -- which was advocated for this last cycle. It might be useful, but some research has to be done to determine its efficacy,” he wrote in an email.
Nevertheless, Hofeller sounded at once alarmed and resigned to the information already available. “Of course, as a member of the Pre-Boomer generation, I am abhorred [sic] by the diminishing lack of personal privacy in present society. I imagine that the negation of the rule which you address won’t make much change anyway. Big everyone is watching.”
Meanwhile, Stanford professor Nate Persily, a nonpartisan constitutional law and voting rights expert who has drawn court-ordered maps in many states, suggested that the truly valuable information for redistricting does not come from a web browser.
“I don't think this level of individual data makes any difference for the redistricting process,” he said. “The coin of the realm is political data at the census-block level. Most of this can be garnered from precinct-based election results, sensibly broken down according to various algorithms.”
Bonier suggested, however, that while the actual data points most mapmakers are looking at now have not varied much from the ones they would have looked at 20 or 30 years ago, the difference is in the accuracy and the depth of understanding. Stronger, more accurate data leads to stronger, more accurate maps, he said.
“In 2011, mapmakers made great leaps forward in their ability not to make mistakes -- not to create a district that they thought was going to be a safe district that ended up not being safe,” Bonier says. Indeed, exactly one congressional seat has changed hands this decade on these maps in otherwise swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
“The more data that these individuals have in their hands, the fewer mistakes they are going to make," Bonier continued. "Unfortunately from an anti-gerrymandering perspective, the more data you have, in my mind, the more likely you are to have these more tortured and tormented district boundaries. The ones that zig and zag all over. While those zigs and zags are dictated by data, they're saying, ‘Let's go and pick up this area that will do this thing for a district.’” When you have more data and information, you're going to zig and zag a lot more.
So whether these particular data sets make a difference, what we know is this: Mapmakers of all partisan persuasions in 2021 will be armed with better data, stronger computers and more sophisticated algorithms. It makes serious, structural reform that takes the pens away from partisans and changes the way we think about elections all the more important.
“This is the bottom line from a redistricting perspective,” says Bonier. “They’re going to be armed with more data -- and less likely to make mistakes with it.”
Back in Pennsylvania’s tortuous sixth, looping toward a stretch of the interstate where you can cross the three districts within 800 feet, the roads are named for presidents: Monroe, Van Buren, Madison. A gas station uses the Mobil font and red, white and blue colors, but is called Liberty. It takes a moment to realize this is Valley Forge, where George Washington’s army persevered through the bitterest moments of the Revolutionary War. It’s also where Big Data -- the very information about to be unleashed on a larger scale than ever before -- has helped carve up our democracy beyond recognition.President Obama and other defenders of the amassing of data insist that no individual conversation or transaction is ever examined without “court” approval, meaning a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. But the court authorizes the scrutiny of more Americans than foreigners, and it is no court in the customary sense: it operates entirely in secret. Its members are federal judges from around the country, any one of whom may authorize the opening of files. Lacking any real challenge to the evidence, they function more as grand jury than court. Mr. Obama has conceded that only a handful of warrant requests have ever been turned down (a few have been modified), a success rate he attributes to government restraint.
Yet most federal judges are predisposed to defer to executive claims of national security. They are generalists with little experience in evaluating intelligence, and they are reluctant to hamper government operatives sworn to defend the nation. The same reluctance is evident among members of Congress, who pose as watchdogs but melt when they hear appeals to patriotism from the managers of the intelligence services.
In theory, Americans are in the habit of resisting government intrusions on their rights of free speech and association. Accordingly we should be skeptical of such overweening exertions. But the data-hauling has gone on for years without real challenge. When asked whether the government could not simply log individual suspicious calls without amassing a national database, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency, said he was open to discussing that approach, though it might delay work in a crisis. A delay of hours? Days? Weeks? Did President George W. Bush or Mr. Obama ever ask the question?
What ought to compound our skepticism is the news that there is money to be made in the mass approach. We are learning that much of the snooping is farmed out to profit-seeking corporations that have great appetites for government contracts, secured through executives who enrich themselves by shuttling between agency jobs and the contractors’ board rooms. We have privatized what should be a most solemn government activity, guaranteeing bloat and also the inevitable and ironic employ of rebellious hackers like Mr. Snowden.
Where then can we find the skeptical oversight that such a radical challenge to our freedom demands? Presidents beholden to their own bureaucracies seem disinclined to play the skeptic or even to create an elite independent commission, like the Warren Commission, which examined the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, to assess the conflict between liberty and security and point the way to reasonable balance.
Despite the predilections of federal judges to defer to the executive branch, I think in the long run we have no choice but to entrust our freedom to them. But the secret world of intelligence demands its own special, permanent court, like the United States Tax Court, whose members are confirmed by the Senate for terms that allow them to become real experts in the subject. Such a court should inform the public about the nature of its cases and its record of approvals and denials. Most important, it should summon special attorneys to test the government’s secret evidence in every case, so that a full court hears a genuine adversarial debate before intruding on a citizen’s civil rights. That, too, might cost a little time in some crisis. There’s no escaping the fact that freedom is expensive.Wikimedia Commons The Bush White House ignored even more warnings about September 11 than we thought, according to journalist Kurt Eichenwald, who has a column in the NYT and a new book out today.
We already knew about the presidential brief from Aug. 6, 2001 that was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." The White House has shown that this declassified document was primarily a history of Al Qaeda, not a warning of imminent attack.
But there were other briefings, some seen by Eichenwald, that did warn of an imminent attack.
On May 1 the CIA said that a terrorist group in the U.S. was planning an attack.
On June 22 it warned that this attack was "imminent."
On June 29 the brief warned of near-term attacks with "dramatic consequences" including major casualties.
On July 1, the briefing said that the terrorist attack had been delayed but "will occur soon."
On July 24, the president was told again that the attack had been delayed but would occur within months.
These and other similar warnings were ignored by the White House. The Neocons in charge insisted that the threat was instead a coordinated diversion meant to distract attention from Saddam Hussein, according to Eichenwald. This opinion frustrated the intelligence community, who saw the theory as totally illogical.
Eichenwald's column is already getting a lot of attention today. No doubt so will his book, 500 Days: Secrets And Lies In The Terror Wars.Recently Paul Elam at AVfM challenged the staff of The Good Man Project to define the “Good Man” as an entity differing from a “Good Woman.” He wanted to know specific qualities unique to men. Three of them took up the challenge and according to Paul, they each failed There found nothing, no quality at all that was unique to men.
This is the very question that brought me to the men’s movement. I was in search of a modern definition of masculinity and what it means to be a man, specifically, how that differs from being a woman. Is there anything unique about men? I have made some strides in this area, but I too have failed. My best attempt thus far was recently posed in my series Redefining Masculinity. I conclude the third article in that series stating:
“The general expectation that a man must not only earn his own way, but provide for and protect, and sacrifice himself others (society in general and women and children in particular) is unique to manhood. Women may freely choose to do these things, but are not looked down upon for choosing alternate lifestyles that require no such sacrifice on her behalf. This places an extreme burden upon men that is not placed upon women. It is certainly unfair and may be considered oppressive. The Zeta Male will reject the sacrifice as it pertains to others, but not to himself. The Zeta will require himself to earn his own way as he knows there will be no safety net as would be provided to women. Thus for a man to be a man, manhood requires a man not only to choose his own path according to his personal values, but it also requires that he earn his own way.”
However, aside from the differing societal expectation for men and the safety nets provided for women, any woman may also choose her own path according to her personal values and earn her own way. Therefore it also fails to indicate anything inherently unique about men.
To answer this question one must first identify those human behaviors that are unique to the male of the species. Since men and women are more alike than different, every possible human behavior that can be performed by members of one sex can be performed by members of the other. That is every possible behavior except those concerning reproduction. Men cannot be mothers. Women cannot be fathers. These behaviors are unique to each sex.
This, of course, does not mean that there is not any crossover in responsibility and/or function, but each performs those responsibilities from a different perspective. This begins with mate selection, the act of reproduction, and the division of labor performed in child-rearing.
In the pre-industrial age these activities were defined more by biological functioning and ability than anything else. Women get pregnant, men don’t. Women can nurse young children, men can’t. Men on average grow bigger, stronger, faster, and have greater lung capacity and endurance than women. These simple facts, more than anything else, made it more suitable for women (rather than men) to remain in or near the home where they could care for young children. They also made it more suitable for men (rather than women) to leave the home to acquire basic necessities. In the modern era, technology has made it possible for each to assume large portions of the roles of the other in this regard. However, the basic differences in males and females remain, only the roles have changed.
These differences lead to the social contract of marriage, a contract which has been adopted by nearly every successful society in one way or another. This contract allowed the formation of the basic unit of human society; the family unit. It also delineated the roles of the two heads of the family and their responsibilities to themselves, each other, and their children. These roles were frequently codified in various societies at one time or another. Even when they were not codified, they generally were incorporated into cultural expectations, practices, and traditions. They also provided for smooth and orderly transfers of wealth, property, and power as well as providing for social safety nets for individual members of the society.
For instance, men were expected to marry and to provide the basic necessities for their wives and their offspring. Women were also expected to marry and produce offspring. These roles were complimentary and meant that the adult male, the adult female, and all children were provided for. The basic obligation of both men and women was to their offspring and future generations. Because of this, most societies developed a patrilineal system of heritage in which the sons inherited property from their fathers and in which daughters were handed over to their husbands’ families to be provided for. While the basic fairness of such systems could be argued, they were undoubtedly necessary for smooth transitions in societies at a time when biological limitations could not be overcome and basic resources were scarce.
With the onset of the industrial age basic resources have become increasingly plentiful and biological limitations were, for the most part, overcome. However, the basic obligation to offspring and to future generations remains to ensure the survival of the species, just without rigid sex roles once needed to ensure survival. While the act of reproduction continues to require both a male and a female, only the female is required for gestation of the fetus. Once born, care of the infant can now be performed equally well by either sex. Further, technology and the evolution of society have made it possible for the female to produce sufficiently to provide for the care of her offspring and herself in the absence of the male. This makes the social contract of marriage obsolete as it has traditionally been executed. This has resulted in the disintegration of the traditional family unit and the dissolution of obligation of female to male as well as male to female, leaving the only remaining obligation as that of parent to child.
To this point I have shied away from discussion of the traditional male role as protector in favor of discussion of the male role as provider. It is now time to discuss the role of protector as it has applied to both men and women.
The larger physical size and greater physical ability of the human male combined with the greater vulnerability of the female (especially while pregnant) made him more suitable for the task of protecting himself and his family from threats to their physical well-being. The nearly unlimited reproductive capacity and inability to nurse young children of the male compared to the limited capacity of the female and her ability to nurse also made the male more expendable to the family unit than the female. Therefore it was only natural that the male take on the role of primary protector. The female also shared in this obligation, but typically as a last line of defense. As societies grew to include multiple families, the male obligation was expanded to include the protection of society as well.
The technological advancement that came with the industrial age has negated some, but not all of this difference, though it is likely to overcome it entirely at some point in the future. At present, however, the male remains better suited for the role of protector of society than the female. Thus the male obligation to society would appear to still exist. But does it? Perhaps a better question is, should it and should the female assume at least part of this obligation?
It is in this obligation (conferred by a natural sex role and biological difference) that the one measure of manhood as opposed to womanhood continues to exist. Via the biological difference in physical stature and ability between the male and the female, the male remains obliged to be the protector of society. The female has assumed no such obligation, though she may freely choose it or not.
Thus the one remaining sex role for the female is to give birth. The one remaining sex role for the male is to protect society. All other sex roles have been made obsolete by technology. They may now be defined as gender roles (socially, not biologically constructed) and can be maintained or discarded according to the values of any given society.
But the question is should the male continue to take on this role? In modern society the one remaining obligation for women is to produce the next generation. However, in many societies women are permitted to opt out of this obligation. Social convention, birth control, and legalized abortion each permit any individual woman to choose not to become a mother. In these modern societies motherhood is no longer viewed as the measure of a woman. In fact, womanhood appears to have no yardstick by which to measure it that makes it significantly different from manhood. One might say that womanhood no longer exists in these societies. It has become personhood. Any woman can be replaced by any man at any given time in the societies that have released women from their one remaining obligation. Of course for a society to do so would mean that over course of a generation, that society would cease to exist.
The results of this can already be seen in western societies where birth rates have dropped below replacement rates and immigrants are required to maintain population levels and economic strength. The consequence being that the society is slowly eroded and replaced over several generations.
Would a similar destructive process occur if a given society were to permit the male to abdicate his obligation as that society’s protector? Western societies have not yet permitted men this luxury, yet they have begun a process of vilification of traditional male sex roles that discourages men from fulfilling this obligation. The result has been the disintegration and erosion of societal values, culture, and tradition. The breakdown of the family as the foundation of society has met with tragic consequences. Fatherlessness has been associated with any number of societal ills. The recent instability of the economy may also be a symptom. While it could be argued that this may fall more under the purview of the provider role, it might also be argued that the role of provider is a sub-role of protector. Thus it would appear that should men abdicate their obligation as protectors, the result would be just as destructive to society as the abdication of obligation by women as reproducers. It is doubtful that any society can survive the abdication of obligation of either role, let alone both.
But does the protection of society (or the family) require men to sacrifice life or limb? In modern society it certainly could, but should not. There are many ways to protect a society (or a family) and each of them allows a man to fulfill that role. In my latest definition of masculinity, I stated that this obligation “places an extreme burden upon men that is not placed upon women.” I also stated “manhood requires a man… to choose his own path according to his personal values…” I would now state that the man’s biological imperative to protect society is what differentiates manhood from womanhood; that he may not abdicate this obligation; but the way in which he chooses to fulfill this obligation should be consistent with his personal values and will ultimately define him as a man.
While a woman may choose this path, the biological imperative does not exist; therefore this choice may define her as a person, but not as a woman. Masculinity becomes personal according to this definition and its values and ideals vary according to the individual man. A single definition encompassing all of masculinity becomes impossible, but an individual definition remains necessary. There is no one masculinity, but many and each points the individual man in the direction to fulfill his biological imperative.Saturday against the Revolution, a team we’ve already seen twice this year with that 4-1 win back in April and a 1-1 draw up at Gillette in May. What have you seen since then? How much has the team that will be coming in here this weekend changed?
I think it would be foolish to think that the team that we played 4-1 is going to be that same team. I feel like that was at a point in time where they didn’t know exactly what formation they wanted to play and who they had up top. Since then they’ve added a couple of players and they got a couple players back that are healthy and I think they have a very exciting attack. I think the last couple of games they’ve put together some good stuff offensively, so that’s something we have to be mindful of. But with that being said, I feel like where we’ve been successful in the last five games is we have a game plan and we implement it. If we’re able to take that to them again, I think our chances of being successful are great.
We have a 4-0-1 record over the last five. In terms of when you really want to hit a stride, this is probably when you want to be doing it, right?
Yeah of course. This is what we’ve been talking about the whole time. We’ve had a rough go in the beginning but we just continued to, as a team, have the mentality that we want to build off everything. And even in the middle of the season when we were also playing well, when we went seven games unbeaten, we continued to just preach about building off of each performance. I think we’re in a good place right now, but if you ask the guys, I know they still think we can be better. And so, there’s three games left, and we need to take them one game at a time. With this New England game it’s about playing at home, making sure that we play the way we want to, and keeping our shape defensively. And if those are the things we can do, there’s no reason why we can’t continue to play well.
You mention how critical everyone is of themselves and of the team – how they want to be better and push themselves every day. Would you say that has been the team’s mantra all season long?
It has to be. I think for any successful team you have to think that you can still improve and I think that even right now there’s things that we went over in practice that we know we can be better at. With that being said, that’s also a scary thought. If we can get to where we want to be, I feel like it’d be tough to compete against us. So we’re in a good spot right now, but we’re not going to be complacent. We want to continue to move forward.
All season long the talk has always been focused on the next game; not games weeks or months from now. Has there been any talk about these last three and a chance to close out the season on a high note against three Eastern Conference opponents?
I think everyone is aware of the task at hand. What’s really important for us is to take each individual game for what it’s worth. Of course, collectively, it can add up to something such as making the playoffs and Supporters’ Shield and whatnot. But regardless of if it was eight games, 10 games, or the three games we have left, it’s really important just to go into each game knowing not only that we want to play well to get a result, but we want to continue to improve like we said earlier. We want to continue to improve on our performances. And we know that if we do that, there’s no reason why we can’t get a result in these last three games.Jaipur: On August 26, Neha Goyal suddenly screamed that her baby girl was missing, plunging the household of 13 in Jaipur into a state of panic.
The four-month-old was found inside an unused air-conditioner, motionless and covered in a blanket. Baby Mahika was dead, a hospital confirmed.
Hours later, the police would accuse Neha Goyal, 35, of slitting her baby’s throat with a kitchen knife. The tiny body had 17 stab wounds.
Neha, the mother of an eight-year-old daughter, was arrested on Thursday.
The police said faced with incriminating evidence, she admitted that she was upset about having a second daughter.
She reportedly said that in her desperation for a son, she considered IVF and surrogacy and even performed elaborate pujas. In the wealthy family of successful grain merchants, every option was within reach.
When Neha raised an alarm that her baby was missing, the entire family searched for nearly two hours.
After the baby’s body was found, the police, suspecting an inside job, locked up Neha’s bedroom and bathroom and also took samples of everyone in the family for forensic tests.
The blood on the baby matched that of her mother. Blood was also found in Neha’s bathroom, which had signs that it had been cleaned up.
Neha’s husband told the police he was shocked and had no idea that his wife could commit such an act.
“A knife was used to kill the baby, who had 17 injury marks on her body. The knife was been recovered at the instance of the accused,” said Jaipur police officer Angshuman Bhomia.
Stunned neighbours said they could not believe the extent of regressive thinking behind the crime in such an affluent and educated family.
“She had done pujas for a baby boy, we have interrogated the priests who did these pujas for her…she was very upset that she had a baby girl. This was planned murder,” said Mr Bhomia.Yet an imbalance exists that threatens to undercut the pleasure to be found in a perfectly drawn pint. While aficionados yearn to have beer taken as seriously as wine, too often beer is presented in a context that diminishes the respect it deserves.
Sometimes, the problem involves food, as with Studio Square. At Pony Bar, a new bar in Clinton that specializes in American craft beers, the River Horse ESB, served lightly chilled from a cask, was pure and delicate. The beer selection was excellent. The roast beef sandwich was tough, the burger desiccated.
Other times, it’s simply a clueless staff, as at Spitzer’s Corner on the Lower East Side, which calls itself an American gastro-pub and offers 40 craft beers on tap. A waitress was mystifyingly insistent on carding a certain gentleman whose graying temples lent him a distinguished air (hint: he’s not the fruity-beer type). But when he asked her about Coney Island Sword Swallower, described on the menu as “steel hop lager,” she pleaded ignorance, saying, “It’s just my second day here.”
Could you imagine a waiter at a steakhouse who could not explain the difference between a rib-eye and a porterhouse?
The issue was more subtle at DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Daniel Boulud’s new downtown restaurant, which offers 24 brews on tap. As you might expect, the oysters were pristine. The sausages — DBGB offers a selection of 13 — were superb. Yet unless you could find the head sommelier, who was off one night when I stopped in, you might not be able to learn much about the beers. The Harviestoun Old Engine Oil, a British porter that I ordered, was malty, smoky and delicious. But the server was more comfortable discussing off-the-list wine specials than the beer.
“I’m learning,” he said. “It’s a fascinating process.”
Popular culture treats beer as the antithesis of stuffy pretension. Beer has spent so long as the everyman’s answer to snobby wine that investing it with serious appreciation and serious context is possibly too much to ask. Yet enough restaurants and taverns today, from high-end to humble, treat beer seriously, knowledgeably and unpretentiously that it is hard to accept any less.
Blind Tiger Ale House on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village is one of New York’s best beer bars. Partly this is because of the extent of the beer selection, which bartenders can discuss with precision. But it’s also because of the food. Dishes like chicken tacos, a Vietnamese-style sandwich of pork and mango slaw, or a bacon, apple and cheddar sandwich are creative extensions of pub grub, made with care and good ingredients.
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In its original Hudson Street site, where it opened in 1996, Blind Tiger did not serve food. The kitchen was used as a coat room. Patrons used to clear out at 8 p.m. and return at 10:30, said Dave Brodrick, an owner. When it moved to Bleecker Street in 2006, the owners decided to add food. They hired a chef, James O’Brien, who had worked at Spotted Pig, with the idea of going beyond typical bar food. “Now we have a lunch crowd, which we never had at the old Tiger,” Mr. Brodrick said. “At dinner time there isn’t that falloff.”
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Far from the world of the ordinary beer pub, Beer Table in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is a small jewel, more atelier than bar, dedicated to showing off some of the world’s best and most obscure beers. To go with the brews, Beer Table serves charcuterie, cheese and simple cooked dishes. One night, succotash with bacon was the unlikely accompaniment to an unlikely beer, Hardcore I.P.A., from a Scottish brewer who may have spent too much time in California. It was bitter, hoppy and delicious, and it went beautifully with the creamy succotash.
As rare as the beers at Beer Table may be, the server could answer my questions no matter how technical or geeky. But with beer prices that rival box seats at Yankee Stadium, the specialized appeal of a place like Beer Table may not extend beyond the truly committed beer lover.
Yet it suggests that a bigger high-end audience exists for beer than one might believe, given the usual fare of fried mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers. At Convivio, an Italian restaurant in Tudor City, Levi Dalton, the sommelier, has put together a list of beers to showcase the growing Italian artisanal beer movement. Two weeks ago, a Convivio dinner featured several of Italy’s leading craft brewers.
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“It was probably one of the best events we’ve ever had in terms of customer response,” Mr. Dalton said. “It really branched out to an audience we don’t usually get, people in their 20s. There was a phenomenal amount of interest.” As a result, he has expanded the beer list.
Another Italian restaurant, L’Artusi in the West Village, has introduced a list of Italian beers, building on the experience of its general manager, Kevin Garry, who in his previous job at Gramercy Tavern put together a list of vintage beers.
“Vintage beers got people in who never would have come,” Mr. Garry recalled. “The Gramercy Taverns of the world, the Per Ses of the world, they’re starting to have good lists.”
If high-end restaurants are now taking beer seriously, good beer bars that are turning up all over New York can make decent food a bit more of a priority.
Rattle ’n’ Hum opened in Midtown last September with a superb list of beers. The menu is straightforward pub grub, with wings and the dreaded mozzarella sticks. At least Rattle ’n’ Hum knows how to serve a burger, juicy and cooked to order.
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Is good food too much to ask now that we can take good beer for granted? New Yorkers of my generation, who shouldn’t have to be carded again in a bar, may remember a time when it was not uncommon to head halfway across the city to find a bar that served Guinness stout on draft.
Now, almost every neighborhood has a place like Safe Haven Bar and Grill, on the southern end of Park Slope, which is not so much a beer bar as a neighborhood joint with a half-dozen fine beers on tap.
Not every beer bar, though, serves a decent pulled pork sandwich or nachos made to order, as Safe Haven does. One reason is cost. “Running a beer bar is really tough,” said Mr. Brodrick of Blind Tiger. “You add into that a good kitchen, it costs more in terms of labor and it’s a little more frantic.”
Still, if it’s worked for Blind Tiger, it ought to work for others. There’s no reason Loreley, a German beer garden on the Lower East Side, can serve delectable schnitzels and stews when Studio Square can’t handle burgers.
It may be that beer destinations that don’t take food seriously and restaurants that don’t take beer seriously are playing catch-up with the public. “The restaurants are way, way behind the culture of the people,” said Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, who has long believed great beer goes with great food. “People are drinking craft beers at home with food, but it’s been a difficult concept to grasp in restaurants.”
As an alternative, maybe more beer bars will take the approach of Bar Great Harry, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Great Harry has a wonderful beer selection and an inviting atmosphere. I dropped by recently and ordered a Sly Fox Chester County brown ale, which was mellow and subtle, fitting my mood perfectly.
When I asked about food, the bartender handed me a sheaf of delivery menus. “We leave that to the experts,” she said.Pull - Grabs the shield out of an enemy's hands, leaving them exposed.
Stasis Bubble - Stasis Bubble (level 6 stasis upgrade) will cause an enemy to drop their shield. Sometimes they seem to block the initial hit, but as soon as they move at all, they get caught in the bubble trap and the shield falls.
Armor Piercing Ammo / Piercing Mods / Widow, Black Widow, and Javelin Sniper Rifles - Ammo, mods, and weapons that provide an armor-piercing capability allow you to fire THROUGH a riot shield (and other light cover). The M-98 Widow, Black Widow, and Javelin sniper rifles have armor-piercing rounds by default (no ammo or mods necessary). In multiplayer, armor-piercing rounds can be purchased at the store and equipped on the "Equipment" screen.
Well-Aimed Headshots - The Cerberus Guardian's riot shield has a view slit right at head level, and you can shoot through the slit and score headshots if you've got good aim and an |
gridlocked, municipal leaders can continue to innovate and lead. As the debate over comprehensive immigration reform continues, leaders in Washington cannot afford to ignore the fact that so many local elected officials are recognizing the economic imperative of welcoming and inclusive policies.
If your community is ready to help write this next chapter, we hope you will join us.More Women In Texas Crossing Into Mexico For Do-It-Yourself Abortion Pills
Misoprostol is easy to get without a prescription in Mexico, but it lacks the second half of the regimen — mifepristone. Meanwhile, after Texas cut its HIV prevention contract with Planned Parenthood, the state promised there would be no gap in services. That hasn't proven to be the case.
NPR: Legal Medical Abortions Are Up In Texas, But So Are DIY Pills From Mexico
Women who want an abortion in deeply conservative Texas have slightly more choice these days than they had a few months ago. In March, the Food and Drug Administration simplified rules on abortion medication, allowing patients to take the standard regimen of abortion drugs later in a pregnancy. However, the recent spike in the number of women choosing legal, non-surgical abortions in U.S. clinics has not slowed brisk sales of abortion drugs south of the border, in Mexican pharmacies. (Burnett, 6/8)
Texas Observer: After Texas Booted Planned Parenthood From HIV Program, County Replacement Hasn’t Performed A Single Test
When Texas abruptly ended its $600,000 HIV prevention contract with Planned Parenthood’s Houston affiliate in late December, state health officials promised that there would be no interruption in services. The Department of State Health Services parceled the money out to three county health departments in the Houston area and insisted at the time that the counties would have the capacity to pick up where Planned Parenthood left off. But the Observer has learned that as of early June, Harris County’s health department has yet to perform a single HIV test with the money. (Garcia-Ditta, 6/8)
In other news —
Los Angeles Times: A Look At The Abortion Case Before The Supreme Court, By The Numbers
This month, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in the first landmark abortion case in decades, Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt. The ruling could have an immediate effect not only in Texas, but in more than half a dozen other states that have recently passed laws restricting access to abortion clinics. (Hennessy-Fiske, 6/9)
This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscriptionSportsmail studies 55 players in question and looks at where they are now
He has given notepad of names he handed consistent first-team football to
The United boss claims he has given 55 players their chance as youngsters
Jose Mourinho was unveiled as Manchester United's manager on Tuesday
Jose Mourinho came out fighting over his perceived aversion to offering youth a chance armed with a notepad of names he has handed consistent first-team football to during his managerial career.
The new Manchester United manager foresaw questions on his strategy, pertinent given the amount of teenagers who made their debut under Louis van Gaal last season.
Those included Marcus Rashford, who is set to play a significant role under Mourinho and alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Jose Mourinho poses proudly with the Manchester United shirt as he is unveiled at Old Trafford on Tuesday
The 53-year-old tactician displays a Red Devils scarf as he held his first press conference as United manager
Mourinho - whose list of players surprisingly included Arjen Robben at Chelsea - was keen to reject what he believes is a myth about his management.
'You know how many young players I promote to the first team from academies? Forty-nine,' he said.
'Do you want to know who they are? Forty-nine. Forty-nine. If anyone is interested, I can give you that.
'I promote 49 players from the academies from the clubs and with two factors, that are very important on these records, because sometimes you promote players because you don't have another chance, because you have so many injuries that you don't have another choice.
'You have to bring through players from the academy because you have so many injured. That is one factor and the second factor is when you are not playing for big targets, it is easier to bring them up outside the pressure of the big moments.'
Mourinho offered his notebook out at the end of his press conference at Old Trafford but quickly saw that ruined after a glass of water was accidentally knocked over.
Mourinho defended his record with youth as he was unveiled as Manchester United manager on Tuesday
Mourinho's appointment will raise fears that Manchester United's academy players won't get their chance
The United boss then privately recounted the names and the list was later sent out with more than previously suggested, finishing with 55. On it are either academy products or players under the age of 21 he has given debuts to at their new clubs.
Robben cost Chelsea £12million in the summer of 2004 having starred for Groningen and PSV as well as at Euro 2004.
The Dutchman had made his international debut 18 months before making his Chelsea bow and was being chased by the world's top teams - including United.
Mario Balotelli is also on the list having already made his debut for Inter Milan by the time Mourinho took over in 2008, although he did flourish under the Portuguese, playing 70 games in two seasons.
Mourinho also pointed to a number of youngsters at Real Madrid, including Raphael Varane, Casemiro, Alvaro Morata and Jese.
The former Chelsea boss landed the Manchester United manager's job, replacing Louis van Gaal (pictured)
Van Gaal had not been afraid to play youngsters including Marcus Rashford, who enjoyed a stunning season
'Some of them are big names, they are today Champions League winners or in the Euros, playing for national teams and it is a lot,' Mourinho added.
'So once more, one lie repeated many times, sometimes it looks like it's true but it will be always a lie. So for many times, many of you – with or without intention – that is not the point, I don't care about it – but it was not true.
'My record of injuries is very very low. Even in many years from the Champions League studies about every team, my teams were many times the teams with less injuries in the whole of Europe.
'So I never promote players because of need, I did it because of conviction and decision. And last year was the only season of my career when I was not fighting for the title.'
Here, Sportsmail looks at the 55 players in question and gives the lowdown on where they are now.
Arjen Robben cost Chelsea £12m in the summer of 2004 having starred for Groningen and PSV
BENFICA (2)
Diogo Luis
Made debut against Braga in 2000. Last played for Cypriot side Apollon Limassol in 2009.
Geraldo Alves
Centre back made just five league appearances after debut in 2000. Now with Astra Giurgiu.
UNIAO LEIRIA (2)
Nuno Laranjeiro
Became a first-team regular for Uniao Leiria and also played for Portugal U21. Now with Fatima
Joao Paulo Andrade
Another player to cement first-team spot at Uniao Leiria and even captained team.
Mourinho, then manager of Porto, is pictured delivering instructions to midfielder Carlos Alberto in 2004
PORTO (6)
Carlos Alberto
Opened the scoring in 3-0 Champions League triumph over Monaco in 2004. Five caps for Brazil.
Bruno Morais
The striker made just 17 league appearances during seven years with Portuguese giants.
Pedro Oliveira
Has played in Italy with Modena and also made five appearances for Portugal Under 21s
Reinaldo Garcia
He played for Porto for six seasons then moved to Spanish roller hockey where he became the star for Liceo La Coruna.
Joca
Retired from football in 2004 and is now assistant manager at Espinho.
Hugo Luz
Struggled for first-team action and went on to play in lower divisions of Portuguese football.
Robben, now starring in Germany with Bayern Munich, poses with Mourinho after winning respective awards
CHELSEA - FIRST SPELL (10)
Arjen Robben (U21)
Signed as a highly-rated winger but struggled with injuries. Now starring for Bayern Munich.
Lassana Diarra (U21)
Also played under Mourinho at Real Madrid. Now back in France with Marseille.
John Mikel Obi (U21)
Made first appearance in 2006. The 29-year-old Nigerian remains at Stamford Bridge.
Sam Hutchinson
Had a loan spell in Holland with Vitesse Arnhem. Now impressing with Sheffield Wednesday.
Jimmy Smith
Was highly-rated but failed to live up to the hype. Currently with League Two's Crawley Town.
John Mikel Obi arrived at Chelsea in 2006 and is still a part of the first-team squad at the Premier League side
Jimmy Smith was highly-rated but failed to live up to hype and is currently with League Two's Crawley Town
Michael Woods
Signed from Leeds in 2006, but again failed to live up to expectations. Now playing in midfield with Hartlepool.
Anthony Grant
Made just one league appearance at Stamford Bridge. The 29-year-old is now playing for Port Vale.
Ben Sahar
Signed from Hapoel Tel Aviv but was unable to hit the ground running. Back in Israel with Hapoel Be'er Sheva.
Steven Watt
Scottish defender begun his career at Aberdeen. Now playing in non-League with Hastings.
Lenny Pidgeley
The goalkeeper had tough task of getting ahead of Petr Cech in pecking order. Now 32, he was last at Forest Green Rovers.
Lenny Pidgeley came through the ranks at Chelsea when Petr Cech was the undisputed No 1 in west London
INTER MILAN (7)
Davide Santon
Went on to play in the Premier League with Newcastle before return to Inter last year.
Marko Arnautovic (U21)
The Stoke City star is now starring in the English top-flight after arriving in 2013.
Alen Stevanovic
The winger failed to cement first-team spot in Milan and is now playing for Partizan.
Mario Balotelli
Didn't make his debut under Mourinho but the then 19-year-old played 70 matches in two seasons.
Mourinho promoted Davide Santon, seen here playing against David Beckham, to the Inter first team
Marko Arnautovic played under Mourinho at Inter and is now starring in the English top-flight with Stoke
Luca Caldirola
The 25-year-old Italian centre back is now with Werder Bremen after failing to make league appearance for Inter.
Giulio Donati
After failing to make the grade at Inter, he went on to player for Bayer Leverkusen and is now with Mainz.
Rene Krhin
Made five league appearance for Inter. A Slovenia international, he is now playing for Grenada.
Mario Balotelli didn't make his debut under Mourinho but the then 19-year-old played 70 matches under him
REAL MADRID (21)
Raphael Varane
Signed from Lens in 2011 for £8.5million. Now a regular at the heart of the Real Madrid defence.
Alvaro Morata
Made debut in 2010 after progressing through Real's B team. Sold to Juventus in 2014 but bought back this summer.
Casemiro
Signed from Sao Paolo for £4million in 2013. Now a regular under Zinedine Zidane.
Nacho
Made debut in 2011 after coming through the B team. Still at Real and a Spanish international
Jese
Debuted in 2011. Still at Real in a support role.
Joselu
Scored on his one and only La Liga appearance in 2011. Now at Stoke.
Tomas Mejias
Another to make his La Liga debut in 2011. Now back-up goalkeeper under Aitor Karanka at Middlesbrough.
Raphael Varane is now a regular at the heart of the Real Madrid defence after joining from Lens in 2011
Omar Mascarel
Made his debut in 2013. Spent last season on loan at Sporting Gijon.
Fabinho
Made his debut in 2013 on loan from Brazilian side Rio Ave. Never moved to Real permanently and now at Monaco
Pedro Mendes
Made debut in the Champions League while on loan from Sporting Lisbon in 2013. Now at Rennes.
Jose Rodriguez
Made his debut in 2012 in a Copa del Rey game. Moved from Galatasaray to Mainz this summer.
Denis Cherishev
Came through the B team and made debut in 2012. Joined Villarreal this summer.
Pablo Sarabia
Replaced Cristiano Ronaldo for his debut in 2010. Joined Sevilla from Getafe this summer.
Jese made his debut for Real Madrid in 2011 and remains at the club despite struggling for regular football
Juan Carlos
Debuted in 2011. Was on loan at Malaga, from Braga, last season.
Diego Lorente
Made his Real debut in 2013. Was on loan at Rayo Vallecano last season.
Alex Fernandez
A youth graduate who debuted in 2011. Was loaned to Reading from Espanyol in 2015/16.
David Mateos
Debuted in the Champions League against Ajax in 2010. Now playing in the MLS with Orlando City.
Jesus Fernandez Collado
Goalkeeper signed from Numancia and debuted in 2011. Now on the bench at Granada.
Antonio Adan
Youth graduate, debuted in 2010. Now a regular at Betis.
Fernando Pacheco Flores
Goalkeeper debuted in Copa del Rey in 2011. Now first choice at Alaves.
Jorge Casado
Another to debut in 2011. He's now playing in the Spanish second division for Ponferradina.
Spain striker Alvaro Morata made debut for Spanish giants in 2010 after progressing through Real's B team
CHELSEA - SECOND SPELL (7)
Kurt Zouma
Joined Chelsea for £12million from St Etienne and debuted in 2014. Played 33 times for Chelsea last season.
Lewis Baker
Hailed by Mourinho, Baker debuted in 2014. Has been on loan at Sheffield Wednesday, MK Dons and most recently feeder club Vitesse Arnhem.
Dominic Solanke
Became Chelsea's youngest Champions League player on his debut in 2014. Another on loan at Vitesse.
France international Kurt Zouma joined Chelsea for £12million from St Etienne and debuted in 2014
John Swift
Made his debut on the final day of the 2013-14 season. Was last on loan at Brentford.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek
Made his debut in the Champions League in 2014. Signed a bumper new deal at Chelsea last season.
Andreas Christensen
Debut came in the League Cup in 2014. Was player of the year at Borussia Monchengladbach while on loan last season.
Bertrand Traore
Made his debut in 2015 after red tape saw him loaned to Vitesse. Played 16 times for Chelsea last season.The streak of no closures comes to end on DineSafe this week with Bayview Village's Pearl Bayview Chinese Cuisine racking up 10 severe infractions, including failure to prevent an insect infestation and gross unsanitary conditions. Sounds positively delicious. Elsewhere, the 5th Element had some trouble with its garbage cans, which isn't that bad but sounds gross nonetheless.
Read on for the rest of this week's DineSafe offenders.
5th Element (506 Queen W)
Inspected on: May 20, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 5 (Minor: 4, Significant: 1)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
New Sushi Island (571 College St)
Inspected on: May 20, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 1 (Minor: 1, Significant: 1)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Pearl Bayview Chinese Cuisine (2901 Bayview Ave)
Inspected on: May 20, 2014
Inspection finding: Red (Closed)
Number of infractions: 10 (Minor: 2, Significant: 4 Crucial: 4 )
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to prevent an insect infestation. Operator fail to prevent gross unsanitary conditions. Operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated. Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4C (40F) or colder.
Country Style Hungarian Restaurant (450 Bloor St)
Inspected on: May 21, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 3 (Minor: 1, Significant: 2)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Jesse Jr. Filipino Takeout (2700 Dufferin St)
Inspected on: May 21, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 3 (Significant: 2 Crucial:1 )
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated.
Salsas (249 Augusta Ave)
Inspected on: May 22, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 2 (Significant: 2)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Carole's Cheesecake Cafe (2700 Dufferin St)
Inspected on: May 22, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 2 (Minor: 1, Significant: 1)
Crucial infractions include: N/ASure, you could produce a piece of local television journalism that will earn you a Peabody award and perhaps a place of honor on a wall in the station lobby. Or, you could produce a graphic as epic as KMOV’s “overnight dumpster fires” (right) that has begun blazing its way through the internet.
“No way did you make this,” one Twitter user commented, apparently stunned by the magnificence of the station’s decision to use the label “dumpster fire” nearly two dozen times in one graphic, with arrows.
@IAmSpilly @reckless someone really overestimated the impact of having tons of text vs cool dumpster fire icons. — Boolean Corporation (@BooleanCorp) July 5, 2016
@chewbecca24 I just love the graphic. Don’t tell me where the fires were, just point to them and say “dumpster fire” over and over again — Rich Hipster Kūkai (@danisapproves) July 5, 2016
The CBS station’s work was designed to illustrate a story about a rash of 23 dumpster fires in St. Louis overnight (though we counted only 22 dumpster fires labeled on the graphic), but it has taken on what will surely be a long life on the internet, being used to describe the Clinton and Trump campaigns, the year 2016, and, back in St. Louis, the Cardinals bullpen.
DUMPSTER FIRE DUMPSTER FIRE
DUMPSTER FIRE DUMPSTER FIRE
DUMPSTER FIRE DUMPSTER FIRE
DUMPSTER FIRE DUMPSTER FIRE https://t.co/p3RjGEDL0X — Robert Penner (@robpenner) July 5, 2016
I can report similar phenomena today in court. https://t.co/9M51ah1qxT — Matt Henry (@heymatthenry) July 5, 2016
Looks like my fantasy football schedule #DumpsterFire https://t.co/QGHINlXiYs — Brian Fantana (@Gode10) July 5, 2016
Worth noting: KMOV’s story about the 23 separate dumpster fires the St. Louis Fire Department investigated overnight ends with the following line: “It is currently unknown if the fires were set intentionally.”
CommentsBlackBerry has announced a surprise quarterly profit despite a continued fall in its handset sales.
The smartphone manufacturer has suffered consecutive quarterly losses for the past year, in the face of stiff competition from Apple and Samsung and amid diminishing confidence from public sector and corporate customers.
Yesterday, however, it reported a profit of $23m (£13.5m), a significantly higher increase than analysts had predicted. Revenue nonetheless fell 69pc to $966m from the previous quarter, and down from $3.7bn the previous year.
Analysts had expected revenue to fall to $963m after the company posted a $423m loss three months ago.
Chief executive John Chen said the Canadian company’s performance demonstrated it was “firmly on track to achieve important milestones,” and that it would be focusing on enabling a sustained return to profitability.
“We are getting very close to making money or at least break even on hardware. Not quite there yet, but close,” Mr Chen said in a conference call.
The manufacturer has more than halved its workforce in the past two years, sold most of its property in Canada and cut costs in an effort to regain market share.
Despite the release of new handsets the Z3 and Q20, sales continued to fall, hitting 2.6m smartphones this quarter, from 3.4m in the previous quarter.
The company currently holds only around 2.4pc of the UK smartphone market, while 18.3pc of users run Google’s Android operating system, and 10.5pc Apple’s iOS.
Earlier this week BlackBerry announced it had struck a licensing deal with Amazon to offer Android apps on BlackBerry 10 devices and said it was preparing to launch a new model called the Passport phone in the autumn.An All Nippon Airways passenger plane carrying 117 passengers on board experienced a little bit of a scare earlier this month. Why? Because a numb-brained pilot accidentally almost made a Boeing 737-700 fly belly up, as in upside freaking down.
A 737 is not a freaking stunt plane. It shouldn't be barrel rolling, belly upping in the sky—especially with passengers on board. Amazingly everyone is safe, only two flight attendants were hurt and only a few passengers complained about feeling weird (it was obviously stomach turning).
Here's what happened: the co-pilot mistook the rudder trim knob for the cockpit door lock switch so when he "opened the door" for his captain, he actually caused the jet to roll and drop 1,900 meters in 30 seconds. According to internal investigations, "the narrow-body aircraft continued to roll until it reached 131.7 degrees to the left, leaving it almost belly-up. Its nose pointed down as much as 35 degrees at one point."
It's a dumb move on the co-pilot's part and one that could've possibly ended in disaster. Everyone on board is lucky to be alive. [TMCnet, Image Credit: Shutterstock/Ilja Mašík]
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Update: Thanks to Gizmodo reader, Randy, we have more information on how this happened. As you can see in that picture, the rudder knob and the cockpit door lock switch are no more than 10cm apart. Unlocking the door (the small knob) and moving the rudder left (the big knob) is the same direction.
You can keep up with Casey Chan, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.Perhaps Jonnie Williams was hoping the third time would be a charm.The prominent Virginia political donor and businessman, whose struggling dietary supplements company is under federal investigation, has been in the news for his ties to Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R). Undisclosed payments and gifts totaling at least $145,000 dollars to McDonnell and his family are now reportedly the subject of state and federal investigations. Also raising questions are thousands of dollars worth of Williams’ company’s stock purchased by Cuccinelli, along with other gifts provided by Williams to the attorney general.
Both McDonnell and Cuccinelli, who is currently running for governor, originally reported thousands of dollars in gifts from Williams and his company, only to have further gifts or financial ties come to light later.
But Williams’ ties to top Virginia Republicans go back further than the current administration. Williams and his company, Star Scientific, gave heavily to the 2005 gubernatorial campaign of Republican Jerry Kilgore. Kilgore, who served as Virginia’s attorney general from 2002 to 2005, lost to Democrat Tim Kaine. Currently a partner at the law firm McGuireWoods, Kilgore now serves as Williams’ attorney, and has acted as his spokesperson during the current scandal.
In other words, Williams and his company have had financial ties to Virginia’s past three attorneys general, and its past three Republican gubernatorial nominees. And one of those former attorneys general is now his lawyer. (McDonnell served as attorney general from 2006 to 2009.)
Records maintained by The Virginia Public Access Project show that Star Scientific gave over $250,000 in campaign contributions in Virginia between 1999 and 2011. Much of that money went to McDonnell’s gubernatorial campaign and leadership PAC between 2009 and 2011. But the top recipient of Star Scientific donations during the 12 year period was actually Kilgore’s 2005 gubernatorial campaign. Star Scientific contributed $101,462 to the Kilgore campaign between 2002 and 2005. And Williams personally chipped in another $27,323.
The financial ties between Williams and Kilgore don’t end there. In 2002, Star Scientific contributed $5,000 to Kilgore’s Inaugural Committee. And while he served as Virginia attorney general from 2001 to 2004, Kilgore disclosed receiving several thousand dollars in further gifts from Star Scientific. In 2002, he reported receiving $6,828 from the company, mostly flight payments, according to The Virginia Public Access Project’s records. (The office of Virginia’s Secretary of the Commonwealth told TPM it only maintains records going back five years.) In 2003, Kilgore disclosed receiving $125 from Star Scientific, for a dinner.
To be clear, Kilgore has not been mentioned as a subject of the investigations into Williams’ gifts, and there is nothing improper on the surface about Kilgore having received donations and disclosed gifts from Williams. But in his capacity as Williams’ lawyer, Kilgore has declined to comment to several news outlets covering the McDonnell scandal in recent weeks. His own past ties to Williams, meanwhile, appear to have been overlooked.
TPM spoke with Kilgore briefly on Tuesday. At first, he said he needed to speak with his co-counsel before commenting. But he then offered a few thoughts on the record.
“I would just say that we reported any items received from Star Scientific and Jonnie Williams,” Kilgore said, indicating that money and gifts were disclosed on campaign finance reports and financial disclosure forms. “Most of it would have been on the campaign finance reports.”
Photo: In this Aug. 25, 2000 file photo, Jonnie Williams, chief executive officer of Star Scientific Inc., talks on the floor of Star Scientific Inc.’s tobacco processing facility in Chase City, Va. Williams, a former Virginia car salesman-turned-entrepreneur, is now caught in a growing political drama with the governor and state attorney general.One of the hardest tasks of the NFL offseason is determining just how well some players have recovered from injuries. You see them moving around in jerseys and shorts, but that's a far cry from how they'll operate come fall. Some injured players have few issues hitting their stride once they return, as Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson once proved by rushing for 2,097 yards the season after sustaining a torn ACL. Others have a much tougher time rebounding.
Ultimately, all these recovering players share the same burden: They have to overcome the mental and physical challenges that result from their bodies breaking down and help their teams as soon as possible. That being said, here are 10 players who could make the biggest impact on the 2016 season after being sidelined at some point last year:
1) Tony Romo, QB, Dallas Cowboys: There's a cruel irony in knowing that Romo followed the best season of his career in 2014 with an injury-plagued 2015 campaign. He missed 12 games as a result of two separate collarbone fractures and his absence haunted this team all year. It's fair to say the Cowboys would've run away with the mediocre NFC East had they not been forced to use three different quarterbacks to replace their fallen star. That revolving door of signal callers resulted in the Dallas averaging just 17.2 points a game and finishing 4-12. That's why Romo tops this list right now. Bring him back to an offense with highly accomplished pass catchers (Dez Bryant and Jason Witten), an exciting rookie running back (Ezekiel Elliott) and the best offensive line in football, and it's hard to not see the Cowboys returning to the postseason. All Romo has to do is stay healthy.
2) Jordy Nelson, WR, Green Bay Packers: Many people suspected that Green Bay's offense was in trouble when its best receiver tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee last August. Still, it was stunning to see just how much the Packers ultimately missed Nelson. Perennial Pro Bowl quarterback Aaron Rodgers literally had nobody else on the roster who could create separation and big plays as consistently as Nelson could. The end result was an offense that sputtered far too often as defenses stacked up on the run and dared Rodgers to beat them deep. (Green Bay finished 15th in scoring and 23rd in total yards, which were both lows since Rodgers became that team's starting quarterback in 2008.) With Nelson back at full strength, the Packers should once again have an explosive element in their passing game.
3) Le'Veon Bell, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers: After a monster season in 2014 -- when he amassed 1,361 rushing yards, 854 receiving yards and 11 total touchdowns -- Bell only appeared in six games for Pittsburgh last year. He lost the first two to a suspension and the final eight to a torn MCL. The good news was that DeAngelo Williams was able to blossom as a super sub in his absence. The bad news is that Williams is now 33 years old and the Steelers also lost speedy wide receiver Martavis Bryant for the entire season due to suspension. The Steelers still have plenty of talent on offense, but Bell's versatility allows them to play at a different level when he's healthy. They will need him more than ever this fall and he's likely to come back with a vengeance.
4) Andrew Luck, QB, Indianapolis Colts: No star quarterback in the NFL has more to prove than Luck does this season. He missed nine games in 2015 -- because of shoulder, kidney and abdominal injuries -- and the Colts finished 8-8, snapping their run of three consecutive 11-5 playoff campaigns with him under center. What also can't be ignored is the way Luck played before he was knocked out of the lineup. (Just ask Luck, himself.) He completed only 55.3 percent of his passes and accounted for 13 total turnovers (12 off interceptions) in his seven starts. Indianapolis is hoping that a fully healed body and a full offseason with offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski can return Luck to Pro Bowl form. In a division that will be as dramatically improved as the AFC South, Luck's performance obviously will be the biggest determinant of whether the Colts return to the playoffs.
5) Jimmy Graham, TE, Seattle Seahawks: No offense to Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin, but Graham was supposed to be the pass catcher who helped elevate the play of star quarterback Russell Wilson last year. Instead, Graham disappointed during the first half of 2015 and ultimately wound up on injured reserve with a ruptured patellar tendon in Week 12. He finished the year with just 48 receptions and two touchdowns after averaging 89 catches and nearly 12 scores in his previous four seasons with the Saints. In his defense, he was starting to hit his stride before that injury. That also happens to be the version of Graham the Seahawks hope to see when this season begins. Baldwin's emergence -- coupled with Wilson's spectacular maturation in the second half of last season -- means there will be more room for Graham to operate. If he takes advantage of that, Graham should look every bit like the player who was supposed to arrive in Seattle after that blockbuster trade with New Orleans last offseason.
6) Jamaal Charles, RB, Kansas City Chiefs: It's fair to say Chiefs outside linebacker Justin Houston would have a bigger impact on this team -- as he's recovering from his own ACL surgery -- but there's no way of knowing when he'll actually be on the field. It could be as late as November or December before that happens. Charles, on the other hand, should be ready after tearing the ACL in his right knee in a Week 5 loss to Chicago. The really nice aspect of his return is that the Chiefs can be more selective in how they use him this coming season. In 2013, Charles represented approximately 37 percent of this team's offensive production. Three years later, he'll be part of a backfield that benefitted from surprising production out of little-known backs Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware in Charles' absence. For a four-time Pro Bowler who turns 30 in December -- and is coming off the second ACL operation of his career -- Charles should do well with more rest and more help.
7) Terrell Suggs, OLB, Baltimore Ravens: Suggs may be long in the tooth (he turns 34 in October), but don't underestimate his value to Baltimore at this stage of his career. The torn Achilles that ended his season in a Week 1 loss to Denver last September was one of the major setbacks that led to such a frustrating year for the Ravens. Sure, they missed a six-time Pro Bowler who has 106.5 career sacks. But Suggs's absence also impacted fellow pass rusher Elvis Dumervil, who registered just six sacks after amassing 17 in 2015, along with a defense that ranked 24th in the NFL in points allowed. Dumervil already has been touting the potential of this duo once Suggs is back on the field. The entire Ravens team should be equally excited about those possibilities.
8) Tyrann Mathieu, FS, Arizona Cardinals: If not for Seattle's Earl Thomas, Mathieu might be the best safety in football today. The Cardinals were fortunate to have him for the majority of last season -- he tore the ACL in his right knee in Week 15 -- but that also means he'll need more time to find a comfort level this fall. Once that happens, look out. At 5-foot-9 and 186 pounds, Mathieu gets the absolute maximum out of his undersized body. He can cover, tackle, blitz and do just about anything the Cardinals defense asks of him. That team may have reached the NFC title game with him on the sideline, but you best believe the first-team All-Pro was missed. After star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Mathieu could very well be the heartbeat of that team.
9) Steve Smith Sr., WR, Baltimore Ravens: Even at 37 years old, it's difficult to bet against this guy. Smith was playing at an exceptionally high level before he sustained a season-ending torn Achilles tendon -- see: 46 receptions and 670 yards in seven games -- and he's likely to be just as dangerous this fall. The reason? Attitude. Smith initially had planned to retire following the 2015 campaign, but after the injury, he just couldn't go out like that. In many ways, he could continue finding the same fountain of youth in Baltimore that benefitted receivers like Anquan Boldin and Derrick Mason before him. That will be critical because this team sorely needs playmakers for quarterback Joe Flacco.
10) Andy Dalton, QB, Cincinnati Bengals: Talk about a player being dealt a tough blow. Dalton was enjoying his best pro season yet before injuring his right thumb in a Week 14 loss to Pittsburgh. Before that game, he had become exactly the kind of quarterback Cincinnati needed: Dalton had a league-best passer rating (107.4), a career-high in completion percentage (66.1) and 25 touchdown passes (against just six interceptions). After that contest, the Bengals relied on AJ McCarron for their final four games, including a wild-card loss to Pittsburgh. Sure, that Steelers defeat can be blamed entirely on a meltdown revolving around cornerback Adam Jones and linebacker Vontaze Burfict, but the Bengals also would've had a better chance of going deeper into the playoffs with a healthy Dalton. If the sixth-year QB avoids injury this year, look for this team to make up for all the heartache that came with last season's conclusion.
Follow Jeffri Chadiha on Twitter @jeffrichadiha.Bill Bower, 93, the last surviving bomber pilot of the audacious Doolittle Raid, a morale-boosting strike against the Japanese months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, died Jan. 10 at his home in Boulder, Colo.
He died of complications from a fall that occurred in July 2009, said his son Jim.
As a 25-year-old first lieutenant, Col. Bower commanded one of the 16 Army Air Forces' B-25s in the top-secret mission under the direction of then-Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle. Col. Bower and the 79 other men who participated in the bombing run came to be known as the Doolittle Raiders.
Their story began April 18, 1942. That morning, Col. Bower's twin engine B-25 took off from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier loaded with four 500-pound bombs, three extra fuel tanks and five parachutes.
Leaving the Hornet culminated months of planning on behalf of the military, which had sought to retaliate against the Japanese for the Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack.
But returning to the ship was not an option; the deck was too small for the massive bombers to land on. The mission was planned as a one-way trip, and there was no turning back.
After skimming the waves during the 600-mile flight to Japan, Col. Bower directed his plane toward Yokohama and was stunned by the island's natural beauty.
"I had the impression that, my gosh, what peaceful, pretty countryside that was," Col. Bower later said. "What do they want |
Tap last night. Also – a big thanks to Justin Burlise, Ryan Kelley, and all the speakers who volunteered to boldly stand up in front of such an unruly crowd of urban and transportation nerds; Emily Northey, Thatcher Imboden, Matt Steele, Sam Newberg, Max Musicant, Faith Kumon and, of course, Chuck Marohn.
Getting small-scale, incremental development is crucial to downtown and neighborhood vibrancy, and it’s something our local policy should strive for. The beauty of it is that it adds density while conforming to the existing fabric.
This is a standard Midwestern block. It has a dry cleaning storefront that hugs the corner and a few units on top. This is how urbanism will be accomplished in the next 20 years. We only have so many former industrial loft spaces near our town centers. New buildings will eventually have to migrate into our neighborhoods. This will probably need to happen outside of contemporary status quo; such adding flexibility to our code and going outside tradition lending methods.
To allow these small buildings to happen, we’ll need to be flexible and allow incompatible uses and we will need to be more forgiving of new buildings. Our codes will need to be flexible. They won’t always be perfectly in line with what a neighborhood may want. However, if given time and care, they can develop into great community places that people love.
Do buildings need to mold together? Do their forms need to match?
Incompatible uses? This St. Paul grocer is a single-story small “big box” style building that fits the streetscape and is, by and large, a great neighborhood market. It’s next to (and by next to, I mean, very close) what appears to be a duplex that has been converted into a retail front and upstairs office space (I believe there is an apartment, too).
Building a single-family style house next to a store like this, even under very loose zoning restrictions, is probably discouraged. Although it wouldn’t be impossible to do this in the neighborhood today, it probably wouldn’t be worth the uphill battle to get it approved.
The thing is, it works really well – even if it looks a slightly odd. The neighborhood gets a decent corner grocery store. A resident gets cheap office space near his house and a college student, young professional or senior can get an affordable apartment unit in a nice neighborhood across from a beautiful church, elementary school and community center.
The incompatibility can even be more blatant.
As long as you like noodle take-out, this is a win-win. And, let’s be honest – who doesn’t love that?
Even when the form is way out of scale, urbanism will adapt. The noodle shop and apartment pictured above is even more out of scale – a six story building butting up against a shotgun shack of noodle shops. But if the urbanism is there, these incompatible uses don’t matter. This noodle shop will benefit greatly by having six floors of students craving last-minute cheap food. All the while, the college students will benefit from having cheap food in very close proximity to their apartment. These examples work as long as there is a positive amenity that can be had by adding them to the environment.
The owner of the noodle shop and grocery store are not developers. They likely do not have the know-how or resources to run two businesses at once. They can, however, build (or renovate) small and simple. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen to be within the scope of traditional lending.
We need flexible code zones. And, to be diplomatic – let’s start in areas where we’d like to see development happen (transit hubs, downtowns, neighborhood commercial nodes, etc.). Now, these new code-flexibility zones would need to be stipulations: it wouldn’t be “code free” per se, but more so a list of aims and objectives that would need to be reached. Aims and objectives would be things like:
1) good urban design,
2) incremental density,
3) transit-accessible,
4) walkability
In a sense, we’d be trying to achieve a version of form based coding, just minus innate building regulations. The codes I want to avoid are building codes, like “rooms larger than 250 sq ft must have outlets places 6 feet apart on load bearing walls”. The reason a code-flexibility zone is important is because it allows the small business to build or renovate their own space, without the help of an experienced developer. This may be the catalyst to help make that a reality.
The other element that needs to be considered is something more grassroots. The idea of a nation-wide infrastructure bank has been thrown around in the media, but it’s concentrated on large-scale projects like high-speed rail and highway projects. I’m interested in seeing it happen at a hyper-local level for small development projects.
Enter: NorthEast Investment Cooperative of Minneapolis. It’s a new “cooperative that will allow the people of Northeast Minneapolis to pool their resources and collectively buy, rehab, and manage commercial and residential property in the neighborhood.” It’s the first such real estate cooperative in the United States and something that should be closely followed.
They’re operating out of a uniquely middle-class, urban neighborhood. Being that is looked over by traditional large-scale developers, but doesn’t get the influx of city of non-profit grants to rehab its neighborhood. It’s a grassroots neighborhood real estate investment group with a target mission to improve the communities building stock. But, they also aim to turn a profit. I think this element is important and shouldn’t be overlooked. It helps get small-businesses and adjacent property owners onboard. It also creates an environment where all building owners and tenants in the neighborhood have a shared interest in its success. This might be the best way to go about getting small-scale, incremental development that can positively contribute to our urban environment.
This isn’t a call to end larger-scaled development. It is to say that we should think small, as these types of buildings can be much more effective at delivering positive outcomes, and more risk-adverse than one large development. It’s a call to say that small development and urbanism can be beautiful and functional.
___
I highly recommend reading “Good Enough Urbanism” by Andrew Burleson. It should be required reading.
“City codes don't matter very much in the end, the culture will get what it wants. If we want to make the most change in the most places as fast as possible, then we need to be all about good enough urbanism, because it's good enough to create the culture, because it's politically and financially feasible to do it right now, and because we can do it really fast - meaning we can do a LOT of it.”CLOSE Pacers hold off Chicago 98-84
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MARCH 06: Ian Mahinmi #28 of the Indiana Pacers shoots the ball during the game against the Chicago Bulls at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 6, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Pacers won 98-84. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) (Photo: Andy Lyons, Getty Images) Story Highlights Pacers at Knicks, 7 p.m. Saturday, FSI
When the Chicago Bulls' entire defensive strategy focused on putting pressure on Ian Mahinmi, he welcomed every potentially embarrassing step to the free throw line.
The Indiana Pacers and Bulls had spent much of Friday night, shoving, tussling and grabbing the others' jerseys, but in the final 3 minutes, the physicality ceased as Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau sent his guys to run over and gently hug Mahinmi.
The indignation of intentionally fouling a poor free-throw shooter – all within the confines of the NBA rulebook – to force him to make like a basketball player and hit his two shots.
BOX SCORE: Pacers 98, Bulls 84
The plan made sense. Opponents recognize by now that Mahinmi is the second-worst free-throw shooter (now 36.0 percent) among rotational players in the NBA. Still, while this kind of scouting report quantifies numbers, it does not account for the confidence a player may have, nor the immeasurable belief his coach and teammates have in him.
So in the Pacers' 98-84 victory over the Bulls in front of a sellout crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, it was the calm – and dare we say it – silky free throw shooting from Mahinmi that closed out the rough-and-tumble affair.
Mahinmi recorded his second double-double of the season (14 points, 11 rebounds) and made 6-of-10 free throws, including five within the final 3:01 of the game starting when Indiana held a nine-point lead. Indiana won by 14, so Mahinmi's five extra points went far in securing that the Pacers (27-34) remain as the hottest team in the NBA, winners of four straight and 10 out of the past 12 games.
So much for employing the so-called "Hack-A-Shaq" on Mahinmi.
"Teams aren't going to be able to do that," David West said. "He's too confident of a player. We've got too much confidence in him. We build him up too much to think that he's just going to go up there and brick free throws."
During the closed-door practices, with Pacers' brass seated in the stands and only his teammates on the floor, Mahinmi swears he knocks down his free throws. Hundreds and hundreds, he claims he takes in practice, and if you're counting – as Roy Hibbert has done in the past – Mahinmi easily makes those shots.
"All swishes," Hibbert reports.
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Though Mahinmi has consistently shot in the mid-60s through his career – during the Dallas Mavericks' NBA title run in 2011, he made 78.6 for the season – something has changed in 2014-15. The bricks have kept on coming.
"Especially when you miss a lot, you start to think, 'Arggh! What am I doing wrong?' " Mahinmi said. "It's more mental than anything else."
Before Friday night, Mahinmi's.323 free-throw percentage would have justified Pacers coach Frank Vogel burying him on the bench late in games to keep Maul-A-Mahinmi from happening, and it hasn't this year. But when Thibodeau continued to call for the intentional foul, Vogel never flinched. He never looked in the direction of Hibbert, who was wearing a shooting shirt while on the sideline with only two personal fouls. Vogel stayed with Mahinmi even when he predictably missed the first two shots at the 3:01 mark. About 8 seconds later, Mahinmi walked back to the line and unpredictably ripped the net on both. All swishes.
"I knew he was going to make 'em," Vogel would say later.
This may seem like the hindsight talking, but Vogel, who has watched Mahinmi put in the work to improve his shooting, also had to have caught how the center coolly waved at an official to acknowledge he was being fouled by Pau Gasol so that he could walk back to the line after he had already blown two straight. Mahinmi may be able to pull off some bold fashion choices as the co-owner of the French Deal clothing line, but that single moment might have been more brave than wearing white after Labor Day.
"I know I can shoot free throws," Mahinmi said, "so he fouled me, I'm going to step to the line and stick to my routine and shoot it.
"That's what I expected. I'm a basketball player and if you want to be in there late down the stretch," Mahinmi continued, "if somebody's going to foul you, you've got to take your time and make them pay. It's a simple game."
After the win, as his free-throw percentage skyrocketed four percentage points, Mahinmi entertained the largest crowd of reporters around his locker this season. He could've folded in the clutch, flashing wide eyes yet experiencing a tight stomach, but Mahinmi displayed the conviction that the Pacers have in him.
"Coach did a good job of not buying into this whole 'Let's get Ian out of the game!' " West said. "If coach reacts to what they're doing, then he sorts of buys into the idea of (not) trusting Ian to make free throws. He didn't. He kept him in there. He just trusts him. He trusts him."
Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham say they have reviewed evidence that James Comey drafted a statement to announce the closure of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server months before key witnesses, including Clinton herself, were interviewed. In a letter to current FBI director Christopher Wray, the two Senators characterize Comey’s approach as “conclusion first, fact-gathering second,” adding “that’s no way to run an investigation.”
Grassley and Graham base their concern primarily on the transcript of an interview of Comey’s then-chief of staff by the Office of Special Counsel in June of this year. In the key passage, the chief of staff says that in the early spring of 2016, Comey “emailed a couple of folks,” to ask, “knowing the direction the investigation is headed, what would be the most forward leaning thing we could do, information we could put out about it?”
In this connection, “he sent a draft around of what [the information] might look like.” The draft went through “many iterations” and was circulated to select members of senior FBI leadership.
In his testimony, the chief of staff acknowledged that, at this point, Hillary Clinton had not yet been interviewed. However, he agreed that “there was an idea of where the outcome was going to go.” A pretty clear idea, apparently.
In fact, Clinton was one of 17 witnesses the FBI would ultimately interview but had not yet gotten to when Comey drafted his statement. Others included her trusted aide Cheryl Mills and Bryan Pagliano, the IT guy who installed and maintained the secret server.
It may be going too far to say Comey had decided Clinton should not be charged before the FBI wrapped up its interviews. Conceivably, testimony from Clinton or other witnesses could have caused him to reach a different conclusion than the one he thought he was headed towards and had written up in draft. He always had the option of tossing his drafts and writing up a different outcome.
It should also be noted that Comey’s decision was based mainly on a reading (or misreading) of the applicable law that rendered it very difficult to make out a criminal case against. It was reasonable for Comey to doubt that the upcoming interviews would produce evidence that could meet the stringent legal standard he had adopted.
Finally, let’s keep the context in mind. Clinton was set to become the Democratic nominee for president. The sooner the public knew whether she would be criminally prosecuted, the better for the country. Thus, it was reasonable for Comey to want to be in a position to communicate this information as soon as he made a final decision.
Nonetheless, it is reasonable for Sens. Grassley and Graham to be concerned that Comey jumped the gun, especially given that drafts of his statements letting Clinton off the hook apparently circulated among members of senior FBI leadership. It’s quite possible that his view of the likely outcome came to the attention of those still investigating the facts and conducting interviews. This could taint their work.
It’s one thing for Comey to form a preliminary view of the likely outcome of a matter still under investigation and even to jot that view down. It seems like quite another to circulate draft “exoneration” memos within the agency, as Comey elected to do.WUZHEN, CHINA — In the first game of his match with AlphaGo—the Go-playing machine built by researchers at Google's DeepMind lab—Chinese grandmaster Ke Jie opened with a move straight from the playbook of his artificially intelligent opponent. He aimed to beat AlphaGo with its own unusual style of play. But the gambit didn't work. After four hours and fifteen minutes of play, the 19-year-old grandmaster resigned, and AlphaGo grabbed a 1–0 lead in this best-of-three match.
Last year, in South Korea, AlphaGo topped the Korean grandmaster Lee Sedol, becoming the first machine to beat a professional Go player—a feat that most AI researchers believed was still years away, given the extreme complexity of the ancient Eastern game. Now, here in Wuzhen, China, AlphaGo is challenging Ke Jie, the current world number one.
According to Demis Hassabis, the CEO and founder of DeepMind, this time out the machine is driven by a new and more powerful architecture. It can now learn the game almost entirely from play against itself, relying less on data generated by humans. In theory, this means DeepMind's technology can more easily learn any task.
1-0
In January, under the pseudonym "Master," the AlphaGo's new incarnation played several of the world's top players in a series of online matches, including Ke Jie, and it won all 60 of its completed contests.
Today's face-off against Ke Jie continues that streak. As the match began, Ke Jie chose to play black, meaning he would make the first move, and he opened with what's called a "3–3 point" strategy—a rather unusual opening that AlphaGo played regularly during the Master series in January. "He has changed since the Master games six months ago," match commentator Michael Redmond said of Ke Jie. "He is using a lot of Master’s moves."
Indeed, since the Master series, Ke Jie has regularly used this kind of opening during matches with other grandmasters. "The influence of Alpha has been widespread," Ke Jie said during the post-game press conference, through an interpreter. For Hassabis, Ke Jie's adjustments provide further evidence that AlphaGo has changed the way grandmasters play the ancient game—and an indication of how artificial intelligence can augment what humans do, not just eclipse them.
Still, AlphaGo responded well to Ke Jie's opening. It took hold of the match much sooner than even the DeepMind team expected. Just three and a half hours into the game—which was slated for six or more—AlphaGo dominated so much of the board that match commentators gave Ke Jie little chance of clawing his way back into the match. Less than an hour later, he resigned.
"What's exciting is that AlphaGo just keeps getting better," said commentator Hajin Lee. "It was already so good before."
Beyond Go
Given AlphaGo's strong showing during the "Master series," few expect Ke Jie to win this week's match. But the contest provides an opportunity to gauge the continued progress of AlphaGo and, indeed, AI in general. Underpinned by machine learning techniques that are already reinventing everything from internet services to health care to robotics, AlphaGo serves as a proxy for the future of artificial intelligence.
Hassabis underscored this notion as the first game began, revealing that AlphaGo's new architecture was better-suited to tasks outside the world of games. Among other things, he said, the system could help accelerate the progress of scientific research, and significantly improve the efficiency of national power grids.
'It is like a god of a Go player.' Go Grandmaster Ke Jie
For Google, the match doubles as an enormous PR opportunity, as the company angles to offer its online services in China. Though millions of phones in the country run Google's Android operating system, local government restrictions prevent the tech giant from offering official access to online services such as Gmail and its core search product. But Google has said it hopes to offer its services here in the future. As reporters arrived to cover the match, they received, among other things, a flyer describing Google's Translate app—in both English and Chinese. Google Translate is now driven by deep neural networks, a breed of machine learning that also feeds AlphaGo.
If AlphaGo's showing so far is any indication, the revamped architecture really has paid off. During the first game, the upgrade was apparent to Ke Jie. "AlphaGo is a completely different player," he said after the game. "It is like a god of a Go player."Ohio State defensive coordinator Chris Ash is being looked at as a good option by Rutgers to be the Scarlet Knights’ next head coach, a source told FOX Sports.
The 41-year-old Ash is also in the running for the Syracuse head-coaching vacancy, a source said. Ash has done a terrific job improving the Buckeyes’ D, and their secondary in particular, the past two seasons since coming over from Arkansas. Having worked under Urban Meyer is another plus as his coaching tree has produced a very high percentage of strong head coaches. Among them: Kyle Whittingham, Dan Mullen, and the latest protege — Houston’s Tom Herman.
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Ash’s knowledge of the Big Ten would also be a plus in the eyes of Rutgers’ brass. Ash is also a former Wisconsin defensive coordinator.
Rutgers fired coach Kyle Flood last Sunday after going 27-24 over four seasons.Trefor Davies isn't disguising the fact that the carrier pigeons—named Rory and Tref—are anything more than a rank publicity stunt. Not only that, but it's a derivative publicity stunt, having already been run once in South Africa. But that's fine, because it nicely illustrates Davies' complaints about the state of rural broadband in the UK.
The idea was simple enough: Rory and Tref would be tagged with RFID chips, fitted with microSD memory cards containing several hundred megabytes of video, then released from a Yorkshire farm. The pigeons would fly about 60 miles with the memory cards, while the farm's Internet connection would be used to upload the same video to YouTube. Would the pigeons carry their data back to their loft before the farmer could upload the clip?
The stunt was designed to have the pigeons win, of course, just as it was in South Africa. On his personal website, Davies said this week that he was "expecting a convincing avian victory."
Davies isn't just a concerned citizen; he's also the chief technical officer of a UK ISP called Timico, and he's upset about the state of UK broadband outside of urban areas, especially when it comes to upload speeds. He told the BBC today that "the farm we are using has a connection of around 100 to 200 Kbps (kilobits per second)... The kids need to do school work and the farmer has to submit online forms but the connection is not fit for purpose."
The test doesn't show much—why not have the pigeons fly to YouTube's servers for a more accurate comparison?—but pedantic questioning misses the point, which is clearly that the media loves ridiculous stories involving animals that slow upload speeds can easily keep people from anything like full participation in online social life and that rural users are on the wrong side of a digital divide.
The pigeons won, of course. This afternoon, they arrived (a mere one second apart) at their loft in the city of Skegness after only an 75 minutes; only a quarter of the video file had been transferred over the farm's broadband connection.
"The pigeons got back a significant amount of time before I did but I was hampered by the Humber Bridge road toll (the pigeons got off free with that one but at least I kept the receipts) and the fact that I headed down the M180 in the wrong direction," wrote Davies today. "We killed the upload after around three hours when it was 60 percent or so through. You have to excuse the element of vagueness there—chasing pigeons takes a lot of concentration."
Fortunately, Davies had enough concentration left to immediately tweet the news of their landing.WASHINGTON (AP) Three of Donald Trump's female supporters will announce on Thursday a new super political action committee to help the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The group calls itself Women Vote Trump and aims to raise at least $30 million, according to its founders, Kathryn Serkes, Ann Stone and Amy Kremer.
"There are so many ad hoc groups of women who back Trump, and what we want to do is harness their energy and give them a home," Serkes said.
Stone said the group will advertise and have volunteers across the country in the hopes of driving up the female vote for Trump, who faces the nation's first female major-party presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, in November. Democrats and some Republicans have been portraying Trump as sexist, pointing to clips of his unflattering comments about women.
Women Vote Trump is at least the fourth super PAC backing Trump, who has repeatedly called such groups "corrupt" because they can accept large checks from donors who he says are often seeking to curry favor with candidates. Super PACs are legally barred from coordinating with candidates.
Kremer was a leader in the conservative Tea Party movement and was previously associated with another pro-Trump super PAC, Great America. She resigned in early May and soon after filed paperwork with federal regulators to start Women Vote Trump.
Stone is an ex-wife of Roger Stone, Trump's friend and longtime unofficial political adviser. The two divorced amicably, Ann Stone said, adding that she also has a friendship with Trump's chief campaign strategist, Paul Manafort, dating back to the 1970s. The women said they are maintaining the necessary legal distance from the Trump campaign.
The group will lay out its plans at a news conference Thursday in Washington, touting the support of actress Stacey Dash and popular YouTube personalities Diamond and Silk. All three celebrities frequently appear on television to promote Trump.ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
Whitechapel was today named as having the most unhealthy high street in London - with Whetstone having the healthiest.
A survey found Whitechapel High Street had the highest concentration of fast-food outlets, payday lenders, bookmakers and tanning salons - businesses judged to have the most negative impact on health.
It was followed by New Addington in Croydon, Camberwell and Chrisp Street in Tower Hamlets in the league of shame drawn up by the Royal Society for Public Health.
By comparison, the affluent areas of Whetstone, St John’s Wood, Stanmore and Pinner were found to have the highest concentration of businesses that promoted healthy lifestyles, such as pharmacies, leisure centres and health services.
The findings were released as part of the Royal Society’s Health on the High Street campaign, which calls for councils to be given greater powers over planning and licensing to restrict the number of “unhealthy” outlets.
Four of the 10 worst high streets were in Tower Hamlets or Haringey - areas with high levels of deprivation. Conversely, six of the best 10 were in Barnet or Harrow, both within the top 10 UK boroughs for life expectancy.
Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, said: “Our research does find higher concentrations of unhealthy businesses exist in London boroughs which already experience high levels of deprivation and premature mortality.
“It highlights the need for increased communication between businesses, the public and town planners to make a London fitter and healthier place to live.”
Researchers gave each business in the capital’s 144 high streets a score from -2 to +2 based on their impact on health. Researchers walked each street and recorded the number of premises that were occupied or vacant.
Across the country, Preston was declared to have the unhealthiest shopping streets while Shrewsbury had the best.
The “unhealthiest” high streets:
1. Whitechapel
2. New Addington
3. Camberwell
4. Chrisp Street
5. West Green Road/Seven Sisters
6. Plumstead
7. New Cross
8. Finsbury Park
9. Bakers Arms
10. East Beckton
The “healthiest” high streets
1. Whetstone
2. St Johns Wood
3. Stanmore
4. Pinner
5. Temple Fortune
6. Kingsbury
7. Muswell Hill
8. East Finchley
9. Hornchurch
10. StockwellThe results of score effects are pretty basic hockey analytics knowledge at this point. Teams down in goals tend to take more shots, while teams up tend to take less, with the effect becoming larger as the game goes on.
We often explain this effect by saying teams go into a “defensive shell”, playing extremely conservative on offense to avoid easy opponent scoring opportunities, at the cost of more time in the team’s defensive zone. It is of course, not a one team effect either – we often emphasize that the other team is taking greater risks as well to try and score, which is why the shots taken by the team with the lead go in at a higher rate than normal. That said, it’s pretty much accepted that going into a shell would be a losing strategy for a team to attempt over a whole game, which is why teams don’t attempt this strategy for a full game.
So if we consider the shell a losing strategy, why do teams go into the shell even in the third? David Johnson had a great article on this here, explaining that even if the Defensive shell results in a team being outplayed more than their normal strategy, it still can make sense:
For some people this may not make sense intuitively. How can it be better to stop playing a system in which you are expected to out score your opposition and start playing a system in which you are expected to score the same as your opponent. The reason is simple and it comes down to that over a short period of time your are essentially dealing with small sample size issues and randomness becomes more important than long term skill. The reality is, over a short time one team is almost as likely to score as the other so which team scored next is close to random, if any team scores at all. The most important thing when protecting a lead is simply reducing the likelihood that your opponent will score because the cost of your opponent scoring is far greater than the benefit if you scoring (it is irrelevant whether you win 3-1 or 2-1, a win is a win in the standings).
You should definitely read the article in full, but the quote above gets at the key point: If the defensive shell reduces the rate of scoring for the opponent, it makes perfect sense for a team to go to it in the last few minutes, even if it results in being outplayed.
Here’s the problem: the Defensive Shell doesn’t reduce the rate of opponent scoring. It actually INCREASES it.
It’s pretty well known that the defensive shell increases the rate of shots against but the tradeoff is supposed to be allowing more perimeter shots instead of high quality chances, lowering the opponent’s shooting %. But, as noted by Petbugs/Graphic-Comments in a post on score-adjusted PDO, what happens is actually the opposite:
That’s right, when trailing, teams’ shooting percentages actually increase marginally on average. The effect is small, but at the very least it’s clear that shooting % does NOT drop when a team is behind, despite them taking more shots.
Perhaps shooting % drops when behind later in games? After all, score effects become more pronounced as we get later and later in the game, particularly the third period? The answer, courtesy of A.C. Thomas is….nope:
Yeah pretty much at every point in the game, INCLUDING in the final minutes, a trailing team’s shooting percentage is equal to or greater than teams’ shooting percentages while tied. Shooting percentage DOES drop late, but the effect isn’t due to score effects – the same drop happens while tied (I’d guess this is a fatigue effect). The end result is obvious: teams score more frequently when BEHIND than when tied or up late:
Yeah, so the defensive shell does the exact OPPOSITE of its intended design – rather than decreasing the rate of scoring, it INCREASES it by a good margin (this is presumably why comebacks feel like they happen so often).
Conclusion:
So why does the defensive shell still exist? Well, for one, it SOUNDS like a good idea in theory. If it did indeed reduce the rate of scoring, it would make total sense to execute. Moreover, there are probably psychological reasons as well – leading late in a game, no one – not the coaches or the players – wants to take any actions which could be construed as risky, which could possibly result in the tying goal against. As such, NHL coaches preach being defensive and players play conservative, and the defensive shell lives.
For this reason, it’ll probably never be the case where the defensive shell is eradicated from hockey – players and coaches will always be risk averse late with the lead. But the more and more they can get away from the shell, the more games they will win.Loading... Loading...
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin. Even the smallest amounts can cause cumulative adverse effects. Two of the most widespread forms of mercury exposure come from the organic compounds methylmercury (found in fish) and ethylmercury, which makes up 50% of the vaccine preservative thimerosal. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) affirms that young children and fetuses are particularly sensitive to harmful mercury-related effects such as “brain damage, mental retardation, incoordination, blindness, seizures and inability to speak.” This calls into question public health authorities’ aggressive peddling of annual flu shots–many of which contain thimerosal. The influenza vaccine guidelines target all children who are at least six months of age, with two closely spaced doses recommended for very young children in their “first season of vaccination.” They also target pregnant women and women who “might” be pregnant.
Organic mercury can cross the blood-brain barrier, and numerous studies have fingered it as a major offender in increasing the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), tic disorders, delayed language and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Shamefully, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) refuses to admit that mercury is an ASD risk factor. Instead, it has been left up to other researchers to continue to focus attention on the compelling relationship between mercury and ASD.
Taking stock across studies
Two 2017 studies perform a valuable service by systematically reviewing the totality of published mercury-ASD evidence that has accumulated over the past dozen or so years, in particular. The two studies both come out of Iran, and both employ a technique called meta-analysis, which is a quantitative systematic review. Meta-analytic studies seek to take a step back and draw rigorous conclusions about comparable studies as a group. A key benefit of this approach is that it can consolidate “a large, and often complex, sometimes apparently conflicting, body of literature.”
The meta-analysis approach is a very appropriate tool for taking stock of published studies that compare mercury levels in ASD individuals and healthy controls without ASD. The first meta-analysis (published in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology by Tina Jafari and other researchers at Iran’s Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences) focuses exclusively on mercury. The second study (published in Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry by Amene Saghazadeh and Nima Rezaei at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences) examines mercury along with other heavy metals such as lead. Both research teams used state-of-the-art statistical techniques to produce unbiased results.
The table below summarizes the key features of study #1 (Jafari et al.) and study #2 (Saghazadeh and Rezaei):
Both studies found significantly higher concentrations of mercury in the red blood cells of ASD patients versus healthy controls, and the first meta-analysis found significantly higher levels in the whole bloodof ASD patients.
The two meta-analyses examined mercury levels for each type of specimen or tissue. Both studies found significantly higher concentrations of mercury in the red blood cells of ASD patients versus healthy controls, and the first meta-analysis found significantly higher levels in the whole blood of ASD patients. (The second study also found higher levels of lead in both the red blood cells and blood of individuals with ASD, which is suggestive of possible combined or synergistic effects.)
There were no significant differences in urinary mercury levels in ASD and healthy individuals, but there were interesting findings for mercury levels in hair. In study #1, mercury concentrations were significantly lower in ASD patients compared with healthy subjects–but when the investigators analyzed their results by continent, this result held only for America but not for Asia, Africa or Europe. Similarly, study #2’s comparison of developed and developing countries found that mercury levels were significantly lower in the hair of ASD patients in developed but not developing countries–and the preponderance of developed-country studies came from the U.S.
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Study #1 also affirmed significantly higher mercury levels in ASD brain tissue. However, the number of brain studies identified for the meta-analysis was very small and also somewhat unclear. The authors report pooling the results of three studies, but their reference list and table include just two studies published by Harvard researchers in 2008 and 2014, respectively. (World Mercury Project has asked the authors to clarify this discrepancy.) The 2008 study found a 68.2% increase in cerebellar mercury in autistic brain tissue (from 3.2 to 80.7 pmol g-1) compared with brain tissue of controls (from 0.9 to 35 pmol g-1), but the increase was not statistically significant. On the other hand, there was a statistically significant elevation in a key marker of oxidative stress in the ASD group that was significantly and positively correlated with elevated mercury. The 2014 study detected no difference in mercury levels but again noted elevated oxidative stress in the ASD group.
Interpreting the findings
Researchers note that a properly conducted systematic review or meta-analysis “allows the reader to take into account a whole range of relevant findings from research on a particular topic” and “establish whether the scientific findings are consistent and generalizable across populations [and] settings…and whether findings vary |
. Not that they don’t deserve it, but I have to confess to feeling slightly detached from proceedings this time around – I felt less involved in the behaviour of the cast, more of a spectator now.
I can’t help but wonder if there has been some anxiety on the developer’s side about how to move pieces into position ready for a conclusion, and the result of that is a more fixed journey than before, but on the other hand the only thing I’m truly confident in saying about Kentucky Route Zero is that its creators are far, far smarter than I am.
Despite my sense that this chapter is not quite the equal of those before it, it is entirely unmissable if you have played those, still as beautiful and unpredictable and as forlornly romantic as ever, and this time it shows me at least two places I wish I could go and live in forever. And though some water may be overtly trodden this time, be in no doubt that things are moving towards a conclusion. Dogwood Drive awaits.
Kentucky Route Zero Act IV is out now on Windows, Mac and Linux via Steam, GOG, Itch and Humble through the developer’s own site. A season pass for all four episodes (a fifth and apparently final episode will appear in due course) costs £19/$25/€23 but is 50% off on all sites at the time of writing.Santorum has said abortion should be flatly banned, even in cases of rape or incest, and doctors who perform abortions should face criminal charges. Last week, Rick Santorum took it up a notch.
Walking anal sex joke (Google: “Santorum”) and Republican presidential wannabe Rick Santorum, although massively lagging behind in the polls, appears to be competing with Bachmann and Perry in the far-right “ludicrous statement du jour” department on the issue of abortion.
The former Senator and GOP presidential candidate is renowned for offering stunningly maximalist positions on abortion. In the past, Santorum said abortion should be flatly banned, even in cases of rape or incest, and doctors who perform abortions should face criminal charges. Okay, we get it–Rick Santorum loves fetuses more than hate group special-interest money.
Last week, Rick Santorum took it up a notch at the Republican presidential debate in Iowa.
“Would you allow no exceptions for cases of rape on incest?” Fox News host, Byron York asked. “Polls have shown that large majorities of Americans support some exceptions for abortion. Are your views too much, even for many conservatives to support?” Get the facts, direct to your inbox. Subscribe to our daily or weekly digest. SUBSCRIBE “That child is an innocent victim,” Santorum replied. “To be victimized twice would be a horrible thing. It is an innocent human life, genetically human from the moment of conception. We in America should be big enough to try to surround ourselves and help women in those terrible situations who have been traumatized already. To put them through another trauma of an abortion, I think is too much to ask. So I would absolutely stand and say that one violence is enough.”
So, not only does the former Senator and GOP presidential candidate believe that a woman has absolutely no say in extreme cases such as rape or incest, but he also believes that the rape victim is way too traumatized to make such a consideration.
Once again, we’re bombarded with a reactionary male who flagrantly injects his own perverse religious thinking into an area about which he personally knows little, if anything. Perhaps the former Senator should imagine one of his daughters being sexually assaulted and then told by her attacker that she mustn’t tell anyone or she will be in danger. So she doesn’t tell anyone and in the meantime, her rapist’s child is developing inside of her. Yet she still doesn’t tell anyone. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network estimates that, out of 64,080 reported rapes of victims 13 years or older from 2004-2005, 3,204 pregnancies resulted.
But instead of looking to find solutions that seek to fight the social ills that lead to abortion, Rick Santorum would rather allow the far-right’s extreme black and white, Manichean views on abortion and attack the women who seek them.Last updated July 4th, 2016. This list is also available in Tumblr reblog format, which has 11,000+ notes - thanks everyone!
The following are link and book recommendations, all evaluated by mods Marilyn and Avey, as helpful resources that relate to genderqueer and non-binary concepts and identities. If there is a resource you would like to suggest, please use the GQID submit form.
Links:
–General Websites and Tumblrs—
all-none-or-inbetween, Crossdreamers (Main Site), Crossdreamers (Tumblr), dmabresources, Freedom Centre: FC Yeah!, Gaywrites, Gendered Intelligence, Genderfork (Main Site), Genderforkr (Tumblr), Gender is a Spectrum, The Genderqueer Activist, GenderQueer Confessions, Genderpedia, Genderqueer Plus, Genderqueer Positivity, Gender Queeries, Gender SecretSuggestion, Gender Sphere, Gender Splendour, Genderqueer Survival Guide Project, Género Queer y No-binario (Spanish), Heartland Trans* Wellness Group, KNOW Homo, Life Outside the Binary, LGBTQ Asks, littlenonbinarythings, thenonbinary, Nice Nonbinary Things, Nonbinary, Nonbinary Montreal, Nonbinary.org, Nonbinary Stats, Non-Op (Tumblr), Nonbinary Resource, Nonbinary Sex, Nonbinary Support, The Non-Binary Safe Space, nonbinarytransgermany (German), No Gender. No Problem., pipisafoat: FAQ on Genderqueers, Practical Androgyny (Main Site), Practical Androgyny (Tumblr), Queer Lexikon (German), Trans Advice, Transcending Anatomy, trans-positivity, Trans & Queer Media Exchange, Trans Resource, Trans Youth Equality Foundation, We Happy Trans, whatdoesenbymean, World Professional Association for Transgender Health, YGender
·
—Intersections of Identity—
Autistic and Non-Binary, Chubby Tubby Trans, Fat Genderqueers!, Fuck Yeah Queer Latin@s, Genderfucked Brown Kids, Genderqueer & Non-Binary People of Color Unite!, latinxnonbinary, Lovely Non-Binary People of Colour, Queerability
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—Specific Identities—
a-gender, Androgyne Online, Androgyny Rarely Asked Questions, Bigender, Bi-Gender the Bisexual Partner, Bi-Trans-Alliance, Confessions of a Genderfluid, demigenderpalace, Diary of a Gender Fluid, The Feminine Neutrois, GirlFags (Archived), Hell Yeah Agender!, Neutrois.com, Neutrois Nonsense (Main Site), Neutrois Nonsense (Tumblr), Triple-A Positive (Ace/Aro/Agender), We Are Genderfluid!
·
—Survival—
Hotlines and Support Centers
Trans Lifeline: “Trans Lifeline is a non-profit dedicated to the well being of transgender people. We run a hotline staffed by transgender people for transgender people. Trans Lifeline volunteers are ready to respond to whatever support needs members of our community might have.“ US: (877) 565-8860 and Canada: (877) 330-6366
The Trevor Project: “The leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services” to LGBT youth: 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386) Also available for matters of less pressing urgency, they have a support center for trans* and gender identity questions.
See Genderqueer Pride: Need Help? for a list of hotlines and websites for support across LGBTQ identities and specific needs and IMAlive for general online chat crisis support.
Survival Resources
Refuge Restrooms, Transgender Housing Network, Trans* Resource, Trans Student Equality Resources, The Transgender Teen’s Survival Guide
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Coming Out: Click here for a list
·
—Fashion, Clothing, and Transitional Gear—
Click here for GQID’s Breast Forms, Gaffs, Binders, Packers, and Fashion Masterpost with links to shops and websites!
andropeople, Andro Wear, Fuck Yeah Androgyny!, fyeahtransfashion, GC2b Transitional Apparel, Genderfluid Fashion, Genderqueer, Just Exquisite, Katalepsje: Androgynous Models List (Archived), idfashiongender, Queering Style, Qwear, Smashing the Binary, transmakeup, tuckingandotherskills, The Tumblr Transgender Clothing Exchange, The Transgender Friendly Clothing Swap
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—Pronouns, Names, and Titles—
The Art of Transliness: Gender Neutral Relational Terms, Gender Neutral Pronoun Blog, Gender Queeries: Gender Neutral/Queer Titles, Genderqueer in the UK: Misc, or Mx: A Gender-neutral Title, Minus18: Pronouns App, MIT’s Ally Toolkit: Gender Neutral Pronoun Usage, Name Help, names-and-pronouns, Nonbinary Resource: Multilingual Pronouns List, Practice With Pronouns, Pronoun Dressing Room, The Queer Dictionary (Archived), Trans Help!, Trans/Non-binary Name Swap, Warren Wilson: Using Gender-Neutral Language in Academic Writing
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—Education—
Applying to College as a Non Binary Trans Person, Gender Diversity Project, Gender Spectrum: Resources, Safe Schools Coalition, TRANScending Identities: A Bibliography of Resources on Transgender and Intersex Topics, Trans What?: A Guide Towards Allyship
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—Art and Writing—
The Gender Book, Trans*toons, Non-binary Artists (Archived), nonbinaryheadcanons (Archived), Pride Flags for Us
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—Fun, Videos, Podcasts, & Performance—
Agender Earthworm, Gender of the Day, Gender of the Night, Genderqueer Chat, Gendercast: Our Transmasculine Genderqueery (Archived), Yay genderform! (a comprehensive and fun-to-play-with list of gender, sex, orientation, and more identities), Midwest Genderqueer, regender: A Different Kind of Translator
·
—Social Media and Forums—
Click here for a list of social media with options apart from male and female
Forums and Groups
AVEN: Gender Discussion, Forum GenderQueer (Russian), Last.fm: Genderqueers Group, Laura’s Playground, Scarleteen: Gender Issues, Steam Community: Genderqueer, Susan’s Place, #transchat (Archived), TransYada, TQ Nation, T-Vox
Subreddits
r/agender, r/askgsm, r/ainbow, r/androgyny, r/askGSM, r/asktransgender, r/crossdressing, r/DualGender, r/genderfluid, r/genderqueer, r/mypartneristrans, r/nonbinaryuk, r/lgbt, r/transgender, r/TransHealth, r/transpositive, r/TransSupport, r/TransSpace
Livejournal Communities
Androgynes (Archived), Bigender (Archived), Birls (Archived), gender_fluid (Archived), Genderqueer (Archived), Girlfags and Guydykes, non_binary (Archived), Transgender
deviantART Groups
#boob-B-gone, #GenderqueerClub, #Gender-identity, #LGBTQ, #transDeviants
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Articles: Click here for a list
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Organizations and Events: Click here for a list
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Sex Ed: Click here for a list
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Books:
Note: Use Worldcat.org, the world’s largest global library catalog, to see if the book you’re seeking is available at a library near you or click the links below to be directed to an Amazon purchase link (when available).
decolonizing trans/gender 101 - b. binaohan
The Gender Book - Mel Reiff Hill and Jay Mays (free/pay what you can eBook)
The Genderific Coloring Book - Sophie Labelle
Gender Now Coloring Book - Maya Christina Gonzales
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us - Kate Bornstein
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation - Kate Bornstein
Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws - Kate Bornstein
My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity - Kate Bornstein
Books and essays by Ivan Coyote
Grrl Alex: A Personal Journey to a Transgender Identity - Alex Drummond
GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary - Joan Nestle, Riki Wilchins, Clare Howell
Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity - Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
PoMoSexuals: Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Sexuality - Carol Queen and Lawrence Schimel
Queer Theory, Gender Theory - Riki Anne Wilchins
Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender - Riki Anne Wilchins
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves - Laura Erickson-Schroth
whatever.odt - JD O’Meara (free eBook)
Feeling Wrong in Your Own Body: Understanding What It Means to Be Transgender - Jamie A. Seba
That’s Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation - Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men - Lori B. Girshick and Jamison Green
Transition and Beyond: Observations on Gender Identity - Reid Vanderburgh
Book lists compiled by others:
17 Pathbreaking Non-Binary and Gender Fluid Novels
Bibliography of Books Concerning Androgynes and Androgyny
Booklist for Trans Youth on Goodreads
Genderqueer Chicago on GoodreadsApril 25, 2014
Home
I've spent the past year, four (3+1) and seven (6+1) per day, in fact, trying realize an important goal: to follow every account on Twitter. I created 330,000 accounts filled to the brim with followed accounts, 2000 followed accounts per account, and then another 165 accounts to follow those. Those accounts were absorbed by an additional account. Every day, I have to spend the early morning hours creating 68 new accounts to follow the new accounts created in the previous 24 hours, and those accounts are again, absorbed into a new account that begins the Following Day's bucket-filling.
I aggregated all of my accounts into one continuous feed. Every second I'm bombarded with thousands of tweets: questions, answers, epithets, prayers, quotes, platitudes, retrojections, declarations, explanations, assertions, retractions, fallacies, syllogisms and threats, links to videos, to songs, to articles, to ebooks and to products and intermingled, the torrent of positive and negative affirmations: retweets.
How does one track thousands of tweets per second? How can any human mind process that stream of information? These questions miss the mark. Comprehension of content was never my goal. The endless stream of expression evokes an understanding I've never had in a church. Millions claw toward ideological dominance in an unfettered marketplace of ideas, but when compiled, when I sit at once entangled and tangential to perceive the totality, it is utterly, divinely unintelligible.
And, God, there is power there.
If we could only compile everything and stand outside of it. Compile the biosphere and float away, watch it shrink before our eyes until it glows very far away, a quaint twinkle in the void. We've imagined this before, prompted by reverant narration over slideshows of images of the earth seen from the moon, seen from the edge of the solar system, "this tiny blip of light" and so on. From millions of miles away, I could encircle the earth with index finger and thumb, feel that surge of divine understanding: so small our concerns are, so small our conflicts.
So small it all is, because I have made it so.In the stuff of every nervous flyer’s nightmares, a passenger onboard an Airbus A321 in Somalia died after an explosion ripped a hole in the fuselage, sucking him out.
The plane had just left the Somali capital of Mogadishu when the incident occurred, slightly injuring two other passengers and forcing the plane to turn around and make an emergency landing.
The man’s body is believed to have landed in the Bal’ad district about 36 kilometres north of Mogadishu, where a local police officer confirmed residents had found the body of a 55-year-old man.
“He dropped when the explosion occurred in the plane,” a separate police officer said.
The hole created by the explosion. Photo taken from passengers’ footage (full video below).
There’s mixed reports coming in about just what the hell caused the explosion.
Passengers on board say they heard a loud bang before a fire broke out. Daallo Airlines, who operated the flight, confirmed on Facebook that they had “experienced an incident.” Mohamed Hussein, an agent for Daallo Airlines, said that “a fire exploded and two passengers were slightly wounded.” Other reports are leading to an oxygen bottle (which usually catch fire instead of exploding) may be involved, while US government sources are apparently claiming that investigators believe it was a bomb.
“At this stage, everything is possible. We cannot rule out anything at this stage,” Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, CEO of Daallo Airlines, told The Associated Press.
Footage from inside the plane shows the 74 passengers and crew remaining surprisingly chill about the whole thing:
Source: Fairfax / Daily Telegraph.
Photo: Twitter.A complaint has been filed against comedian Kapil Sharma and actor Irrfan Khan over illegal construction.
Highlights FIR registered against Sharma, Khan for alleged unauthorised construction Civic official says they violated construction norms at their flats Sharma had alleged corruption in civic body in tweet tagging PM Modi
When comedian Kapil Sharma caused a sensation last week with his tweets alleging corruption in the Mumbai civic body, he had probably not bargained for more trouble.A sub-engineer of the BMC has filed an FIR or police complaint against him for unauthorised construction at his flat in suburban Goregaon in north Mumbai, said Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Ashok Dudhe.In a separate case, a similar complaint was also filed against actor Irrfan Khan.In the complaint against Mr Sharma, BMC official Abhay Jagtap has alleged the Kapil Sharma Show host had violated norms and carried out illegal construction in the flat, a senior police official said.Besides Kapil Sharma and Irrfan Khan's flats, the municipal body has found violations in 15 other flats in the building and has already served notices to their owners.Mr Sharma had sparked a controversy last week by alleging that he had been asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5 lakh by an official of BMC and taking a jab at Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the tweet.The civic body, in turn, claimed that the actor had flouted norms in his Versova office building and his apartment in suburban Goregaon. Earlier in the day, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS filed a complaint against the artist for not backing up his claims by naming the official.New York City’s newest ferry line set sail Tuesday morning.
The Astoria ferry route will take commuters from Astoria to Roosevelt Island to Long Island City to East 34th Street and then to Wall Street. Riders can access it from Vernon Boulevard, just north of 30th Road.
The first boat took off from Hallets Cove at 6:30 a.m. The ferries will run every 25 minutes during the morning and evening rush and then every 50 minutes the rest of the time. Click here for the full schedule.
Mayor de Blasio was expected be on hand for Tuesday’s inaugural ride.
State Sen. Michael Gianaris said the new ferry service will be a great additional option for commuters.
"We’re crushed with a lack of mass transit service in this area, particular for the people who live along the water front who have easy access to the ferry," Gianaris said. "It’s going to be a huge additional option to take a little bit of the pressure off the subways."
Commuters already have a new way to travel between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The South Brooklyn route set sail back in June and runs boats between Bay Ridge and Wall Street, with stops at Sunset Park, Red Hook, Atlantic Avenue and Dumbo.
Routes along the East River in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and to the Rockaways, launched in May. A route to the Lower East Side and Soundview will arrive in 2018.
NYC Ferry launched on May 1.Back in high school, I had a little routine of playing “Winter Rose” (followed by Aerosmith’s “Seasons of Wither”) on the first snow day of every year. There was just something so special about hearing this short little tune while walking the street and seeing everything covered in white – it’s a song that’s both melancholic and hopeful and this kind of sums up my feelings about the season in general. What’s interesting is that within its album, “Winter Rose” is not even developed beyond one verse and a two-minute length, and it is paired with “Love Awake” in a medley-type fashion. It feels thrown there as just another little McCartney experiment in a series of many, and that is a constant characteristic of his solo work: often it’s all about the little moments. A chorus that’ll stick in your head, a melody that feels just so inventive, a mood that’ll resonate with you, an intriguing instrumental touch.
Two new members joined Paul, Linda and Denny Laine for this one last Wings album – Steve Holley on drums and Laurence Juber credited with guitars. Released in 1979, Back to the Egg is said to be the band’s response to the rise of the Punk and New Wave scenes, and indeed, there is some truth to that. Take for example a song like “ Spin It On ” – it is played at a breakneck speed, faster than anything they’d ever attempted before. Or “ Old Siam, Sir,” where they inject a certain dose of rawness and grittiness and come out with one of their most convincing rockers ever – the words may be completely meaningless, but those guitar breaks steal the show all by themselves. And “ Arrow Through Me ” definitely should’ve been a bigger hit, with that wonderful coat of current synths and echo added to an already memorable pop melody.
However, to label the whole album as strictly Punk or New Wave is to completely misjudge it. In typical Wings fashion, this is another eclectic bag of styles and forms, with unpredictability as the only constant. Perhaps another artist would’ve stretched the whole concept idea to more than just a couple of interludes, reprises and naming of album sides (Side A is named “Sunny Side Up” and Side B “Over Easy”). And another artist could’ve used having big names such as David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, John Bonham and John Paul Jones in the studio to create something more relevant than a bunch of rocking jams (“Rockestra Theme” and “So Glad to See You Here“). And one could’ve fleshed out the gorgeous, gentle acoustic strumming of “We’re Open Tonight” and the passionate longing of “After the Ball” into fully developed songs. But once you realize that perfection over the course of an album was never really Wings’ goal, pretty much everything here will start making sense in a quirky, fun, charming way.
Few other albums of that time could so easily transition from a hard-hitting rocker to a full-on jazz number as the album does at its very end with the “So Glad to See You Here” – “Baby’s Request” sequence. Chaos becomes late-night smoothness and the finale seems just perfect for the Wings’ whole career. In two years the group would already be disbanded after the Japan tour disrupted by McCartney’s infamous drug bust, but not without leaving a fine 7-album legacy behind. Back to the Egg may not necessarily reach the heights of Band on the Run and Venus & Mars, but it is still an important part of that legacy and an album where every fan of McCartney’s solo work will find something to like.
– Ovidiu Boar
Photo: Getty Images
PS. You may also enjoy our posts Paul McCartney’s “Ram” Reconsidered and “Give My Regards to Broad Street” Sure Has Aged Well.
Other Posts You Might LikeObama stated earlier in the day that ISIS does not pose an 'existential threat' to the U.S. and appealed for calm
Nine Americans were among hundreds wounded during a triple suicide bombing in the Belgian capital that killed 34
President was pictured Wednesday night at a state dinner with wife Michelle and Argentine first lady Juliana Awada
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In Brussels police are still desperately hunting a dangerous terrorist after he fled a triple-suicide bombing in the city that left 34 dead, as officials search for news on U.S. citizens who went missing during the attack and medics tend to nine more Americans lying wounded in hospitals.
Meanwhile in Buenos Aires President Barack Obama was dancing the night away with wife Michelle at a glitzy state dinner alongside Argentine President Mauricio Macri and his first lady Juliana Awada as part of a two-day state visit.
Despite increasing calls from the likes of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for the President to return home in the wake of the Brussels attack, Obama showed his determination to carry on regardless Wednesday night.
At the end of the state dinner, the Obamas were pulled abruptly onto the dance floor by a pair of Latin dancers providing the entertainment.
At first, the woman in the shimmering gold dress seemed content to twirl with her partner, but then she made a beeline for the president and beckoned him to the floor.
The president, who has been known to break into song on occasion but has rarely shown off his moves, declined her invitation several times, but she wasn't to be deterred and she soon had him sashaying across the floor. It was unclear if the slightly clunky President had been having lessons. Mrs Obama meanwhile tangoed with the male dancer nearby.
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President Barack Obama was pictured dancing the tango Wednesday evening at a state dinner in Buenos Aires as he pushed ahead with his two-day state visit to the country despite intensifying calls for him to return home following the Brussels terror attack
Obama has defied his Republican critics who accuse him of ignoring the threat America faces from terrorism by saying ISIS is 'not an existential threat' to the United States, and insisting that building relations with allies such as Argentina is more important
Obama (pictured dancing the tango in Buenos Aires as wife Michelle dances behind him, right) has appealed for calm in the wake of the attacks in Brussels, saying that by reacting with fear other politicians are playing into the terrorists' hands
Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, John Kasich and even former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani have all lined up to blast Obama's response to the terror attacks after he was pictured at a baseball game yesterday and dancing the tango Wednesday evening
Obama decided to continue his trip instead of returning home, and at the end of Wednesday's state dinner, the Obamas were pulled abruptly onto the dance floor by a pair of Latin dancers providing the entertainment
Guests cheer and clap as Barack and Michelle Obama dance the tango during a state dinner in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday
Many political leaders in the United States have criticized the Obama family's decision to continue on with their trip despite the attack in Brussels
Some people said that Obama could have been'more sensitive' during an ESPN interview at a baseball game he attended while in Cuba
Though he's in Argentina, Obama said he will be sending John Kerry to Brussels on Friday to express his condolences on behalf of the American people and stand in solidarity with Belgium
Steven Lawrence Rattner, a bundler for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Obama's tango and baseball game attendance could have been handled differently
This morning pundits – both liberal and conservative – complained about the optics the sultry dance sent out to the rest of the world.
The Republican National Committee released a short Vine video on its Twitter account labeling Obama's moves the 'Obama-Clinton failed ISIS strategy.'
'ISIS attacks our allies. Obama attacks the dance floor,' the tweet read.
On Morning Joe, Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations praised Argentina for its democratic transition of power and thought Obama right in paying the South American country a visit, according to Politico.
'They're doing the right things economically, they're doing the right things politically, it's a good story,' Haass said.'However the advance person who let him do the tango, that person ought to be looking for work on somebody's – in somebody's campaign very, very far away.'
'That was a tremendous mistake,' he continued. 'It's fine to go to Argentina, you want to do the work, but you've got to be careful of these little photo ops and optics. Baseball games and tangos, that inconsistent with the seriousness of the day.'
The more liberal co-host Mika Brzezinski thought the whole thing'really strange to me.'
Nicolle Wallace, the former communications director for President George W. Bush, called the double insult of the tango and the baseball game a 'communications crime.'
Wallace called the moves 'out of step with the entire American public, not just Republicans.'
'You heard Democrats yesterday increasingly uncomfortable with the choices he makes at a moment of crisis,' Wallace pointed out. 'There were mothers laying dead while their, you know, family members were at the crime scene yesterday and to look like the priority is to go on a foreign trip instead of pausing for a minute and explaining that to America is a communications crime.'
Steve Rattner, who was also on the panel and is a bundler for Hillary Clinton, suggested that the dance and Obama's interview with ESPN, which he conducted during taking in the baseball game in Cuba, could have been handled in a more sensitive way.
US President Barack Obama dances tango with a dancer during a state dinner at the Kirchner Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires
The moves Obama showed off in Argentina were a far cry from his moves on shows like Ellen where he has danced in public before
Despite criticism from fellow politicians after refusing to call off his trip following the Brussels terror attack, Obama showed he plans to carry on regardless on Wednesday night while dancing the tango
Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations praised Argentina for its democratic transition of power and thought Obama right in paying the South American country a visit
Obama, who rarely shows off his dance moves, declined the tango dancer's invitation several times, but she wasn't to be deterred and the president soon joined her on the floor
Following the dance, Michelle Obama laughed with her dance partner while Obama and his partner presented themselves to the crowd as the group clapped and cheered
While in their seats at the dinner, Argentine First Lady Juliana Awada (left), Obama (second left), Michelle Obama (right) and others looked on as the dancers tangoed together
'I think he could have handled some of that differently. I agree certainly about the tango,' Rattner relented. 'But the idea that some people are throwing out that he should have, like, turned the plane around and rushed back to Washington. To do what?'
Over on CNN, Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist, went off about the optics.
'I think the entire thing is horrible,' she told CNN's John Berman. 'It reminded me of when he went golfing after James Foley's head was cut off.'
In August 2014, ISIS released a video showing journalist Foley being decapitated. Obama gave a statement and then went back to playing golf.
A month later the president told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that he hadn't considered the awkward optics.
'But there's no doubt that after having talked to the families, where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going through, after the statement that I made, that you know, I should've anticipated the optics [of playing golf],' Obama said at the time, adding that he sometimes gets tripped up over the 'theater' of the presidency.
Like other Republicans, Navarro wasn't keen on Obama's trip to Cuba to begin with, but the president's 'eating peanuts and going to the baseball game like he was at Walt Disney World' during 'a day of grief for the entire world' just rubbed more salt on the wound.
'President Obama knows full well that optics matter, but he chose his legacy over optics,' Navarro said. 'It was a shameful, shameful disappointing moment for President Obama.'
'I was disappointed, I was not surprised,' she concluded.
David Gergen, a CNN commentator who has worked for presidents of both political persuasions, said he understood why Obama wanted to look unperturbed by the terrorists' actions, but he still should have worked to make it look like he was taking the attack more seriously.
'Under those circumstances, I would tell the president that when you gave your speech in Cuba, the 38-minute speech, and you only gave a few seconds to Brussels, you brushed it off,' Gergen said.
'When you go to a baseball game it looks frivolous. Dancing like that,' Gergen said, suggesting that Obama should have made the 'hard call' and returned to the United States.
Perhaps as a concession to his critics, Obama said he will be sending John Kerry to Brussels on Friday to express his condolences on behalf of the American people and stand in solidarity with Belgium.
The Obamas also shared at candlelit dinner with Macri and Awada at the Centro Cultural Kirchner, named after Argentina's former President and Marci's predecessor, in the country's capital this evening.
The group paused for a photo opportunity on a red carpet on their way in with Obama and Marci dressed in suits and Michelle and Awada in glamorous evening dresses.
From there they made their way into a leafy candlelit courtyard for champagne, where champagne was served before the dancing began.
In Brussels, however, police continued to hunt for the mysterious'man in white' pictured alongside suicide bomber Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and bomb-maker Najim Laachraoui who killed themselves along with 14 others in two suicide blasts at the city's international airport.
American officials are also hunting for Justin and Stephanie Shults, who live and work in Belgium but are originally from Kentucky, after they went missing following a visit to Brussels Airport on Tuesday morning to drop off Mrs Shults' mother off.
Their family thought the pair had been found injured in hospital on Wednesday afternoon, but it has now emerged that they are still missing.
Karen Northshield, another American who has been living and working in Belgium for almost a decade, is fighting for her life in intensive care after suffering severe injuries in the bombing.
Northshield was reportedly on her way home to visit her family in the U.S. for Easter when the attack at the airport took place.
Obama is currently taking part in a two-day state visit to Argentina to meet with new leader President Mauricio Macri (center right) in the hopes of fostering closer relations with the emerging economy
Obama has faced intense pressure from Republican circles to return home since yesterday's terror attack in Brussels killed at least 34 people, but so far the President has refused
Obama has defended his actions, saying that ISIS does not represent an existential threat to the U.S., and instead chose to devote his time to more 'productive' activities, such as building relations with Latin America
Obama is taking part of a tour of South American nations as an alliance-building exercise. Yesterday he watched a baseball game played in Havana, Cuba, after decades of frosty relations came to an end
Obama has continued with his planned foreign diplomacy meetings in recent days despite criticism that he should have returned home in the wake of the terror attacks in Brussels
As activists burned American flags a few streets away, Obama clinked champagne glasses with Marci in a candlelit room of the Centro Cultural Kirchner
Argentina's President Mauricio Macri and US President Barack Obama toast each other during a state dinner at the Kirchner Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires, named for the country's former president
Michelle Obama speaks with Argentina's President Mauricio Macri as Obama attempts to tighten relations with the country's new leader following on from years of often-fraught relations under predecessor Cristina de Kirchner
Michelle Obama, who earlier in the day visited a school to speak with female students, applauds during a state dinner on Wednesday night
Michelle Obama speaks to fellow guests at the candlelit dinner in the leafy courtyard at the Centro Cultural Kirchner on Wednesday
Michelle Obama raises a glass during the candlelit dinner. The dinner was just part of the Obama family's two-day stay in Argentina following their visit to Cuba
Barack Obama toasts with a guest as Argentine First Lady Juliana Awada stands nearby at the elegant state dinner on Wednesday
As well as Republican calls for Obama to return home, it seems that a few people in his host country are also sick of him as human rights protesters were burning American flags and demanded that the President leave the country.
The protesters accuse America of backing dictatorial regimes during the Cold War in South America, including in Argentina, and hold the U.S. responsible for the thousands who died or were disappeared under their rule.
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the military coup in Argentina that ushered in one of the most oppressive dictatorships in Latin American history, which demonstrators argue makes Obama's visit particularly offensive.
Obama also appeared in another comedy sketch alongside Cuban comedian Panfilo - a bumbling character Obama starred with in another scene before his two-day trip to the communist nation - the president is taught how to play dominoes and praises the Cuban way of life.
The five-minute video shows Obama speaking Spanish and English as he chats with the three men in the satirical show Vivir del Cuento.
The president - who appears to have spent time rehearsing his lines - is shown how to play dominoes and praises Cuban food and music.
Earlier in the day, Obama sought to deflect criticism of his foreign travel in the wake of Belgium's terror attacks, saying the U.S. must show ISIS that it does not have power over its citizens.
'We are strong, our values are right. You offer nothing, except death,' Obama said of ISIS.
Gesturing in the direction of Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, who was standing to his left at a joint news conference this afternoon in Buenos Aires, Obama said, 'It is important for the United States president and the United States government to be able to work with people who are building and who are creating things.'
'We have to make sure that we lift up and stay focused, as well, on the things that are most important to us,' he said. 'Because we're on the right side of history.'
Massacre: In Brussels authorities are still trying to work out how several known criminals and radicalized men were able to put together a sophisticated triple suicide bomb attack on Tuesday morning, with two explosions hitting |
to black.
Money Advice 7: Know the difference between price and value.
Be frugal, but not cheap. Being cheap doesn’t pay off in the long run, if what you buy doesn’t last. Being frugal, on the other hand, may mean investing in higher quality items that will stand the test of time. If you buy a $1 umbrella that falls apart after the first rain, that’s not a good value compared to the $30 umbrella that lasts 10 years. In the long term, that’s actually more money in your pocket.
Money Advice 8: Time is money … or it can be.
Use your spare hours to earn extra cash. Take on a few extra hours at work, get a second job, or freelance if you can. Put what you earn toward paying down debt, or feather your nest egg.
Money Advice 9: Keep your eyes on the prize.
Keep a reminder of your financial goals nearby, where you can see them on a daily basis. For example, you could put a picture of the car you’re saving up for in your wallet. Then, the next time you have the urge to splurge, you’ll be reminded to put that money toward your goal.
Money Advice 10: Take a personal finance course.
Learn from the experts, and take a personal finance course at your local college or online. Also, take advantage of the AutoPayPlus resources to get you started.Discovering lost salmon at sea
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Where Atlantic salmon feed in the ocean has been a long-standing mystery, but new research led by the University of Southampton shows that marine location can be recovered from the chemistry of fish scales. Surprisingly, salmon from different British rivers migrate to feed in separate places, and may respond differently to environmental change. Numbers of Atlantic salmon have declined across their range since the early 1970s, and most researchers believe that conditions experienced at sea are largely to blame. Unfortunately, identifying where salmon go to feed in the huge expanse of the North Atlantic is difficult as attaching artificial tags to fish is expensive. A paper published this week in Scientific Reports shows that fish carry natural records of feeding location hidden in the chemistry of their scales.
The chemistry of animal tissues reflects the composition of food and water in the area where they live and feed, and can act as a natural tag. Using this idea, the Southampton team, working with scientists from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), looked at the isotopes of carbon contained in historical records of scales of Atlantic salmon. The scales grew while the salmon were feeding at sea, so the carbon isotope values of the scales reflect the values of their diet in the feeding grounds. The team compared the scale values through time with satellite records of sea surface temperature across the North Atlantic. The locations of sea where the time series match best are most likely to be the areas where the fish have been feeding.
"As every single salmon contains the natural chemical tag, we can now see where fish from individual rivers go to feed in the Atlantic," lead author Dr Kirsteen MacKenzie said. "Interestingly, we found that salmon born in two areas of the British Isles swim to feeding grounds that are far apart, and experience very different conditions while at sea". Co-author Dr Clive Trueman continued: "This information allows for better management of individual fish populations by monitoring both environmental conditions and fishing efforts in the areas where they feed". "Our technique can also be used to aid conservation of animals such as turtles, seabirds and tuna, and identify the best areas for marine protection measures," added Dr MacKenzie.There’s an old trope in the West that India is like Indian trains — exotic, lurching and slow.
But tropes can be bad as a business strategy — and this trope is causing American companies to miss out on Indian moonshots and trillion-dollar opportunities.
In this article I’ll focus on fintech, which is leapfrogging in a way traditional banking never could. Morgan Stanley expects India’s digital payments penetration to increase from 5 percent today to 20 percent, and the e-commerce market to reach $200 billion, with 475 million e-commerce shoppers, adding up to a GDP upwards of $6 trillion — all by 2027.
Just like India’s mobility revolution. Most Indians went from having zero connectivity to being on the mobile internet without ever seeing a PC or even a landline. India now has 800 million mobile phone users with 430 million having internet connectivity. According to Morgan Stanley, the number of internet users is expected to grow to 915 million by 2027.
The same leapfrogging is unfolding in payments. While the internet changed how Indians communicate, read news and get entertained, it didn’t change how they transact. As this graph shows, the number of credit and debit cards in India has grown only incrementally. Even top-down initiatives by the government, such as the controversial demonetization decision, struggled to reduce reliance on cash.
Debit card usage spiked in November and December 2016 after demonetization. But it looks like it’s returning to levels below credit card transactions again.
What does this have to do with America? And who could the big US of A lose out to?
China. Because China has already tackled the two biggest obstacles to digital payments — building infrastructure and changing consumer behavior in its own backyard and front yard. By developing a rich ecosystem with strong network effects, WeChat has become the Operating System of China. Alipay has done the same with commercial payments. In 2016, China’s digital payments were already 50 times America’s. Alibaba and Tencent understand ecosystems better than anyone else in the world, including American companies.
And now China is showing the boldness to capitalize on a new generation of payments infrastructure and the patience to win the hearts and minds of Indian consumers.
Where is America in all this?
India’s payments infrastructure is on fire. Bank accounts are the building blocks of financial inclusion, and in just three years, 285 million bank accounts have been added through the JAM program. UPI, or United Payments Interface, also has matured. UPI allows any Indian with a mobile number linked to a bank account to instantly send and receive money. Managed by the NPCI (a nonprofit organization), it also has APIs that allow any application to easily embed instant payments. Tech companies like Google and Flipkart already have UPI-based payment apps in Tez and PhonePe. Major Indian banks also have added UPI to their apps. WhatsApp also has plans to roll out it out to its Indian users.
Payments infrastructure means little without accessible experiences. A new generation of mobile wallet apps is solving that problem. PayTM is the largest with 200 million users. PhonePe also has wallet functionality. With these apps, users can connect their bank accounts or debit cards to transfer funds to the wallet to use for peer-to-peer payments, transact with small businesses or buy cellphone minutes. PayTM made serious inroads after demonetization, with street vendors, nannies and drivers also accepting it.
Alibaba is the single largest shareholder in One97 Communications, PayTM’s parent company, with an investment over $1.2 billion. Alibaba isn’t just looking for a venture scale return on investment. This is a strategic partnership unlike any other seen in India. They’ve publicly stated they see PayTM as a local partner with whom they will share their expertise in e-commerce and payments. There also are strong similarities between the strategies of both companies, with the focus on owning payments to own the consumer. Alibaba wants to get to 2 billion users by 2036. They’re not getting there without significant market share in India.
The second hard problem is changing consumer psychology. Indian consumers are value conscious. They’re wary of new products and require significant social proof before trying them. There’s also a high bar for trust that products need to overcome before a product can be adopted. And let’s face it. Understanding digital payments is hard to understand for most of us. This explains those low debit card usage numbers. Most people don’t even trust debit cards, even though they’re issued by a bank they trust!
China has solved this problem differently than American companies have.
China is looking beyond the 60-100 million affluent Indians and the retail stores that use credit cards. They’re also not getting tripped up by the less affluent 300-500 “middle India” consumers who don’t really use debit cards or trust digital payments. They’re addressing these consumers by studying and investing in where they’re spending their time.
Tencent already has 1 billion users in China who use their products every day to order food, buy tickets, play games and hundreds of other activities. Tencent is instead investing in adjacent industries. Thus, they’ve participated in a $1.1 billion round for Ola, India’s largest ridesharing company, and a $1.4 billion round for Flipkart, the largest e-commerce company.
Where is America in all this? American companies still largely view the Indian financial sector as stodgy and are focused on the urban affluent consumers, versus the entire country.
So far, American investment in India’s booming payments space have been paltry by Chinese standards. The only company with skin in the game is Amazon. They’ve committed $5 billion dollars to India and are buying stakes in Indian retailers. But we’re not seeing the same level of strategic investment and partnerships with local companies.
Despite the deep economic and military ties between the U.S. and India, at the present moment China has stolen a march ahead of America in investing in the Indian fintech frontier. There’s a real risk of American companies being left behind.Q: The Chris Bosh report just made my day. I was beginning to get worried about this. I'm glad to see them start this now before free agency. -- T.M.
A: And that timing certainly could help, with the Heat possibly to have cap space available to utilize in a trade at the June 22 NBA draft or before the July 1 start of free agency. When it comes to players who have trade kickers, that could be especially handy, being able to deal with them in 2016-17 terms, instead of 2017-18 costs. But, most importantly, it allows the Heat to move into free agency with a clear mind, without concerns about whether Bosh's cap hit could resurface, possibly in the luxury tax, down the road. Considering the process with Bosh has impacted three seasons, and considering the Heat went through three similar seasons after Alonzo Mourning's kidney diagnosis, if any team deserved a break and closure, it is the Heat. And with the agreement that is being finalized, it makes a possible return by Bosh elsewhere not something to be rooted against, but embraced if it does not compromise his health.
Q: Look, I'm not happy that Josh McRoberts opted in, but he doesn't owe you, me, Heat fans, the Heat organization or anyone else anything. He's an athlete with a small window to make the money he's gonna have for life. He owes it to himself and his family to maximize his earnings to help take care of them for as long as he can. Every one of us would do it. too. -- Dennis.
A: And that's why Tuesday's confirmation from agent Mike Conley to the Sun Sentinel was fully expected. It also was fully telling, that in a league where the mid-level exception will be $8 million for next season that McRoberts felt it best to opt-in for his $6 million. Now the ball is in the Heat's court, having unsuccessfully attempted to deal Josh for cap space last summer. If the Heat need an additional $4 million in cap space, utilizing the "stretch provision" might make the most sense, even if it does mean $2 million cap hits for each of the next three seasons. That decision likely will come down to where the Heat's power rotation will stand. But with Hassan Whiteside, Willie Reed, James Johnson and possibly Luke Babbitt and Justise Winslow, I'm not sure a need will be there even if Josh is finally healthy.
Q: Ira, what is your take on the 2016-17 Miami Heat still practicing and working together? Taking this in context with the upcoming draft and free agency, there are a lot of questions about pending free agents and whether the Heat should make a run at them. Granted that Blake Griffin or Gordon Haywood may take a Miami discount and sign a contract, but in your opinion, does the existing teamwork and chemistry of the 2016-17 Heat players factoring into the equation? Does the chemistry between Tyler Johnson and James Johnson equate to keeping the two players vs. a free-agent signing to replace Tyler with a friendlier long-term contract? Does keeping Dion Waiters and retaining existing chemistry with Goran Dragic equate to more than bringing in someone to replace Dion? Or does keeping this team more or less intact mean at most a No. 5-8 Eastern Conference playoff spot? -- Paul, Fort Lauderdale.
A: In a perfect world, the preferred approach here would be short-term re-ups with Dion and James Johnson, to get a read on exactly how much of this could carry over from the second half of the season. But such short-term deals obviously are not in the players' best interest. So I first would go to them with two-year offers, and if both take them, go from there. But if they are looking for something lengthier or more substantive, then I think you cast the widest net and yet again reboot the roster. While you can't linger at the bottom of the playoff race in perpetuity, it certainly would be fun to give this team a season-long chance to pick up where they left off.
iwinderman@sunsentinel.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ira.winderman
For daily Heat mailbag go to sun-sentinel.com/askiraStuntman dies trying to cross river on a zip wire using ponytail BelfastTelegraph.co.uk https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/stuntman-dies-trying-to-cross-river-on-a-zip-wire-using-ponytail-29230197.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article29231264.ece/da954/AUTOCROP/h342/INDIA%20Stunman%20.jpg
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Mr Roy was crossing the Teesta river in West Bengal state when he had a "massive heart attack."
The 50-year-old a police driver had set up the 600ft zip wire from the Coronation Bridge 70ft above the river.
He already held the Guinness World Record for travelling the farthest distance on a zip wire using hair.
A large number of people had gathered on the bridge to watch the feat, and eyewitnesses said that Mr Roy appeared to make no progress after getting about half way.
Balai Sutradhar, a photographer, who was covering the stunt, said: "He was desperately trying to move forward. He was trying to scream out some instruction. But no one could follow what he was saying. After struggling for 30 minutes he became still."
He was wearing a life jacket, but there were no emergency services or doctors at the spot.
Police said he was hanging for nearly 45 minutes before he was brought down, and doctors at the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival said he had suffered a "massive heart attack".
A friend, who preferred to remain anonymous, said: "His wife used to urge him to quit doing dangerous stunts. Mr Roy convinced her that crossing the Teesta river would be his last. Unfortunately, that became his last stunt."
In 2008, Mr Roy pulled the famous Darjeeling toy train with his ponytail, and in 2007 he flew from one building to another with his ponytail tied to a rope.
Belfast Telegraph DigitalViolence Cut In Borderlands 2, Fans Petition For Patch
Borderlands 2 may have blood, but it’s nothing compared to the skull popping, limb severing, butcher shop of a game that Borderlands 1 is, the freshly released sequel was slightly censored so that the game could receive an international release without bans from countries like Japan, Germany, or Australia (Australia’s 18+ rating wont be implemented until 2013).
So naturally the internet is aflame with angry fan complaints, some even stating that they won’t play Borderlands 2 until the good old fashioned gore makes a return via patch, a little radical, but they sort of have a point; the most convincing and grounded argument comes from a petition on the matter:
Although violence in the real world is a horrible thing…It was, in fact, an important part of the stylized feel of Borderlands 1.
The rest of the petition goes on about compromising artistic vision, kneeling to pressure from anti-violence groups, and other assumptions I don’t think apply.
You see, the original Borderlands shipped with censored violence for certain countries, which is unfortunate but was out of Gearbox’s control. Fast forward to just before Borderlands 2‘s release, and Gearbox was advertising on their blog that Borderlands 2 would be “uncut all over the world” so, instead of neutering Borderlands 2 in certain countries, the misleading developer toned the game down across the board (quite likely at 2K Games request to boost sales in the earlier mentioned content-safeguarded countries).
There is hope for a patch though, Gearbox’s CEO Randy Pitchford stated before the petition was created that the possibility for a patch is on the table, and encouraged the community to debate the idea on their forums.
Not having a guy’s head explode, or arm fly off when you shoot them isn’t a game breaking loss, but the inclusion of extreme gore certainly adds to the aesthetic and twisted charm a title carries, so in essence this is an overall presentation loss rather than just another immature cry from the gaming community.
Of course presentation is all subjective – do you prefer the original brutish bloodshed of the first Borderlands, or does the sequel’s tamer look suit you just fine?The crew at Steel City Blitz have a “Stand with Cam” campaign going for the November 1 game against Cincinnati.
The goal is to have fans attending the game wear eye black with “Iron Head” written on it, just like Cam does to honor his late father, Craig “Iron Head” Heyward.
Read more HERE.
Tweet out pictures of yourself in your eyeblack! Throw the #IronHead and #StandWithCam hastags on your tweets on twitter to get it trending!
We will be posting the photos here to share also so be sure to like and tag @camheywardfans. You can also like and tag @SCBlitz.
Thanks to Steel City Blitz for their idea and support!
Check out these great photos of Cam’s nephew showing his fierce support for Uncle Cam:
And, his nephew had two force fumbles and two sacks which he told his teammates he learned from watching Cam!TOMORROW’S NATIONWIDE WATER charge protests will ”far exceed” the 100,000 people that turned about at similar protests in Dublin earlier this month, according to Richard Boyd Barrett TD.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, the People Before Profit representative said that the scale of the public objection to the charges is unprecedented.
“These are the most nationwide protests that we have seen in the recent history of the State,” he said.
His claim about tomorrow’s marches came as former minister Pat Rabbitte TD claimed that the public mood is being exploited by those opposed to water charges.
Speaking on the same programme, Rabbitte said that claims about the privatisation of the water supply are a “red herring” from those opposed to Irish Water.
Rabbitte compared the objections to the utility to the objections to bin charges, something he says was detrimental to the service in the long run.
“People are very apprehensive after six years of hardship. They are tired of charges and that mood is being exploited by the same people who gave you the anti-bin charges protests,” Rabbitte said. “And remember where the anti-bin charges protests led to – it led the privatisation of the bin services and it led to people not being able to pay.
“So, there is no danger, it’s an entire red herring about privatisation of water services. There won’t be any privatisation of water services. No government with its head screwed on would seek to privatise something as critical as the water supply.”
Rabbitte said that in some parts of the country water services are “derelict” and that the water is “not fit to drink”. These issues, he said, need up to €1 billion a year for the next ten years to fix.
“The State doesn’t have the €1 billion, so the reason it set up a new company in public ownership to treat and supply water is that that new company will be able to go the markets to borrow the investment that is necessary to give us a water system that’s fit for purpose,” he argued.
Asked what mistakes have been made in the establishment of Irish Water, Rabbitte said that the Government had been under constant pressure from the Troika to set up the utility in two years while similar systems in Europe took three to five years to establish.
But Boyd Barrett said that Rabbitte was “being entirely disingenuous”.
“I met the Troika, I’m on the the finance committee, the Troika made it absolutely clear that we could switch one measure for another as long as it brought it the same money so they’d have no problem if we’d brought in a wealth tax and not water charges,” he said.
He gave the example of a Financial Transaction Tax in Ireland which could raise up to €100m asking: “Which is fairer, a 0.1% tax on financial speculation or hundreds and hundreds of euro on the backs of ordinary people?”
First published at 8.48amEver since I tried turning the Raspberry Pi into an FM transmitter, I had wondered if it would be possible to make it drive a radio-controlled car. It turns out that it is! With no modifications to your Pi, you can be driving around a toy-grade RC car iFe, and I’ve read about a few other ones online that should work as well. Any RC toy that works at a frequency in the range of 1-250 MHz should be controllable by the Pi once you figure out the command signals.
I’m going to talk a little bit about how RC cars work, how the code and hardware works on the Pi, and about RC controls in general. If you just want to start driving around, you can jump to the end.
Raspberry Pi FM radio
The first version of the Raspberry Pi FM transmitter was written by Oliver Mattos and Oskar Weigl. It works by using the hardware that is normally meant to produce spread spectrum signal clock signals on the GPIO pins to generate a radio frequency. The GPIO pin itself acts as an antenna, which you can extend by attaching a length of wire such as a jumper cable. By reading samples from an audio file and writing them out to the GPIO pin at a certain rate, it is possible to tune in a radio and hear the audio.
The original version of this code had a small problem though. FM requires a continuous stream of radio signals, but the Raspberry Pi normally runs Linux, which is not a real-time operating system. This means that you can start, stop, and run different programs at the same time, but because the Pi only has a single CPU core, it has to simulate multiple programs running at the same time by constantly switching between them. Whenever there was a context switch away from the program that was writing to the GPIO pins, the radio signal would skip and pop. Richard Hirst came up with a great solution to this problem: use the DMA controller to continually write data to the GPIO pins. Because DMA bypasses the CPU altogether, it is not affected by context switches, and it has the side effect of reducing the total CPU load because the controlling program now only has to periodically refill a circular buffer. Unfortunately, it also means that it’s not possible to stop broadcasting for short periods of time (at least not that I’ve been able to figure out), which will be problematic later when we try to control an RC car.
Frequency Modulation, Amplitude Modulation, and Pulse Modulation
There are two common ways of encoding audio over a radio signal: frequency modulation (FM) and amplitude modulation (AM). FM works by continually varying the frequency of the signal in small amounts while keeping the amplitude the same, while AM keeps the frequency the same while varying the amplitude. The difference is best described with a picture:
Animated diagram representing the difference between radio waves modulated by amplitude and by frequency. By Berserkus, from Wikipedia. Used under CC BY-SA 2.5.
The Raspberry Pi FM program uses the fractional divider to control and change the frequency of the generated signal. This allows it to generate an FM audio signal. Because the Pi is just writing values to the GPIO pin, I don’t think that it’s possible to control the amplitude of the signal, so I don’t think that it’s possible to have the Pi generate AM audio signals.
There are a few different control schemes that remote control toys use. Most toy-grade RC cars (ones with forward/back + left/right control) use pulse modulation. The radio controller broadcasts a signal at a constant frequency for a certain amount of time, and then stops broadcasting for another amount of time. It then repeats this cycle with varying lengths of broadcast and pause time in a particular pattern. The RC car recognizes this pattern as a command, such as “forward” or “reverse right” and starts moving.
The specific pattern typically consists of some base time length, such as 400 microseconds, and all pulses and pauses are multiples of that length. A control signal starts with a synchronization pattern consisting of a broadcast for some length of time and a pause, which is repeated a certain number of times. Then a number of bursts and pauses are repeated for the command. For example, the New Bright 1:24 truck sends synchronization signals of 1200 microsecond bursts with 400 microsecond pauses repeated 4 times, followed by a number of 400 microsecond bursts and 400 microsecond pauses. If that signal is repeated 40 times, the vehicle drives forward, while 28 bursts tell it to drive reverse and right.
Remember earlier when we had to use DMA to ensure a constant signal? Because of this, I haven’t been able to figure out how to make the Pi stop broadcasting for a consistent amount of time, which is needed for the signal pauses. However, think back to how FM radio signals work. Because the Pi send FM, it can very quickly change the frequency that it is broadcasting on. To simulate a broadcast pause, it instead broadcasts at a different frequency for a length of time. Because the RC car is only listening for signals at one particular frequency, as far as it is concerned, the Pi has stopped broadcasting altogether.
A step up from toy-grade cars usually have proportional steering and throttle control, so you can more precisely control the vehicle. Most high-end hobby grade devices use pulse-position modulation. Andrew Hazelden has an excellent explanation of how PPM works. I wanted to get a car with proportional steering and throttle control, but most RC cars that I looked at operate in gigahertz range which is too high for the Pi, so I instead bought a RadioShack Dune Warrior which runs in the 27 MHz range.
Finding the signal
With toy-grade cars, I’ve found that the easiest way to find the signals that control them is to just use brute force. They mostly use very similar signal patterns, so you can simply iterate through different control pattens until the car responds. For more complex patterns, you’ll probably need to use an oscilloscope to analyze the patterns.
Brute force
For toy-grade RC cars, you can just turn on the car and iterate through different control patterns until you find one that causes the car to move. Every car that I’ve looked at uses one synchronization pattern for all of the controls that it can respond to, so once you find one signal, it’s just a matter of guessing how many signal repeats control the remaining actions.
Iterating through all possible patterns can take a few hours, and I didn’t want to wait around for the car to move, so I instead pointed a webcam at the car and then waited until the image changed. Once the car moves, the computer will see that the image has changed and will save the image and the pattern.
I tried a few different techniques to monitor the webcam to decide if the car has moved. First, I tried just computing the percent difference of the color values of the pixels between a base photo and the most recent photo. This generated a lot of false positives due to changing lighting conditions, such as when a cloud passes overhead. If you run this program, I recommend placing the car in a closet or some other place where you can keep the lighting consistent.
Next, I converted the image to greyscale and then normalized the colors so that the darkest color was black and the lightest color was white. This reduced the noise between pictures a lot and helped with my varying lighting conditions, but I was still worried about false positives. I tried one more thing: reducing the image depth to 1 bit, so it was only black and white.
This reduced the noise to a really low level, and because the wall behind the car was white, once it moved, the difference was very clear. This reduced my false positives to 0, so I stopped here. I had considered running edge detection on the base image and then ignoring differences along the detected edges because that’s where most of the difference between photos appeared but I ended up not needing to.
Oscilloscope
For more complex vehicles, it’s easiest to hook an oscilloscope up to the radio controller and then observing the changes in the command signal as you move the controller. This is what we ended up doing with the Dune Warrior.
Dune Warrior, straight and full throttle
We hooked up the oscilloscope and watched how the signal changed as we adjusted the throttle and the steering. If you want to do this yourself, I strongly suggest recording the signal to video so that it can be reviewed later. The signal starts with a 500 microsecond synchronization burst and pause, followed by 22 more bursts. Each burst is either 127 microseconds or 200 microseconds, with a pause of the same length. The burst lengths are used to encode a binary pattern, where the shorter bursts are a 0 and the longer bursts are a 1. 6 bits are for steering, 5 are used for the throttle, and 1 is used as an even parity bit; the remainder never appear to change and I’m not sure what their function is. What’s strange is that the bits for steering are not contiguous; bits 7-8 form the 2 most significant bits, while 1-4 form the rest. 32 is centered for steering, while 0 is sharp left and 63 is sharp right. Similarly, 16 is idle for throttle while 0 is full reverse and 31 is full forward.
Running your own car
If you have a cheap toy-grade RC car (i.e. one that only has controls for forward/backward and left/right) then you should be able to find the command signals and control the car pretty easily. Clone the repository from my GitHub on your Raspberry Pi and compile pi_pcm by running scons. Run pi_pcm as root. By default, the program listens for JSON commands on port 5432.
Turn on the car and put it in a location where you can control the lighting (such as a closet). Point a computer that has a webcam at the car (it can be the same computer or a separate one), run python watch.py -f [frequency] -s [Pi IP address] and enter the frequency of your RC car (this should normally be 27 or 49 MHz). You’ll need to have gstreamer installed to capture the webcam stream. Most cars operate on one of a several different channels in the 27 or 49 MHz range; if you don’t know the exact channel, then just enter 27 or 49 and the program will iterate through each channel for you.
Once the program sees the car move, it will save a picture and rename it according to the command it just sent. The filename format is frequency-microseconds-synchronizationBurstLength-synchronizationBurstCount-signalCount. From there, you can run python control.py -f [frequency] -s [Pi IP address]. It will prompt you for the command information and ask you for different signal bursts; try different ones (1 – 100 or so) and observe how the RC car reacts. Once you have all of the signals, save the information in a JSON file (see control-specs/pro-dirt.json for an example). Now you should be able to run python interactive_control.py -s [Pi IP address] [JSON control file] and drive the car using the arrow keys.
More thoughts
There are a few other projects that you cna build from here. For one, I’m planning on entering the SparkFun Autonomous Vehicle Competition with my Dune Warrior. You can make an autonomous vehicle yourself by buying a USB battery pack for the Pi and taping both to the top of your car and writing a simple control program. I’m also planning on buying a Raspberry Pi camera, slapping on a WiFi USB dongle, and implementing Twitch drives your car in my apartment.
AdvertisementsJames Brolin, Nathan Fillion
Who knew? Barbra Streisand is such a fan of Castle (and is pals with one of the producers) that she persuaded husband James Brolin to appear on the ABC crime drama. He plays the long-lost father of Rick Castle (Nathan Fillion) in the February 25 episode, the second hour of a nail-biting two-parter that begins February 18. Executive producer Andrew Marlowe is keeping details secret but says, "There will be a moment between father and son when Castle comes to a realization and the two men confront the realities of their relationship."
The emotional episodes also showcase young Molly Quinn, whose character, Alexis, gets kidnapped. "She tries to escape any way she can but keeps getting thwarted," Quinn says. "Near the end, Alexis kind of falls apart."
Marlowe says Fillion lets the tears flow as he portrays the powerless dad who fears for his child's life. "We're giving Nathan the opportunity to show some colors and tackle a range of emotions he doesn't always get to show," says Marlowe, hinting that Castle's father figures into the kidnapping "in a very interesting way. He has a strong hand in how everything gets resolved."
Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!A woman who shares striking similarity to Ted Cruz made an appearance on the Maury talk show, prompting an internet frenzy.
The screen grab of the woman who many said resembles Republican presidential candidate Cruz was posted online by a Reddit user.
Not long after the photo was posted, Twitter users began circulating cruel comments with most of them suggesting the woman looked like Cruz in 'drag'.
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The screen grab of a woman (pictured) who resembles Republican presidential candidate Cruz was posted online by a Reddit user
Not long after the photo was posted, Twitter users began circulating cruel comments with most of them suggesting the woman looked like 'Cruz in drag'
Twitter user Abdul tweeted that the woman 'looks like Ted Cruz in drag'
Others said the woman could be Cruz's long lost sister after her appearance on the Maury Show
Others said the woman could be Cruz's long lost sister.
An Instagram account for the show also posted the photo with the caption: 'Ted Cruz @cruzforpresident in drag on Maury?
'The Lie Detector Test determined...that was a LIE! Ted's NOT that SEXY! #PrimaryDay #Maury.'
The photo was also posted on the Maury Show's website as the 'pic of the day'.
Twitter user Abdul tweeted: 'Why this looks like Ted Cruz in drag.'
Another user said that he 'just saw Ted Cruz on Maury'.
Jill Vitale tweeted asking her followers: 'Was Ted Cruz on The Maury Povich show yesterday?'
Both the Republican and Democratic primaries take place on Tuesday night.
The Texas senator, who scored a key win in Wisconsin while hauling in delegates at state conventions in North Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming, is anticipating a drubbing in the New York primary against rival Donald Trump.
Jill Vitale tweeted asking her followers: 'Was Ted Cruz on The Maury Povich show yesterday?'
Senior editor at The Daily Beast tweeted: 'Ted Cruz is one of the great character actors of our time.' And Cruz is known for his impressions of actors and cartoon characters
Cruz skipped out of New York Monday to attend events in Maryland, which holds its primary on April 26.
Ted Cruz boasted Monday morning that he has won 'landslides' in the last five states to award Republican convention delegates, even though only one of those states held a popular-vote election.
Cruz said that 'in all likelihood we're going to go into a contested convention,' predicting that Trump won't be able to collect the 1,237 delegates
'There have been a total of five states that have voted in the last three weeks,' he claimed during a town hall event on Good Morning America.
'In those states, starting with Utah, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Colorado and Wyoming, 1.3 million people voted in those states. And he lost all five. We have won five in a row, and Donald's upset so he's throwing a fit.'
Cruz reiterated moments later that in 'five states in a row, we've won landslides over and over and over again'.
On Tuesday, Cruz is scheduled to appear at a campaign rally in Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania.
Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Connecticut all hold elections on the 26th.
Cruz said Monday on ABC that 'in all likelihood we're going to go into a contested convention,' predicting that Trump won't be able to collect the 1,237 delegates ahead of time that would constitute the slimmest possible majority.
'Donald cannot win and we do not want to nominate somebody who's a loser in November,' he boasted.
He also ruled out the possibility of joining forces with his arch-rival by accepting the vice presidential nomination on a Trump ticket.
'I have zero interest whatsoever. And there are a lot of reasons,' he said in response to a town hall quesiton.
Cruz also said that despite being known for doing impressions of actors and cartoon characters, 'I don't have a Donald impression.'After nearly three years of dragging through the Martian dust, NASA's Opportunity rover has reached the rim of an expansive and ancient crater.
Since leaving Victoria crater in August 2008, Opportunity has rolled 13 miles to reach the rim of 24-mile-wide Endeavour crater – the biggest of 11 craters the robot has visited. It's the site of an ancient impact that shot out dark rocks onto the crater's rim.
"We're soon going to get the opportunity to sample a rock type the rovers haven't seen yet," said planetary scientist and Mars rover team member Matthew Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a press release. "Clay |
Storj coin being traded and 449 million held by the team (~90%). Now, instead of the 10 million release promise, Storj aims at selling for 30 Million USD worth of Storj at a maximum price of 0.5 USD. Taking these tokens from their 449 Million stash, this is effectively aiming at releasing at least 60 million tokens if the cap is reached, but potentially more since discounts are available for larger purchases during the pre-sale (ending today).
For further discussion, you might find this reddit discussion interesting.
2.3 Centralization
Storj is at the moment not a decentralized storage system, mostly due to their payment system. Currently, renters do not directly pay farmers, but pay Storj and Storj payback their farmers once every month. This caused some problems where the last payments was being delayed by many days, both due to the amount of work on the team's end but also due to processing speed of transaction. There is also a concern that the payment sheets are completely generated by the Storj team and we do not have access to the raw information where the data is gathered. It would therefore be hard to know if the value were altered, a potential lost to the farmers. Due to this centralization, if the Storj team disappears, there would be no way for the farmers and renters to directly interact. This is something the team wants to move toward, but I find it concerning that this was not the primary direction and is not among the most important incoming features.
2.4 Market Plan
Storj seems to put most of its current energy on the farmers, attracting them by uploading a large amount of data to test the network and therefore paying the farmers a substantial amount. In addition the price for renters are relatively high compared to other options. Indeed, Storj currently charges renter 15 USD / 1 Tb per month, which is surprisingly more expensive than the current Dropbox offer of 10 USD / 1 Tb per month. I believe having a strong team of farmers is necessary, but fundamentally, the renters should drive the amount of farmers, not the other way around.
Storj
Dropbox :
Conclusion
To conclude, I believe there are reasons to be skeptical about the Storj project. The idea and approach are obviously interesting and promising, but some decisions and actions by the team are questionable, such as misleading claims, centralization and high renting fees. However, it is important to note that although questionable in my view, these positions and decisions might've been genuinely taken for the greater good of the project. Hence, I encourage the reader again to make their own research before investing.
It is my hope to encourage skepticism, both for a healthier investing and developing community.Tyler Skluzacek was inspired by the experiences of his father, an Iraq war veteran, to design the myBivy app.
myBivy—the name is drawn from bivouac, a camp where soldiers can rest—tracks heartbeat and movement while asleep. Over time, the app gets to know its user’s sleep habits, and can prevent the onset of panic attacks and night terrors by rousing the sleeper using sound and vibration. There is also the option of sending the sleep reports to a physician for analysis.
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“After a couple weeks of tracking the soldier we can find the exact symptoms, the exact symptoms of the onset of the panic attack and try to use the watch or use the android phone to disrupt that or take them out of the deep sleep but keep them asleep,” Tyler told Kare 11 news.
The project sprang from a close-to-home motivation. Tyler’s father Patrick experiences night terrors, and an estimated 20% of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffer from PTSD-related afflictions—along with 8% of the American population. “Your dad just disappearing for a year and coming back a little bit different and seeing his army buddies and them coming back a little bit different too…I have a real personal connection to the PTSD problem.”
myBivy came to life at HackDC, an intense, 36-hour coding competition. Tyler told Gizmodo that he knew he wanted to work on a project to help soldiers going in, but hadn’t planned on the app initially.
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“I actually entered the competition with a number of ‘bad ideas,’ specifically forums, social networks and things to connect struggling soldiers. These were bad ideas because A) They’ve been done before and B) Soldiers at the competition said they wanted something to help them in the short term. As a result, we created myBivy,” he said. Working with teammates Damola, Sarah, Sravya, and Brian and developing the app with a Pebble Time, their team, “The Cure,” won the competition’s Best PTSD Mobile App for Clinicians prize.
I asked Tyler why the team used a Pebble smartwatch for development. He shared that it was the most affordable option going into the hack. “You’ll also notice it doesn’t have a heart rate sensor. I‘ve been using its data paired with physiological data obtained from a borrowed Fitbit. I love the Pebble Time, and want to encourage those at Pebble to implement an affordable heart rate monitor.”
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myBivy now has a Kickstarter campaign, and will use the funds raised therein to offer the app on Android, Apple and Pebble smartwatches and to pair its patient interface with Android and iPhone OS. Kickstarter funds will also help to meet with medical experts and to “test the application on a large scale of those both with and without PTSD.”
Does Tyler foresee myBivy having a variety of applications beyond PTSD-induced night terrors? “Over the last 3 days alone, I’ve spoken with countless people who have presented daytime strategies for managing stress-relief using a variation of our method. We can also use it to study and treat sleep-walking, sleep-paralysis, and other sleep disorders,” he told me.
Right now their main goal is further research and testing. Media coverage has sparked an outpouring of interest—Tyler has already received feedback from more than 200 veterans who are eager to try out the app. “This is a real motivator for us to get myBivy into the hands of those who truly need it.”
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Tyler, a senior at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN (full disclosure: I’m an alum), majors in computer science, applied mathematics and economics. He hopes to get a Ph.D in computer science one day, but may be busy after graduation: since the news of myBivy broke he’s heard from clinical agencies, startups and tech companies—like Google—excited about the possibilities of the app. He wants myBivy to be released as soon as possible and working for the people who need it most. Then he would use the app as “an extension for excellent research that solves hard-hitting problems like PTSD.”
And the possibilities behind myBivy are important for Tyler and his family. “I thought about telling my dad that my idea will help him sleep better someday,” Tyler told Macalester’s Academic News. “And that ‘someday’ is coming up soon.”
[myBivy Kickstarter Campaign]
[Kare 11; Macalester Academic News]
Top image via Macalester CollegeWhy would the U.S. government need a mock U.S. town at Fort Chafee, Arkansas?
Shepard Ambellas
Infowars.com
August 4, 2013
Editors Note: I want to preface this article by giving a very special thanks to the brave individuals who obtained exclusive photographs of the facility, leaking the initial report to our agency.
FORT CHAFFEE, ARKANSAS — Carnis Village is what the Army National Guard calls it. A mock American town which even contains dummy citizens for domestic training purposes. Located on the grounds of the Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center, the massive training compound is likely a dead-ringer clue foreshadowing the grim path we are now traversing as a nation.
No longer are we free, “Big Brother” lurks around every corner, further pushing the populace into submission. In fact, it’s now widely accepted that cameras are everywhere, watching every facet of our lives, tracking us in real-time.
We also notice the massive police state presence that has been ramping up. Free humans are not even allowed to photograph or film in public anymore in some cases. What ever happened to the concept of photography or journalism? Avenues that are being blocked by the globalists now on all levels.
While likely all of this is a forced conditioning procedure implemented on the populace by the powers-that-be, we as free thinking individuals need to recognize the warning signs and dangers that are swiftly pulling us into an unstoppable downward spiral as a nation.
Now, upon publication of this exclusive Intellihub.com expose’, the U.S. Army has some explaining to do regarding this massive training facility which sits adjacent to the city of Forth Smith, alongside the Arkansas River. The facility is currently active and is in use by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), military and other domestic agencies.
While the military may be able to explain away this facility for use in overseas training, DHS and other domestic agencies simply can not.
FORT CHAFFEE, ARKANSAS: Carnis City, The mock American town appears to even have a church included for added detail. (Photo: Intellihub.com)
The entire mock town has an eerie feeling to it.
Why would the U.S. government need such a facility?
The mock town details are astonishing to say the least, there is even a mock bus stop for various role-playing and urban warfare training scenarios.
FORT CHAFFEE, ARKANSAS: Carnis City, a mock bus stop sets an ominous overtone in the empty facility. (Photo: Intellihub.com)
The following statement was submitted by the individual who took the photographs;
“I am a former US soldier, and I have trained at Military Operations, Urban Terrain (MOUT) sites many times prior to visiting this facility at Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas.
The sites are generally very generic in appearance, block buildings that cannot be identified to any specific location or culture, block buildings used for basic entry tactics and training to fight in urban locations anywhere world wide.
My first experience at a facility that looked as if it had been designed for a specific region was at Ft. Irwin, California, at the National Training Center. In that location they have a MOUT “City” which is set up to resemble a middle eastern location. Quite logical given the current war on terror, with its focus on the middle east.
However, the center at Ft. Chaffee seems eerily similar to any given US downtown location. There is a church, not a mosque. There is a bank that has a drive in ATM and even has the triangle of the local Arvest Bank. There are townhouses, a city hall, a two story high school with boys and girls restrooms and more.
The fine details of the facility make it quite obvious to myself that this site was set up for domestic warfare training proposes or for a westernized nation that shares a similar culture of architecture to that of America.
We like to say that we train as we fight. Given the current political climate developing in the United States, don’t be so quick to dismiss this as a conspiracy theory. Millions of dollars were spent developing this facility with a very specific concept in mind.”
More photos:
FORT CHAFFEE: Urban Warfare Training Facility (Photo: Intelllihub.com)
FORT CHAFFEE: Urban Warfare Training Facility (Photo: Intelllihub.com)
FORT CHAFFEE: Urban Warfare Training Facility (Photo: Intelllihub.com)
FORT CHAFFEE: Urban Warfare Training Facility (Photo: Intelllihub.com)
FORT CHAFFEE: Urban Warfare Training Facility (Photo: Intelllihub.com)
FORT CHAFFEE: Urban Warfare Training Facility (Photo: Intelllihub.com)
It’s scary knowing that all of this is underway right here in America.
In fact, an Infowars.com article published back in May, details how the military now needs no presidential authorization to act in times of civil disturbance. An excerpt from the article written by Paul Joseph Watson reads, “A recent Department of Defense instruction alters the US code applying to the military’s involvement in domestic law enforcement by allowing US troops to quell “civil disturbances” domestically without any Presidential authorization, greasing the skids for a de facto military coup in America along with the wholesale abolition of Posse Comitatus.
The instruction, which was originally released in February yet has only come to light this week, outlines DoD policy regarding, “DoD support to Federal, State, tribal, and local civilian law enforcement agencies, including responses to civil disturbances within the United States.”
This is particularly disturbing to some as the military has seemingly now gone rogue.
Another article by Wsws.com points out how urban warfare drills are being conducted now in major cities such as Chicago and others reading, “In the late evening hours of July 22, several Blackhawk helicopters flew low over central areas of the city of Chicago without any lights, startling a number of residents who were not aware of the scheduled military helicopter training exercises.”
All of these drills, including “Active Shooter” drills which are now taking place now all over the country, are not in the best interest of the American public. In fact, in most cases people now fear their government, likely from scenarios such as the ones described here.
Bill Van Auken points out the fact that, “Such operations are unquestionably of central importance to the US military. Over the past decade, its primary mission, as evidenced in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been the invasion and occupation of relatively powerless countries and the subjugation of their resisting populations, often in house-to-house fighting in urban centers.
The Army operates a 1,000 acre Urban Training Center in south-central Indiana that boasts over 1,500 “training structures” designed to simulate houses, schools, hospitals and factories. The center’s web site states that it “can be tailored to replicate both foreign and domestic scenarios.”
What does flying Blackhawks low over Chicago apartment buildings or rolling armored military convoys through the streets of St. Louis accomplish that cannot be achieved through the sprawling training center’s simulations? Last year alone, there were at least seven such exercises, including in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Tampa, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Creeds, Virginia.
The most obvious answer is that these exercises accustom troops to operating in US cities, while desensitizing the American people to the domestic deployment of US military might.
Preparations for such deployments are already far advanced. Over the past decade, under the pretext of prosecuting a “global war on terror,” Washington has enacted a raft of repressive legislation and created a vast new bureaucracy of state control under the Department of Homeland Security. Under the Obama administration, the White House has claimed the power to throw enemies of the state into indefinite military detention or even assassinate them on US soil by means of drone strikes, while radically expanding electronic spying on the American population.”
This also dovetails into the fact that the DHS has purchased millions of rounds of ammunition and paper targets depicting civilians, for use geared toward domestic training.
What will be the governments limit to the unlawful violation of our rights as free individuals and ongoing trend of increased draconian police state measures and protocols in America?
It’s time the public demands answers.
Read more by Shepard Ambellas at Intellihub.Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jeff Janis, right, sprints past St. Louis Rams defensive tackle Deantre Harlan after catching a pass and running it in for a touchdown during the third quarter of an NFL preseason football game Aug. 16. Janis is hoping to make the Packers final 53-man roster this week. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam) (Photo: Tom Gannam AP)
Jeff Janis made a personal goal many years ago to buy a new car for his mother, Deb, should he ever make it to the NFL.
The Green Bay Packers rookie receiver made good on that promise this past week when he had a brand-new Ford Edge delivered to his mom back in Michigan.
"That was one thing that I told myself I wanted to do for my mom if I made it to this level was get her a new vehicle," said Janis, who posted the photo on his Twitter account Tuesday. "She's one of the hardest working people I know, so that was something I wanted to reward her with."
Back in Green Bay, Janis' focus has tightened. The former Saginaw Valley State standout has been inactive for the first three games this season, but could be called into action Sunday against the Chicago Bears.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy said receiver Jarrett Boykin developed a groin injury during practice Thursday and is listed as questionable to play against the Bears. He'd already been dealing with a knee injury.
It could be the opening Janis needs to show his highlight reel of preseason catches can translate in games that actually matter in the win-loss column.
The Packers plucked Janis (6-3, 219) from the NCAA Division II ranks in the seventh round of May's draft because of an ultra-productive run with the Cardinals (4,305 receiving yards, 45 touchdowns) and terrific testing numbers at the NFL combine.
Janis agrees the key for him is to gain the trust of Aaron Rodgers. His 33- and 34-yard touchdown grabs in the preseason weren't a bad start, though.
"It's very important because if he doesn't trust me, he won't look my way," Janis said. "So that's one thing I have to show him so we can build that trust and get some balls thrown my way."
Janis isn't getting ahead of himself, though. He knows his path to offense is paved through special teams. His coaches at Saginaw Valley State felt he would have been a good returner, but his offensive value was paramount.
So far, it's been a work in progress. Special-teams coach Shawn Slocum said he's been doing a good job on rushing punts, but accidently ran into Tim Masthay during practice earlier this week.
"If you are going to be a receiver, you have to play special teams," Janis said. "That's something I've really been trying to show that I could do, so hopefully that will be my first chance to get on the field on special teams."
The Packers didn't have anyone miss practice time this week, which can make life difficult for a rookie inactive trying to get on the game-day 46.
If Boykin can't go, the Packers will be looking for a No. 4 receiver. A spark in the passing game also wouldn't hurt.
Could Janis be it?
"I still have to make plays when they come my way. That's the biggest thing I'm focusing on," Janis said. "It's basically the same thing. It doesn't matter who is up or down, it's treating each day like I was a starter. That's pretty much what I try to do is prepare that way."
-whodkiew@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @WesHod.Arrested Development will be back – either as another series or as a movie – creator Mitch Hurwitz has confirmed.
When asked during a Q&A session at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal if the show would be returning, Hurwitz said baldly: ‘Definitely.’
Then, turning to Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, he said: ‘I don’t want to get into a whole negotiation right now... but I’ve got a family to feed.’
He added: ‘I keep thinking about it, and why don't we do the movie version of this and then do the series, because this series kinda peaks with the story?
‘I kinda go back and forth between that and a series. But here’s the most important thing, whatever we do, I want to get the cast all together and not do another anthology thing, and that’s why I keep thinking about kicking off with a special or a three-part show and then going into a series.
Then he asked Sarandos: ‘Are you game for that?’.
‘Absolutely,’ the Netflix boss replied. ‘In any form.’
Hurwitz said he had long planned a movie – but star Jeffrey Tambor always jinxed it. ‘We would see each other and talk about it, and then it would end up in the press with him saying “We’re doing it!”, but we didn’t have have a deal, we don’t own the property – 20th Century Fox owns the property – and there were a lot of things to get in place.
‘And also part of it was us stalling a little bit, too, waiting to see if the right idea came to us. And I think it has. We have it basically, we have the next step.’
Netflix revived the cult sitcom for a fourth 15-part series this year, with each episode concentrating on one character because of the difficulty in getting all the cast together. Although, the on-demand service does not release any audience figures for their shows, it is thought to have been a success.
Hurwitz also said he enjoyed the creative freedom the company gave him, saying it was ‘completely unlike the prior experience, which was a external battle every day. This was an internal battle, which was more difficult, but more rewarding.’
He later added that he had battles with executives at the Fox network about dumbing down the show.
‘The show was very expensive and it wasn’t making them money,’ he admitted. ‘But their answer was to dumb in down and take out a chunk of it.
‘We weren’t trying to make an arcane, smart show. We had to tell them, “No, it's a dumb show, it's really dumb. I swear to God I'm doing it to get you an audience. I'm trying to make it successful for you.”’
But although Hurwitz spoke of sticking to his guns, he added: ‘It's not selling out to try to figure out what's best for your audience.’
He also discussed how Alexei Sayle was mistreated by the Hollywood machine, after being signed up to reprise the Eastern European persona he had employed as the landlord in The Young Ones for the 1992 Golden Girls spin-off Golden Palace.
Hurwitz, who was a writer on the series, told how executives fired Sayle before the pilot had been shot.
‘Everyone just decided, as they do when there’s a lot of executives, “He can't do it, he's not funny. We gotta fire him.”
‘So he’s fired. And then we shoot the pilot. And he storms it like crazy. The crowd loves him; he gets a standing ovation at the curtain call, but he’s got fired.’
The network then got Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong fame, to step into the ‘funny foreigner’ role. But when he got on set he refused to do the comedy Mexican accent he employed in his stoner double-act, telling them: ‘Oh no, I don’t do that any more.’
The sitcom got cancelled after one season.
Published: 25 Jul 2013Labour leader under fire after poll shows Conservatives ahead for first time in two years
Ed Miliband is facing fresh criticism from within the Labour ranks over his "suicidal" campaign tactics as the party heads into crucial European and local council elections.
With one poll last week showing the Tories ahead of Labour for the first time in two years, a series of party figures warned that Miliband's cautious tactics would not deliver victory in next year's general election.
One prominent backbencher, Simon Danczuk, the MP for Rochdale, said the party had to stop relying on the unpopularity of the government and come forward with a positive vision of its own.
In a scathing article for the Mail on Sunday, he said it was "daft" to dismiss voters who were to turning to Ukip as "disaffected loons", and said winning back support was more than a matter of "setting off a few fireworks or coming up with some catchy slogans".
"We've become too comfortable with talking to ourselves, with policy announced through set-piece speeches as though in a university lecture. Some in the party view politics as an intellectual pursuit; it's not, it's a monumental struggle to win hearts and minds," he said.
"We won't win a general election by campaigning excessively on food banks and the bedroom tax. Labour has to offer a route out of poverty and unfulfilled potential. Continually reciting a mantra of misery is not the answer. We have to start speaking the language of aspiration.
"Britain needs a government with a convincing mandate to introduce the big changes that are required. But Labour can't achieve that with the core vote and a few disgruntled Liberals. That's a suicidal strategy."
His concerns were echoed by Tristan Osborne, the parliamentary candidate for Chatham and Aylesford, one of the party's key target seats, who was recorded making critical remarks at a Labour fundraising event.
In comments reported by the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times, he was quoted as complaining of a "dodgy campaign" with "no coherent messaging", adding: "The machine is not functioning in any capacity."
He was said to have warned that Miliband would "never form a credible government" unless he did more to win over "the aspirational southern voter".
"The economy is picking up. That reinforces the narrative that they [the Conservatives] are doing well, and there's absolutely sod all anyone can do about that," he was quoted as saying.Why the PlayStation 4 Is Already In High Demand
The PlayStation 4 hasn’t even been shown off to the public yet, but already the box is on the minds of millions of people across the globe. In fact, in a recent earnings call with investors, GameStop president Tony Bartel said that his company has 900,000 people signed up for its first-to-know list on the PlayStation 4. And he expects demand to far outstrip supply of the console when it launches.
Such demand already might surprise some folks. After all, it took a long time for the PlayStation 3 to truly get off the ground and although it’ll likely end this generation with more worldwide sales than the Xbox 360, in the U.S., especially, it’s no match for Microsoft’s console.
To make matters worse, it appears that gamers aren’t all that excited about the next generation of consoles across the board. The Wii U, after all, has been watching its sales slow to crawl and even GameStop said publicly that it’s been disappointed by the Wii U. What in the world would make the PlayStation 4 different?
Well, I think there are a host of reasons. I’m a firm believer that Sony is still a household name in the U.S. and in Japan – its two key markets – and people buy products from the company solely because they trust the name. And despite the PlayStation 3’s initial troubles, the console turned out to be quite a success, allowing its predecessor to deliver solid results next time around.
[aquote]It’s unfair to compare the PS4 with the Wii U[/aquote]
It’s also unfair to compare the PlayStation 4 with the Wii U. Nintendo’s console is one that’s a barely updated alternative to the predecessor. As I’ve said here before, I believe the Wii U is a catch-up device. And historically, catch-up devices don’t really perform all that well on store shelves.
The PlayStation 4, however, is a high-end product with all kinds of graphical firepower; it’s the kind of device that true gamers really want. And chances are, Sony will once again have the full support of the developer community to ensure it doesn’t fall short from a library perspective.
Most importantly, though, I think the strong demand for the PlayStation 4 tells us that, despite conventional wisdom suggesting that mobile and casual gaming is the future, console gamers are still extremely engrossed in their favored way of playing games. And that’s not going to change anytime soon.
The fact is that console gaming has a long way to go to ultimately match the promise gamers have been hoping for all this time. And companies like Sony and Microsoft are willing to push the envelope and put themselves in a position where they can capitalize on customers that want a true next-generation device, and not something that’s simply labeled as one.
So yes, I understand the excitement surrounding the PlayStation 4, and I can say without any hesitation that I’m one of those folks that’s excited to see what’s coming next from Sony. The future is now. And Sony is one of the few companies in the gaming industry that’s willing to embrace it.Your friends are invited, the drinks are ready, but wait! How the heck are you supposed to make your apartment look amazing for New Year’s? Fear not, party people, we’ve gathered some ideas to help you ring in 2015 in style (And have your friends talking about it through 2016).
1. A floating picture gallery
You know what’s better than a picture gallery of 2014? A floating picture gallery of 2014. Attach photos of friends, moments, and hilarious times to these balloons. They can be moved around the party to provide perfect talking points for guests. Another idea! Bring a Polaroid camera and pin new photos to them.
2. “2015 Crescent Dippers”
So not exactly an apartment design tip – but hey, these were too cool to leave out! Pillsbury provides a step by step guide for creating these year-appropriate appetizers.
3. Create a homemade photo booth
Cannot… resist… photo… booth. We’ve all been there – photo booths are amazingly fun. Add some props, like these mustaches and bow-ties for $8 from Anthropologie.
4. Then #hashtag them!
Put up a sign next to the booth with a party specific hashtag so you can see every photo. #JennsNYEparty2014 #sohotrightnow
5. Clocks
A song by Coldplay and your perfect New Year’s party companion.
6. Add a sparkle to your ceiling
An easy way to make your apartment shine! Buy simple streamers at any party supply store, add those Christmas lights from the holidays, and voila, you’ve got the perfect atmosphere for NYE.
7. Hang some bubbles next to your bubbles.
String up some lightly colored balloons next to your drink station for an extra touch. (via HoneyandFitz)
8. A resolution tree
Take a few branches, add a little gold spray and arrange in a clear vase. Leave some notes and ask guests to write resolutions on them.
9. Hang NYE banners
Banners over drink stations, dinner tables, or empty walls fill blank space perfectly.
10. Printables
Decorate your space with free printables, like this one from Creating Really Awesome Free Things:
Or this one:
About Zumper:
Zumper is the first search through close apartment platform. Search and find your next home or apartment for rent from over 500,000 listings across the US. Then apply instantly using our common application. Easy as that!Peter "Fat Pete" Chiodo (1951–2016) was a capo in the Lucchese crime family who later became a government witness.
Background [ edit ]
FBI surveillance photograph of Chiodo, Lastorino and Baratta
In 1987, Chiodo became a made man in the Lucchese family in a ceremony held in an apartment over a funeral home in Queens. In 1989, Chiodo became a capo in charge of funneling payoffs from Local 580 of the Ironworkers' Union to the Lucchese leadership.[1] He was known as "Fat Pete" because of his enormous girth–400 lb (180 kg) to 500 lb (230 kg), depending on the source.[1][2]
Windows case [ edit ]
In 1989, the Lucchese family began worrying about indictments from the Windows case. The Luccheses and three other New York families had participated in a window replacement scheme that stole millions of dollars from the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Worried that construction union leader John Morrissey might testify in this case for the prosecution, family leaders ordered Chiodo to lure Morrissey to New Jersey, where he was murdered.[3]
In 1991, Chiodo was charged with violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the Windows case. Chiodo realized that the government's case was so solid that he would likely die in prison if convicted. He decided to plead guilty in return for a lighter sentence. However, Chiodo didn't ask Lucchese official boss Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and official underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso for permission to take a plea. Amuso and Casso were both in hiding due to the Windows case. Suspecting Chiodo was about to turn informer, Amuso and Casso ordered him killed. Casso gave the contract to acting boss Alphonse 'Little Al' D'Arco. The order shocked D'Arco, who knew that Chiodo had been a close confidant of Casso for years.
Assassination attempt [ edit ]
On May 8, 1991 two shooters ambushed Chiodo at a gas station in Staten Island where he was working on a car. Chiodo received 12 bullet wounds in the arms, legs, and torso, but survived the attack.[1][4] Doctors credited Chiodo's massive girth for saving his life; none of the slugs penetrated a vital organ or artery.[2] However, he suffered several abdominal wounds and a disabled right arm.[5] Chiodo had anticipated that he was in Amuso and Casso's bad books; he knew that Amuso and Casso had a habit of "marking guys rats and killing them." Just before the hit, he told D'Arco that he'd gotten word that "you and I are going to be killed and hurt."[6]
Following the unsuccessful assassination attempt, Lucchese mobsters delivered a blunt threat to Chiodo's lawyer that they would kill Chiodo's wife if he testified, a violation of a longstanding Mafia rule against harming women. While Chiodo had turned down several offers to flip, the threat against his wife was the last straw. He opted to break his blood oath and become a government witness, by his own account, to protect his family.[7] The government quickly brought Chiodo's immediate family into the federal Witness Protection Program.
With the failure of his gunmen to murder Chiodo, D'Arco soon became afraid of the wrath of his bosses. After a 1991 meeting during which he feared being murdered, D'Arco went into hiding and soon became a government witness himself.[2]
Government witness [ edit ]
In September 1991, using a wheelchair due to his wounds, Chiodo testified in the Windows trial. Chiodo stated that he had undergone a "transformation" from a violent criminal to a man with a conscience. When asked what prompted this transformation, Chiodo replied "I was shot 12 times."[7]
Chiodo's remaining family in Brooklyn soon suffered retaliation from the Luccheses. On March 10, 1992, Lucchese associate Michael Spinelli shot Patricia Capozallo, Chiodo's sister, while she was driving in Bensonhurst. Capozallo suffered wounds to the arm, back and neck but survived.[8][9] On February 2, 1993, the body of Frank Signorino, Chiodo's uncle, was found in the trunk of a car in East New York. The body displayed several gunshot wounds to the head.[10]
Chiodo provided valuable evidence that helped convict both Amuso and Casso as well as many other gangsters. While testifying in different cities, the government had to fly Chiodo in a special plane due to his morbid obesity.[11] In July 1997, Chido testified against Genovese crime family boss Vincent Gigante in another Windows-related racketeering trial.[12]
On September 11, 2007, Chiodo was sentenced to 17 years in prison on racketeering charges. However, due to his testimony, Chiodo was to serve no time in prison and was placed in the Witness Protection Program, where he died in January 2016, aged 65.
References [ edit ]
Sources
Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
External linksBy Zhou Jing
Four Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff, kidnapped on March 12 (Hong Kong time) from Serif Umra, North Darfur, Sudan, were released safely in the early morning of March 15.
Earlier on March 11 local time, the five MSF staff members, including three international and two Sudanese, were kidnapped from Serif Umra. Later that same night one of the Sudanese staff members was released.
Canadian nurse Laura Archer, Italian doctor Mauro D'ascanio, French Coordinator Raphaël Meunier and Sudanese watchman Sharif Mohamadin were all released after three days in captivity. They are with MSF staff and appear to be fine, according to the MSF website.
Christopher Stokes, MSF Belgium general director, confirmed the kidnapped humanitarian workers are safe and in good health, saying that their families have been informed and are overjoyed, and that MSF are delighted the incident is resolved.
Stokes also expressed his outrage at the abduction of his colleagues, saying "kidnapping of humanitarian workers jeopardizes humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable. Our independent medical work must be respected if we are to continue working in conflict areas to save the lives of those who suffer most."
The MSF website said that as a result of the abduction, almost all MSF international staff were evacuated from its Darfur projects, while a number of Sudanese staff were also relocated to safety. A skeleton MSF team remained to secure the release of the kidnapped staff.
Following the release of the kidnapped MSF staff, Hassabu Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, Sudanese commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, made an announcement at a press conference yesterday that the Sudanese government had taken additional security measures to protect foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their offices in the restive western Sudanese region of Darfur.
A Xinhua report on Monday said the kidnappers had claimed that they carried out the abduction to protest against an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir. The ICC warrant was issued on March 4 for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
The arrest warrant for al-Bashir would severely disturb political processes in the Darfur region as well as the peace and stability of the country, said Liu Guijin, the special representative of the Chinese government for Darfur, in Beijing on March 5.
On March 5, the Sudanese government announced a sudden decision to expel 13 |
Esch-sur-Alzette warned that the section of the CR 106 road, between Esch-sur-Alzette and Mondercange, which was flooded by rubble in the landslide, will remain closed to vehicles and pedestrians for an indefinite period.
A security perimeter has been drawn up around the disaster zone in case of further landslides.
In the meantime, the Esch-sur-Alzette and Mondercange communes will analyse the stability of soil and draw up an action plan.Megadeth's opening night of its Dystopia tour ended abruptly after only an hour in what seemed to be an abbreviated set by the American metal band in Beijing.
Signs indicate that the performance at the MasterCard Center's Huiyuan Space may have been shortened or stopped by officials. For example, one well-known Megadeth track, "Skin of My Teeth," was played instrumental instead of with its usual lyrics.
For a band with a 30-year career, there seemed to be an inordinate number of instrumentals and extended guitar solos. The group also did not play several of their best-known songs, including "Holy Wars/The Punishment Due" and "Angry Again."
Megadeth founder and lead singer Dave Mustaine's comments at the end of the show may have indicated some kind of official action to stop. "Thank you for leaving so that we can come back and play again," he said from the stage as the band waved to the crowd after performing "Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?"
Audience members departed without incident, despite disappointment and surprise at the show's brevity. Ticket prices for the concert ranged from RMB 680-1,280.
Mustaine seems to be enjoying his visit to Beijing. "Thanks to our promoter for taking us to [Beijing duck restaurant] Bian Yi Fang for dinner last night. It was delicious, and spending time together was even better," he tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
Megadeth is set to play Shanghai on Thursday, before heading to Japan for the annual Loud Park metal festival. Tuesday night's show was the group's first in Beijing, although it has played Shanghai previously in 2012 China, with a previously-scheduled tour in 2012 ultimately cancelled. Comment was not immediately available from the band or event organizers.
Photo: Steven Schwankert/the BeijingerTurmoil is continuing among the Greens over the decision to block inflation-based increases to fuel tax, with NSW branch members calling on the party's national council to intervene.
A group of NSW Greens is pushing the party's national arm to demand the party room reverse its decision not to support the Abbott government's plan to restore the indexation of fuel excise.
A motion will be put to a national council meeting this month and comes after NSW branch members advocated a change in the party's position on Saturday.
One party source said that if restoration of fuel excise was not put to the Senate during this sitting of Parliament, the NSW party could use its August meeting to compel NSW senator Lee Rhiannon to cross the floor and vote in favour of the fuel tax hike.
In a sign of the intense divisions over the issue, Senator Rhiannon invited members to have their say at Saturday's meeting, even though the policy has been finalised, setting up a situation in which the party room has one policy and the membership another.Freedom in the republican tradition requires enjoyment of the fundamental liberties with the security that only a rule of law can provide. You must be publicly protected and resourced in such a way that it is manifest to you and to all that under local (not unnecessarily restrictive) conventions: you can speak your mind, associate with your fellows, enjoy communal resources, locate where you will, move occupation and make use of what is yours, without reason for fearing anyone or deferring to anyone. You have the standing of a liber or free person; you enjoy equal status under the public order and you share equally in control over that order.
This approach to the public world ascribes importance to a sphere of relatively private relationships and actions, insisting that within that sphere you should not be beholden to anyone for your ability to act as you will. But on any of the established republican views that sphere is a space that is carved out by public custom and law, maintained by public enforcement, and secured by a form of public control in which each has an equal share. The rules of public order constitute the possibility of private life in the way in which the rules of a game like chess constitute the possibility of playing that game. They represent enabling (or enabling-cum-constraining) rules, not rules that merely regulate a pre-existing domain.
This republican image runs into sharp conflict with a more received picture, celebrated by right-wing libertarians, according to which the rules of public order regulate the private sphere rather than serving – now in the fashion of one culture, now in the fashion of another – to make it possible. On this libertarian view the private sphere is only contingently dependent on public regulation, not dependent in the constitutive manner envisaged in the republican. The conflict between the images is important because it shows up in alternative visions of the economy and the relationship between the economy and the state.
Property: the contrast in libertarian and republican views
To bring out the conflict of images, consider the property conventions that establish the titles and rights of ownership. On the libertarian picture owning is a natural relationship — you might think of it as a relationship of possession and use — and the rules of property serve to affirm and protect the natural rights of owners.
On the republican picture, owning is a relationship that presupposes law, if only the inchoate law of informal custom. You do not own something — you do not have the freedom of an owner — just insofar as you can hang onto it, frightening off or driving off potential rivals. You own something only insofar as it is a matter of accepted convention that given the way you came to hold it — given public recognition of the title you have to the property — you enjoy public protection against those who would take it from you. It is yours to hold and enjoy in private; but it is yours in that sense only by grace of public convention.
This view of property, prominent in Rousseau and presupposed in the broader republican tradition, is scarcely questionable in view of the salient diversity in systems of property. These differ in how far they allow for communal and public property as well as private; in the titles they recognize on the private front; and in the rights of usage that they grant to private owners. Think of the variation in how far landowners are taken to own minerals under the surface of their land, or of the diversity in copyright law and intellectual property, or of the differences in how far people are allowed to treat their animals or extend their houses. Or think, of course, of the range of variation in taxation regimes, remembering that public taxation is part and parcel of any property system.
These observations, scarcely richer than platitudes, are important for giving us a perspective on the market and the economy, undermining the libertarian image. That picture represents the market as a res privata, a private thing, suggesting that the role of the state is merely to lay low the hills in the way of the market and smooth the paths for its operation. And so it depicts any other interventions of government in the market as dubious on philosophical, not just empirical, grounds. I suspect that this image accounts for the continuing attachment to austerity among those on the right. They are philosophically opposed to Keynesianism, not just opposed on empirical grounds, and their ideological stance makes empirically based arguments for Keynesianism invisible to them.
The public rules of economic association
What constitutes the economy on the republican approach? The answer is: the sorts of public rules that create private space in general, such as the public rules that create the possibility of private ownership. These rules are public in the sense of being accepted across the society as a matter of common awareness, and being normally spelled out in statutory or customary law. And they vary across societies and periods, reflecting the varying assumptions of parliaments and courts and other public forums. They include the property conventions that we have been discussing but also extend much further. Without aspiring to be exhaustive, we should add to the Rules of property at least the following four categories of market-enabling rules.
Rules of incorporation. These determine the forms in which individuals can combine to form new economic players. They have evolved greatly over the past two hundred years, giving companies and banks and other such entities life without a sunset clause; liability that is limited to a shared treasury; the possibility of owning other such entities; the possibility of changing location and sphere of operation; and so on. While the rules for the formation and operation of commercial entities have generally become more and more permissive, most countries impose some anti-trust restrictions, guarding against monopoly. And countries vary a great deal, of course, in how far they allow corporations political influence, with the United States growing ever more tolerant of the pretense that corporations have the rights of natural persons.
Rules of production. These rules impose restrictions on how far the larger players in an economy, especially in manufacturing industry, are allowed to locate near centers of population, to pollute the ground or water or atmosphere, to contribute to global warming, and to impose negative externalities on other players, individual or corporate. Many of these rules come about via statute while others emerge from the courts in the resolution of common law issues, in particular issues of tort. The Learned Hand rule on such questions of tort would suggest, for example, that producers and other parties ought to take precautions against harming others in any cases where the cost of the precaution is less than the expected cost of the damage: that is, the cost of the damage, discounted by the probability of its occurring.
Rules of contract. These determine a variety of matters that have to be sorted out for the smooth and successful operation of a market. Who are competent parties to make contracts? What conditions, say in the matter of records of the transaction, are required for a binding contract? How far is the contract to be understood on the basis of the exact words used and how far on the basis of presumptions reasonably ascribed to the parties? When is a contract null and void? What damages may a party seek for breach of contract: the loss suffered as a result of reliance on the other or the loss of the benefits that the contract promised? And so on.
Rules of finance. By what agencies is the money supply in the economy to be controlled? And what are the guidelines that those agencies should follow? Most countries rely on central banks for controlling the money supply and impose guidelines related to keeping inflation down and employment up. In pursuing its aims, and subject to statutory constraints, the central bank will vary factors such as the base interest rate at which commercial banks can borrow, the ratio they have to preserve between their reserves and their loans, the extent to which their loans can be bundled together in derivatives, the insurance available to depositors in the event of a bank defaulting, and so on.
As the rules of property establish a system of ownership, so these and other rules combine with them to establish, more broadly, a full-scale market economy. This claim, like the earlier claim about the role of property conventions, borders on the platitudinous. But by giving it prominence we can avoid being seduced into the libertarian view — now, alas, almost an orthodoxy — that the market is a relatively autonomous sphere which depends only contingently on the framework of custom and law, and on the role of the state in supporting that framework. The role of the state in relation to the market — the role of the community, operating through the state — is constitutive and not just regulative, enabling and not just constraining. And it is extensive in even a greater measure than my five sets of rules suggest, since it also includes providing for the infrastructure of education, communication, transport and insurance that any contemporary economy requires.
Taking back the economy: the first step is philosophical
The message, to end on a slogan, is that we should take back the economy in the course of our political thinking. As we theorize normatively about the organization of political life, and about the distribution of socio-economic assets, so we should also theorize about what general shape our economy ought to take and about how our states ought to combine in shaping international economic forces. We should not shrink from such prescriptions on the spurious ground that the economy is a natural reality, subject to its own autonomous laws, and that government intervention always represents a potentially warping influence: the source of what are often described as distortions. (See also in this series the related discussion of John Tomasi’s arguments for ‘free market fairness’ by Martin O’Neill and Thad Williamson.)
The philosophical re-construal of the market that I am recommending is quite consistent with empirically based arguments to the effect that one or another form of government intervention is counter-productive and that it may make very good sense in some areas of activity to let the market operate under its own logic. The point is that on issues of economic policy we should keep an open empirical mind. We should not be seduced into a hands-off presumption of the kind that libertarians support. But neither should we presume that we can rely usefully on the hand of government in every area of economic performance.
We may know as republicans what we ultimately want to secure in political action and organization within our domestic community. I would say that we want to establish people’s equal enjoyment of the basic liberties, secured by a public order that is itself subject to their equally shared control; if you like, we want to promote equal freedom as non-domination in both private and public spheres. But neo-republican philosophy on its own does not tell us how best to achieve that goal on any front, economic or otherwise. It sponsors a research program on such matters, framing that program as an inquiry into what we can collectively do through government in trying to further the common good.
What, then, have I wanted to do here? Merely to insist that that research program should not be inhibited by libertarian presumptions about the market that are implicit in much contemporary thinking. We should not go along with the naturalization of the market, as we might describe it in more or less Marxist terms. We should resist the presumption that the market is a natural domain with its own natural laws and that the depth of government intervention should be limited on the basis of principle, not empirics.
This piece is part of the Democratic Wealth series, hosted by OurKingdom in partnership with Politics in Spires.Lenovo is known for releasing a slew of new products in CES, and this year, it’s no different. Alongside the new Yoga 900S convertible laptop, Lenovo has also unveiled two new ideapad laptops: the 700 and 710S. Out of these two, the 710S is the more interesting product, and it’s quite a competitor to Apple’s MacBook Air.
In essence, the ideapad 710S is almost like the Yoga 900 minus the watchband hinge and touchscreen. Weighing a mere 1.16kg with a thin profile of 12.7mm, this is a pretty slim and light productivity machine. The best part is, the 710S can even be configured with a sixth generation Intel Core i7 processor paired with up to 8GB of RAM and an optional Intel Iris graphics, not to mention a blazing fast 256GB PCIe SSD storage. Other than that, the 710S has a 13.3-inch 1920 x 1080 full HD IPS display and a claimed battery life of up to eight hours.
The ideapad 700, on the other hand, is practically a bigger variant of the 710S. Available in two sizes (15.6-inch and 17.3-inch), this laptop has a 1080p display, up to 16GB of RAM, and can be configured with a Skylake-based Core i7 processor. There is also the option of equipping the ideapad 700 with an Nvidia Geforce GTX 950M or GT 940M graphics card, along with several storage options: HDD, SSHD or SSD.
As for availability, the Lenovo ideapad 700 will go on sale in June 2016, while the ideapad 710S will hit the market in July 2016. Interestingly, both laptops will start from US$799, which comes up to about RM3,460. As usual, the Malaysian availability of these laptops have not been announced yet.
(Source: Business Wire, TechRadar)As an incredibly disorganized person, I need as much help as I can to stay on track if I hope to meet task deadlines and accurately keep on top of project progress.
One way to do this is through free project management software, which can increase a person's efficiency and efficacy without running their wallets dry.
Best Free Project Management Software Asana TeamGantt Paymo ClickUp Airtable Wrike Teamwork Projects Redbooth Avaza Zenkit MeisterTask Targetprocess Podio onepoint Projects Freedcamp Daylite ZenHub RationalPlan ProjectLibre Waffle Redmine
Still, not all project management solutions are the same. Some agile project management tools are perfect for developers and designers. Others are specifically project management tools for marketers. Even others are geared towards the nuances of vertical industries, like construction project management software. The right tool for you depends entirely on your team or department’s workflow and planning model.
Agile tools are great for embracing unique ideas, getting feedback and rapidly creating prototypes. Traditional tools cater to the waterfall methodology. They make it easy to outline clear timelines that are easy to track and manage and assist individuals with their time management. Small teams and individuals might not even need a fully fledged project management solution. Many get by just fine with simple Kanban boards or task management software solutions.
Free solutions are perfect trials to help users understand the way a project management solution complements your existing structures and SaaS-platforms, such as a company's CRM software. Companies or individuals considering new tools should try products out before purchasing them, and there are dozens of options that never require capital.
TIP: Prove the value of a project management tool with these project management statistics.
Product Details for Project Management Tools
Product Reviews Star rating Users Projects Storage Airtable 60 4.6 Unlimited Unlimited 2 GB Asana 2497 4.3 15 Unlimited n/a Avaza 52 4.5 Unlimited 5 100 MB ClickUp 12 4.9 Unlimited 1 100 MB Daylite 26 4.4 Unlimited 2 n/a Freedcamp 26 4.4 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited MeisterTask 27 4.5 Unlimited Unlimited 20 MB files onepoint
Projects 12 4.5 4 Unlimited n/a Paymo 206 4.6 1 Unlimited 1 GB Podio 168 4.1 5 Unlimited n/a ProjectLibre 10 4.3 Unlimited Unlimited n/a RationalPlan 14 4.6 Unlimited Unlimited n/a Redbooth 48 4.4 Unlimited 2 2 GB Redmine 136 3.9 Unlimited Unlimited n/a Targetprocess 152 4.3 Unlimited 1,000 n/a TeamGantt 203 4.8 3 1 n/a Teamwork
Projects 186 4.3 5 2 100 GB Waffle 12 4 Unlimited Unlimited Public
Repositories Wrike 461 4.1 5 Tasks 2 GB ZenHub 14 4.3 5 Unlimited Public
Repositories Zenkit 30 4.7 5 Unlimited 1 GB
Using reviews from real users, our list of free project management software is ordered by highest user satisfaction as of February 14, 2018.
Free Portfolio Project Management Feature Ratings
Projects Product Project
Map Calendar
View Baselining
/ KPIs Project
Budgeting Issue
Tracking Airtable 77% 92% 84% 87% 95% Asana 74% 83% 71% 69% 79% Avaza 71% 82% 79% 82% 71% Average 80% 82% 77% 75% 83% ClickUp n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Daylite 86% 90% 79% Freedcamp 69% 86% 76% 77% 83% MeisterTask 67% 62% n/a n/a 80% onepoint
Projects 94% 86% 84% 89% 80% Paymo 93% 95% 88% Podio 69% 80% 69% 73% 82% ProjectLibre 90% 88% n/a n/a 74% RationalPlan 97% 88% 89% n/a Redbooth 78% 80% 75% 69% 81% Redmine 69% 68% 62% 60% 89% Targetprocess 76% 77% 74% 75% 87% TeamGantt 95% 89% 87% Teamwork
Projects 84% 83% 74% 75% 82% Waffle 78% 69% 86% 66% 79% Wrike 83% 77% 71% 70% 80% ZenHub n/a n/a n/a 90% Zenkit 78% 91% 75% 67% 90%
Tasks Product Task
Creation Due
Dates Task
Prioritization To-Do
Lists Asana 94% 93% 84% 90% TeamGantt 94% 94% 87% 88% Paymo 91% 90% 84% 87% ClickUp 100% 97% 100% 97% Airtable 93% 93% 93% 93% Wrike 91% 88% 80% 84% Teamwork
Projects 92% 93% 86% 89% Redbooth 95% 92% 87% 95% Avaza 88% 88% 86% 86% Zenkit 93% 92% 85% 88% MeisterTask 97% 93% 86% 91% Targetprocess 90% 86% 87% 84% Podio 88% 88% 80% 83% onepoint
Projects 93% 95% 87% Freedcamp 92% 96% 91% 93% Daylite 90% 91% 88% 89% ZenHub 89% 89% 89% RationalPlan 97% 91% 89% 86% ProjectLibre 90% 88% 88% 95% Waffle 83% 73% 87% 78% Redmine 89% 87% 85% 80% Average 92% 90% 87% 88%
Platforms Product Alerts Mobile Access
Management API /
Integrations Reporting & Dashboards Asana 85% 84% 87% 83% 82% TeamGantt 90% 73% 91% 80% 89% Paymo 85% 76% 89% 78% 88% ClickUp n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Airtable 86% 85% 94% 85% 86% Wrike 84% 80% 84% 80% 82% Teamwork
Projects 84% 81% 82% 83% Redbooth 89% 83% 89% 88% 88% Avaza 85% 85% 89% 84% 79% Zenkit 81% 64% 79% 60% 67% MeisterTask 91% 93% 91% 82% 83% Targetprocess 76% 65% 82% 84% 85% Podio 86% 84% 87% 79% 80% onepoint
Projects 82% 67% 90% 79% 86% Freedcamp 90% 73% 84% 86% 86% Daylite 87% 93% 81% 84% ZenHub 89% n/a 79% 77% 87% RationalPlan n/a n/a 71% 80% ProjectLibre 74% n/a 74% n/a 80% Waffle 77% n/a 74% 76% 79% Redmine 80% 65% 83% 75% 73% Average 84% 78% 85% 80% 82%
Collaboration Product Collaborative
Planning Comments Documents
& Uploads Asana 89% 89% 86% TeamGantt 94% 90% 89% Paymo 82% 86% 84% ClickUp n/a n/a n/a Airtable 96% 92% 93% Wrike 87% 89% 87% Teamwork
Projects 88% 89% 86% Redbooth 92% 90% 86% Avaza 89% 84% 89% Zenkit 89% 86% 90% MeisterTask 93% 95% 91% Targetprocess 89% 91% 85% Podio 85% 90% 88% onepoint
Projects 81% 86% 82% Freedcamp 89% 92% 91% Daylite 85% N.O. 79% ZenHub 90% 96% 87% RationalPlan 83% n/a n/a ProjectLibre n/a 81% 69% Waffle 84% 76% 67% Redmine 79% 83% 82% Average 88% 88% 85%
*n/a is displayed when fewer than five responses were received for the question.
The best free project management software
The list we’ve outlined here includes any project management solution with some free offering. This does not include products that are free temporarily or offer free trials. They may only support one user or one project, but they’re truly free offerings. Scaling, though, will often require full investments.
There are also more granular project management solutions, such as free gantt chart software, for those in need of specific project management features.
These products alone have well over 4,000 validated user reviews on G2 Crowd and only represent a small portion of the 300-plus project management software offerings listed on our platform. The products are ranked from an in-depth analysis of free project management software's user satisfaction score and must have at least 10 reviews.
Highest-Rated Features
Task Creation and Assignment 94% Average 92%
Due Dates 93% Average 90%
Performance and Reliability 91% Average 89%
Asana is the most widely used product in our project management software category with more than 2,500 validated user reviews. Asana is a cloud-based project management tool that helps both team managers and team members map out every single step and detail of tasks and projects within an organization.
Team managers can designate admins to set security controls regarding team member usage to better understand those members’ processes. Additionally, the tool provides granular reporting on your team’s successes and pain points. Asana allows for differing views of team members’ schedules, accommodating whichever workflow the individual member may prefer. The solution integrates with a ton of file sharing, team collaboration, time tracking, and knowledge management tools.
Asana offers three tiers of pricing: Free, Premium and Enterprise. Free is the most basic version of Asana, and with the free plan, teams of fewer than 15 are allowed an unlimited number of tasks, projects and conversations; and have access to basic dashboards and search functionality. The next tier up goes for $9.99 per person per month and includes additional team members, admin controls, reporting and support.
“There's a lot to like about this app. First off, it's free, yet so full of features. I've used this for tracking business tasks and even personal tasks like everything that was involved with selling my house. It's nice to assign specific tasks to specific members, and be able to have a conversation on that specific task, along with attachments, follow ups, due dates, sub-tasks, etc. And on top of that, it has a slick mobile app too, so whether you're on your laptop/desktop or on your smartphone, you're good to go.” — Asana review
Image courtesy of Asana
Highest-Rated Features
Task Ranking
98%
Average 88%
Time Tracking 97% Average 89%
Gantt Chart / Project Map 95% Average 80%
TeamGantt is an online project scheduling software built to help you manage your business manage projects throughout their entire lifecycle. With TeamGantt, your team can centralize projects information; for example, any documents and conversations that are relevant to a task or milestone are immediately connected to that task or milestone. Additionally, team managers can utilize TeamGantt to better manage resources, track team members’ progress and compare that to their original plan and leverage smart time tracking functionality.
If your team only has one project to plan at a time, TeamGantt’s free version will serve you well, as it includes all the core planning features necessary to see a singular project go through its lifecycle. Some of those core planning features include: forecasting of workloads, team updates, file attachments, and back-and-forth conversations on tasks.
“The free version is great. Customer support is great. They often do free webinars. The tutorials help walk you through the tool step-by-step. I've never used a project management tool before and it was easy to pick up.” — TeamGantt review
Image courtesy of TeamGantt
Highest-Rated Features
Time Tracking
95%
Average 94%
Performance and Reliability 95% Average 91%
Calendar View 95% Average 82%
Paymo is an online project management solution that helps small and growing businesses scale effectively. Paymo makes sure to manage projects from inception to planning to final outcome. Within the platform are: a Kanban board and Gantt charts, task management functionality, resource scheduling ability, time tracking and recording, and both high-level and granular insight into project data. Additionally,
Paymo has the ability to turn timesheet data into estimates and invoices. Paymo offers a free version for freelancers to help them manage tasks, clients, and accurately keep track of time spent on projects. Businesses of any sizes, unfortunately, would not be able to utilize Paymo’s free plan. Within the free plan include such features as: to-do lists, an Adobe CC extension, reporting, file sharing, and an API that facilitates integration with third-party applications.
“Paymo makes it super easy to track time for each of my separate clients, separate it into tasks and stick to an hourly budget. I like the custom reports section, which lets me build up invoices easily by dividing hours by date, client and project. It's free, it's simple, and it works.” — Paymo review
Image courtesy of Paymo
Highest-Rated Features
Task Creation and Assignment
100%
Average 92%
Task Prioritization 100% Average 87%
Due Dates 97% Average 90%
ClickUp is a project management solution that bills itself as a “productivity platform.” One of the unique things about ClickUp is that all of its features are completely customizable, which helps teams from getting overwhelmed and distracted. ClickUp can even provide differing views dependent on admin and access roles. The platform even helps organizations import their project management workflow from other tools into ClickUp.
ClickUp provides two pricing points: free (forever) and $5/month. The free version includes 100 MB of storage and accommodates an unlimited number of projects and spaces. Some of the features included in the free plan are: integration with Google calendar, task checklists, a powerful search functionality, both simple and custom statuses, an agile board view, and automated templates.
“The overall platform is great and their vision to fix project management is what the industry has needed. It's perfect for Convetit in that we can customize the tool with everything we need. Our team actually enjoys using ClickUp as well, unlike everything else we have tried previously.” — ClickUp review
Image courtesy of ClickUp
Highest-Rated Features
Collaborative Project Planning
96%
Average 88%
Performance and Reliability 95% Average 89%
Issue Tracking 95% Average 83%
Airtable takes the familiar arena of spreadsheets and turns it into an effective project management tool. (But users can change their filtering, sorting and grouping preferences so that should they not want to stay in a “grid” form, they don’t need to.) Granular, supplemental notes, helpful file attachments, and statuses and priorities can be added to high-level tasks. Teams can leverage Airtable’s myriad templates, which simplify tasks such as creating a content calendar, tracking project progress, launching products and planning for agile sprints.
Airtable offers a free plan, which includes: unlimited bases (essentially, spreadsheets with tables and tabs), unlimited scheduling views, rich field types, real-time collaboration and commenting capability, and 2 GB of attachment space. Additionally, with the free plan, users can keep up to two weeks of historical data.
“I like that it functions a lot like Excel but [Airtable] can be much more organized and easier to view and work in with all the great customizable features. Our use is unique and it’s a great free way to track things. It has a clean, sleek look and is a great connection tool.” — Airtable review
Image courtesy of Airtable
Highest-Rated Features
Task Management
92%
Average 90%
Task Creation and Assignment 91% Average 92%
Custom Workflows 90% Average 92%
Wrike is a work and project management solution that creates “blocks” of work, automates the process of assigning tasks and projects, and provides the capability to edit and manage files in real time. Gantt charts help team managers create visual timelines of how projects are progressing; team managers can also better track time, budget and resources spent. Wrike’s tasks and milestones can be synchronized to Google, iCalendar and Outlook calendars. Additionally, Wrike emphasizes authenticating corporate identities, protecting data and the doling out of admin and access to team members.
Wrike has a plan for teams of any size, from small to enterprise to marketing-specific. Wrike’s free plan accommodates small teams that are made up of five users. Some of the free plan’s functionality set includes: task management, file sharing, activity stream, and 2 GB of storage space.
“If you are struggling to have transparency in your project and your timelines are always getting missed just because you are not able to track the progress, then Wrike is the required tool for project management which you need. It’s simple, robust and IT’S FREE FOR THE FIRST 5 USERS!” —Wrike review
Image courtesy of Wrike
Highest-Rated Features
Due Dates
93%
Average 90%
Task Creation and Assignment 92% Average 92%
Performance and Reliability 91% Average 89%
Teamwork Projects is a project management app that can be accessed via mobile app and desktop browser. However, the solution does tout itself as a flexible tool that increases team members’ productivity because of the tool’s all-the-time accessibility. Teamwork Projects provides granular organization of both projects and tasks, an easy way to keep track of progress and milestones, and internal communication and file share, all of which combine to keep multiple team members accountable. Additionally, Teamwork Projects has a CRM-like functionality where companies can keep track of clients, partner companies and customers, so that teams can be transparent both internally and externally.
New users can try out Teamwork Projects during a free 30-day trial. However, a “free forever” plan also exists. The free plan supports up to five users, two active projects and 100 MB of file space, along with basic project management features. More advanced features and increase in file space quotas come with the paid plans.
“It's a great online platform that integrates project management with messaging platform to enhance teamwork operation and collaboration. It has many subscriptions option according to functions that you need. You can pay it monthly or annually. If you need to test the platform, you can create a free account that allow you to manage two projects with access to basic features.” — Teamwork Projects review
Image courtesy of Teamwork Projects
Highest-Rated Features
To-Do Lists
95%
Average 88%
Task Creation and Assignment 95% Average 92%
Task Management 94% Average 90%
Redbooth is a simple task and project management tool that helps team managers and team members keep on track. With Redbooth, teams can better prioritize, delegate and collaborate. The web application takes on collaborative functionality that mimics social media channels, with hashtags and @ symbols. Redbooth integrates with team collaboration, file sharing and knowledgment solutions, as well as provides extensions for Gmail, Outlook and Chrome.
Redbooth’s free plan is one of its three pricing offerings; so long as your team doesn’t exceed 10 users, you can utilize Redbooth for however long you’d like. Some of the features included in the free plan are: 2 GB of file storage space, a maximum of two workspaces, Gantt charts and reporting, and project templates. Additionally, Google Drive, Slack and Dropbox are all free integrations even at this basic plan.
“Redbooth is a great project management tool. It was already at its start as Teambox. It serves its job perfectly fine and it's free for small projects with no need for real-time collaboration. Well done!” — Redbooth review
Image courtesy of Redbooth
Highest-Rated Features
Digital Receipt Management
100%
Average 100%
Electronic Payments 96% Average 93%
Forcasting 94% Average 94%
Avaza is an all-in-one project management solution that has some pretty spiffed up task management functionality. With Avaza, team members can create custom task layouts, track project percentage completed, and convert emails into tasks. Team managers can assign appropriate roles to team members, create project templates, and receive an overview summary of projects stats. Avaza can be used by enterprises, small businesses and freelancers, and offers users the freedom to upgrade, at any time, from its free plan.
Avaza offers a free plan for individual users. (Actually, anyone who creates an account with Avaza starts off free; there’s no credit card details requirement until your team wants to upgrade to whichever paid plan works best for you.) However, while the number of users with access to timesheets and admin is limited to one, and the number of active projects limited to five, the number of project collaborators is unlimited. The free plan also includes regular, free updates, as well as secure data protection.
“I do like the simple interface; it's really easy to learn how to use this platform. They offer VIP-class support via chat window (there's always someone there), and I |
logged.
Amnesty International USA has called for the mayor to open his own “independent and impartial investigation” into the Homan Square facility, with the human-rights group requesting “unrestricted access” to the site.
In a letter to Emanuel, Amnesty USA’s executive director Steven Hawkins wrote: “As the mayor of Chicago, you have a responsibility under US and international law to ensure that human rights violations are not committed within the city.”
The group lobbied Emanuel during the mayoral campaign to commit to a program of reparations for victims of abuse between 1972 and 1991 at the hands Jon Burge, the notorious former Chicago police commander who was released from home custody this month.
Emanuel has not made a financial commitment to reparations but has promised a route to “closure” for the surviving victims.
“It is his responsibility as the mayor of Chicago, as a public figure to make sure that his city is complying with international law,” Amnesty USA’s senior campaigner, Jasmine Heiss, told the Guardian. “Because without a clear commitment to addressing things like police torture, it gives torturers the go ahead to continue to undermine the rule of law and ignore international guidelines.”
A representative for the Chicago branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said the group was gathering facts about Homan Square as well.
Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, the county commissioner challenging Emanuel in an April runoff vote that local political watchers warned could become a national “free-for-all”, did not respond to multiple requests for comment after a separate Guardian interview on Monday. But his colleague, Boykin, said the mayor had an obligation to find more answers. “Fifty-plus percent of the people voted against the mayor yesterday,” Boykin said outside Homan Square. “I think the mayor has a problem.”
Davis, the US congressman whose west-side offices were located near Homan Square for 15 years, said the activities alleged at Homan Square potentially “undermined and torn up” efforts to promote police as “positive role models”.
“One of the things that for many years some of us, people like myself, have been working on [is] to try and help foster a different sense of what law enforcement ought to be among people and especially young people as they are growing up,” Davis said.
Karl Brinson, president of the Chicago Westside Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the NAACP was attempting “to find out what’s going on” at Homan Square.
“We knew the facility was there, but we didn’t know what all it encompassed exactly and what was taking place there,” he told the Guardian. “You’re never going to build trust with anybody or get any kind of community relationships going on while doing this.”
The justice department declined to comment to the Guardian on Wednesday.
(The spouse of Guardian US national security editor Spencer Ackerman works in the press office of Amnesty International USA. Ackerman was not involved with the group in any reporting for this article.)Nuclear Workers and Fukushima Residents at Risk: Cancer Expert on the Fukushima Situation 原発作業員と福島住民のさらされる危険−−ガン専門家の福島観 Matthew Penney Matthew Penney Japan's leading business journal Toyo Keizai has published an article by Hokkaido Cancer Center director Nishio Masamichi, a radiation treatment specialist. The piece, entitled “The Problem of Radiation Exposure Countermeasures for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Concerns for the Present Situation”, was published on June 27 and is consistent with the critical coverage of the Fukushima crisis that has appeared in independent weekly magazines, notably Shukan Kinyobi, which have taken a strong anti-nuclear stance since the March 11 earthquake-tsunami-meltdown, and have repeatedly focused on the dangers of radiation exposure while calling for far-reaching measures to protect those at risk. Nishio begins by asserting that the Fukushima crisis has caused Japan’s “myth of nuclear safety” to crumble. He has “grave concern” for the public health effects of the ongoing radiation leak. Nishio originally called for “calm” in the days after the accident. Now, he argues, that as the gravity of the situation at the plant has become more clear, the specter of long-term radiation exposure must be reckoned with. Lamenting the poor state of public knowledge of radiation, Nishio writes, “Japan, with its history of having suffered radiation exposure from the atomic bombs, should have the most [direct] knowledge of radiation, but in fact, in the approach to the nuclear accident, has simply fallen into confusion.” He places blame on a number of groups: TEPCO executives, who he accuses of having hidden the truth and prioritized the survival of the company over public health. Bureaucrats who were unable to put together an accurate body of information about radiation effects from which to formulate policy. A prime minister and cabinet lacking both leadership and an appropriate sense of urgency. Politicians who sought to use the crisis in intra- or inter-party struggles. Nuclear industry lobbyists and “academic flunkies” (goyo gakusha) of the government who built up the myth of nuclear safety in the first place. Looking at these groups, he writes, “I just cannot feel any hope for Japan’s future. These circumstances are simply tragic.” He leaves the press out of his main list of culprits, but points to the poor state of scientific knowledge among journalists as a major factor behind what he views as their inability to bring essential information to the public in a timely manner. He also accuses the media establishment of prioritizing “avoiding a panic” over “communicating the truth”. Nishio provides a blunt and hard-hitting specialist perspective on major government decisions. Here is a summary of some of his major points: Workers: He accuses the authorities of prioritizing their own convenience over the lives of nuclear workers. Nishio argues that raising the exposure limit from 100 mSv to 250 mSv can have serious health effects. He also states that reports of poor food and sleeping conditions for workers show that “… they are not even being treated like human beings.” The JSDF helicopters that dropped water on the Fukushima Daiichi reactors and spent fuel pools in the days after March 11 were outfitted with the types of radiation shields used in hospital x-ray rooms. Nisho says that this was akin to “putting on a lead helmet in order to protect yourself from radiation from space”. The planners, he argues, did not even understand the difference between airborne radiation from a nuclear accident and radiation used in the controlled environment of hospital treatment. Referring to “protective” suits is a misnomer bordering on fraud in Nishio’s view since nothing can offer total protection from radiation exposure. A lack of nutrition and rest can make workers more susceptible to radiation symptoms. Nishio speculates that having the workers sleep together in gymnasium-like barracks with no privacy is simply designed to keep them from running away. Just 30 minutes from the site, he points out, there are empty hotels which could offer those on the front line a quiet, secure place to rest and recuperate. He accuses TEPCO of being up to the old tricks of the nuclear industry: giving dispatch and temporary workers broken radiation monitors, only giving them monitoring devices when they are working despite high levels of radiation throughout the site, and so on. Without accurate assessment of internal radiation exposure through “whole body monitoring”, there is no way to tell how much exposure workers are actually suffering. Measures must also be taken to gauge different types of exposure (i.e. alpha rays from plutonium and beta rays from strontium). Around 5000 workers have worked at the site since March. This number is high, but if radiation release continues, 100 or even 1000 times that number may be needed over time. The MOX fuel in reactor number 3 is particularly dangerous but Nishio doubts that special measures to protect workers are being taken. “Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Harvest” treatment has been put forward by doctors as a way to minimize the chances of bone marrow deterioration among workers, but this was turned down by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan. Nishio asserts that this is evidence that they simply do not grasp the severity of the situation. Apart from the iodine that they are being given, workers should also be taking Radiogardase (Prussian blue insoluble capsules). Not working to bring together the best preventative medicine, Nishio asserts angrily, is an example of “graveyard governance”. Fukushima Residents: The threat to public health is not simply a matter of distance from Fukushima. Wind patterns and topography are even more important. The release of data from the expensive SPEEDI system, was delayed until March 23. This delay resulted in unnecessary radiation exposure. “It is only conceivable that the high rate of radiation released was not reported because of fears of a panic.” Former Minister for Internal Affairs Haraguchi Kazuhiro has alleged that radiation monitoring station data was actually three decimal places greater than the numbers released to the public. If this is true, it constitutes a “national crime”, in Nishio’s words. He follows with, “Giving us the truth once is much more important than saying ‘hang in there Japan!’ a million times.” According to Japanese law, the rate of radiation exposure permitted for ordinary citizens is 1 mSv / year. This has been raised to 20 mSv / year in a “time of crisis”. Such a dramatic increase in permitted exposure is akin to “taking the lives of the people lightly”. Nishio believes that 20 mSv is too high, especially for children who are far more susceptible to the effects of radiation. Even more important than a permitted 20 mSv exposure rate, however, is the lack of adequate provision for measuring internal radiation exposure among the Fukushima population. The American Academy of Sciences 2008 “Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation” report claims that there is no safe level of radiation exposure. Despite this and other examples of leading research, however, the Japanese government has moved on the assumption that there is no evidence for increased cancer risk at under 100 mSv of exposure. The European Committee on Radiation Risk argues that existing risk models do not take internal exposure into account. High rates of internal exposure will mean a dramatic increase in cancer risk for Fukushima residents, with as many as 400,000 cases predicted by 2061. Nishio argues, however, that these calculations rest on some shaky assumptions and that the number is too high. He believes strongly, however, that internal radiation exposure must be taken seriously by the Japanese government. Comparing the 6.9 mSv exposure from a CT scan to a similar amount of radiation exposure outside of a controlled environment is misleading. Long term exposure and internal exposure can have unpredictable effects on the human body. Comparisons with radiation used in cancer treatment are also scientifically shaky. The large amounts of radioactive waste water at the Fukushima Daiichi site will contaminate the soil and water supplies, significantly increasing the risk of internal radiation exposure. Necessary Countermeasures: Among people living in the same area, rates of exposure can vary greatly based on lifestyle and movement patterns. As a result, it is important that every resident in at risk areas be given a device to monitor personal radiation exposure. Apart from protecting individuals and allowing them to make informed decisions about their safety, the data gathered can be used in future medical research and in court cases that will no doubt originate from the Fukushima Daiichi accident. There is little conclusive scientific data on the risks of low level radiation exposure. The government, however, must not let this turn into a case of “we don’t know so we can assume it is safe”. On the contrary, Nishio argues that it is necessary to proceed under the assumption “we don’t know so we must assume that it is dangerous”. Residents must be given real time radiation data as well as the best possible advice about how to decrease their exposure. While there are limits to what this can achieve, dirt from schoolyards should be regularly removed and replaced. Strontium 90, which has a half-life of 28.7 years and can have a serious impact on child bone development, must be carefully measured. In planning of future solutions, radiation effects on the body should take priority over the potential stresses associated with relocation. The government should buy houses and land in irradiated areas at pre-crisis market value and provide additional aid for resettlement. Cleanup measures should be undertaken and when the areas become safe, the government should sell property back at reduced rates. A respect for both present necessity and the deep attachment that many have to land that has been in their families for many generations is necessary if the government wants to convince nuclear refugees that they are being treated fairly. The government should make every effort to provide accurate information, but should not forcibly remove elderly residents who wish to remain in their homes. Some Radical Thoughts: The current crisis has called the very foundation of Japanese society into question. An unprecedented crisis calls for new ideas. Dependence on nuclear energy, which was slated to fulfill 50% of Japan’s energy needs in the future, must be rethought. Nuclear energy and energy policy have never been adequately debated in Japan. Those with a vested interest in nuclear energy were able to build up the “myth of nuclear safety” virtually unchallenged and they continuously covered up “inconvenient facts”. Energy demands will continue to increase and simply trying to convince the public to reduce energy use will not be enough. Now is the time for new debate about how to meet Japan’s energy needs while moving away from nuclear power. Nishio’s article provides a realistic, nuanced portrait of the problems currently facing Fukushima and Japan. The Japanese government has addressed some of them on a limited scale, but serious deficiencies remain. Nishio’s powerful statement, however, appearing in a major establishment outlet, is indicative of a shift in public discussion of radiation issues as more critical Japanese scientists outside of the circle of “academic flunkies” (goyo gakusha) make their voices heard. Asia-Pacific Journal articles on related issues: Norimatsu Satoko and the Say-Peace Project, Protecting Children Against Radiation: Citizens Take Radiation Protection into Their Own Hands Matthew Penney, Okinawa's Fukushima Connection: Nuclear Workers at Risk Matthew Penney and Mark Selden, What Price the Fukushima Meltdown? Comparing Chernobyl and Fukushima Paul Jobin, Dying for TEPCO? Fukushima's Nuclear Contract WorkersQueens residents will have the chance to get rid of their unwanted electronics at two e-waste recycling events taking place this Saturday.
The Lower East Side Ecology Center will set up a collection event at St. Anastasia Church at 45-14 245th St. in Douglaston on Saturday, April 22. The collection will run from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and will be conducted rain or shine.
On the same day, the group will collect unwanted electronics in Maspeth at Maspeth Federal Savings Bank, located at 56-18 69th St. The event will run from 1 p.m. until 4 and will also happen rain or shine.
Accepted materials at the two events include working and non-working computers, monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, computer mice, televisions, VCRs, DVD players, phones, cell phones, audio/visual equipment and PDAs.
E-waste recycling has been required by New York State law since Jan. 1, 2015.
For more information, contact the Lower East Side Ecology Center at 212-477-4022 or visit their website.Flight Of The Conchords star Bret McKenzie is working on a comedy musical, partly inspired by Labyrinth.
The musical comic made a name for himself in Hollywood with the songshe wrote for the 2011 Muppets film, and is also working on the forthcoming sequel Muppets Most Wanted.
And now he is planning another movie involving a lot of puppets – although he said he was still in the relatively early stages of development with Muppets director James Bobin.
He told the pop culture website Collider: ‘I’m in the middle of a script for a kind of… It hasn’t got a name yet but it’s a fairy tale comedy musical, sort of akin to Labyrinth or something like that.’
‘I’m developing and that script’s halfway through. James Bobin’s helping me. I’m the official writer but we’re developing it.
‘I want to make a comedy musical with singing dragons and monsters and stuff. [It’s] live-action, so it would be a mixture of The Muppets and The Princess Bride.’
Bobin made his directorial debut with The Muppets, and previously helped helped create Ali G, Borat, and Brüno while working as a writer and director on the 11 O’Clock Show alongside Sacha Baron Cohen. He first worked with McKenzie on the Flight Of The Conchords HBO show.
Published: 11 Aug 2013It has been so long since I've had long stretches of days to sniff vintage perfume, research it, and come back here on Yesterday's Perfume to tell you all about it.
But I have been a busy bee, with new jobs and passion projects keeping me occupied. I definitely plan on getting back to vintage perfume reviews — when there's a will, there's a way! — but I'm excited to let you all know part of what has occupied so much of my time.
I launched a perfume brand — Eris Parfums. Named after the Greek goddess Eris, daughter of Nyx (Night), and one of the bad girls of Mt. Olympus with a reputation as a troublemaker and subversive, Eris has thrown down her gauntlet (or thrown her Golden Apple?) in the form of three new perfumes.I think you'll like their inspiration: vintage floral animalics.
Belle de Jour, Night Flower, and Ma Bête were each composed by perfumer Antoine Lie (Tom Ford, Givenchy, Comme des Garçons, Etat Libre d'Orange, et al) and each are a take on vintage perfume styles but with a modern twist.
I really love them and I hope you do, too! You can read reviews about Eris here, where I keep a list of articles about Eris. And you can sign up for the newsletter to find out about events, specials, new releases, and all sorts of exciting stuff.
If you'll recall, I started an Indiegogo campaign in 2014. I was just going to do one fragrance, but I fell in love with more than one of Antoine's fragrances, so I decided to do a collection of three. I think there's one for everyone, and you can get 3 carded samples from Eris Parfums for $15, which can go toward the price of a full bottle if you fall in love.
If you try any of the Eris perfumes, I'd love to hear what you think. I really wanted to bring back that emotional intensity that animalic perfumes of the past, but for a modern audience of perfume lovers.
I will get back to writing about vintage perfume when I can catch my breath, but for now, I'll be sniffing on Eris Parfums! Enjoy! I'd love to hear what you think.
SaveEveryone's doing it, it seems. Samsung jumped in first. Google formalized it on Android just this past week. And Apple is widely expected to jump into the market someday and retroactively be credited with starting the whole movement. But when it comes to the next crucial digital device market—for wearables—where does Microsoft fit in?
Actually, fit is a good word.
You may have heard that a Microsoft smart watch is coming, and that Microsoft will be rejuvenating its decade-old SPOT watch platform, at least spiritually.
Not exactly.
My sources tell me instead that Microsoft will this fall release a Samsung Gear Fit-like fitness band that will display smart phone-based notifications, just like the current and rumored watches and other wearables. So that's the first bit of rumor busting: It's a wristband, not a watch. (Yes, I'm sure you'll be able to see the time on its screen. But the form factor is a wristband.
From a differentiation standpoint, Microsoft's wearable will do something that no other wearable platform does. It will work with everything and not just the device maker's smart phone platform. Where Samsung wearables only work with Samsung phones, Android Wear devices only work with modern Android devices, and Apple's rumored iWatch will obviously only work with iPhone, Microsoft will take a different approach. It will work with Android, iPhone and Windows Phone.
The focus, however, is the same as with Samsung Gear and similar fitness bands: Using multiple sensors, it will track your fitness—steps, calories burned, heart rate, and the like—throughout the day and interoperate with apps on mobile phones. Microsoft makes some great apps, already—hint, hint—including Bing Health & Fitness and Healthvault. It will work with third party apps too, of course.
Pricing? Same as Samsung Gear.
Availability? Announced and sold in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Branding? No idea. Presumably Nokia/Lumia or Surface, but I've not heard.
Anyway, that's what I've heard.Seventeen years ago, after a former World Wrestling Entertainment referee claimed on Geraldo Rivera’s syndicated TV show that Vincent McMahon had sexually assaulted her, the WWE founder and his wife Linda McMahon filed a lawsuit against the woman and media outlets who had made her claims public, asking for $1 million in damages due to “severe emotional distress.”
Linda McMahon, who served as WWE’s CEO and is now the Republican Senate nominee in Connecticut, has been deflecting past stories about the wrestling company for months as she battles Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for the state’s open Senate seat now held by a Democrat. Before McMahon even captured the GOP nomination, Democrats were pushing videos of old WWE sketches that depicted mock necrophilia and simulated rape scenes. The prevalence of steroids in the “sport” and the deaths of wrestlers associated with WWE have been major political problems for the McMahon campaign.In the McMahons’ lawsuit — which you can read in full here — they detailed what they said were false allegations from the former employee, Rita Chatterton. Known in the ring as “Rita Marie,” Chatterton was the first female referee for WWE, which at the time of the lawsuit was known as the WWF.
On March 5, 1993, the WWE’s principal outside counsel Jerry McDevitt and another attorney filed suit in federal district court in Connecticut on behalf of the McMahons. Named in the suit were Chatterton, Geraldo Rivera, the Tribune Entertainment Co. and The Investigative News Group. The McMahons asked for $50,000 in compensatory damages, $1 million in punitive damages and reimbursement of legal fees.
According to the McMahon filing, Chatterton taped an interview for an April 3, 1992 episode of Geraldo Rivera’s “Now It Can Be Told” show. The 22-minute episode was titled “Wrestling’s Ring Of Vice,” the suit says.
According to the filing, Chatterton told Craig Rivera, Geraldo’s brother and a reporter for the show, that McMahon had forced himself on her sexually. The filing states that Chatterton’s comments were “making it clear to all viewers that her allegation was that McMahon had raped her.” The McMahons asserted in the lawsuit that Chatterton’s comments were false.
Also named in the lawsuit was former wrestler David Shults, whom the McMahons alleged conspired with Chatterton. Shults was fired in 1985, according to the suit, for “erratic” behavior. Shults was the wrestler known for the notorious 1984 incident in which he slapped John Stossel, then of ABC News, on camera during a 20/20 segment, after Stossel asked him if professional wrestling was fake. Stossel later sued WWF over the incident and won.
McDevitt told TPM in an interview this week that the McMahons eventually dropped the lawsuit one year later so they could focus on the federal criminal charges brought against WWE and Vince McMahon involving steroids, a case in which WWE and McMahon were ultimately acquitted.
“We had to marshal our resources to defend the company’s reputation in the criminal case … we had no choice but to abandon the case in order to defend ourselves,” McDevitt told TPM.
Linda McMahon specifically detailed her grievances in a loss of consortium claim in the lawsuit. The complaint said “Mrs. McMahon has been denied [Vince] McMahon’s companionship, affection and moral support.” The suit also says Linda McMahon was “deprived” of her husband’s “society”:
As a direct and proximate result of the injuries to her husband, Plaintiff Mrs. McMahon has been denied McMahon’s companionship, affection and moral support. Furthermore Mrs. McMahon has likewise suffered extreme emotional distress and/or other injuries including, but not limited to, mental anguish, anger, embarrassment, shame, humiliation, depression, and loss of sleep.
Vince McMahon made similar claims for damages.
The 18-count lawsuit claimed that Chatterton and Shults conspired in 1992 to make an audio recording of the former referee leveling accusations against Vince McMahon, designed to sound as if it had been made in 1988. It also claims that Chatterton’s counsel demanded $5 million in exchange for agreeing to “waive her First Amendment right to speak out.”
UPI reported in 1993 that Rivera called the lawsuit a “mark of honor.”
A WWE spokesman told TPM this week that Chatterton’s accusations were a “$5 million shakedown,” and suggested Democrats had “dropped that one on the media.”
“We don’t pay money for blackmail,” McDevitt told TPM.
McDevitt told TPM that Chatterton was “making a claim out of nowhere,” calling it “a very amazing kind of episode.” Chatterton, fired for cause by WWE in 1986, never filed a lawsuit or a police report, McDevitt told TPM. “It never went to trial, much to my regret,” McDevitt said. “I would have loved to have taken it to trial.”
TPM could find no evidence that Chatterton ever filed a police report, and McDevitt said the statute of limitation has long run out on her claim.
TPM’s attempts to reach Chatterton have been unsuccessful. The McMahon campaign referred questions to McDevitt.
After his initial interview, McDevitt sent TPM an email calling Chatterton’s allegations “false and defamatory.” In the interview, McDevitt had declined to answer a hypothetical about whether the McMahons’ lawsuit could ever be brought forward again. McDevitt wrote TPM:
When you asked me that question yesterday, I told you I would not answer a hypothetical question. I have thought about your question overnight. We did quite a bit of discovery in that case and would have loved to have tried that case but could not for the reasons I explained. But make no mistake-if those false allegations are repeated now and again, Mr. McMahon will pursue all available remedies against those associated with this smear job.
When TPM told McDevitt that a story detailing the lawsuit would be published today, he said, “You do so at your peril. Preserve all your notes, I’m going to send a litigation hold notice.”
He added, “We will treat any republication of those allegations as libel and defamation. … I say this on behalf of Mr. McMahon.”
Additional reporting by Jon Terbush and David KurtzBill Maher announced a petition on his show tonight to make 4/20 a national holiday. Take a guess what it would be honoring.
Maher even went so far to set up a petition on Change.org. Here’s what he had to say:
Hi, America. It’s me, Bill Maher, from Real Time with Bill Maher – here for my very first time on Change.org. Well, the first time since I signed the petition to bring back “The Gilmore Girls.” Now that marijuana is legal in one form or another in 24 states and counting, I’m here to urge you to sign my petition to make 4/20 a national holiday. We celebrate everything from Arbor Day to Groundhog Day to a National Day of Prayer. It’s high time we had a weed day. Because if we can set days aside to pay tribute to trees, a rodent or a space ghost, we can certainly designate one day to officially recognize a true American institution. Sign my petition and make 4/20 a national holiday.
And to make it sound like another classic national holiday, on his show Maher read from a book titled, ‘Twas the Night Before 4/20.
Watch the video below, via HBO:
[image via screengrab]
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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comJason Cherry
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – When Tamaine Foster rapped about his propensity for robbery and murder, it wasn’t just an act, a jury decided on Tuesday, Nov. 19. After a week-long trial in Kent County Circuit Court, Foster was found guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery, three counts of assault and felony use of a firearm. Foster, 28, killed Jason Cherry while robbing him of marijuana in the basement of the victim’s home at 1249 Dickinson St. SE, where Cherry was spending time with three close friends who also were shot. Grand Rapids Police investigations revealed Foster and three compatriots invaded the home after calling Cherry to order a quarter-pound of marijuana on Dec. 29. Four gunmen fired shots in the basement, killing Cherry and wounding the other three men. Cherry was shot three times and likely would have died from those shots, according to the medical examiner, before he was shot twice by Foster, according to police. Robert Cherry II was at home that night and heard the shots. The father ran down to the basement to find his son’s friends screaming and wounded and his son slumped over in his chair. “I tried to wake him up. He wouldn’t wake up,” the weeping father told the jury last week. After hearing the verdict announced on Tuesday, Nov. 19, the father smiled and hugged his wife, Celia, and family members. The elder Cherry said he wanted people to remember his son as a kindhearted man who never hurt anyone and in no way deserved what happened to him. “I’m really pleased with the outcome,” Cherry said. “The jury did a good job.” Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Blair Lachman presented the jury with evidence that included cellular phone records that showed Foster and his co-defendants were in the area and ballistics reports that connect bullets and shells from the scene of the crime to weapons possessed by Foster and his cohorts.
Related:
The jury also heard from two victims who were at the Dickinson home who placed Foster at the scene and one who said he saw Foster shoot at Cherry. Isiah Latham was originally charged in the crime but turned state’s evidence after agreeing to a plea deal that limited his minimum sentence to 22 years instead of the mandatory life sentence faced by his co-defendant upon today's conviction. The jury also saw videos that showed Foster and Latham pointing guns at the camera and Foster under his rap name “Tity Maine” rapping profane lyrics about robbery, gun use, drugs and murder.
Related:
Foster is set to be sentenced on Dec. 10 by Judge Donald Johnston. He faces mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.
E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at facebook.com/bartondeiters.58 Min read time Share:
Every day we transgress against our own longing to act well.
Photo: Romi Chiorean
Why Grow Up? Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age
Susan Neiman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25 (cloth)
The desire to submit to the constraints of established authority at the very same time that we long to break loose of them seems to me a fair account of one of the major miseries of the human condition. It is not the particulars that hurt, so much as the fact of inherent self-division—the Sisyphean nature of its repetitions.
For most of our lives we embrace the infantile comfort of living inside conventions of thought and behavior given us at birth. Then, periodically, these conventions come to feel confining, even imprisoning, and, as though awakening from a deep sleep, we erupt in an explosive longing for the freedom to define ourselves anew. What follows then is anything from cultural unrest to flat-out revolution—governments may fall, institutions crumble, new equalities assert themselves—but the constitution of the human psyche does not undergo any material change; inevitably, the cycle of submission and rebellion repeats itself, without much permanent progress having been made.
From Plato on, philosophers, educators, and analysts have supplied one version or another of the relation between culture and nature as the key explanation for our ongoing dilemma. The ancients suggested that the gods had originally made human beings with four legs, four arms, and two faces each, but Zeus, fearing that too much power was invested in this creature, split each person in two, forcing men and women to spend their lives searching for the lost half. Then the Bible offered this version of the problem: human beings were at one with themselves until they ate of the Tree of Knowledge, whereupon they evolved into animals endowed with consciousness—a gift and a punishment. On the one hand, consciousness made the race proud, on the other it made people lonely. The loneliness proved our undoing, so perverting our natural tendencies that we became strangers to ourselves—the true meaning of alienation—and could never again feel whole. After the Bible—I’m skipping a bit here—came Freud, who agreed that the loneliness of humankind was inborn, the sense of disconnect permanent. For Freud, however, the disconnect was better accounted for by his theory of instinct drives, those elements inscribed in our very essence that put us into the kind of conflict that only profound self knowledge could ameliorate. Interestingly enough, from Plato to Freud, all have agreed that help could come only from within. If men and women learned to occupy their own conscious selves, fully and freely, they would no longer be alone: they would have themselves for company. Once one had company one could achieve integration and risk fellowship.
• • •
For Susan Neiman, and the hundreds of moral philosophers (including Kant, Rousseau, and Nietzsche) who stand behind her, the word “integration” is best replaced by the word “maturity.” What the poets and the analysts describe as achieving wholeness, these philosophers describe as inhabiting adulthood. Neiman herself has written widely and often about the meaning and the promise of a life devoted to maturing. It is her mission to rescue the phrase “Grow up!” from irony and deliver it over to those who earnestly believe that growing up does not mean resigning oneself to the world as it is; rather, it means contributing materially to the making of a world as it ought to be. Philosophy, she tells us repeatedly, can supply a history of thought that will act as an invaluable aid in this endeavor.
As always, Immanuel Kant is Neiman’s guiding light, and it is with his model of coming of age that she begins Why Grow Up?, her new book-length meditation on the meaning and usefulness of maturing. For Kant, she tells us, the sine qua non of adulthood resides in the development of reason. In infancy we mindlessly believe whatever we are told, and in adolescence we just as mindlessly reject everything we are told. Finally we learn to think for ourselves and develop judgment, whereupon the ability to reason comes of age and we along with it. The catch is that learning to think for oneself is not a given; it is an ideal, one achieved only with immense effort. We resist making the effort as it involves damned hard work.
Every day we transgress against our own longing to act well.
“We choose immaturity,” Neiman writes, channeling Kant, “because we are lazy and scared: how much more comfortable it is to let someone else make your decisions.” Thus, although born with the capacity to become grown-up persons of reason—and so possessed of true inner freedom—our own worst instincts insure that we will remain uninformed, unthinking creatures who would rather spend three weeks obsessing over which washing machine to buy than what to do about “oil companies, sexual harassment, drones, preventable disease.”
Ultimately Neiman and Kant both remind the reader that the freedom of which they speak involves self-control, the sort of control that includes the will to take responsibility for one’s own actions. All of these philosophers agree that until humanity, individually and as a whole, develops the desire to take that responsibility, we go on living in a state of self-induced blindness that ends, inevitably and for each of us, with life coming to seem emptier and emptier the longer we live.
The question this book asks is: How does one grow a self endowed with a reasoning inner life that can deliver more rather than less nourishment of mind and spirit as we age? Unfortunately Neiman also feels obliged to answer that question—literally. It is then that we come face to face with the limited ability of the contemporary philosopher to correct for the anomie that lies in wait for the one who does not “grow up.”
Throughout the book Neiman itemizes the social disasters that our time and place have given rise to, implying that ours is one of the most heartless and soulless of worlds in human history, and thus the people in it have less chance than others did of ever truly coming of age. She uses philosophy “to show something about the conceptual horror of the world we have come to, in the hope that understanding the depth of its violation of our own natures will be of use in acting against it.” This agenda, however, leads her to prescriptiveness, and it is just here that the book comes a cropper.
In a chapter called “Becoming Adult” Neiman presents us—if only we, the scared and the lazy, would apply ourselves!—with a sure-fire recipe for maturing. Under the rubric of three sub-sections called “Education,” “Travel,” and “Work,” she delivers a mini-lecture on how each of these elements of the human enterprise fortify against mental and emotional arrest. Education, she informs us, should develop, not break, the inquiring spirit; teach respect for the canon; and urge a week off the Internet. Travel is to be encouraged so that one does not think one’s particular cultural assumptions are the ultimate picture of human reality. Work that is absorbing is to be pursued because it is purposeful engagement with something beyond ourselves that gives life its meaning.
The reader—grown up or otherwise—cannot help staring at the pages on which these homilies are inscribed. The sentiments are those of nineteenth-century uplift, the message owes more to Christian resolve than to modernist understanding, and the language resembles the rhetoric of a university brochure promising all that your child will become if only she or he chooses our school.
• • •
The philosopher Gordon Marino |
HTC headset and the Oculus one but the comments pointed towards locking in the software to each device. The HTC/Valve implementation will have to have some bundled content when it goes on general sale and Valve already has the distribution ecosystem in place as well as the gaming franchises to make the world implode.A 27-year-old man was arrested early Saturday morning (Aug. 12) after authorities said he fired a semi-automatic pistol at cars and a hotel lobby in the Central Business District.
No one was struck by gunfire, said Louisiana State Police spokeswoman Trooper Melissa Matey.
Matey said the suspected gunman, identified as Joseph David III, of Zachary, La., had been in an "altercation" earlier Friday night in the French Quarter. He briefly returned to his hotel on Common Street and then left, heading westbound on Camp Street.
As he walked, he pointed his gun at people and cars in his path, Matey said. At Camp and Gravier streets, Matey said David fired off several rounds, striking a passing car. The car's driver "managed to flee the area," Matey said in a press release.
David also fired shots towards the entrance of a hotel, hitting the lobby doors as well as another car.
Responding troopers, called about 1:30 a.m. to investigate reports of shots fired, found David in a nearby parking garage. Those troopers opened fire on David, who was still armed at the time, Matey said.
David was not injured, she said, adding that State Police are investigating the moments leading up to the troopers firing their weapons.
David was booked into Orleans Justice Center jail Saturday afternoon on two charges of aggravated assault on an officer with a firearm, three charges of criminal damage to property and one charge of aggravated assault with a firearm, online court records show. Bond and attorney information were not immediately available.Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
30 December 2016
Europe
Pre-Christmas strike by Czech postal staff
According to the Czech Post Union, around 250 of its members went on strike at Czech Post’s central sorting office in Prague in the early hours of December 22. They stopped work for around an hour and were then followed by workers in other facilities in Usti and Labem, Brno and Olomouc in a so-called chain strike. According to the union, 600 staff in total were involved.
The workers are demanding a pay rise of 2,500 Crowns ($95) a month. Czech Post has offered 500 Crowsn ($20) a month. Currently postal workers’ average monthly wage is 22,700 to 23,000 Crowns ($870-$890) a month. The national average wage is around 4,000 Crowns ($155). According to a Czech Radio news item, the company had threatened employees considering joining the strike with fines, but the company denies this.
Number of strikes in Belgium highest in 20 years
According to figures from the Belgian national security office, 2016 will have seen the highest number of strikes in the country in 20 years. Between April and June there were nearly a quarter of a million days lost to strikes, the highest for a three-month period in 25 years.
At the end of May 60,000 workers took part in a national one-day strike against the government’s austerity measures. This was followed one week later by a strike involving 10,000 teachers and civil servants. There were also large strikes by rail workers, prison guards, metal workers and other transport employees.
Blockade by French Uber drivers in run-up to Christmas
On December 23, French Uber drivers blockaded the two Paris airports for around five hours, forcing taxis to drop passengers off short of the airport terminals. Following the blockade, they held a slow convoy to Uber headquarters in Paris to stage a protest. Uber drivers in Lyon also blockaded main roads in the city. The drivers are organised by the Unsa-VTC union.
Uber drivers are protesting the low fares they must charge, which reduce their pay. Last year Uber reduced the minimum fare from €5 to €4.25 an hour. Drivers are pushing for the minimum fare to be raised to €8 an hour, saying some of them are earning as little as €3.75 an hour. They are also protesting Uber’s plans to raise its commission from 20 percent to 25 percent.
Irish health staff to be balloted over working conditions
The Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) announced on Wednesday that it would hold a ballot of its 25,000 members in Ireland working as health support staff. It will also ballot its members in selected hospitals working in emergency units. This ballot will be held in the third week in January.
The union accuses the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health of refusing to extend concessions given to nurses to other health staff. It accuses them of breaching previously agreed terms.
Dutch court ruling postpones planned train strike
The Dutch rail company NS won an injunction just prior to Christmas forbidding a planned strike. The court ruled the strike a safety risk, as it was likely to lead to very high levels of crowding on railway platforms.
However, the ruling gave the union permission to hold the walkout from January 6 onwards. The rail staff union VVMC is still to decide whether to go ahead with the strike. Rail workers are in dispute with NS over new rostering arrangements.
Underground rail staff in London vote for action
A ballot of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union’s) 3,000 members working for the London Underground rail network has voted 85 percent in favour of a 24-hour strike due to begin at 6pm on January 8.
Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association will also be out. The strike is part of a long-running dispute over the axing of around 900 staff on the system, including the closure of all the ticket offices on the network. The RMT and TSSA argue the lack of staff on busy tube stations is leading to safety concerns for both staff and passengers.
Solid strike by cleaning staff at UK rail company
Staff working for Servest UK, which cleans trains belonging to Great Western Railways held a strike on December 23 and 24. They are members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union. The RMT, which described the strike as rock solid, balloted its 189 members, employed by Servest and they returned a 98 percent vote in favour of the action.
The Servest staff are seeking parity with other GWR staff for a pay rise, provision of safety clothing and for all Servest agency staff to be made permanent GWR employees, ending the two-tier wage system that the use of agency staff entails.
Hotel staff in Liverpool picket against “Victorian” conditions
Staff working at the Britannia Adelphi hotel in Liverpool held a one-day strike on December 23 to protest “Victorian era” conditions at the hotel.
The staff, who are members of the RMT union, held a picket line between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. A majority of the 275 staff working at the hotel belong to the RMT union. They are seeking a pay rise, as currently they are only paid the national minimum wage of £6.70 an hour. They are also protesting cuts in staff while at the same time the time allotted to clean a room has been cut from 25 minutes to 20 minutes.
Work-to-rule action by firefighters in northern England
Firefighters in northern England working for the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service began work-to-rule action just before Christmas; it is due to last until January 10. The action is in response to the introduction of Tactical Response Vehicles that carry a crew of three rather than the usual four. The Fire Brigades Union, which represents firefighters, claimed the new vehicles are “totally inadequate to meet the needs of firefighters.”
Middle East
Kuwaiti staff working for Public Disabled Authority hold protest
Several members of staff working for the Public Authority for the Disabled, a government agency, held a one-hour protest outside the headquarters on December 24. The protest was over low pay but also to demand the resignation of the director of PAD. The employees are angry at the slow response by PAD in providing handicap signs and other facilities.
Africa
General strike in Sudan
A general strike was called in Sudan on December 19 against the imposition of austerity measures affecting workers and small businesses. Government employees were threatened with losing their jobs if they participated and were made to sign in at their place of work.
Transport workers and staff in displacement camps responded to the strike call.
In spite of shopkeepers in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, being faced with fines if they did not open, two-thirds of them heeded the stay-away. Some students responded to the call and stayed away and held demonstrations, which were attacked by riot police who used tear gas grenades.
A government radio broadcast warned residents of North Darfur not to get involved in the general strike.
Kenyan university staff threaten walkout over pay demand
Employees at Kenya’s public universities have threatened to strike January 11 if their pay demand is not met. University lecturers are demanding a pay increase of 300 percent, representing Sh350, 000 ($3,400) for assistant lecturers, rising to a maximum of Sh1.9 million ($18,600) annually for full professor status. The lecturers union, the University Academic Staffs Association, is demanding their pay be raised to international standards, pointing out that they make less than professors in neighbouring Sudan.
Governors of Kenyan states have not paid striking doctors their December salaries
Doctors in Kenya have been on strike for over three weeks demanding the implementation of a 2013 collective bargaining agreement. Counties throughout the country are considering whether to pay striking doctors. The Kenyan council of governors has instructed their members not to pay the doctors.
Recruitment has taken place of replacement doctors on casual contracts to scab on the national strike. The strike-breaking doctors, complained the Kenyan Medical Practitioners, Pharmacist and Dentist Union (KMPPDU), were inducted into hospitals with only a week of recruitment, when it would normally take months.
Nakuru County, where 275 contract doctors have been employed on seven-month contracts, is only admitting patients to the private wings of the hospital.
Arik Airline Nigeria reneges on promise to pay wage arrears
The strike by Arik Airline workers, called off after the company promised to pay part of a backlog of wages, could reignite. Workers at the airline company came out on strike briefly to demand wage arrears and improved working conditions.
Promises made to end the strike, with assistance of the National Aviation Authority, were for the payment of two months’ pay before the end of the year, and a third payment for December made in January. The date for the first payment passed without workers receiving anything.
The three unions involved, the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, the National Union of Air Transport Employees, and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, have not committed to any further industrial action as yet.
Nigerian medical unions threaten action in new year
Hospital staff at the Abidan University College Hospital, Nigeria, combined in the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), are threatening to strike over unpaid wages.
A spokesman for the several unions involved said they had not received wages since September and that this was a similar reoccurrence of 2014 and 2015. He went on to say if the outstanding salaries were not paid by January 3, they would come out on indefinite strike.
Members of JOHESU proceeded to bar the gates of the Abia State Teaching Hospital, also demanding several months of unpaid salaries. The joint unions have declared they will not participate in discussions until three months of outstanding wages are paid. They also raised the issue of 20 months of unpaid pensions owed to their retired colleagues.
Two other Nigerian states were confronted with the prospect of striking medical workers. Kogi and Bayelsa state members of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) are proposing to strike on January 13 unless they are paid several months wages.
The Kogi state governor had promised doctors’ wages would be paid by December 20 but this was not fulfilled. NMA members were particularly annoyed at hearing other public sector employees had received their salaries and a no-work no-pay rule is being implemented against the Association of Resident Doctors after less than 49 days on strike. Normally the no-work no-pay rule should only come into effect after 100 days of strike.
A further medical union, the National Association of Resident Doctors, is lined up to strike on January 2, after postponing action on three previous occasions.
Swaziland electricians protest lack of bonuses
Workers employed at the Swaziland Electricity Company went on an unofficial strike December 21 protesting the non-payment of a traditional bonus at the end of the year.
Union negotiators who had met with management to discuss the issue were held responsible for the wildcat strike and they were issued with a court injunction.
A return to court after an immediate initial hearing will take place between January 8 and 17 where the eight union respondents will claim there is no proof of a strike, only some workers late for work.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Buy Photo University of Memphis teammates, from left, Dedric Lawson, K.J. Lawson, Jeremiah Martin and Kaleb Castro watch from the bench during an 84-54 loss to Central Florida University during first-half action of their second-round American Athletic Conference tournament game in Hartford, Conn. (Photo: Mark Weber / The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo
Dedric and K.J. Lawson are headed to Kansas, according to their own twitter accounts, and to Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com. So much for the idea that the Memphis program will be better off without those two kids dragging it down, eh? That was always ridiculous.
Beyond that Keelon Lawson — Dedric and K.J.’s father — was interviewed on 92.9ESPN. Here are the 10 most interesting things he said.
1. Dedric and K.J. ultimately decided between Duke, Kansas, Ole Miss and Iowa State. Lawson said the players were also contacted by Notre Dame, Arizona, UCLA and North Carolina State.
2. What was be the deciding factor? Lawson: “It’s going to be prestige, where you can get a chance to win a national championship.”
3. Lawson said he wasn’t mistreated by Memphis coach Tubby Smith and, indeed, has great respect for Smith. “It has nothing to do with Tubby, Tubby has been great to us,” Lawson said. Lawson did acknowledge he was not pleased to be left at the hotel in Philadelphia when the team bus left for Temple. “I was upset at the miscommunication,” he said. “How come I didn’t get a courtesy call, when the bus was going to leave?”
4. Lawson — who was demoted to director of player personnel under Smith — said Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen had told him he would keep his assistant coaching job and, indeed, would be elevated to the spot vacated by departing assistant Damon Stoudamire. “I met with Bowen,” Lawson said. “`He said 'Regardless of who we bring in, we’re going to keep you in Damon’s spot.’”
5. So why are Dedric and K.J. leaving? “The reason we are leaving, I don’t think there’s anything Dedric can do, as far as the University of Memphis, as far as achieving his personal goals,” Lawson said. “Now, imagine, you go to a Power 5 conference somewhere, where they won’t double-team you, you have guys on the team that are just as better as you, if you go there and do half the things you did at Memphis, it would be great.”
Tiger Basketball Podcast: With the exit of the Lawsons, what's the future of Tubby and the Tigers?
6. Indeed, Lawson said his kids expected to be surrounded by better players when they first committed to Memphis. But then a parade of transfers left Josh Pastner’s team. “We didn’t know that those guys were going to leave,” Lawson said. “When all those guys got up and left, it was like all the pressure was put on them to make things happen.”
7. Lawson said he wasn’t looking for another assistant job. “I’m just going to cheer man, I’m not trying to get nothing out of this,” he said. “There’s been plenty of schools that offered. When they offer, they offer a whole lot more money than Memphis gave.”
8. K.J. Lawson doesn’t regret tweeting the lyric about exiting with two middle fingers, but he wasn’t directing it at Smith or every Memphis fan. Keelon Lawson said certain Memphis fans were ugly to the family. “It was to the part of Tiger Nation that didn’t like him,” Lawson said.
9. The younger two Lawsons still might consider playing at the University of Memphis. “Yes, sir, always, you’re always going to look for the hometown team," Lawson said. "You call Chandler right now, he’ll tell you Memphis is one of my top schools regardless of whether my dad is there or not.... I don’t want to burn any bridges like that. The boys will always consider the University of Memphis.
10. If the Lawsons had to do it all over, they’d still pick Memphis. “Still would have came to Memphis, man,” Lawson said. “Memphis born, Memphis bred, when I die, I’ll be Memphis dead. There’s just something about Memphis. We were trying to be the hometown hero and now we’re the hometown villain.”Algebraic data types
It’s normal for functional languages to support syntax like this:
data Maybe a = Nothing | Just a
deriving (Eq, Ord)
That’s Haskell, and it defines a type called “Maybe” that has two so called type constructors, Nothing and Just. The Just type constructor takes a single parameter of unspecified type. The deriving keyword here means a Maybe can be compared for equality, and ordered. It can also be called a tagged union.
Kotlin doesn’t need a Maybe type because it has optionality as a built in part of the type system. Optionality is so common in programs that it makes sense to integrate it at a deep level, for both convenience and performance reasons:
val s: String? = if (Math.random() < 0.5) "Yay!" else null
println("length of string is.... ${s.length()}")
Here, we get a compile error on the second line, because we’re trying to read the length of a string we might not actually have, depending on a coin flip. There’s a simple fix:
val s: String? = if (Math.random() < 0.5) "Yay!" else null
println("length of string is.... ${s?.length()?: -1}")
Here, s?.length() will yield null if s was null, and the?: operator uses the right hand side if the left hand side is null. So this prints -1 if the coin flip didn’t yield the string.
However, we won’t think about that more here.
Because the Maybe type is so familiar to functional programmers, let’s define an equivalent of it here just for illustration.
sealed class Maybe<out T> {
object None : Maybe<Nothing>()
data class Just<T>(val t: T) : Maybe<T>()
}
The syntax isn’t as terse as Haskell, but isn’t bad either. The data modifier here is optional, but adding it gives us useful features.
We can do a variety of functional things with this:
val j = Maybe.Just(1)
val (i) = j
Here, we define a “just” containing an integer, and then we destructure it to get the integer back. Notice the lack of types: it’s all inferred. If the type had defined multiple fields, we could destructure all of them, which is how this is actually meant to be used:
data class Pet(val name: String, val age: Int)
val alice = Pet("Alice", 6)
val (name, age) = alice
What about pattern matching? This is where the word “sealed” above comes in handy; we can do an exhaustive pattern match without an else/otherwise branch:
class User(val age: Int)
fun lookupFromDB(s: String): Maybe<User> = Maybe.None
fun printUser(username: String) {
val rec = lookupFromDB(username)
when (rec) {
is Maybe.None -> println("not found")
is Maybe.Just<User> -> println("${rec.t.age} years old")
}
}
Here, we define a simple class with a single immutable property (age), and a couple of functions. We have a lookupFromDB function that returns a Maybe: in this case, always a None, but that’s just an example.
Then we use the when expression to do a pattern match on the type. When expressions are pretty flexible. They can use arbitrary expressions on the left hand side of each case and if the expression is a type query, the code on the right has the cast applied automatically. That’s why we can just access the t property of rec immediately.
Immutability
Kotlin is not a pure FP language and does not have a ‘default’ for mutable vs immutable. It gently encourages immutability in a few places by choice of syntax, but otherwise makes you choose each and every time.
Here’s some code:
data class Person(var name: String, var age: Int)
val p = Person("Mike", 31)
p.name = "Bob"
Here “p” is an immutable value: it cannot be reassigned. It’s like a final variable in Java, or a let expression in Haskell/F#. But then the contents of this structure are mutable variables, so they can be reassigned later. The IDE highlights identifiers differently if they’re mutable.
Here’s how it looks like, fully immutable
data class Person(val name: String, val age: Int)
val mike = Person("Mike", 31)
val olderMike = mike.copy(age = 32)
The copy method is auto generated whenever the data modifier is used. It has a named argument for every property, with the default value of that argument being whatever the current value is. Net result, you can use it to create a fresh object with tweaked fields.
Lists are immutable by default:
val people = listOf(mike, olderMike)
people.add(Person("Bob", 50)) // ERROR
val peopleDB = arrayListOf(mike, olderMike)
peopleDB.add(Person("Bob", 50))
val view: List<Person> = peopleDB
val snapshot = peopleDB.toList()
The second line won’t compile: listOf() returns an immutable list. The fourth line does because we specifically picked an array list (vs a linked list), which is mutable. We can, of course, cast away the mutability to create a read only view, or clone the list to create a snapshot of it.
Currently there’s no dedicated list literal syntax. There might be in future, but for now, we must use functions.
Mapping, filtering, reducing etc
Kotlin has support for efficient lambdas, and extends the default JDK collections classes to support common functions from FP standard libraries. This can even be used on Java 6 and thus Android:
val nums = listOf(1, 2, 3, 4)
val r = nums.map { it * 2 }.sum() // r == 20
Here, the “it” identifier is a convenience: if a lambda has only one argument, it’s called “it” automatically. We can specify an explicit name when “it” would get too confusing, like in nested lambdas.
Map is an extension function. Where Java programmers would define a FooUtils class with static methods to add functionality to Foo classes, Kotlin lets you extend the class with a (statically dispatched) method directly. And then it uses that to give Java platform types like Iterable new features.
A more advanced example:
val strs = listOf("fish", "tree", "dog", "tree", "fish", "fish")
val freqs = strs.groupBy { it }.mapValues { it.value.size() }
println(freqs) // {fish=3, tree=2, dog=1}
Recursive functions
Functional programmers like to express solutions to problems using recursion. This often needs an optimisation called tail call optimisation to work well. Kotlin supports this in certain circumstances.
Here’s a simple example. A fixpoint of a mathematical function is an input that gives itself as an output. To find a fixpoint of cosine, you can keep feeding the output back as an input until things stabilise. Here’s an example in an imperative fashion:
private fun cosFixpoint(): Double {
var x = 1.0
while (true) {
val y = Math.cos(x)
if (x == y) return y
x = y
}
}
Pretty simple: starting at 1.0 we keep calling cos until cos(a) == a.
Here’s the same written in a recursive manner:
tailrec fun cosFixpoint(x: Double = 1.0): Double {
val r = Math.cos(x)
return if (x == r) x else cosFixpoint(r)
}
It could also be a one liner (or two here, with big fonts):
import java.lang.Math.cos
tailrec
fun f(x: Double = 1.0): Double = if (x == cos(x)) x else f(cos(x)))
That version relies on the JIT compiler to notice that it can eliminate the duplicated call to Math.cos(x).
Currying, partial application, composition
These are features you’ll find in F# and Haskell, though I never felt a need for them myself. Currying turns a function into a chain of functions. Partial application lets you ‘fix’ certain parameters to a function, resulting in a new function.
Kotlin doesn’t support these out of the box. But it’s flexible enough that they can be added by a library called funKtionale, in a natural manner:
import org.funktionale.currying.*
val sum2ints = { x: Int, y: Int -> x + y }
val curried: (Int) -> (Int) -> Int = sum2ints.curried()
assertEquals(curried(2)(4), 6)
val add5 = curried(5)
assertEquals(add5(7), 12)
…. and …
import org.funktionale.partials.*
val format = { prefix: String, x: String, postfix: String ->
"${prefix}${x}${postfix}"
}
val prefixAndBang = format(p3 = "!")
// Passing just the first parameter will return a new function
val hello = prefixAndBang(p1 = "Hello, ")
println(hello("world"))
Lazyness
Kotlin is a strict/eager language, and this is how it should be. As far as I’m aware, no other well known language uses lazy-by-default except Haskell.
However you can do lazy computations if you want to. Here’s a dead simple real world example: avoiding the work of building a string if logging is disabled.
val loggingEnabled = System.getProperty("log")!= null
fun log(s: String): Unit = if (loggingEnabled) println(s)
fun log(ls: () -> String): Unit = if (loggingEnabled) println(ls())
The log function is overloaded: it can take an actual string, or a function that calculates a string:
log("now!")
log { "calculate me later" }
Functional programming occasionally involves building infinite lists of things and operating on them in a lazy and possibly parallel manner. This is often seen as a key selling point for FP (see slide 10).
Since version 8 Java can do this too, and therefore so can Kotlin. For example:
val ONE = BigInteger.ONE
fun primes(n: Long) =
Stream.iterate(ONE) { it + ONE }.
filter { it.isProbablePrime(16) }.
limit(n).
toList()
Java calls infinite lazy lists streams. Here, we build a list of all the positive BigIntegers. Then we select only the ones that are probably prime numbers with chance 2^16, according to the Miller-Rabin primality test. Then we take n of them and put them into a regular non-lazy list. This is classical functional programming.
How fast is this?
repeat(3) {
val t = measureTimeMillis {
primes(100000)
}
println("Took $t msec")
}
On my laptop, after the first run when the JIT compiler has crunched, it takes about 1.5 seconds.
One nice thing about pipelines of pure functions is you can parallelise them. Let’s do that now:
fun primes(n: Long) =
Stream.iterate(ONE) { it + ONE }.
parallel().
filter { it.isProbablePrime(16) }.
limit(n).
toArray()
We inserted a call to parallel() in our stream. This tells the JVM to run the rest of the pipeline in multiple threads. Rerunning the program shows that this improved performance 3x: it now only takes half a second. Not bad!
STM
Software transactional memory is a way to write concurrent code. It is well explained in this paper by Simon Peyton-Jones, one of the architects of Haskell.
Instead of using locks you write code like this:
var account1 = 5
var account2 = 0
fun transfer(amount: Int) {
atomic {
account1 -= amount
account2 += amount
}
}
From the programmers perspective, anything that happens inside the atomic block takes effect all at once when the block is exited and there can be no race conditions inside it. But multiple threads can all be inside the atomic block at once, doing useful work. Pretty neat, right?
A simple implementation would be to have a giant global lock, but that’d be very slow. So fancier implementations record every change made inside the block by threads running concurrently, and detect conflicts: if there is a conflict, the block is retried. Haskell has an implementation of such a thing.
Kotlin does not have language support for software transactional memory. However, this is not such a big deal because via the JVM it gets support using libraries like Scala STM (see below), and even something better: hardware transactional memory. Yup.
Modern (very modern) Intel chips support a set of processor extensions called TSX. TSX allows code to create an atomic transaction at the hardware level. Changes to RAM are buffered up in cache lines and interference between threads is tracked by the CPU itself. If there was a conflict, the CPU aborts the transaction and expects the code to either try again or fall back to regular locking. If no thread bumped into you, your writes are flushed to RAM in one go at the end.
Starting with Java 8 Update 40, so-called “RTM locking” is enabled by default when the CPU supports it. This converts every Java synchronized block into a hardware level atomic transaction using TSX. That means you will have multiple threads running inside synchronized blocks at once. The JVM profiles the app to find blocks that experience frequent thread interference, where the CPU is wasting time due to constantly rolling back/retrying, and converts them back to using regular locks. As Kotlin runs on the JVM it gets this functionality for free.
This lets you write code in the “one big lock” style without suffering the performance downsides, as long as you are on sufficiently new hardware.
I should note here that STMs often provide extra features, like the ability to pause/retry a code block when the dependencies change, or the ability to explicitly cancel a transaction without retrying it (by throwing an exception). Hardware TM doesn’t offer this, or rather the JVM doesn’t surface the support at the moment. If you want more control, you must use a library and explicitly change your data model to incorporate transactional variables:
import scala.concurrent.stm.japi.STM.*
val counter = newRef(10)
try {
atomic {
increment(counter, 1)
println("counter is ${counter.get()}") // -> 11
throw Exception("roll back!!")
}
} catch(e: Exception) {
println("counter is ${counter.get()}") // -> 10
}
Haskell has one other neat trick up its sleeve —using its type system it can ensure that variables are only accessed inside atomic blocks, so you can never forget to wrap your code up properly. We can do something a bit similar in Kotlin:
class ThreadBox<T>(v: T) {
private val value = v
@Synchronized fun locked<R>(f: T.() -> R): R = value.f()
}
val bank = ThreadBox(object {
val accounts = intArrayOf(10, 0, 0, 0)
})
fun transfer(from: Int, to: Int, amount: Int) {
bank.locked {
accounts[from] -= amount
accounts[to] += amount
}
}
A ThreadBox is a simple class that takes a pointer to some object in its constructor. It keeps that pointer privately. So, if there’s no other reference to the passed object it can only be accessed via the ThreadBox. When we declare bank, we use the object keyword to create an anonymous object and pass it in — so we know the only way to reach the accounts array is via the ThreadBox. And the ThreadBox only gives out that pointer inside an atomic block.
The compiler won’t let us access the array outside an atomic block … unless we let a reference escape. So this is not as strong as the Haskell type system approach, but it’s a good start.
There’s a version of this code that can catch more mistakes here.
The atomic method is a higher order function protected by a regular Java synchronized method, and it just immediately calls the provided code block under the lock. The JVM will ignore the lock on hardware that supports TSX and all threads can proceed in parallel, in an atomic transaction. As long as the two threads are using different account IDs for from and to, no locking is done at all: that makes it nice and fast.
Things Kotlin lacks
At the moment there is no way to control side effects: any function call can be potentially side effecting. It would be nice if a future version of the language introduced something like the C++ const keyword, or D’s transitive const, to reduce the reliance on actually immutable data structures. The JVM offers features that can seal off common sources of external state, such as the disk and network, however the heap is still available. It may be an interesting project to make the JVM’s sandboxing features easily available via a Kotlin DSL.
There is not at this moment any high performance immutable collections library. Both Clojure and Scala have maps and sets in which mutating the collection returns a new collection, with internal data sharing to make performance practical. The Kotlin standard library does not. If someone were to make one, using the CHAMP code published this year would give significant improvements over the algorithms used in Scala/Clojure.(CNN) Fruits and vegetables are an essential part of a healthy pregnancy diet, providing vitamins and fiber. Yet some might also come with pesticide residues.
Among women undergoing infertility treatment in the United States,consuming more fruits and vegetables with high amounts of pesticide residue was associated with a lower chance of pregnancy and a higher risk of pregnancy loss, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday.
Pesticides are pest-killing substances often applied to fruits and vegetables to help protect them -- and us -- against harmful mold, fungi, rodents, weeds and insects. There has been growing concern that exposure to pesticides can be tied to certain acute and chronic human health concerns
"Most Americans are exposed to pesticides daily by consuming conventionally grown fruits and vegetables," said Dr. Yu-Han Chiu, a research fellow in the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and first author of the study.
"There have been concerns for some time that exposure to low doses of pesticides through diet, such as those that we observed in this study, may have adverse health effects, especially in susceptible populations such as pregnant women and their fetus, and on children," she said. "Our study provides evidence that this concern is not unwarranted."
Yet the findings should be digested with caution, said Janet Collins, executive vice president of science and regulatory affairs for CropLife International, a trade association representing the manufacturers of pesticides. Collins was not involved in the study.
"The JAMA research publication does not show a direct link between pesticide residue intake and pregnancy outcome, as the authors state. This is a hypothesis generating study, and as the authors recommend, we agree that before a definitive outcome can be established the issues require further study," she said in an emailed statement.
How harmful are pesticide residues?
The study involved 325 women between 18 and 45 who were undergoing infertility treatment with assisted reproductive technology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, the researchers said.
The women completed a diet assessment questionnaire and had their height, weight and overall health measured, while the researchers accounted for confounding factors that could influence the study results, including their intake of supplements and residential history.
The researchers analyzed each woman's pesticide exposure by determining whether the fruits and vegetables she consumed had high or low levels of pesticide residues, based on reports from the US Department of Agriculture's Pesticide Data Program, which monitors the presence of pesticides in foods sold throughout the United States.
Some fruits and vegetables with a low amount of pesticide residue include avocados, onions, dried plums or prunes, corn and orange juice. Those with a high amount include fresh plums, peaches, strawberries, spinach and peppers.
The researchers found that, compared with women who ate less than one daily serving of high-pesticide-residue fruits and vegetables, those who ate 2.3 servings or more had 18% lower probability of getting pregnant and 26% lower probability of giving birth to a live baby.
Consuming fruits and vegetables with a high amount of pesticide residue was positively associated with the probability of losing a pregnancy, the researchers found.
However, consuming low-pesticide-residue fruits and vegetables in lieu of high-pesticide-residue foods was associated with higher odds of pregnancy and giving birth, the researchers found.
"Although we did find that intake of high-pesticide-residue fruits and vegetables were associated to lower reproductive success, intake of low-pesticide-residue fruits and vegetables had the opposite association," Chiu said.
"A reasonable choice based on these findings is to consume low-pesticide-residue fruits and vegetables instead of high-pesticide-residue ones. Another option is to go organic for the fruits and vegetables known to contain high pesticide residues," she said. "It is very important to keep in mind that, as far as we are aware, this is the first time that this association is reported, so it is extremely important that our findings are replicated in other studies."
JUST WATCHED Which fruits you should buy organic Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Which fruits you should buy organic 00:44
However, purchasing organic fruits and vegetables can be costly, said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a professor and director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the study.
"This is more difficult for those already vulnerable due to their socioeconomic circumstances. Avoiding pesticides becomes an 'environmental justice' issue, making it all the |
as.
Hunter Ames, the communications teacher at the Lee County high school, says the video had been in the planning stages for more than two months but was filmed in one continuous shot on Wednesday. "We started filming around 10:45 a.m. and the kids were heading to their next class by 11 a.m.," said Ames.
The process for filming the video started with the simple step of teaching the students to walk backwards confidently. "I had to get them to trust me and walk backwards without worrying, so we started off with them just saying the pledge of allegiance while rehearsing the walk," said Ames.
This isn't the school's first try at creating a complicated lip dub video. Last year, Ames said they created a shorter film with about 300 students.
"Last year, we did a very small scale production," said Ames. "This year, we decided to include the entire student body."
There are 1,400 students at Smiths Station this year. The video spotlights students involved with the school's news organization as well as other extracurricular clubs and organizations.
In addition, the video features cameos from several special guests, including Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones, Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor, Smiths Station Mayor Lafaye Dellinger and Miss Alabama 2012 Katherine Webb.
Ames hopes the video will give students the chance to look back on their time at Smiths Station High School and feel a sense of accomplishment and pride.
"The video wasn't about the class of 2012," said Ames. "It was about the entire school coming together as one and showing Smiths Station pride."
Since being posted yesterday, at midday the YouTube video had received nearly 11,500 views.Court WTO Appellate Body Full case name United States — Subsidies on Upland Cotton Argued March 18 2003 Decided March 3, 2005 Citation(s) DS267 Holding U.S. support for its cotton industry was inconsistent with its obligations under the SCM Agreement. Laws applied SCM Agreement
The Brazil–United States cotton dispute was a World Trade Organization dispute settlement case (DS267) on the issue of unfair subsidies on cotton. In 2002, Brazil—a major cotton export competitor—expressed its growing concerns about United States cotton subsidies by initiating a WTO dispute settlement case (DS267) against certain features of the U.S. cotton program. On March 18, 2003, a Panel was established to adjudicate the dispute.[1] Argentina, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, the European Communities, India, Pakistan, and Venezuela participated as third parties.[1] Focusing on six specific claims relating to US payment programmes, Brazil argued that the US had failed to abide by its commitments in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM).[2] On September 8, 2004, a WTO dispute settlement (DS) panel ruled against the United States on several key issues in case.[3]
The United States is the second-largest producer and world’s largest exporter of cotton. In recent years, the United States has been exporting an increasing share of its annual production, due in large part to a decline in domestic mill use.[3]
On August 31, 2009, after a series of recourses by both United States and Brazil, WTO issued a decision on the dispute DS267.[4][5]
The implications of the ruling are that it shows that the US and European Union have used loopholes and creative accounting to continue dumping products on developing markets, hurting impoverished developing country farmers. The WTO dispute settlement panel also found that the USA misreported certain programmes as ‘non trade-distorting’, when in fact they were trade-distorting.[6]
In October 2014, a mutually acceptable solution to the cotton dispute was reached just before Brazil was set to raise tariffs on hundreds of millions of dollars in American goods.[7] This included cars, electronics, and pharmaceuticals.[7] Under the terms of the agreement, the US granted a one-off payment of US$300 million to the Brazilian Cotton Institute.[8]
Implications for African countries [ edit ]
The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) estimates that subsidies reduce cotton prices by 10% and the World Bank estimates this number at 12.9%.[9] This amounts to an annual revenue loss of $147 million to African countries.[9] Oxfam estimates that the removal of U.S. cotton subsidies alone would increase prices 6-14% and thus increase the average household income in West Africa 2-9%-- enough to support food expenditure for 1 million people.[9]
According to the ICAC, even though the United States may be the leading exporter of cotton, the cost of production is significantly higher than that of other countries.[9] The average cost of production of a pound of cotton is $0.80 per pound in comparison to $0.35 in the West African country of Benin.[9]
According to agricultural economics at the University of California, Davis, the removal of American subsidies would cause a permanent upward shift of the price of cotton.[10] As a result, prices would fluctuate around a higher average price.[10] Furthermore, farm prices are usually set prior to the marketing season each year, which means that farmers do not always feel the full volatility of the price fluctuations.[10]
However, cotton subsidies in industrialized countries is not the only reason for the falling cotton prices over the past 50 years.[11] Technological advancement and competition from synthetic fibers (such as nylon).[11]
A study, commissioned by ICTSD and conducted by Mario Jales of Cornell University, suggests that cotton prices would have risen over a 1998-2007 base period if the US had cut subsidies that were deemed unlawful by a dispute panel at the WTO, following complaints by Brazil.[12]
Farmers in poor countries could have gained from an average 6 percent increase in world cotton prices over the same base period, if the U.S. had accepted proposals made by African nations to slash the subsidies provided to producers in richer countries.[2][12]
Cotton production in the United States could have declined by as much as 15 percent, the study suggests, if African proposals in the draft Doha accord were applied to historical output levels over the ten-year period examined by the study, and production in the EU could drop by as much as 30 percent. However, production volumes could increase by as much as 3-3.5 percent in Brazil, Central Asia and West Africa - with production values growing by up to 13 percent.[12]
Similarly, if African proposals that are included in the Doha draft were applied to trade flows over the ten-year period that the study examines, U.S. export volumes would have fallen by 16 percent on average. Average export volumes would have increased dramatically for Brazil and India (12-14 percent), and by a lower but still substantial amount in Uzbekistan, the ‘C-4′ West African cotton producing countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali), and Australia (2-2.5 percent).[12]
Resulting Legislation [ edit ]
Under the latest version of the U.S. farm bill, cotton will have the lowest subsidies of all U.S. field crops when it used to have the highest.[13] The Senate and House versions of this bill will eliminate multiple aspects of U.S. cotton subsidies, including direct-payments to farmers counter-cyclical payments.[13] The intention of both of these policies is to increase farmers' income when the price of cotton drops.[13]
However, U.S. cotton farmers will still be protected to an extent.[13] The House and Senate bills include the Stacked Income Protection Program (STAX), which serves as a form of income protection for the farmers.[13]
STAX guarantees cotton farmers that they will receive between 70% and 90% of the expected revenue for their area which is determined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).[14] Federal subsidies cover 80% of the premiums for this insurance program.[14] According to the Congressional Budget Office, the estimated cost of this program is $3.29 billion.[14] The farm bill contains no limit to the payout that any individual cotton farmer can receive under the STAX program.[14]
Brazil also agreed to not motion new WTO retaliatory sanctions against U.S. cotton programs while the current farm bill is in action or “against agricultural export guarantees.” [15]
Brazilian Cotton Industry [ edit ]
Brazil is the fifth largest cotton producer in the world.[16]
According to the latest information from USDA, Brazil is the fifth largest cotton producing country [17] and the third largest exporter in the world. Cotton prices have continued to decline - not due to changes in U.S. cotton policy (which is no longer considered a program crop under the 2014 Farm Bill) but rather due to Chinese cotton policy.[18]
Today U.S. cotton producers rely only on insurance products (STAX Program) after having eliminated all Farm Bill support mechanisms[19]
See also [ edit ]A progressive Jewish political action committee with ties to the son of Democratic Party mega-donor George Soros is intervening in Senate races for the first time, endorsing Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and former Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.
The endorsements from Bend the Arc Jewish Action PAC will involve fundraising support from the group, which makes direct payments to candidates running for office. It will also marshal what are known as “conduit” payments, linking its network of donors to the group's favored candidates.
“As American Jews, we’re disturbed by the dark turn American political discourse has taken in recent months, and deeply concerned about where our country will end up if we elect leaders who keep pushing us down this path,” said Alex Soros, a major donor to Bend the Arc Jewish Action PAC.
“That’s why we’re doing everything we can to help elect leaders this November who will inspire all Americans and move our country forward.
“In the Senate, that means electing leaders like Tammy Duckworth and Russ Feingold, leaders who will advance immigration reform, racial justice, and other priorities on the domestic progressive agenda that matter most to our community.”
Soros's father, the hedge fund billionaire George Soros, has already given at least $8 million to outside groups supporting Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE, but his son's activities through Bend the Arc are focused on congressional races.
Duckworth and Feingold will be competing in two of the hardest-fought Senate races in 2016 — a factor that led Bend the Arc to believe it could have the most impact in these contests, Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block, the PAC's director, said in a telephone interview with The Hill.
Bend the Arc is the only major Jewish political financing group that does not focus on Israel but instead focuses exclusively on domestic issues.
The PAC was launched in 2015 with a group of influential progressive donors and fundraisers including Alex Soros, lawyer Marc Baum, top Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenSanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' House to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE fundraiser Paul Egerman and Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
The group says it has since secured $225,000 in committed donations, and it is aiming to raise $500,000 during the 2016 cycle.
Last year, the PAC endorsed 12 Democratic members of Congress: Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Alma Adams of North Carolina, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Barbara Lee of California, Mark Takano of California, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Rick Nolan of Minnesota, Xavier Becerra Xavier BecerraOvernight Health Care: Drug execs set for grilling | Washington state to sue over Trump rule targeting Planned Parenthood | Wyoming moves closer to Medicaid work requirements Washington state to sue Trump administration over rule targeting Planned Parenthood NY, California and Washington threaten to sue over Trump rule to restrict abortion referrals MORE of California, Mike Honda of California, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey and Yvette Clarke of New York.
Kimelman-Block said one of the goals of Bend the Arc is to encourage elected officials to “pander” to Jewish audiences on issues beyond Israel.
Currently, when elected officials appear before Jewish audiences, they tend to talk exclusively about protecting Israel, Kimelman-Block said. And while he believes it is great that so many Jewish groups prioritize Israel, he said Bend the Arc was founded on the premise that progressive American Jews are far from a single-issue voting bloc.
“It’s great when politicians pander to certain communities,” Kimelman-Block told The Hill. “But we want them to pander to us to tell us how committed they are to a society that takes racial justice seriously, that takes civil rights and LGBT rights seriously.
“We want politicians to pander to our community on those issues as well.”2016 Triumph Tiger 800 XCx Editor Score: 87.75% Engine 17.75/20 Suspension/Handling 13.25/15 Transmission/Clutch 8.75/10 Brakes 8.75/10 Instruments/Controls 4.25/5 Ergonomics/Comfort 8.5/10 Appearance/Quality 9.0/10 Desirability 8.0/10 Value 9.5/10 Overall Score 87.75/100
When last we visited a Triumph Tiger 800 in XC guise it was in a shootout against BMW’s F800GS Adventure in 2014. This was prior to Triumph’s further diversification of the lineup which now consists of eight models – four XR and four XC including the XCx tested here.
The XCx upgrades the standard XC with a variety of niceties including cruise control, ride modes, auto-canceling indicators, auxiliary socket, centerstand, as well as protecting the bike better via sump, engine, radiator and hand guards. All of this for an MSRP increase of $1,200 ($13,700 vs. $12,500).
According to Triumph, the XCx weighs seven more pounds than the XC, mostly due to its centerstand and variety of protective guards. On the MO scales the XCx came in at 519 pounds full of fuel, making it the lightest bike among those tested in our forthcoming Wire-Wheel Adventure-Bike Shootout. The 800cc Triple of the Tiger produced marginally better horsepower than Honda’s 998cc parallel-Twin (87.5 hp at 9200 rpm vs. 85.7 hp at 7600 rpm), but substantially less torque from its 200cc-smaller displacement (52.9 lb-ft at 7900 rpm vs. 67.0 lb-ft at 5900 rpm).
All XC models roll on a 21-inch front, 17-inch rear tire combo, which helps unburden off-road encumbrances. Transitions through a series of paved twisties will be slightly more lethargic, but it’s a good compromise for an ADV bike. Climbing a seriously tight roadway on our way up to Big Bear, the only thing holding the Tiger back was the grinding of its footpegs through an unrelenting stream of 15-mph corners.
2015 Triumph Tiger 800 XRx vs. Yamaha FJ-09
Also helping the Tiger in off-road situations is the amazingly well-thought-out combination of preset parameters in its Off-Road riding mode. A simple button push on the left front of the instrument cluster switched the Tiger from Road to Off-Road mode, effectively changing the power delivery, TC and ABS settings to better suit unpaved conditions. And, if you’re not happy with the factory settings you can modify them in Rider mode, personalizing them to your preferences, which is then also selectable via the same instrument cluster button.
The Tiger’s seating position is somewhat more road biased with its handlebars positioned lower than other off-road adventurers, forcing a rider to lean over a tad further when standing on the pegs. Taller riders never complained of discomfort, and shorter riders welcomed its adjustable 33.0-to-33.8-inch seat height.
For anyone entertaining the thought of longer-distance traveling, the addition of cruise control is almost worth the price of admission alone. The set-it-and-forget-it option for long stretches of straight lines can’t be beat. The self-cancelling turn signals are admittedly cool, once you get lazy enough to let them do their job.
Depending on your point of view, the chain final drive can either be beneficial or detrimental, but at least the x model comes with a centerstand that makes lubrication, adjustment and repair much less ominous tasks – especially when away from the comforts of home.
The Tiger proves to be a good option for anyone intimidated by the typical 600-pound adventure bike. Its more easily managed size and weight are something to be seriously considered, and its reasonable MSRP is a grand value considering the robust electronics package and other add-ons.
2016 Triumph Tiger 800 XCx + Highs Fun on the pavement and in the dirt
Small and light makes right
Good value for the price – Sighs Engine is a little revvy for technical off-roading
Doesn’t have the torque of larger-displacement engines
Bars are low when standingFederal wildlife managers on Tuesday cleared the way for a Walmart-anchored strip mall in one of the world’s rarest forests, a tract of vanishing pine rockland inhabited by butterflies, bats, snakes and fragile wildflowers found no place else.
In approving a conservation plan, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they do not expect the sprawling box store and mall, a parking lot or 900 apartments to threaten the survival of more than 20 endangered plants and animals — including the Miami tiger beetle — that live in the pineland. The approved plan divides what was once about 90 acres of forest scattered across 138 acres near Zoo Miami into two 20-plus acre preserves connected by a pathway, with the mall and apartments at the center.
The plan differs little from the proposal submitted by a Palm Beach County developer two years ago, despite more than 3,000 comments filed by critics with the agency during the review.
“What you have to realize is you’re talking about a private property owner’s rights,” said spokesman Ken Warren. “The Endangered Species Act is a tool we use to work with them to allow them to find a way to pursue their interests. It’s a delicate balance.”
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Ram Realty Services
But conservationists and neighbors say that far from being balanced, the decision disregarded the Act’s aim to provide a safety net for imperiled plants and animals.
“It’s got to be one of the greatest derelictions of duty by the Service in South Florida and that’s because there’s so many endangered species,” said Jaclyn Lopez, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Service also allowed developer Peter Cummings and his environmental consultant to develop their own formula to calculate damage caused by the project.
“They used this completely novel, untested, unscientific valuation matrix to cover the loss of these species which are already on the brink of extinction,” Lopez said. “There was no math or scientific explanation. It’s sort of like this black box of information.”
The Bartram’s hairstreak butterfly is one of two endangered butterflies that live in pineland. Holly L Salvato Courtesy of
Cummings, president of Ram Realty, said through a spokesman that the project underwent extensive review that included increasing the amount of conservation land and reduced commercial development by 75,000 square feet.
When Cummings unveiled the project in 2014, criticism was swift from conservationists who had long hoped to protect the land under a Miami-Dade County program that had helped create Larry and Penny Thompson Park on 270 acres of nearby pineland. The University of Miami had been given the parcel, part of a former blimp base, by the U.S. government to use for educational purposes and for years left it largely undeveloped, using a few buildings and cages for primate research.
The university had planned to build an academic village, but after it ran into financial problems and the educational deed restriction expired, UM sold the land to Cummings for $22 million.
Only about two percent of the pine rockland that once covered South Florida’s spiny ridge remains, leaving little habitat for a host of native animals and plants that include the gopher tortoise, bonneted bat and indigo snake. Over the past three years, a number have been added to the endangered species list, including two butterflies, two ground herbs and the Miami tiger beetle, which was rediscovered on the property decades after researchers thought it had gone extinct.
In 2007, researchers discovered the rare tiger beetle living in the pineland now slated for the shopping center.
Nearby residents have also sued to stop the project, claiming they weren’t properly notified. The project went largely unnoticed until a team of plant experts allowed onto the property to collect rare plants found far more than initial county surveys revealed. That case is still pending.
When asked when Cummings planned to start work, spokesman Ray Casas pointed to a December memo from County Mayor Carlos Gimenez saying the project could move forward once wildlife managers signed off on the conservation plan. On Tuesday, nearby workers said land-clearing equipment was already parked on the property.
The sudden announcement also angered conservationists who have been following and weighing in on the process over the last three years.
“No heads up? No delay to give people time to look at this knowing it’s very controversial?” asked attorney Dennis Olle, a board member of the North American Butterfly Association’s Miami chapter. “This might as well have come from the real estate and developers association or whatever you call them. These are our tax funds going to someone who’s supposed to protect our environment.”PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - Mayor Annise Parker and her long-time partner married in a sunset ceremony in Palm Springs, Calif., according to the mayor's office.
Mayor Parker and Kathy Hubbard exchanged vows Thursday evening during a private ceremony amongst family and friends, including Hubbard's sister and Parker's mother.
Mayor Parker and the first lady chose January 16 for their wedding because it marks the 23rd anniversary of their lives together.
"This is a very happy day for us," said Mayor Parker. "We have had to wait a very long time to formalize our commitment to each other. Kathy has been by my side for more than two decades, helping to raise a family, nurture my political career and all of the other ups and down and life events that come with a committed relationship. She is the love of my life and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life married to her."
Mayor Parker's office says the first lady has other insurance options available to her and will not participate in the new policy granting city health insurance benefits to the spouses of legally-married city employees.
Copyright 2014 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Discussion about Dishonored tends to focus on the game's morality. Should Corvo kill his opponents, or neutralize them by nonlethal means? Is it right to assist a suitor in abducting Lady Boyle? Should we poison the elixir still for our own gain? While a lot of writers have addressed these questions, not many have considered the question of whether Corvo's actions are honorable in the context of 18th and 19th century thought - which is odd, considering the game's title. Perhaps this is because we read Dishonored as a modern revenge tale, when its roots lay in a class system and social structure that's antiquated and unfamiliar to a modern audience. In the eyes of British honor culture, Corvo is a villain. His conduct is not that of a gentleman: he allows himself to be subjugated, he takes unfair advantage, and his vicious methods speak to his foreign origins. Interestingly, when we look at Dishonored from this perspective of honor culture, its themes appear very different.
Before we continue, I need to speak briefly about methodology. In writing this column I'm transposing a values system on Dishonored that, while broadly analogous to a British-inspired aristocratic society that practices dueling, is an imperfect fit. While they share many similarities, Dunwall is not London, and Corvo's time cannot be directly compared to the 18th and 19th centuries without straining both the game and the historical record, and this may lead to a reading of the game that was not intended by the developers or hold up to extended scrutiny. Therefore, I urge you not to consider this a definitive or complete reading of Dishonored, but rather a reinterpretation of its themes in light of historical thoughts and attitudes.
In order to put Dishonored's themes in the proper context, I contacted Dr. Stephen Banks, an associate professor at the School of Law of the University of Reading. Dr. Banks is a specialist in British honor culture and has written numerous books and articles about the practice of dueling in English society, including Duels and Duelling and A Polite Exchange of Bullets: The Duel and the English Gentleman, 1750-1850. According to Dr. Banks, to understand British honor culture, we have to jettison our normal conceptions of right and wrong, since dueling was less about morality and more about displays of social power. We also have to leave behind our modern understanding that what separated the British upper classes from "commoners" was their wealth, social power, and political clout. Gentlemen - as the ruling class called themselves - believed that they were different from the working class not because they had these advantages, but because they had a store of internal honor that most of humanity lacked, which made them unwilling to be subjugated. "When a gentleman viewed a whipped slave," says Dr. Banks, "he didn't view a man who had been a victim of power relations and social structure, he saw a man who had allowed himself to be whipped. Better to rebel, to deny he has a master and to be killed than be so subjugated. This is what a gentleman (in theory) would do."
To drive home the point that they were not only socially but physically different, the small group of gentlemen controlling society structured every aspect of English culture to reinforce the message that they were above the common masses. "The way this was done," explains Dr. Banks, "was through the repetition of acts that constantly emphasized that a gentleman was distinctly and qualitatively different." Gentlemen, for instance, always served as officers in the military and were granted certain privileges, such as the ability to take quarters outside of camp and an exemption from physical punishments like flogging. Gentlemen had titles and forms of address, so that literally talking to them was different than conversing with a member of the working classes. This special treatment under the laws of society was present in civilian life as well, and gentlemen accused of crimes often found themselves dining as guests of public officials the night before their trials, since jails were dirty places unfit for a man of breeding. "In other words, there was a legal, physical, psychological boundary between a gentleman and other members of society." These privileges also came with obligations - namely that a gentleman must keep his honor intact by holding himself separate from the common people (an officer could lose his commission for sitting down at a table with enlisted men), preserving his image as something different and nobler, and above all else, make sure no one challenged his honor or tried to subjugate him. Failing to uphold this system would mean being cast out of the elite class entirely.First 3DMark scores of Radeon RX Vega are here. It may be too early to post them, but to be honest I don’t think final performance will be much different. The listing does not tell us which RX Vega is being tested and in what mode (gaming or silent mode?).
You can look up who made those benchmarks… it will not get any more official than this before launch.
Anyway, draw your own conclusions, I’m just a messenger.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3DMark Fire Strike Performance Graphics Card Core Clock Memory Clock 3DMark Fire Strike GPU Score MSI GTX 1080 TI Gaming X 1924 MHz 1390 MHz 29425 MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X 1924 MHz 1263 MHz 22585 AMD Radeon RX Vega #1 1630 MHz 945 MHz 22330 AMD Radeon RX Vega #2 1630 MHz 945 MHz 22291 AMD Radeon RX Vega #3 1536 MHz 945 MHz 20949 COLORFUL GTX 1070 1797 MHz 2002 MHz 18561
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.The American Dream is a 30 minute animated film that shows you how you've been scammed by the most basic elements of the government system.
From the author : All of us Americans strive for the American Dream, and this film shows you why your dream is getting farther and farther away. Do you know how your money is created? Or how banking works? Why did housing prices skyrocket and then plunge? Do you really know what the Federal Reserve System is and how it affects you every single day?
The American Dream takes an entertaining but hard hitting look at how the problems we have today are nothing new, and why leaders throughout our history have warned us and fought against the current type of financial system we have in America today.
You will be challenged to investigate some very entrenched and powerful institutions in this nation, and hopefully encouraged to help get our nation back on track.Sotheby’s has announced that it will be handling the estate collection of the great American playwright Edward Albee. The dedicated auction will be held this September in New York with proceeds of the sale benefiting The Edward F. Albee Foundation, which provides residencies for writers and visual artists in Montauk, Long Island.
“He really loved objects, and he really loved painting,” said Amy Cappellazzo, the chairman of Sotheby’s fine arts division
Albee who died last year was one of America’s most-treasured cultural figures. He was a keen observer of modern life in the United States whose piercing dialogue and constant experimentation helped reinvent and define post-war theater internationally. Beginning with The Zoo Story in 1958, the dozens of plays he wrote over the following five decades include such icons as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966), Three Tall Women (1991), and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2000).
For many, Sotheby’s September auction will offer a new window into Edward Albee’s life and creative mind. Sourced from artists, friends and galleries over several decades, the majority of the 100+ works on offer adorned the walls of Albee’s Tribeca loft, which he rehung often to explore new artistic connections. In keeping with his constant experimentation as a playwright, the collection focuses on the birth and evolution of Abstraction in 20th century art, and a highly-personal intellectual pursuit of the ephemeral and the elusive – from a stunning figural work by Milton Avery, to a whimsical relief by Jean Arp, a Bauhaus work by Wassily Kandinsky, and a group of geometric abstractions by John McLaughlin.
Ms. Cappellazzo said Albee, who died last September at 88, amassed the collection over many years and across many genres. She said some works were acquired based on relationships he had with the artists, some because they were connected to devotional practices that interested him, and some simply because they caught his eye.
The sale will take place on 26 September 2017
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2015 Tallahassee Regional Preview
Regional Superlatives
Most Exciting Player: Florida State outfielder DJ Stewart is a top hitter and emotional leader. As he goes, FSU goes.
Best Hitter: Stewart was D1Baseball.com’s 13th rated college prospect in the Midseason 150 and is the player in FSU’s lineup that keeps pitching coaches awake at 3 a.m. His lefthanded power bat plays well in the ‘Noles’ home park.
Best Defensive Player: Anfernee Grier makes the highlight plays look easy as the Auburn centerfielder. His glove is where doubles go to die.
Best Pitcher: Junior righthander Taylor Clarke of College of Charleston leads the country in wins with 13. The Golden Spikes semi-finalist is the CAA Pitcher of the Year and ranked in the top ten nationally in wins, strikeouts, strikeout-to-walk ratio, WHIP, and ERA. Clarke not only will sit 90-94 mph with his fastball, but has good secondary stuff to complement it.
X-Factor: Auburn starting pitcher and righthander Cole Lipscomb has beaten Florida and Kentucky in his last two starts. He gets a shot at College of Charleston Friday. Opponents are hitting just.215 off the redshirt sophomore righthander.
Best Starting Rotation: College of Charleston has Clarke, Brandon Glazer, and Hayden McCutcheon, who should all give them quality starts. Glazer is one of the more interesting stories in the postseason, as he’s a converted position player who had only thrown three innings in his long career before this season.
Best Bullpen: Florida State. Billy Strode gives the ‘Noles a lock down closer and he has plenty of help around him. The FSU bullpen has not allowed a run in its last eight innings.
Best Offensive Team: College of Charleston has seven.300 hitters and plenty of power. Blake Butler (.338/.405/.575) leads the team with 12 home runs while Nick Pappas, Carl Wise, Bradley Jones combined for 30 home runs on a team that hit 68 home runs and added 127 doubles. The Cougars should be able to hit very well at hitter-friendly Dick Howser Stadium.
Best Defensive Team: Auburn has the outfield speed to eliminate a lot of gappers and are fielding a respectable.973 as a team.
No. 1 Seed Win Probability (1-10) — 7. Florida State has a tough road ahead with Eric Nyquist and Mercer potentially followed by Glazer and Charleston. The Seminoles can play with anybody and should take this one but have shown enough vulnerability that someone could knock them off.
Team Breakdowns
DJ Stewart is a big key to Florida State’s success this weekend. (Aaron Fitt)
Florida State finished third in the ACC, but if not for a couple of bad weekends, could have been a national seed. The Seminoles have been hot and cold this season and enter the regionals with a sizzle after an undefeated 4-0 run to an ACC Tournament title coming on the heels of a five-game losing streak. FSU has a lineup built more around power than average. FSU averages 6.8 runs per game, is hitting.257 with 55 home runs, and are 57-74 in stolen base attempts. They field at an uninspiring.963. DJ Stewart (.318/.506/.585) leads the offense with 13 home runs and 52 RBI. Danny De La Calle, John Sansone, and Dylan Busby also provide power; the three have combined to slug 25 home runs. Mike Compton (4-3/2.84) will start game one versus Mercer saving Boomer Biegalski (7-4/2.84) for Saturday. Drew Carlton (4-5/4.45) is lined up for a third game with Bryant Holtmann (6-1/3.25) available should they need a fourth starter. Billy Strode (2-0/2.08/13 svs) is the closer and he is flanked by Dylan Silva (6-1/4.35), Jim Voyles (0-1/2.59), Alec Byrd (5-1/4.64), and Cobi Johnson (3-2/7.17). The Seminoles are anxious to atone for a rough regional in 2014 where they were eliminated in their first two games. This team may not have the elite pitching that other top seeds have but they have the mound depth to advance through the losers’ bracket if needed. Mike Martin’s squad will go as far as Stewart and the lineup can take them.
Taylor Clarke is a beast of a pitcher for Charleston. (Charleston)
College of Charleston won the Colonial regular-season crown and made it to the finals of the CAA tournament. Many felt it would host a regional, but are instead in Tallahassee as the two-seed. The Cougars should not be intimidated by Dick Howser after winning the Gainesville Regional a year ago. Despite losing projected ace Bailey Ober earlier in the season because of an injury, the Cougars have a really strong rotation led by Taylor Clarke (13-1/1.34). He has logged 107 1/3 inning this year and opponents have hit just.178 off of him. Brandon Glazer (10-1/2.68) has surprised as a really good second starter. Hayden McCutcheon (1-1/4.33) is coming off a complete game, no earned run, win over Delaware in the CAA Tournament which could get him a larger role this week. Chase Henry (2-1/4.62/5 svs), Carter Love (5-0/2.17/3 svs), Eric Bauer (4-4/5.73), and Wade Arduini (1-1/5.85) should all see mound action. The Cougar offense basically uses the same nine players in the lineup and eight of them hit.290 or better. As a team they hit.309 and were 46 for 65 in stolen base attempts. They are fielding a modest.966. College of Charleston will need to get innings from its starters and capitalize on its offensive firepower in a hitters’ park. If they do, Monte Lee’s club has a great chance to win their second regional in as many seasons.
Daniel Robert and the Auburn offense will need to provide some big-time support. (Auburn)
Auburn finished ninth in the SEC with a 13-17 record, but went 35-24 overall and slipped into the postseason in large part thanks to a challenging schedule and impressive 21 RPI. The Tigers are making their first trip to a regional since they hosted in 2010. Sunny Golloway’s squad has struggled scoring runs this year and average under five per game. They also have hit just 17 home runs as a team – just four more than FSU’s Stewart has alone. As a result, they are extremely aggressive on the bases looking to steal (57-for-94), sacrifice (54), and take extra bases. An |
high-risk rheumatoid arthritis genes and specific rheumatoid arthritis antibodies, called anti-CCP. This type of rheumatoid arthritis is called ‘CCP-positive’ and accounts for the majority of cases.
“Our immune system is made up of specialized cells that move through blood and tissue, preventing disease and fighting infection by distinguishing between what is the body’s own healthy tissue and what is foreign,” she explains.
“This treatment teaches the patient’s immune system to ignore a naturally occurring peptide that is incorrectly identified as ‘foreign,’ resulting in the production of CCP antibodies and causing inflammation.
“A personalized immunotherapy was prepared for each patient by taking a sample of their blood and extracting a particular type of immune cell called dendritic cells,” says Thomas. “The patient’s dendritic cells were then challenged with the ‘foreign’ peptide and an immune system modulator. The treated dendritic cells were then injected back into the patient.”
Thomas says a single injection of the patient’s own immune-modified dendritic cells was found to be safe and to help suppress the immune response in rheumatoid arthritis. “This in turn was associated with reduced inflammation,” she says.
Next steps
“At this stage, the technique would not be ideal for widespread treatment or prevention of rheumatoid arthritis because it’s costly and time-consuming,” adds Thomas.
“However, the promising results of this trial lay the foundations for the development of a more cost-effective, clinically-practical vaccine technology that could deliver similar outcomes for patients.
Professor Thomas is working on a delivery technology with Dendright Pty Ltd (a UniQuest start-up company) in collaboration Janssen Biotech Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
If the delivery of this technology proves successful in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, it could also be applied to other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.
Source: University of QueenslandGHC on ARM January 19, 2010
During my “Linux Kernel Modules with Haskell” tech talk I mentioned my next personal project (on my already over-full plate) would be to play with Haskell on ARM. I’m finally getting around to a little bit of playing! Step zero was to get hardware so I acquired a touchbook – feel free to ignore all the marketing on that site (though I am quite happy with it) and just understand it is the equivalent of a beagleboard with keyboard, touch-pad, touch screen, speakers, wifi, bluetooth, two batteries, more USB ports, and a custom Linux distribution.
Step 1: Get an Unregistered Build
To start its best to bypass the porting GHC instructions and steal someone elses porting effort in the form of a Debian package (actually, three debian packages). Convert them to a.tar.gz (unless you have a debian OS on your ARM system) using a handy deb2targz script. Now untar them onto your ARM system via “sudo tar xzf oneOfThePackages.tar.gz -C /”. Be sure to copy the package.conf as it seems to be missing from the.debs “sudo cp /usr/lib/ghc-6.10.4/package.conf.shipped /var/lib/ghc-6.10.4/package.conf”. After all this you should have a working copy of GHC 6.10.4 – confirm that assertion by compiling some simple test programs.
I now have my copy of 6.10.4 building GHC 6.12.1. The only hitch thus far was needing to add -mlong-calls to the C options when running./configure. With luck I will soon have an unregistered GHC 6.12.1 on my ARM netbook. I’ll edit this post tomorrow with results (yes, I’m actually compiling on the ARM and not in an x86 + QEMU environment).
Step 2: Get a registered build – upstream patches
This is where things become more black-box to me. I want to make a native code generator (NCG) for GHC/ARM. There are some decent notes about the RTS at the end of the previously mentioned porting guide and there is also a (up-to-date?) page on the NCG. Hopefully this, combined with the GHC source, will be enough but I’ll probably be poking my head into #ghc more often.
Step 3: Write more Haskell
The purpose of all of this was to use Haskell on my ARM system. Hopefully I’ll find time to tackle some problems that non-developers will care about!
AdvertisementsPennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf says he is rejecting parts of a $30.3 billion state budget plan that's already a record six months overdue, but he's freeing up over $23 billion in emergency funding.
At a news conference at the Capitol in Harrisburg on Tuesday, the Democrat said the Republican-backed proposal falls short and lawmakers "left town before they finished their job."
"We were so close to a reasonable compromise #PAbudget. Then GOP House leaders told their members to go home." -TW pic.twitter.com/5IaGuTKJB4 — Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) December 29, 2015
In lieu of full budget, Wolf pledged to release $23.3 billion dollars — $7 billion less than legislators approved. The governor says it will provide enough in emergency funds to keep schools open. They had been cut off from state aid since July and some threatened to close after the holiday break.
Wolf blasted lawmakers for leaving the Capitol before the holidays and says he still wants them to pass the budget framework agreement he made with GOP leaders back in November.
“We’re now at a point where I don’t want to hold the children of Pennsylvania hostage for the inability of folks here in Harrisburg to get the job done,” Wolf said. “We have a compromise. The solution is to get that compromise budget passed.”
Senate Republican Leader Jake Corman said he was disappointed with Wolf’s actions, but is prepared to move forward.
He said democrats and republicans in the House and Senate have not all been on the same page with the Wolf administration.
"This is really a five party discussion,” Corman says. “I think the problem with the framework was that we didn't have all five parties on board. We need to have all five parties moving in the same direction."
The bill resembles a GOP budget plan Wolf vetoed on June 30. It contains about $500 million less than a deal Wolf had negotiated with Republican leaders. Both proposals required unspecified tax increases.
Republican leaders scaled down that plan last week after a bill to reduce state pension costs stalled in the GOP-controlled House.
Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Rob Gleason issued a statement saying Wolf finally admitted his “multi-billion dollar mistake.”
“When Tom Wolf issued a complete veto of the Republicans’ on-time budget last June, he needlessly plunged our school districts and non-profits into a six-month crisis.”
Although money will be flowing again to schools and nonprofits, the bill does not reimburse them for the millions of dollars in debt they racked up borrowing to stay afloat during the impasse.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.She has been called “a small lady with a large I.Q.” She has been mocked for wearing the same outfit to both her official White House nomination and her confirmation hearing. (“At least we know her mind won’t be preoccupied with haute couture,” a Washington gossip columnist wrote.) And when President Barack Obama once referred to Janet L. Yellen as “Mr. Yellen,” she didn’t bother correcting him.
Ms. Yellen, the first woman to serve as the head of the Federal Reserve Board, didn’t ask to become a feminist icon, and she almost never talks about gender in the abstract or her historic role as the agency’s chairman (she bristles at being called “chairwoman”). And yet, during a tenure characterized by a plummeting unemployment rate and consistently low inflation, Ms. Yellen became a pop culture phenomenon.
Last month, President Trump nominated Jerome H. Powell to replace her. The move broke with a long-held tradition of new presidents (even those of opposing parties) extending the terms of the Federal Reserve chairman they have inherited. Ms. Yellen said she would step down from the Fed’s board, a position that doesn’t expire until 2024, when her four-year term as chairman ends in February. Her impending departure has reminded women of how much it meant to them, to see one of their own making decisions that have reverberated throughout the global economy.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, she is scheduled to preside over the Federal Reserve’s last meeting of the year — and her last major decision as the Fed’s leader. The central bank is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate in acknowledgment of the steady decline of the unemployment rate and the general strengthening of the economy.Goldman Sachs doubled its profits in the second quarter as the bank benefited from gains in fixed income, currency and commodity trading revenue.
The Wall Street giant set out its latest quarterly earnings Tuesday morning announcing net income of $1.93bn, compared with $962m a year earlier. Net revenue, including net interest income, rose 30% to $8.61bn from $6.6bn last year.
The bank said it had set aside $3.7bn for compensation and benefits – including bonuses – in the second quarter, 27% higher than the second quarter of 2012. Goldman said the increase reflected "a significant increase in net revenues".
"The firm's performance was solid especially in the context of mixed economic sentiment during the quarter," said Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer. "Improving economic conditions in the US drove client activity and the strength of our global client franchise allowed us to deliver positive performance across a number of our businesses. While the operating environment has shown noticeable signs of improvement, we continue to put a premium on disciplined risk management, particularly in regard to the firm's strong capital and liquidity levels."
Revenue from fixed income, currency and commodity trading totaled $2.46bn in the second quarter, versus $2.19bn a year earlier. Total equities revenue was $1.85bn, compared with $1.7bn a year earlier and $1.92bn in the first quarter.
Goldman Sachs ranked first worldwide in investment banking in the quarter. Net revenues in investment banking were $1.55bn, 29% higher than the second quarter of 2012 and essentially unchanged compared with the first quarter of 2013. Net revenues in financial advisory were $486m, slightly higher than the second quarter of 2012. Net revenues in the firm's underwriting business were $1.07bn, 45% higher than the second quarter of 2012.
Net revenues in investment management were $1.33bn, essentially unchanged compared with the second quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013. Net revenues in investing and lending were $1.42bn for the second quarter of 2013.Randal O'Toole suggests that self-driving cars will mean the death of mass transit. Matt Yglesias counters that the primary effect will be to dramatically reduce the number of parking spots. Here are some other likely effects on land use and commuting patterns:
Greater density around suburban subway stations. Right now, suburban subway stations tend to be surrounded by a sea of parking lots in order to accomodate riders who live too far from the station to walk to it. And that's unfortunate because massive parking lots deter developers from building high-density housing within walking distance of the station. Self-driving cars solve this problem by making taxi rental cheaper than car ownership. In a world of ubiquitous self-driving taxis, there's no reason to provide any parking spaces on the valuable real estate near a subway stop. So subway ridership is likely to go up even as more land is opened up within walking distance of suburban subway stations for apartments and businesses.
Right now, suburban subway stations tend to be surrounded by a sea of parking lots in order to accomodate riders who live too far from the station to walk to it. And that's unfortunate because massive parking lots deter developers from building high-density housing within walking distance of the station. Self-driving cars solve this problem by making taxi rental cheaper than car ownership. In a world of ubiquitous self-driving taxis, there's no reason to provide any parking spaces on the valuable real estate near a subway stop. So subway ridership is likely to go up even as more land is opened up within walking distance of suburban subway stations for apartments and businesses. Virtually no parking spaces. Matt's right about this, but I think he's understating the phenomenon. It's likely that once all cars are self-driving, we'll barely need any off-street parking spaces at all. During peak periods, virtually all cars will be on the roads driving people around. During off-peak periods, cars will still be on the roads, they'll just pull over to the side of the road and stop. As Brad Templeton points out in the middle of the night cars could double- or triple-park on 6- or 8-lane boulevards, park in front of driveways, and so forth. This won't be a problem because they'll be able to instantly get out of the way if they're blocking the path of another car. So the only people who need off-street parking will be rich people who insist on spending extra for a private car rather than going the more affordable taxi route.
Matt's right about this, but I think he's understating the phenomenon. It's likely that once all cars are self-driving, we'll barely need any off-street parking spaces at all. During peak periods, virtually all cars will be on the roads driving people around. During off-peak periods, cars will still be on the roads, they'll just pull over to the side of the road and stop. As Brad Templeton points out in the middle of the night cars could double- or triple-park on 6- or 8-lane boulevards, park in front of driveways, and so forth. This won't be a problem because they'll be able to instantly get out of the way if they're blocking the path of another car. So the only people who need off-street parking will be rich people who insist on spending extra for a private car rather than going the more affordable taxi route. Higher road density. One of the benefits of self-driving cars will be that people can take exactly the right vehicle for each trip. Once likely consequence is that small, light vehicles will become viable for use in urban areas. And given that most cars at rush hour have a single commuter in them, that will create a market for half-width, single-occupant cars. These cars, combined with the superior driving skills of computers, will make it possible for two cars to drive side-by-side in a single lane. Also, the superior reaction times of self-driving cars, and their ability to warn each wirelessly about impending stops, means that self-driving cars will be able to safely maintain smaller following distances than human drivers can. Both of these effects will increase the throughput of each traffic lane, reducing congestion and making driving more attractive relative to mass transit.
One of the benefits of self-driving cars will be that people can take exactly the right vehicle for each trip. Once likely consequence is that small, light vehicles will become viable for use in urban areas. And given that most cars at rush hour have a single commuter in them, that will create a market for half-width, single-occupant cars. These cars, combined with the superior driving skills of computers, will make it possible for two cars to drive side-by-side in a single lane. More nimble "buses." Current bus systems are designed to economize on one of their most expensive components: the human driver. Contemporary buses are enormous and run infrequently. At off-peak times, they're almost empty. Buses that drive themselves will be dramatically cheaper to operate, which means that we'll be able to afford many more of them. Instead of a full-size bus stopping every 15 minutes, it'll be feasible to have a van stop every 3 minutes. And because each mini-bus will pick up fewer passengers, travel time will be lower. Indeed, it's not clear that the concept of a "bus" will even make sense in a self-driving world. More likely, when you order a self-driving taxi with your smartphone, you'll be offered several options. You might be offered a private taxi for $3, a taxi shared with one other person for $2, or a carpool van with several other people for $1. The dispatching software will be able to automatically group together passengers taking similar trips at the same time, so the carpool options shouldn't add much time to the trip. With those low-cost options available, it's not clear anyone would want to ride a bus.
To return to O'Toole's original claim that self-driving cars will reduce demand for rail transit, I think it depends on which cities you're talking about. In smaller metro areas, self-driving cars will likely make recently-built light rail systems look even more like white elephants, as the falling cost of taxi service and the reduction in congestion causes many rail customers to switch to them. As self-driving taxis become affordable even for poor commuters, smaller metro areas are likely to become even more car-focused and sprawling than they already are.
On the other hand, in larger metro areas the emergence of affordable taxi service may actually increase subway ridership, as more suburban residents take a taxi to their local subway stop and ride to work in the central business district. Indeed, the greater efficiency of self-driving transportation has the potential to dramatically increase the size and density of our largest cities. And that will make the rail transit systems of large cities like New York and Chicago more essential than ever.Philadelphia is home to some of college basketball's greatest rivalries. Drexel vs. The University of the Sciences is not one of them, but the Division II USciences managed to defeat the Division I Dragons on Thursday night.
USciences came away with a 54-52 victory, led by 27 points from senior forward Garrett Kerr. Kerr and sophomore guard Sho Da-Silva, who had 15 points, were the only players to score in double digits for the Devils. Kerr's three-pointer with two seconds gave USciences the win.
The two schools are located a little more than a mile from each other in the southwestern part of Philadelphia.
• Division III school lifts suspension after player's Ferguson protest
Drexel fell to 2-5 and had its two-game win streak snapped, while USciences improved to 6-2.
Drexel's next game is on Dec. 13 against Big 5 rival La Salle.
http://www.120sports.com/video/v103134482/utah-wins-a-wild-one
- Dan GartlandPoachers killed at least 86 elephants in Chad last week, including 33 pregnant females and 15 calves, conservation groups said Tuesday, warning that elephants in Central Africa risked being wiped out by such slaughters. The killing was the worst in the region since more than 300 elephants were slaughtered in Cameroon early last year. Both raids took place during the dry season, when poachers armed with automatic weapons carry out coordinated attacks on herds of elephants in the region. The attack was reported to have taken place on March 14 and 15 in southern Chad, near the border with Cameroon. Citing local officials, the World Wildlife Fund said the poachers were on horseback and spoke Arabic, suggesting that they may have been the same group involved in the 2012 attack in northern Cameroon. Conservationists warn that criminal gangs are trafficking huge quantities of tusks to cash in on soaring demand for ivory in Asia.When Mohammad Ali and Zakia related how her family opposed the match because they are Sunni Tajiks and he is a Shiite Hazara, and how the two had tried for years to persuade her parents to allow them to be together, Zahra and Haji readily agreed the couple could stay.
“I support what they did; they love each other,” Zahra said. “And for God’s sake, I decided we should help them.”
This was the eighth place the couple had slept in since the night that Zakia fled a women’s shelter in Bamian, where she had spent months in custody under court order. At one point, they tried to flee across the Iranian border, but the people smugglers there wanted more money than they had, and the walk was, Mohammad Ali feared, more than Zakia could survive.
For a while, they took refuge in Ghazni Province, a dangerous area with a large Hazara population.
Finally they came to these high mountains, where they could at least find friends and distant relatives, although not all were welcoming. One night, turned away from shelter, the couple had to sleep on a mountainside; two nights, though they were near a large town, they feared to enter it and slept in a cave on the outskirts.
By the time they arrived at Haji and Zahra’s home, Mohammad Ali said, he was down to his last 1,000 afghanis — less than $20. There was no cellphone service unless he climbed to the top of a 14,000-foot peak nearby, and often that still did not work. He needed to make calls to arrange their next refuge.Fire Joe Morgan (2005-2008) has a cult reputation that can seem intimidating to those not already in the cult. Like Mystery Science Theater 3000 in more ways than one, the short-lived, much-beloved baseball blog took aim at subpar sports journalism, heckling bad math and and lazy received wisdom with a call-and-response format that many others still imitate. The writers of FJM were never looking for their site to be influential, successful, or even read by anyone outside their close circle of friends. But they were way too good at what they did—and way, way too funny—for the site to stay undiscovered. Though the site is now dormant, the three statistically inclined baseball fans who wrote the majority of the posts are all now writers for NBC's Parks and Recreation. I took a trip to the offices of that show, where Dave King ("dak"), Alan Yang ("Junior"), and Mike Schur ("Ken Tremendous") filled me in on how FJM became an unexpected hit.
This is Part 2. Read Part 1 here. Part 3 will run tomorrow.
2. FJM BLOWS UP
ON GAINING AN AUDIENCE
MS: I remember Will Leitch linking to us from Deadspin. And at that time I was like, “Whoa, what’s happening? People are reading this?”
DK: And I want to say Richard Deitsch.
MS: At SI, yeah.
AY: We never intended anyone to read it. I think at the very beginning it was just us, so we didn’t have to e-mail each other. And then for whatever reason we enjoyed writing for it every day. And then Will linked to us, and then it was on Yahoo!, and then it was on CNN.
MS: I’ve since met [Will] and become friends with him on some level, and I never—I should ask him.
AY: It was literally in CNN, the print magazine SI. And then it was in Rolling Stone.
MS: Richard Deitsch was the first guy. He does media rankings, and he put our blog in at the end of the year, here are the five best things, and we were in the list of websites. It was crazy. And then, that subsequently led to both me and Alan writing pieces for SI.
AY: For CNN! As pseudonyms! Which was crazy!
MS: I wrote a piece about [Kevin] Garnett and Ray Allen joining the Celtics, and just in general about Boston sports.
AY: I wrote a piece about why Crash shouldn’t have won the Oscar. For Sports Illustrated?
MS: I don’t remember the build, though. I remember Will Leitch linking us once. And going, like, holy cow, we made it. After that it’s all a blur. And by a blur, it should be noted—at the height, it was read by, like, 30,000 people. It wasn’t like Tim Robbins in The Hudsucker Proxy suddenly becoming …
AY: It wasn’t Hello Giggles. Also, it was a different time. It was eight years ago. We would have a crappy site meter statistics. And we’d be like, “Holy shit! Four thousand people?” Then it was ten thousand. It just seemed crazy to us that people would come read these dense, dense, disgustingly laid-out jokes about statistics.
DK: I remember really early on, it was the first day that more than, say, three hundred people visited the site, and I remember being in Mike’s apartment, and we were so happy. We all wrote for shows that, not bragging, but, just by sheer numbers, millions of people watched. And the idea that five hundred people … it made us so happy, in such an unexpected way. It was really cool. It was a very cool feeling.
AY: There was never any pandering. It was the opposite of pandering. You were writing specifically for yourself and the two other guys. It was very natural and organic. It was never like, “How can we get more hits?” That conversation was never had. It was the opposite of that!
MS: We did everything wrong. All the things you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to post every day.
AY: [We were] totally random.
MS: You’re supposed to post right at 9 a.m. First of all, we didn’t know. And second of all, we didn’t care. I would literally, on my lunch break, at The Office, I would go to my office and rip off a thousand words about something I heard Colin Cowherd say that morning on the radio. And then I would go back to work. It was whenever we could do it.
ON THEIR APPRECIATION OF INTERNET COMMUNITIES
AY: I think that interestingly, the site became a little bit of … not only a defense of nerds in general and math in general and nerds in general and post-Francis Baconian thinking, but also that the medium isn’t necessarily as important as the content. So a lot of the newspaper articles at the time, and stuff on ESPN.com or Yahoo.com made fun of writing on blogs. So I think part of us would say “Hey, if there’s a good thought, or an interesting point, or a good insight, and it appears in a form you’re not used to, that doesn’t invalidate the thought.” I don’t really post in forums at all, but I read … Sons of Sam Horn is a good Red Sox forum that is pretty intelligent. And I would say that the points in that forum that are made are largely better than the average point you’ll hear from a color commentator. The level of discussion and discourse there is very high.
DK: I would say my only experience with real online communities was like, trading cassette tapes with other Pavement fans in the mid—
AY: In the mid-2010s.
MS: In the mid-yesterday.
DK: “You’ve got the first live performance of ‘Shady Lane’?”
AY: Gotta get that! Gotta get that on cassette.
DK: “I’ve got Green Day at the Half Shell.”
AY: Dookie tour. Insomniac tour.
MS: I read Sons of Sam Horn and USS Mariner. I read a lot of baseball blogs at the time just because I liked the writing and I liked what people were saying, and I thought it was interesting. I lurked in Sons of Sam Horn for a long time. And once I stumbled on, long after [FJM] was up and running, I stumbled into a conversation where people were debating whether or not Tim McCarver was a good announcer.
DK: What was your take on that?
AY: It was very measured.
MS: And I said “Hey guys, I’ve been lurking here for a long time, and”—I didn’t really say this, but what I meant to say was “I’m going to end this discussion right now.” And I went through our archives and I pulled out like twenty of the dumbest things he’d ever said and just listed them. And then I got an email that was like, “Hey, do you want to join?” And I was like, “Yes, I do! I’ve been lurking here for nine years.” And I post … I’ve probably posted a few hundred times there randomly. But I had no experience engaging in those discussions. Frankly because, a lot of it, the math goes above my head.
AY: They’re good on there, man.
MS: A lot of the, not just on that site, but on a lot of other sites, the actual math they’re using … Sons of Sam Horn, if you go to their main board right now, there’s a pinned post at the top of their main board that’s like, “Please read this if you are going to use WAR in a post.” It’s at that level where you can’t just drop that stat, you have to know how to use it properly, and that is really thrilling and exciting to me.
AY: The gap between the level of discourse on that board and on most other, you know, random basketball teams’ boards.
MS: New York Jets Fans dot com, or whatever.
AY: I have an account there [Sons of Sam Horn]. They gave me an account, which I was pretty happy about. I never posted, but I can read stuff. It’s fun.
ON RESPONSES FROM CRITICS AND BRIEFLY ALLOWING COMMENTS
MS: Here’s what happened. We had a mid-life crisis, where a couple things happened. The first thing was, we felt like it was shitty that we were anonymous. And we talked about it, and we were like, y’know, this isn’t cool. We’re flinging a lot of shit about a lot of people. And they have the right to know who’s saying this stuff. And we’re all having the same … as I remember, we were all kind of feeling that.
AY: We all agreed it’s a little cowardly. Again, the site was all in good fun, and we didn’t mean anything we wrote. But it was a lot of jokes, where it was like, this person’s old, or whatever.
DK: You didn’t really want Dan Shaughnessy’s daughter to have sex with—
AY: Well, that was crazy. That’s when I started getting emails from Dan Shaughnessy. And then I called Dan Shaughnessy and he found out who I was, and stuff.
MS: Yeah, there were a couple things like that. We got emails from the late Mike Celizic, and from Woody Paige. And by the way, all of them, to a man, except for Shaughnessy, which was a personal issue—
AY: Yes, it was a joke I made.
MS: We got a lot of emails saying “Hey. I think your site is funny.” And it made us feel even crappier because we were saying a lot of terrible things. So the first thing that happened was we announced who we really were, our real names. And then the second thing that happened was … I think I was the problem. Because I started to feel like it sucks that people can’t write back to us on the site. And it’s a democracy and we should allow this to happen.
AY: In theory.
MS: That was the theory. I was totally wrong. And I think I brought this up to you guys. I was like, we should allow commenting. And, if I had known better, I never would have said it, because within thirty seconds it was like, oh what a terrible idea.
AY: There were a hundred comments, and—
MS: None of them were good.
AY: None of them would add anything.
DK: Even some of the comments were about what a bad idea it was for us to have comments.
AY: At a certain point, 20 percent of the comments were like, “Please stop! We don’t have the ability to police ourselves!”
MS: It was like a serial killer saying “Put me in jail.”
AY: We were like, “This is a nightmare, I don’t want to see this.” Even though you didn’t have to look at them unless you clicked on it, even knowing it was there.
MS: Very quickly, it was like, ugh ….
AY: The other nice thing was, and this is dumb, but if I ever went to a post, after we eliminated public comments, if I saw that there were comments, I knew that they were from Mike, or Dave, or one of the other five guys.
DK: They were more like notes, or additional jokes.
MS: Or corrections. That was … one of my favorite things about the site was when we would post something, and someone would write a thoughtful, well-formed email to us saying “Hey, you didn’t consider this.” and then we would post a correction or addendum to the post we made. That delighted me to no end. There was a guy, I remember, I had written something about Tony Gwynn. And someone just wrote this really thoughtful—he was a big Padres fan, I think—that was like, “You know, the whole point of Tony Gwynn was that he was just kind of this fat little dude who slapped singles to left-center, and that’s why he was great and fun to watch and valuable." And I was like, “You know what, you’re right.” And I just wrote this happy, I reprinted the e-mail, I was like, “This is a great defense of Tony Gwynn.” I just love that stuff.
3. FJM SETTLES IN
ON TWO OF THEM ACCIDENTALLY WRITING RESPONSES TO THE SAME ARTICLE
MS: That happened a lot.
AY: Sometimes you would look in the drafts and be like, “Oh man, he’s writing a draft!”
MS: But then what happened was…we sort of naturally settled into, like, we had unofficial beats. I started doing the Joe Morgan chats. Alan went after [Bill] Plaschke all the time. I had Celizic. You had [Jeff] Passan, too, until he changed. [Dave] didn’t really have a specific beat. But it sort of happened naturally. More and more, people started sending us links.
AY: That was really helpful.
MS: Then occasionally we would start writing the same piece.
AY: “Okay, I’m doing this one.”
DK: People were great. Emails were amazing. People would send us spreadsheets, and stuff. That was unbelievable.
MS: Yeah, they would send us spreadsheets. They would crunch numbers for us. We would sometimes say, like, “I wish someone would do an analysis of blank,” and then, like, thirty minutes later, someone would send it to us. There was one thing where I made some reference to … something about Congressional powers, and then this really spirited, historical debate rose, and I kept publishing their emails. It was so awesome! I loved it! It was so interesting! And these Congressional historical experts were sending me e-mails going “Well, actually, there is a precedent for this in the 1830s. John Calhoun was once approached …” Anyways, John Kruk’s a moron.
ON HATGUY AND WHO WAS FAIR GAME FOR AN FJM SKEWERING
MS: They were professionals. That was kind of the unspoken thing.
AY: It was staggering that people were using The New York Times, or ESPN, and they were so bad. If someone writes you an email and it’s not great, it’s like, well, that’s just a guy.
DK: I don’t remember a lot of emails that were …
AY: I would describe our audience as a bubble of people who were like-minded. You weren’t really reading that site a lot unless you were kind of into what we were saying.
MS: That was the thing that ultimately was so vexing about it. That Joe Morgan, for example, I wrote this sentence so many times. He was the main color commentator on the Sunday Night Game of the Week on the biggest sports network in the world, and was winning awards for his work. So it wasn’t just that they were professionals, they were held up as the greatest. Joe Morgan, Tim McCarver. And Woody Paige was on Around the Horn every week, and those guys were being put forth by these giant media conglomerates as the best we have to offer.
AY: And still are, in some cases. Joe Morgan got fired, but McCarver still works.
MS: And Mitch Albom has won the Sportswriter of the Year award like eleven times. And Rick Reilly has, too. They’re the people who are the biggest names. It’s almost an inverse relationship to the amount of success you have and the quality of your work. [Rick Reilly] writes a lot of human interest-y kind of things. He’s not mixing it up, hosting a lengthy weekly chat where he was being asked to provide analysis on baseball. He writes about high school kids in Texas.
AY: When it becomes a taste thing, or becomes a “I don’t like this guy’s slant on this story” … I feel like Fire Joe Morgan leaned more heavily on “Hey, I can objectively tell you that what you just wrote was wrong.”
MS: Right.
AY: And that’s an easier thing to fall back on. We know that we can make fun of them because we know we have a quantitative leg to stand on. Whereas if it’s a tearjerker story about a high school wrestler … the piece—I don’t care for the way he wrote it, but I felt like the jokes would be more toothless. Like, “I don’t like how you wrote this.”
DK: “I don’t like all your jokes about the dentist, Rick Reilly.”
MS: I do really enjoy those Deadspin breakdowns. When they read Rick Reilly and count …
AY: How many teeth metaphors?
DK: For a guy with not the best teeth, he really draws a lot of attention to them.
AY: He has a lot of great things. I love that he’s always tweeting pictures of his wife because she’s kinda hot.
DK: Who was that guy who sent us pictures of his condo?
AY: That was Bill Conlin! Child molester Bill Conlin emailed us a bunch!
MS: Noted child molester Bill Conlin.
AY: There is a bit of an FJM curse, of people we’ve written about. It’s pretty terrible.
MS: That I remember being annoyed about. Because that confrontation between Conlin and that other blogger started because that other blogger quoted you. Because you wrote that piece, and then he cited you and wrote to him, and then he cited that guy.
AY: That kind of stuff happened, too, where we didn’t want to throw it in these guys’ faces, in the way that other people would. People started sending our stuff to the writer, and they’d get really profane. Not that we weren’t profane on the site |
, "Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed." When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child's father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. "Stop wailing," Jesus said. "She is not dead but asleep." They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up!" Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. Like other accounts of Jesus' healing people, this has a ring of authenticity. If it were fiction, there are portions of it that would have been written differently. For example, in a fictional account there wouldn't be an interruption with something else happening. If it were fiction, the people in mourning would not have laughed at Jesus' statement; get angry maybe, be hurt by it, but not laugh. And in writing fiction, would Jesus have ordered the parents to be quiet about it? You would expect the healing to make a grand point. But real life isn't always smooth. There are interruptions. People do react oddly. And Jesus had his own reasons for not wanting the parents to broadcast this. The best test of the Gospels authenticity is to read it for yourself. Does it read like a report of real events, or like fiction? If it is real, then God has revealed himself to us. Jesus came, lived, taught, inspired, and brought life to millions who read his words and life today. What Jesus stated in the gospels, many have found reliably true: "I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)
Here’s why the gospels were written.
In the early years after Jesus' death and resurrection there was no apparent need for written biographies about Jesus.Those living in the Jerusalem region were witnesses of Jesus and well aware of his ministry.6
However, when news of Jesus spread beyond Jerusalem, and the eyewitnesses were no longer readily accessible, there was a need for written accounts to educate others about Jesus' life and ministry.
If you would like to know more about Jesus, this article will give you a good summary of his life: Beyond Blind Faith.
How the books of the New Testament were determined.
The early church accepted the New Testament books almost as soon as they were written. It’s already been mentioned that the writers were friends of Jesus or his immediate followers, men to whom Jesus had entrusted the leadership of the early church. The Gospel writers Matthew and John were some of Jesus' closest followers. Mark and Luke were companions of the apostles, having access to the apostles' account of Jesus' life.
The other New Testament writers had immediate access to Jesus as well: James and Jude were half-brothers of Jesus who initially did not believe in him. Peter was one of the 12 apostles. Paul started out as a violent opponent of Christianity and a member of the religious ruling class, but he became an ardent follower of Jesus, convinced that Jesus rose from the dead.
The reports in the New Testament books lined up with what thousands of eyewitnesses had seen for themselves.
When other books were written hundreds of years later, it wasn't difficult for the church to spot them as forgeries. For example, the Gospel of Judas was written by the Gnostic sect, around 130-170 A.D., long after Judas' death. The Gospel of Thomas, written around 140 A.D., is another example of a counterfeit writing erroneously bearing an apostles' name. These and other Gnostic gospels conflicted with the known teachings of Jesus and the Old Testament, and often contained numerous historical and geographical errors.7
In A.D. 367, Athanasius formally listed the 27 New Testament books (the same list that we have today). Soon after, Jerome and Augustine circulated this same list. These lists, however, were not necessary for the majority of Christians. By and large the whole church had recognized and used the same list of books since the first century after Christ.
As the church grew beyond the Greek-speaking lands and needed to translate the Scriptures, and as splinter sects continued to pop up with their own competing holy books, it became more important to have a definitive list.
Historians confirm what the Bible says about Jesus.
Not only do we have well-preserved copies of the original manuscripts, we also have testimony from both Jewish and Roman historians.
The gospels report that Jesus of Nazareth performed many miracles, was executed by the Romans, and rose from the dead. Numerous ancient historians back the Bible's account of the life of Jesus and his followers:
Cornelius Tacitus (A.D. 55-120), an historian of first-century Rome, is considered one of the most accurate historians of the ancient world.8 An excerpt from Tacitus tells us that the Roman emperor Nero "inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class...called Christians....Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus...."9
Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian (A.D. 38-100), wrote about Jesus in his Jewish Antiquities. From Josephus, "we learn that Jesus was a wise man who did surprising feats, taught many, won over followers from among Jews and Greeks, was believed to be the Messiah, was accused by the Jewish leaders, was condemned to be crucified by Pilate, and was considered to be resurrected."10
Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and Thallus also wrote about Christian worship and persecution that is consistent with New Testament accounts.
Even the Jewish Talmud, certainly not biased toward Jesus, concurs about the major events of his life. From the Talmud, "we learn that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock, gathered disciples, made blasphemous claims about himself, and worked miracles, but these miracles are attributed to sorcery and not to God."11
This is remarkable information considering that most ancient historians focused on political and military leaders, not on obscure rabbis from distant provinces of the Roman Empire. Yet ancient historians (Jews, Greeks and Romans) confirm the major events that are presented in the New Testament, even though they were not believers themselves.
Does it matter if Jesus really did and said what is in the Gospels?
Yes. For faith to really be of any value, it must be based on facts, on reality. Here is why. If you were taking a flight to London, you would probably have faith that the jet is fueled and mechanically reliable, the pilot trained, and no terrorists on board. Your faith, however, is not what gets you to London. Your faith is useful in that it got you on the plane. But what actually gets you to London is the integrity of the plane, pilot, etc. You could rely on your positive experience of past flights. But your positive experience would not be enough to get that plane to London. What matters is the object of your faith -- is it reliable?
Is the New Testament an accurate, reliable presentation of Jesus? Yes. We can trust the New Testament because there is enormous factual support for it. This article touched on the following points: historians concur, archaeology concurs, the four Gospel biographies are in agreement, the preservation of document copies is remarkable, there is superior accuracy in the translations. All of this gives a solid foundation for believing that what we read today is what the original writers wrote and experienced in real life, in real places.
John, one of the writers sums it up well, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."12
You are welcome to sign up for a free study of the Gospel of John, which comes to you by email. Click here.
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Footnotes: (1) Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ (Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), p. 132. (2) The renowned Jewish archaeologist, Nelson Glueck, wrote: "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference." cited by McDowell, Josh. (3) Strobel, p. 143-144. (4) Geisler, Norman L. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998). (5) McDowell, Josh. Evidence That Demands a Verdict (1972), p. 19. (6) See Acts 2:22, 3:13, 4:13, 5:30, 5:42, 6:14, etc. (7) Bruce, F.F. The Books and the Parchments: How We Got Our English Bible (Fleming H. Revell Co., 1950), p. 113. (8) McDowell, Josh. The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999), p. 55. (9) Tacitus, A. 15.44. (10) Wilkins, Michael J. & Moreland, J.P. Jesus Under Fire (Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), p. 40. (11) Ibid. (12) John 20:30,31What is it with Chelsea Handler and syphilis? She seems to have it constantly on her mind. The symptoms of her syphilitic fascination first became evident last April when Handler claimed that President Trump is suffering from the ailment that Handler can't seem to cure herself from thinking about. Handler's latest syphilitic fascination attack happened yesterday at Politicon in Pasadena, California, where she again claimed that Trump has that which she has yet to rid from her thoughts.
Chelsea Handler played to the crowd at Politicon Saturday, bashing President Donald Trump in two separate appearances. "He doesn't have a value system," she said to CNN's Jake Tapper on stage. "He's not interested in the American people. He lies constantly. He's also unstable, and I believe he has syphilis." (Tapper protested that last declaration).
Based on what proof, Chelsea? Did Trump display symptoms such as the mental derangement as can be seen here?
Handler, who has an eponymous show on Netflix, said she's not interested in playing it safe and pulling punches, even if it means potentially losing pro-Trump viewers. "I can't worry about the people I'm ostracizing," she said. "Nobody's going to like you all the time."
Okay, I act like I live in a rubber room and after the next presidential election that is where I will move for good. So I don't care that people think I am acting like a Hollywood limousine liberal loon.
Of Trump's seeming desire to have an independent administration divorced from traditional Republican powers, Handler said, "Donald Trump scares the shit out of me."
Kind of like the way a normal guy would feel if his blind date constantly talks about syphilis.Swedish police have ceded control over 55 “no-go zones” to predominately Muslim criminal gangs.
An extensive report mapping out 55 no-go zones was released Oct. 24, showing where law enforcement has all but handed control to criminal gangs.
Officers frequently face outright attacks when trying to enter the areas, which is a step up from the previous problem with attacks on mailmen, fire trucks, ambulances and similar services. Fire trucks and ambulances had to wait for police escort to enter the areas, but now the police themselves need protection.
The no-go areas heavily coincide with the map of the 186 “exclusion areas” aka. crowded, predominantly Muslim immigrant ghettos, where education is low, employment is lower and the only local business thriving is drug dealing.
As the real law backs away, organized crime emerges to take its place. The police report notes “a wider clientel [in the areas] are increasingly turning to the criminal authorities for justice” in a Godfather-like fashion. Unofficial courts and punishments are often meted out according to the codes of the home cultures of the dominant gangs. The report also points out that there are vehicle checkpoints at the borders of some of these areas. The bad news is it’s not the police doing them; it’s the gangs securing home turf against law enforcement and rival gangs.
The gangs try to keep a semi-low profile in many areas so as not to interfere with the “business” of dealing drugs, protection rackets and similar illicit activity.
Others seek active confrontation with police to establish absolute dominance.
A pair of policemen in May were in pursuit of a suspect and unwisely entered the no-go zone of the southern city of Landskrona. Their car was rammed and the officers were forced out of the car. They were cornered by a crowd of some 50 hostile thugs and drew their weapons to hold them back and called for immediate backup.
Several nearby patrol cars responded to the call and sped towards the scene, only to be ordered to stop half a mile away — just outside the no-go border. The police commander didn’t send the backup units in, fearing escalation and all-out war. The cornered police officers were left to fend for themselves. As luck would have it, one of the officers knew a few residents who interfered and convinced the thugs to let them leave.
In response to these no-go zones, the Swedish police is expanding its soft approach of dialogue and understanding. After the extensive 2013 Stockholm ghetto riots with hundreds of burned cars and buildings, police responded by mostly staying away and sending forth special “dialogue officers” to grill halal hot dogs with the miscreants and make them see the errors of their ways.
Starting next year, the Stockholm Policy Academy will be moved to Södertörns Högskola, where the new curriculum will be “progressive” with more focus on cultural sensitivity, ethical awareness, gender issues and more. The aspiring police officers will achieve “greater understanding of the intercultural perspective.”User Info: Takethatback Takethatback 5 years ago #1 I can think of a lot of things, many inappropriate, but also explain why you get most of the O-Powers in hotel rooms. I'm sure i'm wrong so what does it stand for?
User Info: Nightstar1994 Nightstar1994 5 years ago #2 Pokemon Y: Schneizel
FC: 4124 - 5013 - 1344 Omastar
User Info: Kromlech06 Kromlech06 5 years ago #3 3DS FC: 2277-6801-3957
PM and I'll add you too. You know you want Water Absorb Maractus. Online, most likely.
User Info: BrassBirch BrassBirch 5 years ago #4 It stands for Oreos, if you know what I mean.
User Info: yoshirulezzz yoshirulezzz 5 years ago #5 ADD my Pokemon Y FC: 3668-8145-2937 looking for someone with Pokemon X to trade starters,spares,exclusives,etc. Orgasm
User Info: Megaman Omega Megaman Omega 5 years ago #6 LOL at all the whiners and trolls. They know Vita tv and new model will kill all competition. Festering wounds for the Nintendrones by the gallons. - karissa1 No idea. Online, perhaps? Seeing as you can't even use them on yourself without wireless enabled.
User Info: smallface_gray smallface_gray 5 years ago #7 For me, o = optional. The games already pretty damn easy, I have no use for these things.
User Info: I_am_always_me I_am_always_me 5 years ago #8 Pokemon White FC: Zippy [2838-3935-7013]
3DS FC [2707-1897-9929] O-wesome
User Info: Takethatback Takethatback (Topic Creator) 5 years ago #9 yoshirulezzz posted...
Orgasm
Read my mind, screen goes black, and then you have a new OOOOOOO power. I think online is the most plausible. Thanks Krom. Read my mind, screen goes black, and then you have a new OOOOOOO power. I think online is the most plausible. Thanks Krom.<-- Previous playlist | Back to Why Oh Why? with Andrea Silenzi playlists | Next playlist -->
October 21, 2013: Startup Dating, Two Boyfriends & This Feels Terrible Host Erin McGathy
Stories about girls being successful, and getting exactly what they want. Hear how one guest ends up on a first date after finding a great deal on airfare to Panama. Then, how to balance two boyfriends by always seeming busy. Plus, an interview with Erin McGathy from the This Feels Terrible Podcast from Feral Audio. She joins us to answers your love and relationship questions of all kinds. Post them to our playlist page, or give us a call at 201-209-9368,
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(Reload this page to update the song info.)NAGPUR: Press Council of India (PCI) chief, Markandey Katju, known for his controversial remarks, this time made an oblique reference to Narendra Modi who had called himself a 'Hindu nationalist' in a recent media interview. Katju also referred to BJP's Ram Janmabhoomi agitation as communalist and called for unification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh into one secular state.He was delivering a lecture on the role of media in promoting secularism organized by Lokmat group of newspapers."We must not be a Hindu nationalist, or even Muslim, Sikh or Christian nationalists. We must all be Indian nationalists. India is a country of diverse people and could not be run for a single day without secularism," Katju said while terming those dividing the country in name of caste or religion as anti-national.When asked by reporters later whether his reference was to Modi, he refused comment. Katju did not spare the media too and said instead of attacking communalism, a section of media had become kar sewaks during the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation. "They became part of the incident instead of covering it. Although I would not like to name them," he said.Any of type of fundamentalism, be it Hindu or Muslim should be uprooted, said the former supreme court judge. "Look at the state of affairs in Pakistan. They wanted to have an Islamic state but it has turned into a Jurassic park. There are schisms between Punjab, Sindh or Balochistan provinces. Sometimes I feel it is not a country at all but just a creation of the British to divide Hindus and Muslims. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should be reunite into one secular country," said Katju.He said the media has been demonizing Muslims and that has alienated the community from the mainstream."Whenever a bomb blast occurs, within a short time many TV channels start saying that an e-mail or SMS has come from some Muslim organization like Jaish-e-Mohammed or Indian Mujahideen claiming the responsibility. This demonizes the entire Muslim community. An e-mail or SMS can be sent by any mischievous element. In fact, 99% of people in all communities are generally good. Often an attempt is made to depict all Muslims as terrorist," he said.He termed Mughal King Akbar to the first secular leader who laid the foundation of modern India through his policy of universal tolerance. He was ahead of his times. However, even today most of the people in India were very backward, steeped in casteism and communalism and even vote on these basis, said Katju.As a walking tour guide and historian, I’ve discovered that an often-overlooked source for understanding New York City is old guidebooks. Whether it’s something as mundane as addresses of railway depots—did you know there was once one facing City Hall Park?—or as interesting as finding out that Benjamin Franklin conducted electrical experiments from the steeple of the old Dutch Church (which was, fittingly, later converted into the main post office), guidebooks often contain nuggets of information left out of more conventional histories.
One day, as I was reading the 1866 edition of one such guide, Miller’s New York As It Is; or Stranger’s Guide to the Cities of New York, Brooklyn, and Adjacent Places, I noticed an addendum at the back of the book called "Supplemental Hints." The book had come out sporadically since 1859; in this edition, author/publisher James Miller had included, for the first time, suggestions for how visitors could create their own walking tour of the city.
Miller—mindful that a "tour of the entire city would be a too arduous performance for a pedestrian"—instead advised his reader "to limit his perambulations to Broadway, from the Bowling Green to Union Square."
What would it be like, I wondered, to walk the streets of New York with an 1866 guidebook in my hand? How much of Miller’s city still exists? I downloaded New York As It Is onto my iPad and prepared to find out.
Before I left, I first wanted to see how Miller’s book compared with his competitors’. Though guidebooks to the city have been around since at least 1817, when Edmund Blunt published his Stranger’s Guide to the City of New York, the era around the Civil War saw a proliferation of titles.
Miller’s main rival seems to have been Lloyd’s Pocket Companion and Guide Through New York City, 1866-67, which is made up exclusively of seven walking tour itineraries. These walks were purportedly compiled by a native New Yorker named John Wetherby, though I have found no evidence that such a person ever existed. Wetherby’s first walking tour itinerary turned out to be very similar to Miller’s—a stroll up Broadway from Battery Park.
So I downloaded that book, too.
The Pocket Companion’s conversational style reminded me of a book I’d unearthed during my research into the history of West Broadway, a guidebook written before the Civil War. Titled Glimpses of New-York by a South Carolinian (Who Had Nothing Else to Do), the book came out in 1852 with the goal of proving to Southern readers that New York was just as wretched as they expected it to be. It seemed like the perfect antidote to the native boosterism of my other two guides.
Then, because I couldn’t help myself, I downloaded another book called Phelps’ New York City Guide (1867). And then A Picture of New York (1848); The Stranger’s Hand-Book for the City of New York; or, What to See, and How to See It (1854); Nelson’s Guide to the City of New York and its Neighbourhood (1859); and Appleton’s Illustrated Hand-Book of American Travel: The Eastern and Middle States and the British Provinces (1860).
Finally, armed with more mid-19th-century guides than any reasonable person should read, I was ready to set out.
Seeing as how the Pocket Companion is not only exactly 150 years old, but also the only book in my arsenal entirely devoted to walking tours, I decide to use its "Walk the First" to structure my itinerary, supplementing from New York As It Is, Glimpses of New-York, and the other guides as necessary.
As I take the No. 1 train downtown, I read the introduction to the Pocket Companion, which begins with a section called "Why It Was Written." After the narrator introduces himself as John Wetherby, he announces:
Walking is my delight. Often, stick in hand, do I start out on a morning, and roam about the whole long day, viewing the various places of interest, and noting down in my memory any curious or quaint story.
Wetherby realizes that his vast stores of knowledge would help visitors; lo and behold, an old friend, Jonathan Griggs, immediately shows up at his doorstep looking for a place to stay. Wetherby seizes on the opportunity to show his friend around; for a week, they set off on a different walk each morning, each becoming one of the Pocket Companion’s seven itineraries. Each walk is told as a conversation between the two men: Griggs, the country rube, asks all sorts of leading questions; Wetherby, of course, has all the answers.
"Walk The First" begins with Griggs and Wetherby deposited by horse-drawn stagecoach at Battery Park; unable to catch a stagecoach, I instead exit the subway at South Ferry and make my way to their first stop: Castle Clinton, then known as Castle Garden.
"I have heard of that before," Griggs tells Wetherby in the book, in an example of what will become their usual banter. "When Jenny Lind came to this country, she made her first appearance there." The book goes on to note "Griggs was delighted at his knowledge."
Wetherby replies:
"It was one time a fortification, but now it is devoted to more peaceful pursuits, being used as an emigrant depot." "Is that where all the emigrants land?" "Yes, every one of them. It is an excellent institution, and saves many a poor person from being robbed of all they possess in the world." "How?" "In former times the emigrant, as soon as the ship touched the dock, was dumped out upon the pier like so much merchandise, and made to shift for himself the best way he could. Sharpers were on the watch for him; he was robbed and cheated in every direction; and in a few hours he had not a cent left to bless himself with."
Most of the Pocket Companion continues in this fashion: Griggs is inordinately proud of himself for knowing some fact or figure about New York, but Wetherby is always there to prove he knows more.
It would be the equivalent today of having the subway run at grade level down the middle of the street.
These conversations are generally accurate. Castle Clinton was a fortification, built for the War of 1812. As a theater, it did host Jenny Lind; it was then the state-run Emigrant Landing Depot, which it would remain until 1889, when the federal government took over the job of processing incoming passengers.
Following Griggs and Wetherby’s itinerary, my next stop is Bowling Green, where there "was once a leaden statue of George III, which, at the commencement of the Revolution, was torn down and moulded into bullets."
Griggs, however, is more fascinated by the sheer number of horse-drawn omnibuses surrounding the small park than in hearing about King George. It can be hard for the modern New Yorker to imagine just how much worse traffic in the city was 150 years ago, but—as Wetherby points out—"nearly seven hundred stages [went] up and down Broadway daily," with each one making "ten trips per diem" for a total of "seven thousand stages daily for the use of our citizens." It would be the equivalent today of having the subway run at grade level down the middle of the street.
Fourteen years earlier, the Southern author of Glimpses of New-York had noted that "[Broadway] has become quite difficult to cross... and whenever attempted it is at the peril of your life or limbs." The traffic problem would take generations to improve. In 1885, nearly two decades after the Pocket Companion’s release, engineer Francis V. Greene still counted nearly 8,000 horse-drawn vehicles pass him as he stood at the corner of Broadway and Pine Street.
But the Pocket Companion’s Griggs has little time to ponder the wondrous traffic; soon Wetherby is whisking him up to the top of the steeple of Trinity Church. Though I follow in their footsteps, I have to be content with the view from across the street—the steeple has been closed to visitors since 1883.
Back in the 1860s, a visit to Trinity’s spire—then the tallest tower in the city—was the one constant in every guidebook. As Miller notes in New York As It Is:
By way of introduction to the city in detail, we recommend the visitor first get a bird’s-eye view of it from the steeple of Trinity church. A view from this elevation, over 320 feet in height [Note: the spire is only 284 feet tall], affords a good idea of the general extent and topography of the city. The tower is accessible to the public any time of the day excepting the hours devoted to divine service ….
From their perch, Wetherby waxes poetic in the Pocket Companion:
As we … cast our eyes upon the stores and warehouses, many of them filled to depletion with the products of every nation upon the earth, brought hither by those very ships we now see fringing the shore, we can scarcely believe that a little over 230 years ago the whole of this island was purchased of the Indians for a sum equivalent to twenty-four dollars. Yet so it was.
When the Pocket Companion came out, that $24 figure was only about four decades old, so it’s notable how quickly it became enshrined in the city’s lore. The dollar amount was calculated by state historian John Romeyn Brodhead in 1826, and was, even then, essentially meaningless. It’s better to think of Colonial prices in terms of purchasing power; what the Dutch paid for the island of Manhattan in 1626 would have also bought them 2,400 tankards of beer—a bargain, but not $24.
Up to this point, Miller’s walk in New York As It Is and Wetherby’s have been basically the same. Miller doesn’t bother with Castle Garden (which he derides as having "little architectural beauty to boast"), but starts at Bowling Green before heading to Trinity. He then suggests the natural detour down Wall Street. Wetherby, by contrast, won’t be diverted from his route up Broadway, promising Griggs they’ll come back another day.
I choose to follow Miller’s route, first heading down to Federal Hall, then known simply as the United States Treasury. Built in 1842 by the architectural firm Town & Davis, it served as the federal Custom House before that department moved down the street to the old Merchant’s Exchange at 55 Wall Street in 1862. Miller steers his visitors from the Treasury to 55 Wall and then back to Broadway to see the various banks at the heart of the Financial District. In the middle of the work day, Wall Street was even then one of the city’s most crowded thoroughfares: Miller warns walkers that at "every moment" they "are in danger of being jostled or pushed aside by … crowds of pedestrians, all eagerly in pursuit of something."
As I return to Broadway, I pick up Wetherby’s narrative; he is busy showing Griggs around Trinity’s cemetery, including the graves of Alexander Hamilton, Commodore James "Don’t Give Up the Ship" Lawrence, and Lieutenant Ludlow. The first two I’ve visited often, but I confess that I had to look up the last one; it turns out Ludlow was Lawrence’s second-in-command on the USS Chesapeake and is buried alongside his commanding officer.
After admonishing Griggs not to give to beggars on the street but instead to charity (some things never change), Wetherby has to rescue his companion from nearly being trampled by a horse. The entire incident seems to have been concocted for two reasons: one, as a warning for out-of-towners to look where they’re going; two, so that Wetherby can introduce Griggs—and his readers—to the first of many stores the two will visit on their walk: Knox’s Great Hat and Cap Establishment.
I have no idea if the Pocket Companion’s publisher, Thomas Lloyd, solicited these advertisements as product placements, but as Wetherby and Griggs make their way up Broadway, they stop into everything from a billiard table factory to a drugstore to two different sewing machine shops. When Wetherby describes these spots to Griggs, he’s sometimes quoting verbatim from the advertisements. Alas, though the modern-day walker can visit many trendy shops along the same stretch of Broadway—shops that continue to lure tourists from around the world—none of the places mentioned in the Pocket Companion still exist, at least not in their 1866 locations.
Leaving Knox’s with a new cap, Wetherby and Griggs stop at St. Paul’s Chapel, having first glanced at the still-under-construction New York Herald building across the street. What Wetherby fails to mention is that the site of the Herald had for many years been occupied by P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, which burned to the ground in a spectacular fire a year earlier, in 1865. (Earlier guidebooks grudgingly acknowledge Barnum’s success; as Francis’s New Guide to the Cities of New-York and Brooklyn put it, "the wonders contained in which building none but a Barnum could either have collected … or can adequately describe.")
It’s at this spot that I realize that using the Pocket Companion as my guide was the right choice. The walking tour in Miller’s New York As It Is would have had its readers searching in vain for Barnum’s Museum. James Miller, I later discover, wasn’t very good at updating his guide. New York As It Is continued to be published through the early 1880s, but critics complained that he was still describing the city as it had looked in 1859, when the first edition came out.
At St. Paul’s, Wetherby and Griggs visit George Washington’s pew, along with the tombs of General Richard Montgomery, who died at the Battle of Quebec in 1775, Robert Emmet ("the Irish patriot"), and actor George Frederick Cooke, all of which are still visible in the church and yard, but none of which draw many people—certainly not compared to the crowds that flock to Alexander Hamilton’s grave down the street.
After a quick stop at the now-demolished Astor Hotel—where Wetherby writes that "the thirsty can bibulate and the hungry can be fed (if their impecuniosity is not too great to prevent them)"—they continue to City Hall Park and its Croton Aqueduct fountain (replaced in 1872). In the bad old days, Wetherby tells Griggs,
visitors from the country were often fleeced by sharpers when they attempted to enter any one of the park gates. One of these scamps would accost the stranger and demand money for admittance, which the stranger, not being accustomed to the ways and manners of New York, would incontinently pay.
City Hall Park’s poor reputation would endure for over a century. As recently as the 1980s, Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern was calling it a "shabby, rundown patch of grass and roots surrounding a parking lot." Part of the park’s downfall came in 1869, when the lower quadrant was taken over by construction of the new main post office, finished in 1880. The post office stood until 1938 (when it was superseded by the current building on Eighth Avenue), and it took 50 years from its demolition for the park to recover.
The next stop in the Pocket Companion is City Hall itself, which, like Trinity Church, is one of the "must-see" sights of Lower Manhattan in every 19th-century guidebook. In New York As It Is, Miller calls the building, constructed at great expense from 1803 to 1810, "an imposing edifice," but saves most of his praise for the clock in the cupola. Wetherby similarly tries to impress his visitor with the massive timepiece:
"New York time is governed by that clock. I presume that every man who possesses a watch, and whose business is down town, regulates his timepiece by it. It originally cost $4,000." "Four thousand dollars!" ejaculated the astounded Griggs; "a good price for a clock." "True; but then it’s a good clock for the price. The main wheels of it are two feet six inches in diameter, and the pendulum-bob weighs three hundred pounds." "Gracious goodness! Three hundred pounds!" muttered the astounded Jonathan.
Nearly all of this conversation seems like it is cribbed from New York As It Is. Indeed, despite Wetherby’s early boast about how much he knows about New York, the deeper one delves into the Pocket Companion, the more apparent it becomes that the material is cobbled together from other guidebooks, and—like the language lifted directly from advertisements—put into quotes as dialogue between the two characters.
(By the way, the clock and cupola were restored and rebuilt in 1998 during the Giuliani administration.)
Before leaving City Hall Park, Wetherby takes Griggs to see what he calls "the new City Hall … larger and more commodious than the present one."
New City Hall? I knew that at the turn of the 20th century, the city flirted with the idea of building a new government building, which ultimately became Surrogate’s Court instead. But I had never heard of a new City Hall under construction in 1866.
"The corner-stone," Wetherby explains, "was laid in 1862, and there is no doubt that 1867 will see the completion of the building."
Wetherby is actually talking about the Tweed Courthouse, the greatest boondoggle in New York’s history and the building that ultimately brought down William M. "Boss" Tweed. In hindsight, Wetherby’s prediction that the building would be finished in 1867 seems like impossibly wishful thinking. By the time Tweed was arrested for fraud in 1871, the exterior of the building was standing but little else had been finished.
The frauds involved in this project are legendary: for example, Andrew Garvey, who was the building’s plasterer, was paid $133,187 for two days’ work. That sum was more than half the building’s original budget. After Tweed’s downfall, architect Leopold Eidlitz expanded and finished the structure, which now serves as the headquarters for the city’s Board of Education.
Up to this point on my walk, with the exception of the Astor Hotel, the New York Herald building, and the old fountain in City Hall Park, everything on Wetherby’s itinerary still stands. Miller’s book would have shown me some banks and newspaper offices that are now gone, but it’s still remarkable that what was considered noteworthy in the Financial District 150 years ago are the same sites people visit today.
North of Chambers Street, however, |
encrypted Kali updates and upgrades. Surprisingly, this does not add much security to the update / upgrade process (read here if you’re wondering why) – however it *does* add an extra layer of security, so we figured, “why not?”. To enable the apt HTTPS transport, first make sure the apt-transport-https package is installed (it’s installed by default in our weekly images and upcoming releases) and enable the HTTPS transport in your sources.list file as shown below:
root@kali:~# apt install apt-transport-https
root@kali:~# cat / etc / apt / sources.list
deb https: // http.kali.org / kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib
# deb-src https://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib
root@kali:~#
Now any update or upgrade operation preformed against our mirrors will be HTTPS enabled:
root@kali:~# apt update
Hit: 1 https: // archive- 3.kali.org / kali kali-rolling InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
root@kali:~#
As not all donated mirrors come with HTTPS support, shifting to the HTTPS transport may result in a less optimized mirror being selected for you, resulting in slower download speeds. As moving to an apt HTTPS transport does not provide much extra security, do so only if you feel you must!Fans of Pokémon and the Super Smash franchise should be excited about Pokkén Tournament.
As you might have heard, Nintendo’s next major Wii U release, Pokkén Tournament is a new arena-based fighting game where players control Pokémon and battle others. If you’re unaware of the title, I suppose the game could be compared to a Super Smash Bros. game in a 3D arena.
For the Wii U release (in Japan) on March 18, there will also be a special edition of a controller made by Hori, the same company that made all the Battle Pads for the Wii U. At the moment, there isn’t a name for the device though it will cost 3,480 Yen- almost £20. It’s not yet confirmed whether US and European players will be able to get themselves one of these gamepads in March or if we’ll have to wait until the other release dates in Q2 2016.
Don’t worry, Pokkén tournament can still be played via the Gamepad, Classic Controller Pro or the Pro Controller.
To excite fans, a new trailer has been released alongside the game’s official box art which shows the already announced Amiibo support. What Pokémon would you like to have as an Amiibo? Please let there be a Porygon Amiibo and Magikarp and Kyogre and oh my gosh shiny pokemon amiibo too please I want them all ahhhh!!UPDATE 12/07/2010 8:32 AM: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange surrendered to London police Tuesday Dec. 7, to face a Swedish arrest warrant for rape and sexual molestation allegations. Assange plans to fight extradition to Sweden, according to The Associated Press.
Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) introduced a bill Thursday aimed at stopping WikiLeaks by making it illegal to publish the names of military or intelligence community informants.
Ensign accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his "cronies" of hindering America's war efforts and creating a "hit list" for U.S. enemies by outing intelligence sources.
“Our sources are bravely risking their lives when they stand up against the tyranny of al Qaeda, the Taliban and murderous regimes, and I simply will not stand idly by as they become death targets because of Julian Assange," Ensign said. "Let me be very clear, WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and Assange is not a journalist.”
Assange has been under fire in recent weeks thanks to his site's dissemination of thousands of classified diplomatic cables, some of which have proved embarrassing to the Obama administration because of their frank tone. Attorney General Eric Holder Eric Himpton HolderHolder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' Obama political arm to merge with Holder-run group Barack, Michelle Obama expected to refrain from endorsing in 2020 Dem primary: report MORE recently pledged to close gaps in the law that allow sites like WikiLeaks to continue to operate.
The Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination Act (SHIELD) would give the government the flexibility to pursue Assange for allegedly outing confidential U.S. informants. Brown said the law would prevent anyone from compromising national security in a similar manner, while Lieberman said its passage was essential to restore the international diplomatic community's faith in the U.S.
"Our foreign representatives, allies and intelligence sources must have the clear assurance that their lives will not be endangered by those with opposing agendas, whether they are Americans or not, and our government must make it clear that revealing the identities of these individuals will not be tolerated," Lieberman said.
Earlier this week, Lieberman reportedly convinced Amazon.com to stop hosting WikiLeaks, forcing the website to relocate to Switzerland.
Amazon denied government pressure influenced the decision, which they attributed to WikiLeaks's violating the company's terms of service and putting innocent lives at risk.
"It’s clear that WikiLeaks doesn’t own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content," Amazon said in a statement. "Further, it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren’t putting innocent people in jeopardy."
WikiLeaks responded on Twitter by calling Amazon cowardly and dishonest.
"Amazon's press release does not accord with the facts on public record. It is one thing to be cowardly. Another to lie about it."
Assange is also currently facing a warrant in Sweden concerning accusations of sexual assault of two young women. Assange has said the encounters were consensual and has called the investigation an international plot to stop WikiLeaks.
A well-known recluse, Assange has gone underground, only resurfacing to conduct remote interviews with the press.
UPDATE: Assange has been arrested by British police after he reportedly went to a police station voluntarily. Assange's lawyer has called the allegations "a political stunt."
This article was updated on Dec. 7 at 8:20 a.m.Hand Tools
Finishing Tools
Sandpaper : 100 grit, 150 grit, 320 grit, 600 grit, 1000 grit
Stain : Minwax oil stain (various colors)
Varnish : Formby's Tung Oil Finish
Wood
Dowels
You can get 3/4" diameter dowels from brick-and-mortar hobby or hardware stores (e.g. Michaels and Home Depot). This will usually be domestic species like poplar, alder, oak, and pine. Michaels dowels are unlabeled, but once you have some experience you might be able to guess the species. Home Depot store associates are more likely to be able to help you identify wood.
Rockler.com and Woodcraft have physical stores that carry a couple of the uncommon dowel options: cherry, walnut, dowels, and birch among others, all in various diameters. If there's no store near you, online works as well. I also get my willow from woodcraft (search for "diamond willow walking stick").
hardwooddowel.com is a site based in New Jersey that sells all sorts of domestic dowels. As of this journal, they have: ash, birch, black locust, black walnut, butternut, cherry, fir, hemlock, hickory, maple, poplar, cedar, pine, red oak, and white oak. (Minimum order $35, plus $10 shipping)
Turning Blanks and Lumber
Rockler.com and Woodcraft have a huge selection of domestic and exotic woods. Cocobolo, purpleheart, ebony, holly, you name it, they probably have it.
Woodcraft Gilmer Wood Co. has a GIANT selection of really cool species, some of which are figured. Each individual piece they sell is pictured, so you can choose the exact piece with the grain and number of knots you want instead of getting something at random. I got my pear, hornbeam, apple, spruce, and acacia from them.
Don't forget about your local lumberyard. These will mostly be softwoods like cedar, pine, fir, redwood, etc.
Natural Branches
Option 1 is collecting branches yourself. The most sustainable way is to collect branches that have fallen off the parent tree by natural means. Obviously, don't go cutting live branches from other people's plants
Option 2 is to check Ebay and Etsy. You can narrow down results by searching for keywords like "wand," "wicca," "pagan," etc.
Wand Boxes
ClearStyle Journal CSS by
I receive questions every now and again about what tools I use to carve wands, where I get the wood, and where I get the boxes (I make those by hand too). I thought I'd answer them all at once. Please note that I'm based in the United States, so what is available in your area might vary. If you have recommendations for your part of the world, post a comment and I'll add it to the resources below.Disclaimer: I'm not compensated in any way by any of the brands listed here. It just happens to be what I use.I use a combination of whittling knives, gouges, and spokeshaves.This will vary the most depending on what is available locally in your area. The following info will be most applicable for folks in the United States. I have included only those sources from whom I have ordered in the past.Dowels are my starting wood of choice for wandmaking. If you carve mostly by hand (as I do) these will be the easiest to work with.Turning blanks come in many shapes and dimensions. You'll want to limit your search to "spindle blanks." 1"x 1" may be good for a single wand, especially if you're using a lathe, but if you buy 1.5"x 1.5" you can quarter it (if you have a table saw or something similar) and get four 3/4"x 3/4" pieces from one blank. The obvious downside for hand-carvers is that blanks will have a square cross section, meaning extra work getting rid of unwanted wood, while dowels are already round.There are many wand woods that aren't available commercially, usually because the plants themselves are shrubs rather than trees - that is - too small for most projects. This would be things like rowan, hazel, elder, hawthorn, etc. However there is a niche market for everything, and with the internet to connect buyers and sellers, you can get almost anything nowadays. Keep in mind natural branches usually come "green," and may need to be dried before they can be carved.That’s what this ridiculous graphic tells us:
Even the Huffington Post refuted this one. The price increase would be much more substantial. (Though even here, HuffPo’s analysis is suspect. It doesn’t consider the effects of the price increases on the demand for the product: people would buy fewer burgers at the considerably higher prices, which means there would be less demand for fast-food workers’ labor.)
Incidentally, if you want to help poor people, why not just go ahead and do it? Why go the absurdly circuitous route of trying to make food more expensive (which in turn hurts other poor people)? Why not just seek out the working poor directly and help them? And why castigate the only institution in society that has lifted a finger to improve their material condition?
Answer: these people are all talk. They’d love to help everyone in the world, as long as someone else pays the price. These critics pay McDonald’s employees zero, but they are upset at McDonald’s, which gives them a paycheck. (Once again, I remind readers that the merits of fast food are not the issue here.)
A week or so ago I posted about how utterly wrongheaded the force-wages-up-by-wishful-thinking crowd is, and I explained how in fact wages rise. Click here for that post.
Let me add a few more thoughts to what I wrote at that link. Once wages are raised to $10 or $15 an hour, why would the critics stop? Isn’t it also tough to live on $10 or $15 an hour? Can’t we wish $50/hr wages into existence? And if we can do that, why not $100/hr?
The kind of thinking reflected in the graphic is that wage rates are really just arbitrary things, and that they can be increased without any real inconvenience to anyone. Plus, they say, it will help the economy (by stimulating consumption) if people get paid more, etc.
To give a sense of the problem with this latter claim, let’s be sports and set aside the disemployment effects of the wage increase. Let’s consider just the claim that spending more on consumer goods is what an economy needs. (So to be clear, we’re leaving out the point that higher wages don’t necessarily increase the overall spending of workers if fewer workers have jobs in the first place because the higher wages threw them out of work.)
So consider: if it’s “good for the economy” for unskilled labor to be given an arbitrary, coercively levied wage increase, would it also be good for the economy if employers quit shopping around for low prices for steel and just paid more for steel, so the steel manufacturers would have more money to spend on consumption? Would it be even better if they went out of their way to pay more for lumber than the going price? Then the lumber people would have more to spend. Would it be still better if employers paid extra for lumber, steel, labor — and everything else they needed? If it’s “good for the economy” for business firms to pay artificially high wages, why not demand that they pay artificially high prices for everything? Then the economy would be super!
You see the problem. The firm becomes less and less profitable, and less able to support employment, the more it needs to pay for inputs. And the more it pays for some inputs, the less it has on hand to pay for others. Extra money paid in wages over here means less spent on intermediate goods — and thus lower wages for other workers — over there. And the firm is less able to invest in capital equipment, which is what makes all of society wealthier.
A word, too, on the misplaced emphasis on consumption, as if that’s all an economy was about. If all we did was consume, and no one saved and productively expended any resources, the entire structure of production would grind to a halt. Just to maintain the structure of production involves saving enough to support the existing capital structure: all the stages and production processes from raw materials down to the finished product that constitute the intermediate stages of production that are left out of GDP. (For more on this, see my resource page on GDP.)
So if we were determined to “stimulate consumption,” we should be happy at the following outcome. Suppose we have a lucky person (lucky because the doubling of his wages at McDonald’s did not force him out of a job through layoffs or through the suddenly hastened automation of his job, or did not force him to do extra work, or did not take away his fringe benefits, etc). This lucky person takes some of his extra pay and buys five gallons of milk. The milk seller takes the money he earns from this sale and buys a new shirt. The shirt seller takes the money from selling the shirt and buys a few gallons of gas. And so on. All consumption. Nothing is saved or productively expended.
This means: no wages are paid (since making payroll is not consumption), no business-related bills are paid (again, not consumption), no intermediate goods are ordered by later-stage production (again, not consumption), etc. The result of all this spending: inventories of consumer goods would dwindle, and, the gross saving necessary to keep the production structure up and running not having occurred, the productive capacity of the economy would collapse. There’s your utopia of consumption.
Obviously, then, “the economy” is more than just money passing from hand to hand in exchange for consumer goods. To say that “consumption” needs artificial stimulus is a morally and economically arbitrary value judgment. Only the voluntary decisions of all market actors, based on their own preferences and coupled with a market price system, can give rise to a structure of production that balances our desires to consume with the enormously complex latticework of capital and stages of production that make our preferred level of consumption possible.
One more thing: we are faced with impossible obstacles anytime we think in terms of a “fair wage” that differs from the wage that emerges on the market.
Consider: economist George Stigler noted decades ago that in order to meet the nutritional standards of the U.S. government in 1943 least expensively, a man of 154 pounds could consume, in a year, 370 pounds of wheat flour, 57 cans of evaporated milk, 111 pounds of cabbage, 23 pounds of spinach, and 285 pounds of dried navy beans.
For a wage to be “fair,” would it have to allow only this for food? What kind of variety would be “fair”? Are movie rentals part of “fair” compensation? If so, how many per month? How many cigarettes are “fair”?
This is ridiculous. If you want wages to rise, abandon the juvenile insistence that protests and demands make economic sense. This is how wages rise.Who knew that there is a business that gives bonuses for shoveling snow or working on your birthday, that throws a $10,000 event that nobody attends and pays for an employee bowling league?
Where is this workplace paradise?
That would be your own New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
"It’s amazing when you peel back the curtain — sometimes you see waste and corruption," Peter Kennedy of New York City said between Exits 12 and 11. "It’s upsetting when you see the perks."
"Sign me up," said traveler John Klosek of Sayreville, stopping at the Turnpike’s Thomas Edison service plaza in Woodbridge. "Since I haven’t had a pay raise in six years and I don’t get any of the stuff they’re getting, of course I’m not happy."
An audit by state Comptroller Matthew Boxer found $43 million in waste at the Turnpike Authority during the heart of the Great Recession in 2008-09.
Among the examples: Bonuses for shoveling snow or working on a birthday; public toll dollars used to pay for an employee bowling league; and free E-ZPass transponders for the commute to and from work.
Much of the waste followed toll hikes at the end of 2008, Boxer said.
"You almost get the sense that there is this attitude of, ‘Well, it’s not my money,’" Boxer said during an interview today.
Boxer said the audit found that the authority, which oversees the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, gave about $30 million in bonuses to employees and management without consideration of performance.
Even after they were paid overtime for removing snow, individual employees were given an additional $1,000 to $1,700 "snow bonus," costing the authority $268,000 collectively in 2008-09.
Workers in one collective bargaining unit were given bonuses for working on their birthday, the audit found.
Among the other examples of waste cited by the audit:
• Free E-ZPass transponders for the commute to and from work, saving employees collectively an estimated $430,000 a year. • A total of $274,000 in "anniversary bonuses" for part-time toll collectors after four years of employment. •âÂÂ$89,000 for scholarships for children of authority employees • $12,000 for an employee bowling league • $10,000 to cover costs for a toll operators event — which none of the authority’s employees attended.
"The audit team was reporting back that there was above-normal employee compensation, and that compensation was structured in a way that really hindered the transparency of the payments," Boxer said.
Management, despite not being covered by the collective bargaining process, also benefited from the bonuses and payouts, the audit found.
All 10 of the employee agreements are set to expire next year, and Boxer recommended that the questionable bonuses be eliminated.
Responding to the audit, newly hired authority executive director Veronique Hakim noted that by the end of this year, the authority will stop giving E-ZPass transponders to employees for commuting.
"In addition, prior to the issuing of this report, the Authority had reviewed these types of ‘employee relations’ payments referenced in the report and had eliminated payments such as that to the bowling league," Hakim wrote.
Since 2008, audits by Comptroller Matthew Boxer have found:
• The state of New Jersey had been paying for more than 19,000 telephone lines that were unused and no longer needed, wasting $3.2 million a year. • Atlantic City spent nearly $500,000 a year on council aides it was not authorized to employ and who reported having little to do on a daily basis. The city also was holding $9 million in properties eligible for foreclosure and had not made progress in reducing the backlog, even though it paid a law firm to do that. • Camden wasted millions of taxpayer dollars by failing to properly manage its contract with a private vendor for water and wastewater services. As a result of the findings, the city was seeking to recover $18.8 million from the vendor.
Hakim and state transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson, who chairs the authority, today outlined a series of reform measures.
In addition to taking back the E-ZPass transponders, the authority will, among other steps, eliminate future annual payouts for vacation and sick leave and longevity for non-union workers — and plans to eliminate those extras in the new union contracts next year.
Also, the employee relations account, which was previously used to fund non-profit and charitable activities, will be eliminated, and authority employees will have to take a new ethics training program.
Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, said the governor is taking the same approach at the Turnpike Authority as he did at the Delaware River Port Authority, which has come under fire for its spending practices.
"It’s just stunning that some of these perks were actually built into labor contracts negotiated by the prior administration," Drewniak said. "Well, those contracts — all 10 of them — are up in 2011, and it’s safe to say that they will not include built-in abuses like these. I mean, who in the private work world gets anything like a bonus for working on their birthday?"
Franceline Ehret, a toll collector for 25 years and president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local No. 194, which represents Turnpike toll collectors, said some of the bonuses are not what they might seem.
Not all bonuses are given to every union, she said. And many of the bonuses were negotiated in response to givebacks the unions made in other areas.
Ehret said that in the case of the "separation bonus" — given to employees leaving the authority after 10 years of service — the unions negotiated it in response to the trend of older workers being encouraged to leave so they could be replaced by workers with less pay and benefits.
She also said employees were forced to get the E-ZPass transponders so they could more easily travel between interchanges for their work, but that many employees didn’t want them because they still blamed E-ZPass for putting collectors out of work.
"We always go to the table expecting to negotiate in good faith," Ehret said. "It’s open season on unions right now, I guess. We believe our workers are just as entitled to a middle class living as any others."
Harsh criticism of the Turnpike Authority is only the latest seething review of government spending since Comptroller Matthew Boxer took office in January 2008.
By Mike Frassinelli and Carmen Juri / The Star-LedgerTowards the start of a session marked by crashes among the leading riders, Rossi lost the front end of his works M1 Yamaha at Turn 13, moments before Pedrosa suffered his own crash at the next corner.
Replays showed smoke coming from Pedrosa's bike immediately before his accident, suggesting that Rossi may have been a victim of the Honda rider leaking oil.
In a press statement, the 36-year-old confirmed this was indeed the case, saying: "Unfortunately Pedrosa had a problem with his bike and it lost some oil and I crashed."
Pedrosa in pain, but escapes fracture
While Rossi was able to continue on his spare bike, Pedrosa was ruled out of the session with foot pain as a result of his crash, although an examination by medical stuff revealed nothing was broken.
"I had a problem with the front fork which I didn't realise until some oil hit the rear wheel as I was leaning over to the right into Turn 14," said Pedrosa.
"The bike threw me off quite violently and I took a big knock to my left foot. I went to Clinica Mobile for a check-up and they performed an x-ray on my left ankle.
"Thankfully they confirmed there was no break or fracture, just a heavy contusion, so I will have some treatment tonight and see how the situation is in the morning."
Lorenzo the man to beat
Rossi, who ended the session fourth quickest, added that his factory Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who set the fastest time of the day in FP1, will be the rider to beat at Brno this weekend.
"This afternoon was difficult for everybody because the track is very slippery and the amount of grip is very low and at the same time there are a lot of bumps, so every time I entered the corner I was pretty much at the limit," explained the Italian.
"At the end of the afternoon it went a bit better and I went into fourth position, but I have to recover a disadvantage, especially the one to Jorge, who seems to have the best pace."This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from Washington, D.C. Before heading to Louisville for the funeral of Muhammad Ali, we begin with the 2016 presidential race. On Thursday, here in the nation’s capital, President Obama met with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the Oval Office. The meeting came two days after several media outlets reported Clinton had reached the number of delegates needed to capture the nomination, putting her on a path to be the first woman ever nominated by a major party to run for the White House. Less than an hour and a half after meeting with Sanders, President Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton in a video posted on her campaign’s Facebook page.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I want to congratulate Hillary Clinton on making history as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States. Look, I know how hard this job can be. That’s why I know Hillary will be so good at it. In fact, I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She’s got the courage, the compassion and the heart to get the job done.
AMY GOODMAN: The president’s video message was aimed in part at millions of Sanders supporters. Obama said Sanders could play a central role in shaping the Democratic agenda.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I had a great meeting with him this week, and I thanked him for shining a spotlight on issues like economic inequality and the outsize influence of money in our politics, and bringing young people into the process. Embracing that message is going to help us win in November.
AMY GOODMAN: Hillary Clinton picked up another endorsement Thursday from a progressive favorite, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. On Thursday, Bernie Sanders also met with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. While reporters took pictures, Sanders ignored three questions about Obama’s endorsement of Clinton. Later, he delivered a nearly hour-long speech to thousands of supporters at a rally here in Washington, D.C., ahead of the district’s primary election on Tuesday. Sanders did not mention Hillary Clinton by name.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: We can bail out Wall Street, no problem. We can give tax breaks to billionaires, no problem. But somehow, when it comes to rebuilding inner cities in America, providing good education, good healthcare, affordable housing, somehow we seem not to have the money. And what this campaign is about is making it clear: Together, we are going to change our national priorities. … This campaign is based on a vision that our country must focus on social justice, on economic justice, on racial justice, on environmental justice. And when the overwhelming majority of young people support that vision, that will be the future of America.
AMY GOODMAN: Bernie Sanders has said he wants the Democratic Party to adopt much of his platform at the Democratic National Convention. He’s been allowed to appoint five people to the 15-member platform drafting committee, which has been meeting for the first time this week here in Washington, D.C.
For more, we’re joined in D.C. by two guests. Larry Cohen is with us, senior adviser to Bernie Sanders and past president of the Communications Workers of America, first superdelegate for Bernie Sanders. And Michelle Chan, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth Action, she’s working on recommendations for environmentalist and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, one of Sanders’ selections on the Democratic platform drafting committee.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Larry Cohen, let’s begin with you. What happened yesterday, after President Obama met with Bernie Sanders and then endorsed Hillary Clinton? What is Bernie Sanders’ position right now? As he says, yes, he is running in the Democratic—in the primary in D.C. next Tuesday. Then what?
LARRY COHEN: Well, from the beginning, our message has been every voter, every delegate. It was not just about Bernie being the next president, it was also about building a force for change inside and outside the Democratic Party. And as historic as Hillary’s campaign has been, Bernie’s campaign is also historic, in that, you know, without any super PACs, without the billionaires, building this kind of massive voter base, almost 11 million voters, raising $220 million. And we will go to Philadelphia with not only a message, but proposals to change the party. The platform that Michelle is working on, in many ways, we expect it to be a very different platform. We want to see the Democratic Party be a populist party, not a party of the financial elite.
AMY GOODMAN: So what’s your reaction to President Obama and then, well, a progressive favorite, Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, who is meeting with Hillary Clinton today—there’s all sorts of talk: Could she be a vice-presidential running mate? What’s your reaction to their endorsement of Hillary Clinton yesterday?
LARRY COHEN: Well, I mean, our reaction is that this is to be expected, to some extent, given what’s happened this week, and that, at the same time, our supporters are quite energetic about continuing on, again, inside the Democratic Party and beyond, focusing on issues, other candidates, as well as Bernie’s own nomination and his own support.Oregon Ducks running back Byron Marshall (9) and tight end Pharaoh Brown (85) react to scoring a touchdown during the first half against the Utah Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Oregon won 51-27. (Photo: Russell Isabella, USA TODAY Sports)
PredictionMachine.com's Director of Research and Analytics, John Ewing, takes a look at what the College Football Playoff could look like through 50,000 simulations of FootballFour's most likely four-team playoff. Follow John on Twitter @JohnEwing for more notes from his analysis and to let him know what else you may like to see with these projections.
The college football carousel keeps spinning. Mississippi State, Florida State and Oregon continue to be part of the Football Four Playoff Projection.
Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma, Georgia, Ole Miss and Baylor have all taken a turn as a projected playoff team, but an untimely loss has spun each team out of the rotation. TCU is the newest member of the Football Four selection committee's bracket.
The Horned Frogs are four-touchdown favorites at Kansas on Saturday, while Auburn slipped up as a multi-touchdown favorite on the road last week against Texas A&M. It is unlikely TCU makes the same mistake.
FOOTBALL FOUR: Rating and debating college football and the Playoff
Other probable playoff teams might not make it through Week 12 unscathed. Mississippi State is more than a touchdown underdog in Tuscaloosa, and Miami is only a small home underdog against Florida State.
The Bulldogs and Seminoles have been staples of the playoff bracket due to their unblemished records. What are the odds that the nation's undefeated teams finish the regular season without a loss?
Mississippi State has three games left, with a trip to Alabama this weekend and a showdown in the Egg Bowl versus Ole Miss to close the regular season. We project the Bulldogs to be underdogs in both matchups. After simulating the rest of the regular season 50,000 times, Mississippi State has an 11.3% chance of winning out.
Florida State has an easier schedule (at Miami, vs. Boston College and vs. Florida) to close the regular season. Miami and Florida are not the teams that Alabama and Ole Miss are, but they both rank inside the top 25 of our most recent Power Rankings. The Seminoles have a 21.5% chance of extending their winning streak to 28 straight games.
An astute reader would note that I discussed the two undefeated teams from the Power Five conferences but have not mentioned Marshall, the country's other unbeaten team.
The Thundering Herd have beat all comers, scoring an average of 47.8 points per game. However, Marshall has played the 126th-ranked schedule in the country. Earlier this week we ran a simulation to see what would happen if Marshall played in the SEC.
Like you would imagine, Marshall loses a few games. But so did Florida State when we had the Seminoles play Mississippi State's schedule. This made us curious, what would happen if Marshall played Florida State's schedule?
Marshall would be the projected favorite in all games except at Louisville (Florida State rallied from 21 points down to win) and Miami. Marshall is not being considered for the College Football Playoff, but if the Herd played Florida State's schedule, the Conference USA powerhouse would be getting some love from the voters.
The Football Four Playoff Projection committee gave votes to eight teams this week. Marshall did not receive a vote.
Below are two simulations. The first looks at what would happen in this week's Football Four playoff projection. The second is an eight-team bracket consisting of all teams to receive a vote for the playoff from the Football Four panel heading into Week 12 of the season.
How this works
The Predictalator uses current rosters and strength-of-schedule and efficiency-adjusted team and player stats (weighted slightly more toward recent games), to play every game 50,000 times before it's actually played. For this analysis, we are tracking how likely a team is to make it to any level of the College Football Playoff.
Football Four four-team playoff summary
After 50,000 simulations, the most likely national champion is Oregon. Oregon wins 33.4% of all the simulated tournaments. In the most likely National Championship game Oregon defeats TCU 51% of the time by an average score of 43-42.
Oregon has the country's most efficient offense, averaging 46 points per game and racking up more than 500 yards of total offense. The Ducks have beaten three teams that were ranked in the Amway Coaches Poll — UCLA, Michigan State and Utah. Oregon is a worthy national champion.
Based on the analysis, here is the projected College Football Playoff bracket:
Semifinals
No. 1 Mississippi State vs. No. 4 TCU | TCU wins 58% of the time by an average score of 39-33.
No. 2 Florida State vs. No. 3 Oregon | Oregon wins 63% of the time by an average score of 43-32.
National Championship
No 3. Oregon vs. No. 4 TCU | Oregon wins 51% of the time by an average score of 43-42.
The likelihoods for each team to win the championship are 33.4% for Oregon, 31.9% for TCU, 20.6% for Mississippi State and 14.2% for Florida State.
Football Four eight-team playoff summary
The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL have all expanded their playoffs over time. March Madness started with eight teams in 1939 but now features a field of 68 teams. It seems inevitable that college football will also expand from its current four-team playoff. What would an eight-team bracket look like?
In an expanded field, again using the teams to receive a vote from the Football Four panel, we get the following matchups: No. 1 Mississippi State vs. No. 8 Ohio State, No. 2 Florida State vs. No. 7 Arizona State, No. 3 Oregon vs. No. 6 Baylor, No. 4 TCU vs. No. 5 Alabama.
All of the first round matchups are close; no team is greater than 60% likely to advance to the semifinals.
The most likely Football Four features Alabama vs. Mississippi State and Oregon vs. Arizona State. The Tide and Ducks advance against their conference rivals to the championship game.
Alabama Crimson Tide defensive back Eddie Jackson (4) celebrates with teammates after an interception against the LSU Tigers during the second quarter of a game at Tiger Stadium. (Photo: Derick E. Hingle, USA TODAY Sports)
After 50,000 simulations, the most likely national champion is Alabama. Alabama wins 21.4% of all the simulated tournaments. In the most likely national championship game, Alabama defeats Oregon 54% of the time by an average score of 39-36.
Alabama is not in the top four of the Football Four or the College Football Playoff rankings. To no one's surprise though, Alabama is capable of winning the tournament if the Tide can reach the postseason.
The likelihoods for each team to win the championship are 21.4% for Alabama, 17.2% for Oregon, 16.6% for Baylor, 13.1% for TCU, 9.2% for Mississippi State, 8.1% for Arizona State, 7.7% for Ohio State and 6.7% for Florida State.MONCTON – Codiac Transpo has launched a new marketing aimed at getting people out of their cars and onto the bus.
As part of the marketing strategy, the transit operator has put up three billboards — one on Vaughan Harvey Boulevard one on Champlain Street and one on Mapleton Road — and is also doing radio ads.
It is also offering free transit access for high school students with a valid student ID in July and August, and will be offering 10-pass punch cards for half their regular price in October |
, naming the game in 2009 as its eighteenth top strategy game of all time.[67]
Although Sacrifice was honored as a quality game, industry observers pointed out that its qualities were forgotten by most people; the staff of GamesRadar said the game was "practically invisible to the gaming public",[68] and according to Gillen, few remembered Sacrifice as the pioneer of the mouse-gesture control system, which was praised as revolutionary in Peter Molyneux's later game Black & White. Gillen further lamented that Sacrifice's release heralded the end of Shiny's forays into creative game development, as the company switched to producing more mainstream products, such as Enter the Matrix.[55] Despite receiving numerous calls for a sequel, Shiny said in 2002 that it would not produce one.[69] Seven years later, GamesRadar repeated the call for a sequel while proclaiming Sacrifice "one of the most underappreciated games of all time".[68]Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia is looking forward to working with U.S. international Bobby Wood.
Wood, 23, will join Bundesliga club Hamburg from second-tier side Union Berlin after this summer's Copa America Centenario in the United States. Following a standout season in the second league, the forward at the weekend signed the four-year deal.
"He still has a lot of potential to develop," he said. "He's a lad on the way up. His career, contrary to that of many others, wasn't always a straight climb upward.
He took a detour 18 months ago when joining [Erzgebirge] Aue on loan, he made a step back to make two steps ahead," Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia told kicker about the U.S. international.
Bobby Wood has said that Hamburg was the right decision for him.
In his sole year at Union Berlin, Wood scored 17 goals, more than any other U.S. player in Germany ever.
"After his top season at Union, I still see a lot of development potential in him," Labbadia added.
Wood, meanwhile, has left Germany for Miami, where the U.S. team is preparing for the 2016 Copa America.
Speaking to Berlin-based tabloid BZ prior to leaving the capital, Wood said that he listened to his instinct when making the decision for Hamburg.
He said: "It's bittersweet that I am gone now. I liked it at Union, but my gut told me that Hamburg is the right decision for me. Hamburg have a lot of potential, I believe. They are a traditional club."
Stephan Uersfeld is the Germany correspondent for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @uersfeld.NEW HAMPSHIRE is a small state whose biggest residential college and university campuses are dominated by out-of-state students — tens of thousands of them. Under New Hampshire law, they are entitled to vote in state elections, an unremarkable and widely known fact that easily explains why several thousand ballots were cast there last November by voters who registered on Election Day using out-of-state driver's licenses.
Yet to Kris Kobach, the de facto head of President Trump's commission on voting integrity, those votes are somehow "proof" that an invading horde of out-of-staters took advantage of the Granite State's same-day registration law to cast "fraudulent votes." In fact, there's no evidence of that.
The real fraud is Mr. Kobach himself, Kansas's Republican secretary of state and a gubernatorial candidate, who will torture any truth, distort any data and fudge any fact in service to his long- standing goal of suppressing votes, specifically those likely to favor Democrats. Having established himself in his home state as a propagandist, he is now peddling his claptrap on the national stage.
Mr. Kobach has made a political cottage industry of such canards, of which the New Hampshire case is a telling example. His method is to cite real numbers, then draw risible and extravagantly sinister conclusions from them.
In the case of the Granite State, he cites official figures from last fall's elections, when 6,540 voters registered to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day. Of those voters, more than 80 percent, or 5,313, had neither been issued a New Hampshire license nor registered a car in the state 10 months later.
Aha, says Mr. Kobach, writing at Breitbart, the right-wing website, "now there's proof" of fraud: "It seems that they never were bona fide residents of the State."
In fact, when New Hampshire Public Radio examined the data earlier this year, it found that more than two-thirds of 5,900 day-of-election registrants who had out-of-state driver's licenses lived in college towns, indicating most were students voting perfectly legally. Again, on most of the state's biggest residential campuses, a majority of students — usually a sizable majority — are from out of state. That's true at the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, Keene State College, Franklin Pierce University and others.
It's also true at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., where on Tuesday Mr. Kobach attempted to defend his baseless claim at a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Under fire for his tendentious claims, which he used to cast doubt on the narrow victories in New Hampshire of Hillary Clinton and now-Sen. Maggie Hassan, both Democrats, he said: "Until further research is done, we will never know the answer regarding the legitimacy of this particular election."
That's Mr. Kobach at his most insidious, using innuendo, but never actual evidence, to impugn and subvert American democracy.Abortion clinics nationwide face significant threats of harassment, intimidation, and violence, according to a new report showing that threats of violence against abortion providers have doubled since 2010.
The fight to open a Planned Parenthood health care clinic in El Centro, California, shows that national anti-choice groups are intent on rolling back reproductive health-care gains in even the most progressive parts of the country.
Allen Graham - PDImages / Shutterstock.com
Abortion clinics nationwide face significant threats of harassment, intimidation, and violence, according to a new report showing that threats of violence against abortion providers have doubled since 2010.
The survey of 242 abortion providers in the United States found that there has been significantly higher levels of threats and targeted intimidation of doctors and staff in recent years. The report comes as widespread intimidation tactics were deployed against clinics during the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision affirming a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
More than 500 plastic handcuffs placed inside “care packages” were reportedly delivered to abortion clinics throughout the country last week, according to The Christian Post. The packages were sent by the anti-choice organization Pro-Life Action League.
The packages included a postcard mentioning the recent arrest of Naresh Patel, an Oklahoma physician, and the ominous handwritten message: “Could you be next?”
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Patel was arrested in December and charged with racketeering and three counts of obtaining money by false pretenses, according to reporting by the Oklahoman. An undercover investigation found that Patel was providing abortion-inducing drugs to patients without verifying that they were pregnant.
The message was written by Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League. “I thought this could really be a strong message to abortionists who really think seriously about the business that they’re involved in,” Scheidler told The Christian Post.
Pro-Life Action League received assistance in mailing the packages from the radical anti-choice organization Operation Rescue, whose members identified the clinics across the country that received the packages.
The use of similar intimidation techniques is on the rise, according to the National Clinic Violence Survey, conducted by the Feminist Majority Foundation. The report is the first comprehensive nationwide survey of violence at women’s health clinics since 2010.
The survey found that nearly one in five clinics experienced severe violence. Severe types of anti-choice violence affected 19.7 percent of clinics nationwide, down from the 23.5 percent of clinics nationwide that reported experiencing severe violence in 2010.
Incidents of wanted-style posters of abortion providers, pamphlets targeting doctors and clinic staff, and harmful information and pictures of doctors posted on the Internet have all significantly increased over the past four years, according to the report. The posters and flyers often include phrases like “Killers Among Us,” “Wanted For Killing,” and “Stop This Abortionist Now.”
The rate of clinics reporting stalking of physicians has also increased, from 6.4 percent of clinics in 2010 to 8.7 percent in 2014.
“The most stunning result in the survey, really, is this surge in serious threats that are being carried out against providers nationwide,” duVergne Gaines, the director of the National Clinic Access Project and one of the authors of the report, told ThinkProgress. “Those threats have almost doubled since 2010.”
The survey findings mirror reports by clinic staff and escorts from around the country who said they have seen an increase in clinic harassment. Other examples of anti-choice harassment, intimidation, and even acts of vandalism against abortion clinics have been reported around the country over the past year.
Abortion clinic physicians, staff, and escorts in Louisiana faced a barrage of harassment from anti-choice activists during July. Hundreds of activists with Operation Save America (OSA) descended on New Orleans to stage a week of protests throughout the city.
The activists targeted reproductive health-care clinics, personal residences, and even houses of worship in the hopes of intimidating abortion providers and reproductive rights supporters.
OSA activists were at the headquarters of the Jackson, Mississippi, police department a week after the protest in New Orleans, while fellow activists were facing criminal charges associated with protest activities outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Three of the four activists were found guilty of charges including obstructing the sidewalk entrance to the clinic.
All Families Healthcare, a family medicine and reproductive health-care facility in Kalispell, Montana, was broken into and severely vandalized in March. The man who allegedly vandalized the facility is the son of a former board member of the local anti-choice crisis pregnancy center.
Susan Cahill, a physician assistant who manages the Kalispell office, told Rewire at the time that she believed the break-in was part of a coordinated effort to intimidate the facility into no longer providing abortion care. Cahill has been forced to close the facility indefinitely, while the suspect stands charged with four felonies, including burglary, criminal mischief, theft, and attempted burglary.
Increases in the incidents of harassment of abortion clinics appear to coincide with the increasing amount of legislation passed to restrict access to reproductive health care. Lawmakers across the country have returned to state houses this month and have renewed their legislative assault on women’s rights.Andrew Robb joins Chinese company with control of Darwin Port
Updated
Two years after clinching a historic free trade deal with Beijing, former trade minister Andrew Robb has become a "high-level economic consultant" with the Chinese company that now operates Darwin Port.
Key points: Andrew Robb appointed to role by chairman Ye Cheng two months ago
Landbridge Group was awarded 99-year lease over Port of Darwin last year
Turnbull Government declines to say when it became aware of appointment
A Landbridge Group company statement obtained by the ABC said Mr Robb was appointed to the role by chairman Ye Cheng at an "auspicious" ceremony two months ago.
The Landbridge Group was awarded a 99-year lease over the Port of Darwin last year in a $506 million deal with the Northern Territory Government that sparked concerns at the highest levels of the Australian Defence Force.
The Landbridge statement from September 2 said "the process of internationalisation of the Landbridge Group and the results achieved had greatly impressed him (Mr Robb)".
"Working for Landbridge Group was a wonderful and pleasing thing, and that he wanted to jointly write a wonderful new chapter together with Landbridge," the statement added.
The company statement, translated for the ABC, also quotes board chairman Ye Cheng as saying that in order for Landbridge to achieve its global goals "it will be necessary to draw on experts such as Mr Andrew Robb who have global vision and global influence".
Mr Robb has been approached for comment on his new role, but the former minister, who is currently overseas, has not yet responded to the ABC.
Ex-ministers banned from lobbying Government for 18 months
The Turnbull Government has declined to say when it became aware of the appointment.
In relation to the Ministerial Standards, Scott Ryan, the Minister Assisting the Cabinet Secretary, reiterated the rules for former frontbenchers.
"It is the responsibility of all former ministers to adhere to the Statement of Ministerial Standards and not take personal advantage of information to which they have had access as a minister where that information is not generally available to the public," Senator Ryan said in a statement.
Former ministers are banned from lobbying the Australian Government for 18 months, meaning Mr Robb would have to wait another year before he can advocate for the Landbridge Group on trade matters.
Mr Robb resigned as trade minister in February, before leaving Parliament at this year's election.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop defended Mr Robb's decision, telling the ABC he should be allowed to have a post-Parliament career.
"Andrew has said he's aware of the ministerial code of conduct and he'll abide by it," she said.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, darwin-0800, china, australia, asia
First postedNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Some 18 million smart meters are set to make their way into American homes as part of the economic stimulus plan focusing on energy efficiency, Energy Department officials said Tuesday.
The meters, which are designed to more effectively communicate with utilities and appliances, and help consumers manage their electricity more efficiently, are being distributed by utilities around the country with partial funding from the federal government that was allocated under the stimulus plan.
The 18 million meters represent roughly 13% of all electricity meters nationwide. Ultimately, the administration hopes to distribute 40 million smart meters over the next few years.
The smart meters are part of a wider government effort to upgrade the nation's aging utility grid. The government announced $3.4 billion in funding Tuesday to help move the country toward a so-called smart grid. Utilities are putting in another $4.7 billion in matching funds.
According to the White House, these investments could reduce U.S. electricity use by 4% a year.
The money is part of nearly $100 billion in spending and tax cuts the government authorized under the stimulus plan for a variety of energy projects.
Other projects announced Tuesday include the modernization of electric substations and transmission centers.
All told, 100 projects were announced Tuesday in 49 states that are expected to create tens of thousand of jobs across the country. The White House billed it as the largest single energy grid modernization effort in the country's history.
Experts have long said the country needs to update its electricity grid, much of which was built during the early part of last century, if it is to deliver power more efficiently and handle electricity generated from sources such as wind and solar.
The funding announced Tuesday is just a fraction of what experts say is needed to build new transmission lines, computerize substations and meters, and build storage devices for a modern utility grid.Austin Branda, a humble East Village drummer, bounded up a fire escape to save a stranded resident after Thursday's explosion. View Full Caption DNAinfo New York/Danielle Tcholakian
NEW YORK CITY — When Austin Branda heard Thursday’s massive explosion in the East Village, the aspiring Broadway drummer didn’t miss a beat, immediately springing into the role of hero.
Branda, 45, was the mystery man caught on cell phone video bounding up a fire escape in the minutes after the blast to help save a stranded woman.
The heart-pounding footage shows a frantic resident at 121 Second Ave. — where the explosion emanated — stuck on the lowest level of the fire escape, unable to lower the fire ladder and reach the ground.
Major explosion on 2nd ave and 7th street. New Yorkers being awesome and helping this young lady get down! pic.twitter.com/YxGh2C68IP — Niraj Desai (@nayramz) March 26, 2015
Branda can be seen grabbing a chair from the next-door restaurant, Pommes Frites, climbing on it and preparing to jump up to grab the lower rung of the ladder.
Luckily, he didn’t have to make the leap as the woman, with the instruction of an off-duty firefighter, was able to release the ladder down to the ground.
“She finally got it released, and I just flew up,” Branda told DNAinfo New York Friday morning.
When he reached the woman, he got her to hand over her cell phone, then guided her down the ladder as he moved from one rung to the next below her.
“I was body-guarding her against the railing, so if she fell, I’d catch her,” he recalled.
Branda, who works as an usher at Broadway shows, but dreams of joining the pit orchestra as a percussionist, said he was practicing his drums in his apartment when the blast knocked him off his seat.
“I pretty much got blown out of my chair,” he said. “My teeth rattled — and my heart and chest.”
His apartment was directly across from 121 Second Ave., so when he looked out the window to see what happened, he saw the wreckage. The blast had torn through four buildings, leaving a fiery inferno.
Branda said he immediately thought there was a terrorist attack and scanned the street for anyone acting suspiciously.
Then Branda thought back to his childhood, when he lived in Italy while his dad attended medical school there. He remembered a similar explosion of the dry cleaner underneath their home.
“[My dad’s] reaction was to grab ice and towels,” Branda recalled. He did the same Thursday and then headed to the street.
“I ran out of the building and as soon as I ran out, I fixed my eye on this lady on the fire escape,” he said.
When he got the woman back on the ground, he rubbed her back and said, “I’m sorry about this,” to her.
After the good deed, he headed back to his apartment to check on his cat.
Branda said helping the stranded resident wasn’t a big deal.
“I was just one of the guys helping,” he said.
His fiancée, Jessie McGee, thinks otherwise.
“In my eyes, he's a true New York City hero every day," she said, "always quick to help anyone he sees in trouble.”DXRacer chairs are great. They have amazing high backed backrests, comfortable yet firm seats, and stylish leather materials. They also have good recline, and a variety of sizes to fit every user from someone as large as the hulk, to someone as small as a hobbit (well admittedly, a tall one around 5’5 or so).
I’ve reviewed chairs like the DXRacer Sentinel myself, and I’ve found a lot of things about the chairs that I like. The chairs really do feel like Racing car seats due to the straight backed and firm cushion with stylish racing wings. However, one thing I’ve noticed that I don’t like about the chairs is that the arm rests feel a bit cheap.
Since the chairs are only $400-500 (I know, this seems pricey for a lot of people) you can’t expect THAT great of arms. Most chairs under this price, or around this price, like HON chairs or cheaper chairs, have similar armrests. Most armrests are just plastic and a bit uncomfortable, without too much adjustments. DXRacer chairs have some adjustments in the arms, but they aren’t really comfortable for long use. The shape and design is OK, but they aren’t cushioned.
However, this isn’t too much of an issue with a simple modification addon.
How to Fix DXRacer Arm Rests to be more Comfortable
The secret way to make your DXRacer armrests more comfortable is to purchase some memory foam add ons for your armrests.
There are plenty of options on Amazon from more expensive options around $40, to even some within the $10-15 range. You can also use these armrests on other chairs. Here are some that I’ve found that are quite good.
If you want to make your DXRacer armrests SUPER comfortable, then consider the Ergo360 armrest pad covers. These covers are made with high density foam with great cushinoning. It’ll alleviate elbow pain and distribute weight across your forearms. The dimensions are 7″ to 11″ in length and up to 4″ wide.
Similar to the last armrest covers, these ones use memory foam to increase your comfort. The armrests are soft with a snug fit that fits most arms from 6 to 11 inches.
If you don’t have $30-40 dollars to spend on armrest cushions, but still want a better experience than your normal DXRacer armrests, consider the Ziraki memory foam covers. These are mainly just foam but the foam is durable and should last you awhile. You can even clean the cover since the zippers are easy to access.Ever heard a grappler talk about going to “gi” or “no-gi” class? What does that mean? How do they compare? Do they differ in ways that make a difference?
There are three main ways that gi and no-gi grappling differ:
Clothing
Strategy and Techniques
Tournament Rules
Clothing:
The first, obvious difference between gi and no-gi grappling is in the fashion statements. In gi grappling, practitioners wear - you guessed it - a gi. A “gi” can also be called a “kimono” and consists of a pair of heavy cotton drawstring pants, usually with reinforced knees, and a heavy cotton jacket with a thick collar and a hem that is notched on either side. One jacket lapel crosses over the other and the whole lot is kept closed with the famous (infamous?) belt. Men tend to wear either a rash guard, a t-shirt, or nothing under the jacket, and perhaps compression shorts under the pants. Women might wear a sports bra, a rash guard, and then compression shorts as well.
In no-gi grappling, practitioners wear - you guessed it - no gi. Instead, they usually wear attire associated with surfing, specifically rash guards and board shorts. Ultimate Fighting Championship aficionados might be used to seeing male mixed martial artists in either only compression shorts or compression shorts under board shorts, but no shirt. And female mixed martial artists tend to wear sports bras, perhaps a rash guard, and compression shorts and perhaps board shorts. So there are a variety of options, though straight grappling academies tend to prefer students to cover up on top; unlike the professional mixed martial artist, typical grappling students have no financial incentive to put their faces that close to somebody’s bare armpit.
Also in mixed martial arts events, you might see a referee checking to make sure the men are wearing cups. I have heard this referred to as the “jock knock,” due to the fact the athlete frequently raps on the cup with his knuckles to prove it is there. (And yes, I wish I could take credit for inventing the phrase.) Some straight grappling tournaments forbid the wearing of cups, while others do not. For regular training, different men have different preferences, and of course, women do not need to deal with this at all.
Strategy and Techniques:
Another difference between gi and no-gi grappling has to do with strategy. In gi grappling, use of the gi - sleeves, collar, pant legs - figures prominently in gaining and controlling position, as well as in applying submissions. Practitioners can execute collar chokes, or use the sleeve or the hem of the gi to tie up a partner’s arm or hand. In no-gi grappling, on the other hand, grabbing the clothes is generally not allowed. Instead, practitioners can try to control an opponent by gripping the body’s natural handles: the neck, the wrist, the elbow, the knee, the hips, etc. This is also allowed in gi grappling, but is the only option in no-gi. The lack of heavy cotton cloth to soak up sweat in no-gi grappling also tends to affect the pace of a match and the ease with which an opponent can slip out of a bad position.
Tournament Rules:
There are some rule differences in gi and no-gi competition as well. Different tournaments have different expectations, but a general rule is that a move called a heel hook, which is allowed in advanced no-gi divisions, is not allowed in any gi divisions. A heel hook is a move that puts potentially serious pressure on the knee. It is difficult enough to defend no-gi, but the idea is that the potential for getting tangles in the gi pants make it dangerously difficult to defend, even among expert grapplers. So heel hooks are generally not allowed in the gi.
There also might be some differences in points awarded, depending on the tournament. For instance, in no-gi grappling, a takedown to side control frequently merits three points while in gi grappling, it merits only two. As another example, knee-on-belly is generally a points position (two) in gi grappling but not in no-gi.
So the next time you watch grappling, note some of the characteristics of gi versus no-gi. See if you notice differences in pacing, types of moves, etc, and see if you have a preference!In the midst of his frenzied run for the White House, Donald Trump has frequently taken detours – once to another continent -- to promote his own business interests. Tuesday morning was one of those pit stops rooted in brand enhancement, as the GOP nominee began his day at Trump National Doral, his golf course near Miami, Florida.
Tuesday evening, however, included a campaign stop in Tallahassee, where Trump told the crowd that he’d “love” to take on Vice President Joe Biden in some fisticuffs -- maybe the first time a national political figure has brought up the possibility of violence involving a sitting vice president since Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in 1804.
“Did you see where Biden wants to take me to the back of the barn?” Trump told a crowd of many thousands in Tallahassee. “Me. He wants to. I’d love that. I’d love that. Mr. Tough Guy. You know, he’s Mr. Tough Guy. You know when he’s Mr. Tough Guy? When he’s standing behind the microphone by himself. That’s when. He wants to bring me to the back of the barn. Oh, some things in life you could really love doing.”
He was referring to Biden’s remark last week, in which the vice president harshly criticized Trump’s crude comments caught on a hot mike on “Access Hollywood” tapes from 2005.
“The press always ask me don’t I wish I were debating him?” Biden said. “No, I wish we were in high school. I could take him behind the gym — that’s what I wish.”
Trump began his Florida jaunt on Tuesday assembling workers from his Doral golf course behind him - “80 percent Hispanic!” he made sure to note. He called Doral one of the “great courses of the world” and went on to note that Doral had “happy customers.” He also invited some of the workers to offer testimonials about how much they enjoy working there and admire Trump. Trump even joked that he would fire anyone who didn’t say nice things about him.
The course’s general manager, David Feder, insisted that the golf course staff had no foreknowledge of Trump’s call for employee testimonials and said he had no idea what the employees would say.
After touting Doral, Trump moved on to the day’s messaging – teeing off on the news that Obamacare premiums would be jumping, on average, 25 percent in 2017. Then, he seemed to get off track.
As Trump pointed to his workers, he said, “All of my employees are having tremendous problems with Obamacare. This election is going to be about Obamacare. It’s going to be about jobs. It’s going to be about a lot of things. But Obamacare is just blowing up.”
Instantly, this raised questions of why Trump did not provide his employees with health insurance through his company, if all of his workers were having “tremendous” problems with Obamacare. Minutes later, as reporters yelled questions at him, Trump walked his claim back, saying only “some of them are, but most of them, no.” Feder then hastily told reporters that the vast majority of Doral employees are insured through Trump’s company.
That same evening, Trump wondered out loud in Tallahassee about those employees, asking his supporters whether he should supply them with insurance.
“Unfortunately, a small number of the people that work at Trump National in Doral, which is in Miami, they’re on Obamacare,” Trump said. “Small percentage, and as I said this morning, they are having tremendous difficulty. In fact, a lot of them have said, ‘Can you take me off Obamacare?’”
“Should I do it or not? Should I take them off? Ah, maybe I will. I’ll tell you folks when I do it. No, but it’s a small group but it’s a group that’s having tremendous problems.”
Sandwiched between the two events was a whirlwind day of campaigning in Florida for Trump, it included multiple roundtables, a rally at an airport in Sanford, as well as a whirlwind of interviews aimed at capitalizing on the Affordable Care premium hikes.
“This has turned out to be one of the great disasters of all time,” Trump told Cincinnati radio host Scott Sloan. “First of all, the country can’t afford it. Second of all, the people can’t afford it.”
“They say 25 percent, Trump said. “I don’t know where they’re getting the number. Because the real number is 60 percent and 70 percent. In some states, 82 percent and it’s only getting worse.”
He repeated the claim that the rate hike number was false throughout the day, at one point saying, “That is a lie, just like everything else.”
While he started the day off promoting his business interests, Trump told Sloan that he had no interest in “Trump TV” – a rumored media venture for after the election that Trump has reportedly pursued. “Trump Tower Live,” Facebook live programming by the Trump campaign, launched Monday.
“No, I have no interest in Trump TV,” Trump said. “I hear it all over the place, and you know, I have a tremendous fan base, I mean we have tremendous base. We have the most incredible people, but I just don’t have any interest in that. I have one interest, and that’s on November eighth.”
Even as Trump labored to stay on his message about the Affordable Care Act, he managed to get in digs at fellow Republicans and the media, two of his favorite targets.
In an interview with WFLA-Radio, Trump called the lack of vocal support from House Speaker Paul Ryan, a frequent recipient of his ire, and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell “a little bit disappointing.” And to the Republicans who ran for president but didn’t honor their pledge to support the nominee, Trump said, “I don’t know how they live with themselves, in one way.”
Trump even acknowledged, in an interview with radio host Rush Limbaugh, that he doesn’t mind being knocked off message so he can defend himself.
“Well, I’d like to at least, you know, make a statement about the truth,” Trump said. “And even if that delays it a day or two, in other words, then they have to print the statement and they don’t talk about jobs and Obamacare, right. know, but honestly, I mean, people have to know your view. They have to know that this stuff never took place, it was total fabrication.”
The “total fabrication” alluded to all of the sexual misconduct claims women have made against him in recent weeks -- they number in double digits now. Last weekend, Trump vowed to sue them, though in an interview on Fox News, he said he would “like to get off that subject.”
But even then, Trump could not seem to help himself. In that same interview with Fox, he was asked about his rhetoric about polls being rigged. Trump answered with a completely unrelated tangent about the sexual misconduct allegations.
“I just want to let people know I’m innocent,” Trump said. “Okay? Nothing ever happened. Didn’t exist. This was all fantasyland. So I do think I have an obligation to myself and my family to say I’m innocent. So that is all I say. I’m innocent. and I did nothing. Zero.”A New Orleans woman probably didn’t expect to be crying when she set out to tend to her free book box this week. But that’s what happened when she found a handwritten note from a recent transplant who said he or she was from Maine. That person’s brief story put everything in perspective.
You may have heard of the Little Free Library. It’s something of a movement started in 2009 by a Wisconsin man who, in tribute to his mother, built a little model schoolhouse and used it as a box to put books, free for the taking.
Since then, Little Free Libraries have been posted all over the country. The woman who received that heartwarming note was the caretaker — Little Free Library calls them stewards, not librarians, a term which connotes a specific level of professional training — of one in New Orleans.
She wrote on Facebook that “when I got it, I was so touched I sat down on the bench and could not help but cry… it’s a reminder that we should not take literacy for granted and that there are so many people who do not know how to read. Happy to be making a difference, however small it is…”We make thousands of decisions every single day both consciously and unconsciously and it’s hurting you more than you’d think.
Decision fatigue is real.
This post will discuss decision fatigue, how it affects you and how to create a mental filter that helps you figure out how to choose what really matters to you.
From the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep, we ask our brains to guide us in the best possible way—always hoping to end up making the ‘right’ decision.
To snooze or not to snooze? Glasses or contacts? White or brown socks? Eggs, oatmeal, or no breakfast at all? Drive, bus, or bike? Do I need a jacket? Drip or Cappuccino? What should I work on first? Which email should I respond to first? What do I want for lunch?
I could spend this entire article writing out decisions made in the first 60 minutes of every day, but I’ll spare you that.
Most of these decisions take only a short moment and seemingly little effort, but the collective effect is what should really concern you.
With each decision made, our ability to effectively make the right one decreases.
In other words, at the end of the day you’re more likely to cave to cravings and decisions requiring more discipline, like sticking to a particular diet. You’re more likely to make an impulse purchase that doesn’t align with what you intended to buy if you’re overwhelmed with potential options and have already been plagued with decisions all day.
This phenomenon is called decision fatigue, which simply means that the more decisions we have to make throughout the day, the worse we get at making them. When we are overwhelmed with choices, we tend to choose poorly even if the choices are insignificant. Mark Zuckerberg talks about why he wears a gray t-shirt every single day to avoid decision fatigue so he can give his best efforts to building Facebook.
One of the solutions that my wife Amy and I are pursuing is reducing the total number of decisions that we have to make in daily life, similar to Zuckerberg and his gray shirt.
Minimalism as a philosophy helps us reduce decision fatigue in many ways.
By reducing the excess things in our lives we have less that requires our attention and decision-making. You never have to decide how to organize or where to put the clutter that doesn’t exist.
Timothy Ferriss (Author of the 4-Hour Work Week) recommends that you make the first hour of your day 100% decision-free by already knowing exactly what it will take to do what you need to do and precisely how you’ll do it. While both scenarios seem ideal, they can be difficult to execute and take time to set into place.
Improving your decision-making process is possible starting today with just 20-30 minutes of work.
Build a mental filter for your brain to make quick decisions easier.
Just like an air filter for your home prevents most of the dust particles from getting to your lungs, a decision filter helps prevent most of your decisions from engaging your discipline. When you face a decision, run it through the filter first. If it makes it through, it’s worth your continued consideration – if not, let it go.
Creating your own decision filter is as simple as creating a series of Yes or No questions to ask yourself.
My filter only has three core questions, as I have spent some time boiling down what I want for the next few years of life:
1. I want to travel as much as possible, visiting family & friends.
I love traveling, visiting new places, and seeing friends and family all over the world. Whenever I’m looking at a new gadget, use of time or money, I ask myself: Would this make it easier for me to travel more frequently?
2. I want to have as much control of my time as possible.
By spending less and reducing our overhead (debt payments, living expenses) we create more opportunities, flexibility and options for increasing time-wealth. I absolutely love my job, but someday we may want some element of location independence, living abroad. So I ask myself: Will this offer a future monetary return that may allow me to build time-wealth and increase our flexibility?
3. I want to foster creativity and all forms of health.
This one is pretty simple. I just ask: Will this help me foster creativity or improve my physical and mental health?
The fact is, sometimes the answer to these questions is a resounding ‘no’ and I still do it anyway because it’s worth the sacrifice. These questions indeed have helped me cut impulse spending on things that don’t serve the above purposes. As much as we’d like it not to, sometimes a little dust makes it through the air filter.
My friend, Patrick Rhone, shares his thoughts on making decision filters in A Most Important Question. What’s in your decision filter? I’d love to know.
For more ideas on intentional living and minimalism, you’ll find actionable and practical strategies in my latest book Break the Twitch.The battle for the small car is getting hotter. Soon after the Tatas stunned the world with a Rs 1 lakh car, Nano, Hyundai stated its intention to come out with a car that could cost less than Rs 2 lakh and hit the road by 2011. And now, auto biggie Maruti-Suzuki too is ready with Its small car. The little car could hit the road, they say, as early as the end of this year or early |
However, the possibility of traveling to Cuba expeditiously, with a U.S. passport, could be an incentive for thousands of these legal residents to become U.S. citizens.
Thus, these new citizens, at the time they vote in local or federal elections, would do so thinking about their interests and those of their families. In other words, they would vote for and elect representatives whose political agenda included the improvement of relations between Cuba and the U.S.
In conclusion, if the Cuban government allowed Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba with a U.S. passport it would be promoting a human, intelligent and effective strategy toward its émigrés.
In addition, it would empower with greater political force a majority, moderate sector of its émigrés. In turn, these factors would have an exponential repercussion in the climate of improvement in the relations between the U.S. and Cuba and between the Cuban émigrés and their nation.
Carlos Lazo is a schoolteacher in the Seattle, Wash., area. During the Bush Jr. presidency, he became well known as the Cuban-American combat medic who served with distinction in Iraq but was barred from visiting his children in Cuba due to the restrictions on travel that the Bush administration was using to stop Cuban-Americans from visiting their families in Cuba.HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — You knew the finger-pointing was coming in New York. We all did.
But it was supposed to be aimed at the usual suspects … Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, the coach (in this case Derek Fisher), J.R. Smith and, of course, owner James Dolan.
Phil Jackson was supposed to be immune from this stuff, his championship rings protecting him from the blowback of what most level-headed observers expected to be a struggle of a season for the Knicks.
But things are playing out in unexpected ways these days in the big city. The Zen master is being singled out for not impacting things the way many expected when he took over the daily basketball operations in New York.
Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News takes aim with some pointed criticisms of the way the Jackson regime is conducting business, thus far:
Phil Jackson was going to come in and shed light into every dark corner of the organization, use his wit and his wiles to turn the Garden into a brighter, smarter place. The world’s most paranoid arena was going to become something less afraid of the truth. But a quarter of the way through the season, the Knicks have dropped eight straight games and stand at 4-18, and Jackson has been about as big a presence as a one-off halftime show. He sits in his seat above midcourt, watching the Knicks blow one after another. They lost another one down the stretch on Sunday, falling 103-99, to the faster, younger Trail Blazers. How Jackson feels about this mess remains a mystery. Jackson might as well be Glen Grunwald or Steve Mills, for all we hear from him. He was charming enough in his introductory press conference back in March, though some reporters weren’t permitted to ask him questions. He’s spoken only once to the assembled media since the season started, when he said that decisions would be made on players sometime around Thanksgiving or Christmas. We’re well past that first holiday, steaming downhill toward the second, and the only glimpse we get of Jackson is if he’s shown on camera near a security guard. When reporters had the nerve to ask him questions after opening night, and when Jackson had the audacity to answer, Garden officials changed the postgame route taken by those writers to make certain the media would not intersect with him again. So Jackson hasn’t altered the Garden culture, and from the look of things he hasn’t changed the team in a good way, either. When he sent Tyson Chandler packing, he dumped the sharpest, toughest player of the bunch. Now Derek Fisher is left trying to teach a system to players who don’t own the skill sets to play it. As Hubie Brown once said of his 23-59 Knicks, “They’re trying. They’re just not good enough.” The Knicks this season aren’t nearly good enough, which for some reason is surprising a lot of people. Is it surprising Jackson? Who knows? Let’s face it. Fans don’t care a bit what a team president says or believes, as long as the team is winning. But the loyalists pouring money into the Garden coffers certainly deserve some hint now at a blueprint.
Having visited the Knicks and PJax during training camp on the Hang Time Podcast Road Trip, it was clear to me that this would be an extensive “work in progress.” So I wasn’t expecting any miracles.
But I also didn’t expect things to come apart as quickly as they have for the new regime. The Knicks have better talent than their record indicates but lack the chemistry and understanding of the system to put things together in an Eastern Conference that has played musical chairs with the top spot through the first six weeks of the season.
The playoffs?
It’s already a mirage for the Knicks. They’re just trying to salvage what they can from this season and it’s not even Christmas. So maybe the honeymoon really is over for Phil in New York …
Category: HT News / Tags:, Carmelo Anthony, Derek Fisher, Filip Bondy, James Dolan, Knicks, New York Daily News, Phil Jackson, Sekou Smith / 14 Comments on Honeymoon over for Phil in New York? /7 books released in 2 years
3 self-published, 4 with a "publisher" of some kind, and 1 book owing
After 2-3 years she figured she would be successful.
She is not so she is quitting. Not just quitting, but pulling her stuff off Amazon and buying back the rights to the books she no longer owns
Meanwhile, her spectacularly thrown hissy fit Facebook post was just littered with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
anyone defines success is entirely up to them. Personally, I've set modest goals with the intent of making them bigger and better as I move ahead with achieving each one. My expectations are set modestly and I have a good grasp on the reality of the situation. I understand that my goals may be just a little bit out of reach, but that's okay. I can't think of a single successful person (by any measure) that didn't push themselves a little further. I understand that if I keep doing what I'm doing then I'm going to keep getting what I get.
Most importantly, I understand it's going to take a bit of luck.
at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net Image courtesy Michal Marcol
Just to be clear, when I speak of luck this is the equation I have in mind:
Luck = Preparation + Opportunity 1
Also, How a writer defines success is entirely up to them. Howdefines success is entirely up to them. Personally, I've set modest goals with the intent of making them bigger and better as I move ahead with achieving each one. My expectations are set modestly and I have a good grasp on the reality of the situation. I understand that my goals may be just a little bit out of reach, but that's okay. I can't think of a single successful person (by any measure) that didn't push themselves a little further. I understand that if I keep doing what I'm doing then I'm going to keep getting what I get.Most importantly, I understand it's going to take a bit of luck.Just to be clear, when I speak of luck this is the equation I have in mind:Also,
You only get out what you put in
You reap what you sow
You get what you deserve
Karma's a bitch
Okay, maybe that last one's a bit off topic but you get the idea (plus I love that particular expression). Someone mentioned to me the other day that they found me "inspiring". Even though I was truly flattered, I had to laugh because it just so happens that I'm the laziest person in the world. I'm an excellent example of how one can achieve success but only if you allow it to take four times longer than it should.
That being said, I have more than a few successes to speak of (a couple in writing even!), and I know exactly how much time and effort I've put into achieving each one. You want to know something? If you do the research, constantly keep your eyes scanning for opportunity, and make your way to Carnegie Hall (practice, practice, practice) you'll be successful. It's that simple.
Image created and owned by David Samuel
But wait! You say you scribbled a few things down and didn't achieve J.K. Rowling level success on the first try? Well then, you've got two choices: pack it in or keep trying, and if you choose the latter you had better not do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Not only will you continue to get what you get but you'll start to look a little crazy in the process.
~ Andrew
Okay, maybe that last one's a bit off topic but you get the idea (plus I love that particular expression). Someone mentioned to me the other day that they found me "inspiring". Even though I was truly flattered, I had to laugh because it just so happens that I'm the laziest person in the world. I'm an excellent example of how one can achieve success but only if you allow it to take four times longer than it should.That being said, I have more than a few successes to speak of (a couple in writing even!), and I know exactly how much time and effort I've put into achieving each one. You want to know something? If you do the research, constantly keep your eyes scanning for opportunity, and make your way to Carnegie Hall (practice, practice, practice) you'll be successful. It's that simple.But wait! You say you scribbled a few things down and didn't achievelevel success on the first try? Well then, you've got two choices: pack it in or keep trying, and if you choose the latter you had better not do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Not only will you continue to get what you get but you'll start to look a little crazy in the process.~ Andrew
This starts as a story of a writer who put out a tonne of stuff in several genres in a short period of time and didn't achieve immediate success, so, she decided to pack it in and give up on her dream.Here are the highlights:Returning to her page several days after she thew in the towel I see that some of her friends have talked her out of it and she's going to plow through. Good for her(?) Honestly, I'm not sure what to think. It seems like I've done more research for this blog post than she did in deciding to become a writer.I took a look at her website and as far as I can tell this is a simple case of mismanaged expectations. Like the kids on American Idol who have been told by their parents that they're the next Kelly Clarkson, this author had J.K. Rowling expectations when five out of six books in her portfolio are: two children's picture books, two cook books, and a book of poems.Now, I'm not sure what her definition of "success" is, but from what I've seen on her Facebook wall, it looks like recognition is pretty high up on the list. If that's the case, then I might suggest that poetry, children's picture books, and cookbooks might not be the quickest road to success. Certainly it's possible,: poetry world is a niche market at best, and finicky as hell; children's picture books are the most saturated genre on the planet; and unless you're actually a trained in the culinary arts orSusanne Somers it's going to be a long, slow road to success.Share On more Share On more
In a few short weeks, kids all over the country will be graduating high school as the class of 2014. Let's take a look at the incoming freshman class, the class of 2018. Here's how their experience will be different than yours... Via betabeat.com
1. First off, they were born in 2000 or 2001 and they're graduating in 2018. They're the class of 2018. 2. They've never lived in a world with monthly texting limits. 3. The lyric "shake it like a Polaroid picture" has no meaning to them. 4. They never knew a Destiny's Child with four members. They probably don't know Destiny's Child at all. 5. The Motorola Razr is a museum artifact:
6. Star Wars has never been a trilogy. 7. Eminem could without a doubt be their dad. 8. Or, you know, one of the dudes from Hanson could be their dad. 9. If you say, "You sound like a broken record," chances are they won't understand you. 10. This sound has no meaning:
11. They've been alive for 47 albums of Now That's What I Call Music! 12. The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC have been bands longer than they've been alive. 13. And there's no way they understand this reference:
14. They don't understand where the shutter sound your phone makes when it takes a picture comes from. 15. They have always had to accept Crocs as reality. 16. They've never experienced the crippling fear that comes with picking a top 8:
17. They've never had the crushing realization that their disposable camera pictures didn't come out well. 18. They live in a world where they can hear Blink-182 on a classic rock station. 19. This building has no meaning to them:
20. The song "Waterfalls" by TLC is older than they are. 21. So is the song "All Star" by Smash Mouth, for better or worse. 22. They live in a post-Sisqó world.
23. They were born the same year the Playstation 2 and Gameboy Advance came out. 24. THEY'RE THE CLASS OF 2018. 25. And some of them were born the same year the first Apple stores opened. 26. You can say with 100% confidence that you have MP3s older than they are. 27. One of those MP3s could be "...Baby One More Time." 28. They'll never know the LIE that was "anti-skip" technology on a CD player.
29. This storefront doesn't remind them of anything:
30. None of these names mean anything to them: Ja Rule Ashanti Ryan Cabrera Ashlee Simpson Jesse McCartney Verne Troyer Wilmer Valderrama Chad Michael Murray Kevin Federline Mischa Barton The "Dell" Dude Tom Green Nick Lachey Beans Carson Daly Moby Terri Schiavo William Hung
31. They've never lived in a world with Squeeze-Its, Surge, Orbitz, Magic Middles Tan M&M's, or these bad boys:
32. They've always had GPS and have never had to look up directions and print them out. 33. "Roll down your window" has no meaning. 34. Neither does "don't touch that dial." 35. They've never had a late-night AIM chat interrupted by someone yelling "get off the internet, I need to use the phone!" 36. They've never had to untangle a phone cord, straighten an antenna for TV reception, and they probably have no clue what's happening in this picture:
37. The WWE was never the WWF. 38. They can measure how old they are by saying they're about four Shrek movies old. 39. Or by saying they're about the same age as this episode:
40. They have always been forced to accept the harsh reality of the Black Eyed Peas. 41. THEY'RE. THE. CLASS. OF. 2018. 42. "Wardrobe malfunction" doesn't mean anything. 43. Clay Aiken is just some dude running for Congress.
44. If you asked what brings the boys to the yard, they'd have no idea how to answer that question. 45. Paris Hilton was never popular. 46. They were never forced to look at frosted tips everywhere they went. 47. Leonardo DiCaprio has never been the guy in this picture:
48. They have only been alive for three Harry Potter books. 49. "Darrin's Dance Grooves" holds no meaning. 50. Beanie Babies were never seen as a gold mine to them. 51. They've never had the struggle of picking between Kazaa and Limewire. 52. And chances are they have never burned a CD. 53. The Spice Girls are just some middle-aged British women.
Toby Melville / Reuters
54. They've never experienced the frustration of trying to record your favorite songs from the radio to a tape, only to have the DJ start talking and ruin everything. 55. They've never heard the wise words of Mr. Feeny.
56. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was never this little dude:Whether shooting from within the Peloton, or partying with the fans on Mont Ventoux, the pictures in this beautifully-produced book reveal some of the many stories McMillan has witnessed. Sometimes intimate, other times aggressive, always beautiful, his images are unique. This exclusive anthology, with many never before seen reportage images, spans some two decades of life at the sharp end of world cycling.
Camille, formerly editor at large of Rouleur magazine, captures the pain, the heroism and the humanity of this most challenging of sports. 'The Circus' is destined to become an instant classic and is currently being edited and designed. But we’d really like your help. If you’re a fan of cycling and you’d like to help us produce this labour of love and eagerly awaited project, please pledge your support.
There are opportunities to receive a limited edition print, to get your name in the book – and also a super limited edition copy of the book & print – signed by Camille.
We think we’ve got something special here – and we’d like to share it with you.
Midnight TTT - Vuelta a Espana 2010 - Sevilla
Rapha Condor JLT Directeur Sportif, John Herety, remembers an early meeting with Camille:
I think it was early 2008, at a launch for a photographic exhibition for Rouleur magazine. I had just taken over the Rapha Condor team, and I’d been invited along to the event. As is the case in back alleys in winter, it was pretty dark outside where people were mingling, and while I was chatting this figure loomed out of the darkness, drink in hand, and said pointedly “you’re the reason I stopped cycling.” In my job I meet a lot of people, and deal with many faces old and new, some who on occasion I struggle to remember. When this seemingly aggressive stranger approached me, I had no idea who I was talking to. I was even more surprised to know that I’d been responsible for stopping his racing career. But then he broke the tension with a laugh and an introduction. Here was the man, of course, who was responsible for the whole exhibition.
Camille has always pushed the boundaries with his photography. I’ve always thought him highly respectful of the traditions of the sport in his work: you don’t take pictures of toe clips and straps unless you really love cycling.
Why you’ll love this book
This high-quality photography book is destined to have 240 pages of shoots ranging from the slopes of Alpe d’Huez to the velodrome in Ghent; from inside team cars to the cobbles of Paris Roubaix – all captured in both colour and black and white. Shot from the road – and the gutter – relive the excitement and drama of two decades of top professional bicycle racing. This most innovative and surprising of photographers takes you on a journey fuelled by his own passion for the sport.
Paris --> Roubaix, Arenberg Forest sector, 2011
Daniel Mather on his involvement with the special edition
I first came across @camillejmcmillan on the cover of Rouleur 14. It was the one with the famous 'Box of Tricks' cover. I've always had a penchant for @campagnolosrl. At the time I was living in N.London and would ride my Super Record equipped Moser pass Sargent & Co everyday catching a glimpse of the classic royal blue box adorned with the rainbow bands and smile at how beautiful @campagnolosrl was and still are. Jewels of the bicycle.
One such jewel is the Delta brake, and when Camille shared this photograph with me and suggested screenprinting a limited edition dust jacket for his latest book, I jumped at the chance. To combine my love of cycling, Campagnolo, screenprinting and Camille's work would be nothing short of beautiful
I first came across @camillejmcmillan on the cover of Rouleur 14. It was the one with the famous 'Box of Tricks' cover. I've always had a penchant for @campagnolosrl. At the time I was living in N.London and would ride my Super Record equipped Moser pass Sargent & Co everyday catching a glimpse of the classic royal blue box adorned with the rainbow bands and smile at how beautiful @campagnolosrl was and still are. Jewels of the bicycle.
One such jewel is the Delta brake, and when Camille shared this photograph with me and suggested screenprinting a limited edition dust jacket for his latest book, I jumped at the chance. To combine my love of cycling, Campagnolo, screenprinting and Camille's work would be nothing short of beautiful.Augustin Mouchot’s Solar Concentrator, 1869. (source)
The history of renewable energy is fascinating. We posted a while back about early efforts to harness the power of waves. You may also be interested to learn more about the 19th century work of Mouchot and Ericsson, early pioneers of solar thermal concentrators (CSP solar thermal power).
Early schematics of Augustin Mouchot’s Solar Concentrator.
Augustin Mouchot taught secondary school mathematics from 1852-1871, during which time he embarked on a series of experiments in the conversion of solar energy into useful work. His proof-of-concept designs were so successful that he obtained support from the French government to pursue the research full-time. His work was inspired and informed by that of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (who had constructed the first successful solar oven in 1767) and Claude Pouillet (who invented the Pyrheliometer in 1838).
Augustin Mouchot’s Solar Concentrator at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, 1878. (source)
Mouchot worked on his most ambitious device in the sunny conditions of French Algeria and brought it back for demonstration at the Universal Exhibition in Paris of 1878. There he won the Gold Medal, impressing the judges with the production of ice from the power of the sun.
Unfortunately, the falling price of coal, driven by efficiencies of transport and free trade agreements with Britain, meant that Mouchot’s work would soon be deemed unnecessary and his funding was cut soon after his triumph at the Universal Exhibition.
Abel Pifre and his solar powered printing press. Image from Scientific American, May 1882. (source)
His assistant, Abel Pifre, would continue his work, however, and demonstrated a solar powered printing press in the Jardin des Tuileries in 1882. Despite cloudy conditions that day, the machine printed 500 copies per hour of Le Journal du Soleil, a newspaper written specially for the demonstration.
John Ericsson’s Solar Engines. (left image source, right image source)
Meanwhile, the great inventor and engineer John Ericsson had decided to devote the last years of his life to similar pursuits. His work on solar engines spanned the 1870s and 1880s. Instead of relying on steam, he utilized his version of the heat engine, a device that would prove very commercially successful when powered with more conventional fuel sources such as gas.
From Paul Collins’ 2002 essay The Beautiful Possibility:
“You will probably be surprised when I say that the sun-motor is nearer perfection than the steam-engine,” [Ericsson] wrote one friend, “but until coal mines are exhausted its value will not be fully acknowledged.” He calculated that solar power cost about ten times as much as coal, so that until coal began to run out, solar power would not be economically feasible. But this, to him, was not a sign of failure—there was no question that fossil fuels would indeed run out someday. The great engineer maintained an unshakeable belief in the future of solar power to his last breath; he had set up a large engine in his backyard and was still perfecting it when he collapsed in early 1889. Though his doctor made him rest, Ericsson could not sleep at night: he complained that he could not stop thinking about his work yet to be done.
Both Mouchot and Ericsson were driven by the prescient understanding that access to coal, the predominant fossil fuel of the time, would eventually run out. And while, new discoveries of petroleum and natural gas have extended our inexpensive access to energy, we are finally now, 140 years later, reaching a time when their predictions are coming true. For the wisdom behind the premise is still as valid today as it was then—nothing that is finite can last forever. These inventors were so far ahead of their time, it is almost scary.Earlier this week, Amazon’s Web Services suffered from a significant outage, bringing down a number of online services and plaguing Apple’s own iCloud platform. While not much was known about what caused the lengthy outage at the time, Amazon has published a new blog post detailing what exactly went wrong, pinpointing it on a human error.
Sylvania HomeKit Light Strip
In a note posted on the Amazon Web Services blog, Amazon explained that the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) team was in the process of debugging an issue that was causing the S3 payment platform to perform slowly. It was during this process that an S3 team member executed an incorrect command and ended up removing a larger set of servers than what was originally intended.
Amazon explains:
Unfortunately, one of the inputs to the command was entered incorrectly and a larger set of servers was removed than intended. The servers that were inadvertently removed supported two other S3 subsystems. One of these subsystems, the index subsystem, manages the metadata and location information of all S3 objects in the region. This subsystem is necessary to serve all GET, LIST, PUT, and DELETE requests.
The company goes on to explain that S3 subsystems are designed to support the removal or failure of significant capacity with no customer impact, but that because of the exponential growth that Amazon has experienced, the process of restarting the servers and running safety checks took longer than expected.
In order to prevent such an issue from happening in the future, Amazon has modified its subsets to remove server capacity more slowly and have additional safeguards to perform checks and expedite the process of restarting and running those checks. Amazon is also re-partitioning the index subsystem to divide it into smaller sections, thus speeding up recovery time.
Amazon’s Web Services outage had a significant impact on the Internet on Tuesday, primarily in the eastern portion of the United States. Apple relies on AWS for some of its iCloud operations and thus iCloud performance was slowed for some users, as well. Amazon ends its post today apologizing for the problems:A 27-year-old man has admitted videoing and photographing his six-year-old disabled nephew being raped by the boy’s father.
The circuit court heard on Tuesday that the accused and his brother were arrested by gardaí after an international police investigation into child pornography led to an address in Co Tipperary.
Sentencing will be passed on Wednesday by Judge Thomas Teehan.
Computer equipment seized at the accused’s brother’s address was found to contain 11,472 images and 67 video files of child pornography, in some of which the six-year-old boy could be identified – while 955 more image files and one video were found on a USB stick seized at an industrial unit used by the accused’s brother.
The accused in this case pleaded guilty to four counts of producing child pornography – offences committed between January 1st, 2014 and March 20th, 2015.
Identity protected
None of the parties involved in the case can be named, to protect the identity of the young boy.
The accused was interviewed a number of times after his arrest on March 26th, 2015 and made a number of “admissions” to gardaí – including that he had videoed his nephew being raped and sexually assaulted by the boy’s father.
Both men are originally from Eastern Europe and the accused’s brother previously pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and sexual assault and received a 20-year prison sentence.
Social worker Terry Bradshaw carried out a report on the victim and said the boy had “experiencd sexual abuse of the most extreme kind”. He said “the abuse had been circulated on the internet”.
The young boy has a disability which requires 24-hour care.Transcript for Clapper: Trump asked me to refute unconfirmed dossier
What did he say about this dusk. Well this was one on one basis but boy graphically. We have decided. Those with him. He took so when crops vision I wouldn't go over to. Mosul falls. Mr. trump took gutless what was him to Edwards haven't seen. After the it is Perry. In the press conference. And tells news Nazis. Well. Biko told community. And he went directly. You believe that all. Information that was contained in competitiveness. DOS it was falls. What did you say. Speeds compared the intelligence community I tried to appeal to it is higher instincts and make. Point to him. With a tremendous. Rip resource that is treasurer are actually natural treasures. It was too old shoes. Institutional instincts. Of the community or to support policy makers. Particularly policymakers who won. And in that cures a responsibility. Which I hope he would understand and accept. Do. Welcome truth to power. Even though this may be bad news information go here and what did he say and you raise this wasted except it. But it has me concerned ones. Turkey asked me to put out. Global war reputation. Doses which. Could do do. Because. Nowhere developed at the time away corroborating. The information and so he wanted the second and third or worse sources. It was. Houston we could not cool. And I told our other parts of that dossier that had been corroborated there were so. The key to equity. Pertaining to the X the rabbit animus yes that call us. Who now have world. Record prose Clinton sectors. And was worn out are the main body of the report. We felt because of but he. On new homes pertaining to sources. This report. We did on the news me. Important. But just to clear there are some parts of that dust is that have been corroborated. The as I said that the example I site. It is. Animus reports and that we saw from holder's words and are there other parts that happened kerrobert as always going to comment them to us.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.(The 2013 edition can be found here.)
I bought a Williams-Sonoma cheese grater for my mom for Christmas once because I had no idea what to get her and I was in a mall and there the grater was, just large enough to take up space under the tree and just cheap enough to let her know that I put NO thought or care into buying a gift for her. Anyway, I paid for this grater with a credit card. And when a place like Williams-Sonoma gets your credit card and thus your address, you are on the mailing list for life. Every holiday season, my mail slot gets bukkake’d with monstrous catalogs packed with shit I would never, ever buy, and the W-S catalog stands out among them.
While certain retailers like Hammacher Schlemmer are almost intentionally ludicrous (“Buy this personal hovercraft for $80,000!”), there’s no wink to be found in a Williams-Sonoma catalog. The people at W-S aren’t the least bit self-conscious about getting you to pay $35 for mailed gravy. So I thought I would go through this holiday season’s catalog, which has spent a solid week atop my shitter, and point out some of the more ridiculous items. Because there are people out there who buy this shit. The question is... who? And why? Let’s try to figure that out now.
Item #02-8592198 Harvest Pumpkin Collection
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Williams-Sonoma says: “Ceramicist Barbara Eigen has been designing unique pieces, often inspired by nature, since 1997. Our Harvest Pumpkin Collection is a perfect example of her lifelike work. The tureen and accessories add organic whimsy to your Thanksgiving table.”
Price: $40 for a set of four individual tureens
Notes from Drew: This is actually one of the more reasonably priced items in the W-S catalog, as long as you don’t consider it a waste to spend $40 on four pumpkin bowls that you will use three times per decade. I used to buy terrible gifts like this for people all the time. HERE ARE YOUR PUMPKIN BOWLS! NOT BAD, EH? Because, honestly, what can you do with a pumpkin soup bowl besides put pumpkin soup in it? If you put tomato soup in it, God will murder you.
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Item #02-496059 Bourbon Cranberry Relish
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Williams-Sonoma says: “Sauteed cranberries, bourbon, shallots and herb with a hint of orange. 16oz.”
Price: $40
Notes from Drew: That’s 40 bucks for a bowl of cranberry sauce that everyone will pass up because we all prefer the shit that costs two bucks and comes plopping out of the can in the shape of the can. The second ingredient is LEAD. For 40 bucks, you should get the bourbon on its own.
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Item #02-4381232 Acorn Twine Holder
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Williams-Sonoma says: “Polished alderwood with 76 yards of linen twine. Made in Italy.”
Price: $26
Notes from Drew: Oh, thank God! Thanksgiving was mere weeks away and I was like OH FUCK, WE’RE OUT OF TWINE. AND WE HAVE NO PLACE TO DISPENSE SAID TWINE. Sure, any asshole can go to the store and buy a roll of cooking string for half a penny and keep that twine in a drawer for the one time per year someone in the house has to tie up a raw turkey only to fail miserably and get salmonella deep inside his palms for years and years. But I want CLASSY twine, you know? I want my twine to say something about ME.
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Item #02-1496058 Potato Scrubbing Gloves
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Williams-Sonoma says: “Scrub potatoes clean while preserving skin that’s nutrient rich. Set of two.”
Price: $11.95
Notes from Drew: I desperately wanted it to say “Set of one” at the end. But anyway, who WOULDN’T like to have special gloves for whenever you have to handle potatoes? Potatoes are dirty and smelly, so it behooves you to wear a pair of gloves that will absorb all that dirt and grime and then get soaked through. Be sure to let them dry on your radiator! I also like that these gloves come with the word POTATO labeled across each one. Late at night, I often go digging through my basement screaming, “WHERE ARE THE GODDAMN POTATO GLOVES?” Because I usually end up grabbing the carrot gloves first, you know?
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Item #02-2719136 Chef’n Panini Spatula
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Williams-Sonoma says: “Wide platform with a slot simplifies slicing then lifting even the largest sandwiches.”
Price: $19.95
Notes from Drew: ZOMG THIS SANDWICH IS SO LARGE! I can’t possibly lift it using only my hands or a common spatula. If only someone out there would invent a unique tool that would allow me to lift my panini and then transfer it to a plate. I’m not just gonna pick it up myself, like a DOG. There’s hot gruyere in that sandwich! It could burn.
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By the way, you should know that any kitchen utensil designed specifically for one kind of food or meal is essentially useless: a panini spatula, a fondue pot, a steak tartare fork. Unless you plan on eating raclette four days a week, you don’t need any of that shit.
Item #02-787713 Williams-Sonoma Cocktail Rimming Sugar
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Williams-Sonoma says: “Spiced, Citrus, or Vanilla.”
Price: $8.95
Notes from Drew: Why have an ordinary rimjob when you can add just a touch of Madagascar vanilla? That’s how classy folk do their rimming.
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Item #02-9663154 Twelve Days of Christmas Crackers
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Williams-Sonoma says: “Sets of 12.”
Price: $19.95 (small), $29.95 (large)
Notes from Drew: This is not a cracker you eat, but rather a small cardboard tube with two pull tabs on each end. When you pull the tabs, a delightful POP! rings out around the house, and thus much mirth is to be had in the Easterbrook household. These are the perfect fireworks for rich white people. Also, you get a free paper crown inside.
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Item #02-4381182 Balustrade Rectangular Dining Table
Williams-Sonoma says: “Seats six, expands with a leaf to seat eight.”
Price:$1,995
Notes from Drew: This is one of the harsh truths you learn when you get married: Basic shit like a table costs a fucking fortune. Two grand for a wooden table. And it’s not like the surface of it is a giant iPad screen either. It just sits there and does nothing. This isn’t even a big table, and it certainly isn’t the most expensive table of its kind. The chairs that go along with this table are $395 each. JEEEEEEESUS. If it were up to me, my family would eat dinner off a milk crate.
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Item #02-741009 Callie’s Charleston Biscuits
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Williams-Sonoma says: “Flaky, buttery, and made by hand by celebrated caterer Callie White.”
Price:$72 (set of 24)
Notes from Drew: That’s $72 dollars for biscuits. At Popeye’s, the biscuit comes free with your order. At Williams-Sonoma, it costs you the rough equivalent of your phone bill |
jumped up into the glove that was moving into a defensive position towards the throat before ending in slip's hand. Every single delivery seemed to be a gift from cricket. Unless you were the batsmen who faced them.
When Abbott's figures hit the big screen, the crowd applauded. So did Warner. So did cricket.
Bouncers were okay. Hits were okay. Abbott was okay. Cricket was okay.
The whole thing was nice. Indian reporters and fans were shocked that this was the Australia who had spent years bullying and sledging their players, who now openly wept, cared for the opposition's safety and stopped to celebrate a mate so often. Cricket's new world was friendly and nice.
The amnesty lasted ten sessions. During the second session of the fourth day, the birthday balloon for Hughes finally hit the ground. In a perfect world, it might have floated there forever. Cricket's world has never been perfect.
On the field, Kohli brought cricket back down to earth. Kohli's decision to send off Chris Rogers was aggressive, unfriendly and kind of bizarre. Australia were setting a total, they were in front, it's Chris Rogers and he swept a ball to a fielder. It's like sending off your uncle in a backyard game. Why you would walk beside Rogers doing an angry-chicken-dance sendoff is anyone's guess.
By contrast, the Aaron send off was actually pretty tame. He yelled "come on" in the general direction of David Warner. Some thought Kohli might have done the same thing. But if both players started it, Warner took it to a whole new level. When the no-ball was brought to his attention. He didn't walk back to the striker's end. He went to the non-striker's end to shout "come on" at Aaron three times. He then aggressively left the next ball, and did it again.
It was in no way like the man who cried into his captain's shoulder in day one.
Shikhar Dhawan walked in as the third man to try and make it worse. He did. Kohli then tried to play peacemaker, which no one looked comfortable with.
Michael Clarke said "there's a chance I might never play again". Virat Kohli said he was "getting to terms to how life goes on every single day". Cricket and life will continue to go on © Getty Images
Later, Warner and Kohli ended up next to each other as Smith and Rohit Sharma were also involved. It was ugly. It was aggressive. It was also cricket. The two teams weren't playing a memorial game in Hughes' honour, they were playing a Test in his honour. Tough. Ugly. And not always right.
The umpires kept that up on day five. DRS doesn't like it when we ignore it. It pokes its head in any way it can. It's cricket's third rail. You can't touch DRS without losing friends and feeling dirty. Was Dhawan's decision a howler? Would DRS change the Test? Would it have stopped Nathan Lyon from appealing so strenuously that it seemed like he might combust?
Lyon was more throbbing vein than human by the end.
His career is quite Hughes-like. Lyon knows what it is like to be praised and pariahed. Big at the beginning. Mocked and overlooked later on. He was dropped for random spinners who struggle to take 12 wickets in a season. And he was even dropped after his previous best performance. He was coming off a series where the fans gave up on him. He was playing the best players of spin, on their favoured Australian pitch. In the first innings he was attacked, he was unlucky. In the second, conquered the last-day demons. He conquered the Indians. But he couldn't move Marais Erasmus.
Solid and unmoving. There was no romanticism or hometown bias. Erasmus wasn't umpiring for Hughes' memory or some perfectly-scripted ending. He simply believed that every single ball was missing the top of the bails. He was made into the villain, but even he couldn't be blamed when Clarke's body finally gave up.
Australia had lost a mate. Their captain was in hospital. Even technology was against them.
But it was Kohli between them and happiness.
Kohli was dogmatic. Kohli was dominant. Kohli was floating above the crease like a supernatural being. It would be an understatement to just call it batting. Mitchell Johnson broke an entire team here last year. In the space of two balls, Kohli had smashed him, smiled at him, and then laughed as he bowled a wide.
There are some innings that look like they can't be ended. Kohli's looked like he refused to believe there was an ending. When you bat like this, when you lead like this, when you believe like this, it should end with you being carried on the shoulders of your team-mates.
Kohli should have been brought down by a ball of the century. The world's best-ever run-out. A catch of the pure athleticism. Something fitting of the innings. The class. The grit. The specialness.
Kohli's innings should have been brought down by greatness. It should have. It wasn't.
The ball was short. Really short. It should have been a drifting ripper that sliced through the gate. It should have. It wasn't. It was so short Lyon would have been disgusted with his effort. The ball should have been heaved into the Mark Ricciuto stand. It should have been annihilated by Kohli's mere existence. It should have. It wasn't.
It clanged against his bat like a shopping trolley hitting a car. It floated out accidentally towards Mitchell Marsh. It should have been taken quite easily. It should have. It wasn't. Marsh went the wrong way. Then his hands went the wrong way. And in the end he fell to ground like a toppled animal and caught it like it was his first ever catch.
Kohli bent over at the waist. He never left the crease. He clutched at the blade of his bat. In both innings he had been king of the crease. Now he was trapped there by disappointment. And he couldn't even hold the bat properly.
His grief was like no one else's in the whole Test. It was purely for the win. Not for a friend. Not for a cricketer. But he had taken his side within sight of a great away win in one of the greatest Tests. And then he'd made one mistake. He stayed there for such a long time, it looked like he might never leave that crease.
It was utter devastation. But finally, for the first time in a few weeks, devastation of the right kind. A captain losing the match with one mistake. A poorly-executed shot. A cricket tragedy. Not a tragedy.
When the Australians took the last wicket they followed Brad Haddin who ran manically across the field. They ended up next to the 408. There had been many tributes that had obviously been thought about by the players involved. This seemed accidental. This seemed unplanned. This was a perfect cricket moment. The perfect Test. The perfect celebration.
After play, a band out the back of the members' played Throw Your Arms Around Me by the Hunters and Collectors. They played it really loud; you could hear it float out over the outfield.
I will squeeze the life out of you
You will make me laugh and make me cry
We will never forget it
You will make me call your name and I'll shout it to the blue summer sky
We may never meet again
So shed your skin and lets get started
And you will throw your arms around me
Michael Clarke said "there's a chance I might never play again". Virat Kohli said he was "getting to terms to how life goes on every single day". Cricket and life will continue to go on. This time Test cricket dug in and got through to tea.
Jarrod Kimber was 50% of the Two Chucks, and is the mind responsible for cricketwithballs.com
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.A new Harry Potter fan theory, which stems from one small section in Goblet of Fire, will make you re-think how Slytherins could’ve played a role in the remainder of the series.
We all know that it was Cedric Diggory who was (first) selected to compete in the Triwizard Tournament on behalf of Hogwarts. But what if it was Slytherin student Cassius Warrington, who J.K. Rowling specifically mentioned as a possible contender in one passage?
A Slytherin in the tournament — a Slytherin dying at the hands of Voldemort — would’ve completely changed how the rest of the Harry Potter series played out.
How so? After reading the highlighted passage above, Tumblr user crazybutperfectlysane decided to run with the idea of Cassius getting selected for the tournament. What resulted was a wonderful look at how Slytherins could’ve been treated differently — Slytherins could’ve worked with Gryffindors to take down their own family members, Voldemort, and save the Wizarding World.
So I was rereading Harry Potter, when I came across this and thought- what if instead of Cedric Diggory, Cassius Warrington had been chosen to compete in the Triwizard Tournament? Imagine Dumbledore calling out the name of the Hogwarts champion and it isn’t a Gryffindor, or a Ravenclaw, or even a Hufflepuff, but it’s a Slytherin. A student from a House most people hate. Article Continues Below Imagine Cassius Warrington getting up, and three out of four Houses are booing at him and shouting things like “NO!” or, “We can’t have a Slytherin champion!” or demanding a retry. But he’s a Slytherin- he’s been dealing with this shit since he got sorted, so he keeps his head high and joins the other champions. Imagine Harry trying to catch Warrington alone because he doesn’t really want to associate with Slytherins (plus Malfoy has this tendency of being around the guy ALL THE TIME since he got chosen), but at the same time he’s also fair enough not to want him to walk into the first task unprepared. Imagine Warrington walking over to Harry a few months later, and Ron and Hermione both jump into a protective stance, wands out, but instead of attacking Harry he just tells him to stick the egg underwater. (Because Slytherins don’t forget those who helped them out). Imagine Warrington and Harry helping each other out in the labyrinth. Imagine Harry being devastated when Peter kills Warrington- because Voldemort doesn’t care what house they’re form, a spare is a spare. Imagine the uproar that causes among the Slytherins, because some of their parents really are Death Eaters and they know what really happened. Imagine Slytherins fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts and shouting “This is for Cassius!”
Crazybutperfectlysane’s chain of thoughts inspired aplatonicjacuzzi to reblog the post and add these interesting ideas:
Imagine Harry returning with Warrington’s body, and the crowd realizes what’s happened, but Warrington’s parents don’t show up. There’s no one to mourn him, to cradle him in their arms and cry for their son. The Slytherins know why. His parents were Death Eaters, too. Imagine Slytherins reaching out, asking for help from classmates from other houses. They’re terrified, truly terrified because the being their parents claimed would never hurt them because they’re pureblood, they realize that he does not care. Imagine Slytherins in the fifth book sneaking off to join Dumbledore’s Army, to learn more about who Voldemort is without their parents acting as a filter. Imagine the shock when they’re told what he’s really done. Imagine that a few talented Slytherins went with Harry and the others into the Ministry of Magic. The others are a bit wary but they prove themselves as friends. Imagine them being confronted by Lucius Malfoy in the the Hall of Prophecy, and when the Death Eaters descend, they know that any one of them could be their parents. Imagine the shocked gasp of a Death Eater as they realize their own child, a pureblood, is standing defiantly with Harry Potter. They choke back a cry. They can’t let their child know that they were about to duel to the death. Imagine a DA Slytherin facing off against their own Death Eater parent. That they make the decision to let their child defeat them, because in that moment, they realize that they love their child more than they fear Voldemort. They go down, mask unveiled, and the Slytherin kid has to be dragged from the fight before he gets killed. Imagine Book 6 Slytherins getting more friendly and cooperative with the other houses. Two years of Voldemort terrorizing the muggle and Wizarding world, two years where their parents just up and leave some days, cringing from the pain in their arm, two years after the death of the first Slytherin pureblood, Cassius Warrington, killed by Voldemort’s right-hand man, and they’re slowly hitting the breaking point. Imagine Slytherin kids keeping tabs on their parents, sending the information to Harry, who shares it with the Order of the Phoenix, and hoping that their parents won’t be killed. Imagine Book 7 Slytherins low-key rebelling against the new oppressive Hogwarts staff. Imagine the final siege on Hogwarts, where Slytherins stand proudly by their fellow houses, knowing full-well they could be fighting their own parents. Some Slytherins know their parents were in the fighting. They hope to find them first and sneak them away. Their fellow students understand. Professor McGonagall allows 7th Year Slytherin, Pansy Parkinson, to duel a death eater in her stead; her father is under that veil. She knows it. Imagine the aftermath of the battle; every house suffered losses. Slytherin students crying over the deaths of friends they made in every house. Imagine a Cassius Warrington statue made in his honor, the first Slytherin to fight and die nobly with Harry Potter, the boy who lived, in the face of ultimate evil. He was a true Slytherin, and it’s in his name that Slytherin children and their families have cut all ties with the Death Eaters, denounced Voldemort, and are finally living in peace.
Imagine indeed. While we would never question Rowling’s decisions, this theory does make you realize how one little change could’ve had a huge affect on the remainder of Harry Potter.
Since people like Draco and Lucius are the only type of major Slytherin characters we see, we and Harry never have reason to sympathize with the House. Making Warrington a more prominent character with a tragic death would have forced us to connect with Slytherin in a way we never had a chance to in the books.
In Rowling’s own words about Slytherin: “They’re not all bad,” she said in 2005, “you are seeing Slytherin house always from the perspective of Death Eaters’ children. They are a small fraction of the total Slytherin population. I’m not saying all the other Slytherins are adorable, but they’re certainly not Draco, they’re certainly not, you know, Crabbe and Goyle. They’re not all like that, that would be too brutal for words, wouldn’t it?”
The beauty of the Goblet of Fire passage in question is that right below it you see there’s a mention about Cedric Diggory’s name in the goblet too.
It could’ve been either one of these guys.
It could’ve been a very different series.
Must-Read: 7 Harry Potter easter eggs that prove J.K. Rowling is a geniusEditor’s note: A comment from an individual who claimed to have been at Bundy Ranch and who saw Miller there said the above photo is not him. It is, however, identified as him by Aljazeera: “Melissa Chan reported from the ranch of the suspected killers in April and spoke to one of the shooters,” an awkwardly worded caption reads.
Overlooked in the emerging background story on shooter Jerad Miller is how he managed to purchase firearms. Miller was a convicted felon, so legally purchasing the firearms he allegedly used in last weekend’s rampage is out of the question.
“It is illegal for a person who has been convicted of a felony then to possess a firearm in Nevada. Penalties include prison and high fines. People who have been convicted of a felony may not possess a firearm in Nevada unless they are granted an official pardon,” states the Las Vegas Defense Group.
Dylan Scott, writing for Talking Points Memo, notes law enforcement in Nevada has yet to determine how Miller and his wife received firearms. “But in the weeks leading up to the attack, Jerad Miller posted multiple times on Facebook that he was looking for a gun and asked for help obtaining one,” Scott writes.
Amanda Miller, however, did not have a criminal record and it was legally permissible for her to purchase firearms. Police in Nevada have yet to release any information indicating if she in fact bought the firearms allegedly used in the attack.
Mother Jones, formerly edited by anti-Second Amendment zealot Michael Moore, writes in a screed implicating Infowars.com in the shooting that Miller suffered from “decaying teeth, lack of health insurance, and inability to find work,” in other words the supposed rightwing extremist likely did not have the funds available to buy a shotgun, handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Moreover, photos of Miller at the Bundy ranch show him toting an AK-47, the very weapon he pined for on his Facebook page. He is outfitted in crisp new camos and a bulletproof vest.
AK-47 semiautomatic rifles are priced between $450 and $3,500, depending on manufacture origin and modifications. The price of AK-47 ammo, the 7.62×39, while relatively inexpensive, routinely costs over $200 for a thousand rounds bought in bulk. A bulletproof vest can cost hundreds of dollars. The question is: how did an unemployed felon manage to buy this equipment?
TPM would have us believe a patron contacted on Facebook may have provided the funds necessary. While this may in fact be true, it does stretch credulity. In fact, this scenario is reminiscent of the behavior of the FBI agents during patsy frame-ups on terror charges.
Adding to the possibility that Miller was handled by the FBI is the fact he was ejected from the Bundy ranch. Ammon Bundy, the son of Cliven Bundy, said Jerad and Amanda Miller were told to leave the ranch. He said the couple were “very radical” and did not “align themselves” with the protest’s main issues.
This is classic agent provocateur behavior.Magda Olivero, an Italian soprano who for decades whipped audiences around the world into a frenzy of adulation that was operatic even by operatic standards — despite the fact that by her own ready admission she did not possess an especially lovely voice — died on Monday in Milan. She was 104.
Her death was confirmed by Stefan Zucker, president of the Bel Canto Society, an organization devoted to the history of opera singing.
Miss Olivero began her career in Italy in the 1930s and had largely retired by 1941. Coaxed back to the stage 10 years later, she enjoyed renewed stardom in Europe and the United States.
Her long second act — she made her Metropolitan Opera debut at 65 and continued to sing elsewhere for decades — was driven in no small part by the ardor of her fans. “Magdamaniacs,” The New York Times called them in 1979, and the coinage entailed little hyperbole.Toby the blind and deaf terrier is found safe and well and sleeping on a comfy bed after he went missing in Wisbech for three days
Toby has been reunited with his owner in Wisbech thanks to Dog Lost.co.uk PHOTO: Dog Lost Archant
A 19 year old dog who is blind and deaf has been reunited with his owner after getting lost for three days in Wisbech.
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The little Jack Russell terrier was reunited with his delighted owner thanks to charity group Dog Lost.
He had managed to go missing while out with his owner Ernie Gowler, a well known face around town, where he travels in his disability scooter with a trailer, said Dog Lost Cambridgeshire co-ordinator Sarah Price.
She said: “It has been a terrible time for him. Dogs are a part of the family, knowing his very much loved pet was lost, being so old and not being able to hear or see, you can imagine it caused sleepless nights, so much worry.
“Ernie is over the moon.”
The dog had somehow got lost on Friday March 31. He was then found by a couple who took him in.
He was reunited today (Monday 3).
Sarah said: “Apparently Toby has been sleeping on their bed and really living the high life, what a happy end to this story.
“The couple came across our Facebook page and realised the dog they were caring for was Toby and they got in touch.
“Not only was he found but he had been having a lovely time in between!”
“Being a volunteer with this group can be upsetting at times but very rewarding when stories like this end well.”
• DogLost helps reunite thousands of missing dogs with their owners every year. In the past 12 years, they have assisted more than 70,000 owners and helped reunite nearly 55,000 dogs.
• DogLost is run almost entirely by volunteers and they charge no fees for their services.
• It is an extraordinary tale of one woman’s devotion to being a dog lover. Jayne Hayes set up the website to reunite missing pets with their owners after her own Miniature French Bulldog was stolen. Realising how little help was available for owners she set about providing help for others in the same position.
• DogLost boasts more than 100 official area co-ordinators and volunteers who are supported by thousands of helpers. Countless owners who have got their dogs back after a mammoth effort say they only carried on using the strength they were given by DogLost volunteers.“The error of the Darwinist school has become a problem for me: ” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, “how can one be so blind as to fail to see clearly here? … That the species represent progress is the most unreasonable assertion in the world:” (Nietzsche 2003, 258)
In a period of ten years, Nietzsche drifted from admiring Darwin and his company as “great names of England” to discourteously mocking and ridiculing them as “English psychologists” and “our ape-genealogists”. This article concisely introduced only two, among many, of Nietzsche’s cases against the theory of Darwinian evolution mostly when associated with Homo sapiens.
Case Against Darwinian Progressivity
Natural selection works, according to Charles Darwin, “solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.”(Darwin 1909, 528) This idea of progressivity in Darwinian evolution did not only astounded Nietzsche but also its opposite seemed, according to Nietzsche’s survey of “great destinies of man”, to be true. He wrote,
What surprises me most when surveying the great destinies of man is always seeing before me the opposite of what Darwin and his school see or want to see today: selection in favor of the stronger, in favor of those who have come off better, the progress of the species. The very opposite is quite palpably the case: the elimination of the strokes of luck, the uselessness of the better-constituted types, the inevitable domination achieved by the average, even below-average types.(Nietzsche 2003, 258)
Unless our-ape-genealogists gave him reasons why Homo sapiens were an exception to Darwinian evolution, Nietzsche was persuaded that “the school of Darwin has everywhere deceived itself ”(2003, 259) In struggle for man’s existence, it is not the highest, the strongest, the fittest and the fortunate that survive but the lower and the weaker who “predominate through numbers, through prudence, [and] through cunning”.
Nietzsche argued that chance variation, contrary to Darwinian’s survival for the fittest, does not yield any benefit to the fittest. He observed that “nature is cruel towards its favourites, it spares and protects and loves les humbles ”(2003, 260)
Thus it is not the case that in struggle for existence the weak organism perishes while the strong survive. Chance seems to serve both the weak and the strong. Nietzsche asserted that, “one nowhere finds any example of unconscious selection (absolutely not). The most disparate individuals unite with one another, the extremes are submerged in the mass. Everything competes to preserve its type; creatures with exterior markings to protect them from danger do not lose them when they encounter conditions in which they live without danger” (Nietzsche 1968, 362)
Case Against Macroevolution of Creatures
“There are no transitional forms.-” contended Nietzsche. Darwinist asserts modification of organism as they struggle to adapt into their environment, food and climate. Nietzsche argued that this is not what we see in reality. “Every type has its limits;” he explained, “beyond these there is no evolution. Up to this point, absolute regularity”(1968, 363)
Nietzsche accepted a microevolution of creatures theory, but argued that one cannot move from microevolution to macroevolution. Example we can, by unnatural selection, breed dogs to form different breeds, but there is a limit and beyond these there is no evolution. Dogs after all remain dogs. It is for this reason we have no transitional forms.
Concisely, Nietzsche’s general view could be captured as: “man as a species is not progressing. Higher types are indeed attained, but they do not last. The level of the species is not raised […] man as a species does not represent any progress compared with any other animal. The whole animal and vegetable kingdom does not evolve from the lower to the higher – but all at the same time, in utter disorder, over and against each other”(ibid)
The two Nietzschean doubts I presented, as some of reasons Nietzsche rejected Darwinian evolution, mostly when applied to Homo sapiens, are (1) the falsehood of survival for the fittest and (2) the limits of evolution.
Previous: Nietzsche and Two Unpleasant Implications of Darwinism
Bibliography:
Darwin, Charles (1909). The Harvard Classics 11: Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin. (C. W. Eliot, Ed.). New York: P.F. Collier & Son.
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1968) The Will to Power. A New Translation by Water Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. Vintage Books. New York.
_________________________ (2003) Writings from the Late Notebooks. Translated by Kate Sturge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.The national Qingming holiday period boosted the movie to a muscular $39.2 million opening in the world's second largest film market.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier took a powerful $39.23 million in its opening three days in China, accounting for 40 percent of all screenings in the world’s second biggest film market during the Qingming "tomb-sweeping" holiday.
Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson came to Beijing to promote the movie last month, and their visit seems to have paid off.
PHOTOS: 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' Screening: Chris Evans, Cobie Smulders Take New York
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, showed only in 3D in China and notched up 5.6 million admissions at 102,638 screenings here, nearly 40 percent of all showings in the country over the weekend, according to data from the Beijing-based research firm Entgroup. (Marvel Disney reports that the film opened to $39.2 million, while Entgroup has the figure at $36.23 million.)
This puts it ahead of the nearly $35 million that Thor: The Dark World made in its first four days back in November 2013, while Iron Man 3 took $64.5 million in its first five days.
The Qingming festival is a time when people honor their ancestors. Schools and offices are closed, and many also take the opportunity to go to the movies.
The movie is already making history globally. Captain America 2 bowed to a record-breaking $96.2 million in North America, for an early worldwide total of $303.3 million.
With Evans back in the title role, as well as Avengers stars Johansson and Jackson, Captain America 2 picks up two years after Avengers left off. Captain America and Black Widow (Johansson) discover there is a secret conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. and fight to stop it along with the Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie.
EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Johnny Depp's First Trip to China
In second place at the Chinese box was Dreamworks’ Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which took another $7.63 million to bring its cume after 10 days to $15.51 million.
The best-performing local movie was the plastic surgery comedy The Truth About Beauty (Zheng Rong Ri Ji), directed by Aubrey Lam and produced by Peter Chan’s We Pictures. It grossed $5.86 million its opening weekend.
DreamWorks’ Need for Speed, starring Aaron Paul, slipped to fourth place but still put in a respectable performance, adding another $5.76 million to its haul and bringing its cumulative total in China to $65.08 million.
George Clooney’s The Monuments Men came in fifth, holding its own with a solid $2.38 million over the holiday period. The movie has now taken $7.35 million in China after 10 days.
In sixth place was Diao Yinan’s Berlin Golden Bear-winning Black Coal, Thin Ice, which grossed another $2.26 million to bring its cumulative total to $15.6 million after 17 days, a strong performance for a movie that blends arthouse sensibilities with genre noir.
Just behind this was the local horror movie Death Is Here 3, which took $2.11 million in its opening three days, while On the Way, a Chinese-South Korean romantic comedy which pairs Chinese actress Huang Shengyi with South Korea’s Ji Jin-hee, took another $1.35 million to bring its cume to $3.22 million.
In ninth place was Horse Trader, which grossed another $1.12 million to bring its cume to $9.94 million. Rounding out the top 10 was the domestic movie Fighting, which took another $980,000 for a total of $11.67 million.The Bateman Horne Center (BHC) hosts free Education Meetings for those impacted by ME/CFS and FM on the 1st Wednesday of each month at 6pm Mountain /7pm Central via livestream on both YouTube and Facebook.
Living with a Spouse Who has ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia | March 1 & April 5 | Discussion Panels
Chronic illness and marriage is a complicated combination. It’s rare to see or hear a healthy spouse’s perspective on their partner’s disease because it is a topic that can be very difficult – as much for the one speaking as for the one hearing it.
With an estimated divorce rate as high as 75% among couples where one has a chronic illness, it is an important topic for discussion and understanding. In each session, the panel will openly and honestly talk about the challenges, hardships, positives, and lessons learned from their perspective as a spouse and care-partner.
Even if you are not married, there are sure to be some take-aways and lessons learned that you can apply to any meaningful relationship in your life.
Living with a Spouse Who has ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia
Wed., March 1 – Part 1: Husbands Whose Wives are Ill
Wed., April 5 – Part 2: Wives Whose Husbands are Ill
6pm Mountain/8pm Eastern
Broadcast LIVE from the BHC Education Center (located at 24 South 1100 East, Suite 205, SLC, UT)
Watch it live on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/c/OfferutahOrg/live
Or on Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/batemanhornecenter
Learn More HERECorey Lewandowski, campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, at the Mar-A-Lago Club on March 11, 2016 in Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A normal presidential candidate, or congressional candidate, or person running for dogcatcher would treat the arrest of a top campaign official for battering a female reporter as a headline from which to run. But Donald Trump is not a normal anything, and he’s not backing down from his defense of his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who was charged on Tuesday with simple battery. This refusal to ever say he was wrong about anything horrible he or his team have done is a big part of Trump’s appeal among his core group of supporters. It will also, eventually, be his electoral end.
Let’s consider how Trump could get out of this particular latest horrible incident in a way that helped his campaign in the long run and demonstrated a baseline level of ethical maturity, were he so inclined, which he isn’t.
On Tuesday morning, Lewandowski, was charged in Jupiter, Florida over the March 8 incident when he grabbed (now former) Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields hard enough to bruise her. Newly released security-camera footage provides the latest unambiguous evidence that Lewandowski was lying when he said he didn’t touch her.
One thing that Trump could do, and any conventional campaign would have done a while ago, is fire Lewandowski. (Actually, were this a conventional campaign, Lewandowski would have immediately offered his resignation in recognition of the need to protect the candidate.) Trump could do this in a way that doesn’t completely throw Lewandowski into the jaws of the law, too. He could say that while he doesn’t think the incident in question amounts to a crime—or he believes that Lewandowski was just trying to protect him from the very dangerous Michelle Fields—the offense was that he lied about it.
This is what a presidential candidate who (a) possessed an iota of decency and (b) hoped to be elected president might do. It would work for him in several ways. The media at large is salivating over the opportunity to launch a “Trump is acting presidential” narrative and has been sending smoke signals that it will set a very low bar for acceptable entries. A story such as “Trump Fires Campaign Manager Charged With Battering Reporter” would be such an entry. Firing a campaign manager charged specifically with battering a female reporter might also mark an opportunity to begin making repairs with the 70 percent of women who hate him, which is not to discount the many men who also find Lewandowski’s behavior deplorable. And, of course, firing Lewandowski might be seen as a way for Trump to demonstrate his supposedly excellent leadership ability. An excellent leader or “business manager,” or what have you, would likely feel compelled to fire a subordinate who lied to him about battering a female reporter and thus embarrassed the entire enterprise. Trump could even go on camera and employ that popular television catchphrase of his, the one in which he tersely severs a contract of at-will employment.
Judging by Trump’s initial response to the charges, though—along with everything we know about him—it seems very much as though he will not pursue this strategy. For now, Trump is standing by Lewandowski and was still, somehow, calling into question Fields’ credibility on Twitter on Tuesday.
Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
Why aren't people looking at this reporters earliest statement as to what happened, that is before she found out the episode was on tape? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
Like most of the words from Trump and his campaign, neither of these tweets make any sense. Yet—despite spewing this type of nonsensical fact-denying obfuscation as a matter of course—he stills retains a plurality of support from Republican primary voters and is the only candidate realistically capable of securing a majority of delegates. The path of his campaign is so strewn with incidents that would have buried a mere mortal, but with which he’s gotten away, that his ability to get away with things has itself become a meta source of support. It implies dominance over his rivals—on the campaign trail, in the media, and in the world at large—and a certain segment of the Republican voter base appears to crave that above all in its presidential candidate. The nefarious phantasm against whom Trump is constantly pushing back —“this politically correct crap,” as he might call it—tried to finish off Trump following his supposed “gaffes” regarding John McCain and Megyn Kelly last summer. But Trump didn’t apologize—and continued to prosper. It’s been the same pattern ever since, and it just encourages Trump to continue acting similarly.
And it’s the pattern that’s going to be his ultimate undoing—if not at a contested convention, then almost certainly in a general-election matchup. Trump has backed himself into a corner. He has mastered the means of securing a plurality in a Republican primary by bullying and bluster, followed by refusal to back down and portraying that refusal as much-needed strength. But taking steps to ease concerns among Republican voters who aren’t his base, much less with the general electorate, would require running a different campaign—one that might begin with, say, the firing of a campaign manager who lied about battering a female reporter and now faces criminal charges over the incident. Running a different campaign might have meant that he would have never gotten this far in the first place, but it’s what he needs to do if he wants to become president. It would probably require being a different person, perhaps one with a barely sound moral compass. We’ve seen enough to rule out the possibility of that.
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.As conservative members of the Board of Supervisors in Los Angeles continue to push for the inclusion of a cross in its design, others believe that the government seal is no place for the Christian symbol.
This is not the first time that people are debating over this subject though. In 2004, the board decided to get rid of a cross that was on its seal for decades in an attempt to avoid a hefty lawsuit. Now, 10 years later, supervisors Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich want it reinsert |
the town where I primarily grew up and directed my first film, Trees Lounge. I once worked with Tony on an episode of the TV series Homicide and excitedly told him he had one of my favorite lines in one of my favorite movies. After sizing me up for a few seconds, he replied, “Well, that would have to be the Honeymoon Killers, and the line of course is, ‘Valley Stream. Valley Stream. What a joke!’”Andreas Mikkelsen was equal fastest with Juho Hanninen in shakedown this morning and says he is ready and motivated to start the title defending season with a win in the Azores.
Sata Rallye Acores starts with first three stages this afternoon with first special stage scheduled for 14.29 local time. Mikkelsen will try to defend the title against some very strong competition, led by Hanninen and host of other very strong drivers such as Bryan Bouffier and few possible surprises of 2012.
Over the course of three days crews will tackle 14 stages in total length of 198.44 kilometers. All stages feature gravel surface, meaning starting order will play major part with leading crews being forced to sweep slippery top layer of sand and dirt. Spectacular scenery and demanding stages are among the main highlights of 47th edition of the biggest international sporting event in the Azores.
Based on the Atlantic archipelago’s largest island of São Miguel, the event is characterised by narrow and undulating gravel stages with one test taking crews along the rim of a dormant volcano. Known for its changeable climate, a move from its traditional July slot to mid-February only increases the unpredictability. For the fans, there’s a spectator superspecial in a quarry and a harbour-side service park. A Tarmac prologue stage on host town Ponta Delgada’s promenade is new for 2012.
Shakedown results:
1. Hanninen & Mikkelsen
2. Magalhaes +1.8
3. Bouffier +2.2
4. Moura +7.2
5. Wiegand +7.7
6. Gassner +9.7
Official website of SATA Rallye Acores: http://www.satarallyeacores.com/Geneva / Kabul (ICRC) – Six staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been shot and killed in Afghanistan. Two staff members are unaccounted for.
The team, composed of three drivers and five field officers, was on its way to deliver much-needed livestock materials in an area south of the town of Shibergan in Jawzan province. Their convoy was attacked by unknown armed men.
"This is a despicable act. Nothing can justify the murder of our colleagues and dear friends," said the head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan, Monica Zanarelli. "At this point, it's premature for us to determine the impact of this appalling incident on our operations in Afghanistan. We want to collect ourselves as a team and support each other in processing this incomprehensible act and finding our two unaccounted for colleagues," said Mrs Zanarelli,
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms what appears to be a deliberate attack on our staff. This is a huge tragedy. We're in shock," said the president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer.
"These staff members were simply doing their duty, selflessly trying to help and support the local community. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of our colleagues killed and those unaccounted for," said Mr Maurer.
It is not yet clear who carried out the attack or why.
For further information, please contact:
Thomas Glass, ICRC Kabul (English), tel: +93 (0) 729 140 510
Ramin Ayaz Ahmad, ICRC Kabul (Dari and Pashto), tel: +93 (0) 794 618 908
Anastasia Isyuk, ICRC Geneva (English), tel: +41 79 251 9302
Marie-Claire Feghali, ICRC Geneva (English), tel: +41 79 536 92 31Please enable Javascript to watch this video
SACRAMENTO --
The countdown has begun. Staring Jan. 1, grocery shopping in Sacramento will change forever.
After the new year, single-use plastic bags will be banned from grocery and convenience stores, large pharmacies, markets, as well as big box stores like Walmart and Target.The goal is to reduce the 14 million plastic bags Sacramento retailers hand out to customers every single month.
"That gives you an idea of the volume that we are going to try to get out of the waste stream," Terrance Davis, integral waste general manager for the City of Sacramento, said.
For months, the city studied environmental impacts and customer reviews. They said for the most part, both retailers and residents are on board.
Jake Roe, 19, of Sacramento, said his parents encouraged him to start using reusable bags six months ago. His parents live in South Lake Tahoe, which implemented its plastic bag ban in 2014.
"It's kind of minute compared to the whole world, but it's a start somewhere," Roe said.
There are some exceptions, though. Produce bags at grocery stores will still be available. Restaurants, to-go-orders and delis will continue to use plastic bags. Lawmakers allowed this for health and food safety reasons.
The new law will affect about 400 stores citywide. In the last few months, some grocery stores, like Raley's-Bel Air, have already phased out plastic bags.
"We've actually stopped ordering," Raley's spokesperson Chelsea Minor said. "This store has clearly been busy, for the holiday time, so we've actually run out of bags, so we're giving our customers free paper bags up until January 1."
Melodia Amara and her son, Enrique, admit the change will take some getting used to. But to avoid the 10-cent paper bag charge, they just purchased a portable, reusable bag at the counter.
"I'm just going to take them home, unload them and put them in my purse," Amara said. Her bag folds into a small pod smaller than a cell-phone.
City leaders said it is the little things that add up, to inspire a big change.
"Given that we are the capital, I think it sends a really strong message that we are forward and progressive in terms of environmental policy," Davis said.
"We think that is a good thing. That's something other communities will follow suit on regardless of what happens with the statewide initiative," said Mark Murray with Californians Against Waste.
The statewide ban will appear on the November 2016 ballot.
For more information on the ban, visit www.bringyourownsac.orgKANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Suicide bombers struck inside Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar on Monday, and NATO acknowledged its troops opened fire on a passenger bus, killing four civilians and sparking anti-Western protests.
Afghan police and onlookers gather around a bus which was fired upon by foreign forces in Kandahar April 12, 2010. REUTERS/Ahmad Nadeem
The Kandahar attack was the second big raid in weeks in the city, birthplace of the Taliban and the planned target of a major operation by NATO forces in coming months as they try to turn the tide against the Taliban in a war now more than eight years old.
In another part of Kandahar province, hundreds of protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against the killing of four civilians by international troops who said they had shot at the bus when it failed to stop as it approached a military convoy.
The incident was the second in a week in which foreign troops killed civilians, and could undermine efforts by U.S. and NATO forces commander, General Stanley McChyrstal, to win the trust of ordinary Afghans.
In the attack in Kandahar city, a group of three suicide bombers attempted to seize the main intelligence building in the heart of the city in a brazen daylight raid, officials said.
“They were armed with guns, hand grenades and suicide vests,” President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar’s provincial council, told Reuters.
“One of them managed to blow himself up and the other two were gunned down. Two security officials were wounded,” he said, adding the situation was under control after an exchange of fire between the security forces and the assailants.
The assailants threw a hand grenade at a school, wounding a teacher and another worker, he added. People fled from public places in panic and scores of police and army soldiers poured onto city streets, witnesses said.
Gul Padshah, a pupil at the school, said the three men had burst into the school on a three-wheeled motorcycle, with guns hidden in sacks. They forced the pupils into classrooms and climbed onto the roof, where they opened fire on Afghan troops.
Five civilians and four intelligence officers were wounded in the attack, Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa told reporters later, adding one of the assailants had been detained.
The Taliban have staged a series of attacks, involving gunmen and suicide bombers who attempt to seize government buildings, in several southern cities and the capital Kabul in recent months.
OFFENSIVE PLANNED
NATO plans a major offensive in Kandahar in coming months, the cornerstone of a U.S. bid to take the advantage with 30,000 extra troops. The strategy depends on winning support of local people, but has been undermined by civilian deaths.
Some 200 protesters blocked part of the country’s main highway outside Kandahar city, chanting anti-Karzai and anti-Western slogans after the shooting incident with the bus.
“Death to Karzai. Death to foreign troops. Have they come to help us or kill us?” demanded one protester under blistering sun as a group set old car tires on fire.
Zalmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said a foreign military convoy had fired on the bus, killing four civilians and wounding 18 others.
The incident took place early in the morning in Zhari district, west of Kandahar, said Ayoubi. The bus had been traveling along the country’s main ring road from Kandahar to Herat in the west.
NATO released a statement after the incident saying the bus was traveling at a “high rate of speed” toward one of its convoys searching for roadside bombs. The bus did not stop when troops used light signals and flares as warnings, NATO said.
“Perceiving a threat when the vehicle approached once more at an increased rate of speed, the patrol attempted to warn off the vehicle with hand signals prior to firing upon it,” it said.
“Upon inspection, ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forces discovered the vehicle to be a passenger bus.”
The issue of civilian casualties caused by international forces is an emotive one and undermines support for their presence in Afghanistan. It has also created a rift between Karzai and his Western backers.
Karzai condemned the civilian deaths in a written statement.
“Firing on a passenger bus is an act contrary to the commitment of NATO for protecting civilians and can by no means be justified,” Karzai was quoted by his palace as saying.
Slideshow (2 Images)
The United Nations says new guidelines issued by the commander of NATO and U.S. forces last year have helped reduce the number of civilian casualties, but such incidents still cause deep anger among Afghans the foreign troops are meant to protect.
In another sign of the often hostile relations between many Afghans and foreigners, authorities have arrested three Italians working for a medical charity, accusing them of plotting to kill the governor of southern Helmand province.
Dawood Ahmadi, the spokesman for Helmand’s governor, said the Italian ambassador in Kabul had visited the governor and assured him the incident would not affect ties between Afghanistan and Italy, which has 3,000 troops in Afghanistan.Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he had no idea three men he posed with for a picture at last weekend's Buffalo Bills football game had ties to the Hells Angels.
"I don't check for people's credentials and ask for resumes before I take a picture. I take pictures with every single person that wants to take a picture with me," Mr. Ford said Tuesday when asked about the picture which has been posted in the photo gallery of the Hells Angels Toronto website.
In the picture the three men are surrounding the mayor, two with their arms around him and one appears to be wearing a large necklace with the Hells Angel logo.
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Mr. Ford, who has gained international attention as "Toronto's crack smoking mayor," caused a sensation Sunday when he arrived at the game at the Rogers Centre. He told reporters he must have posed for 1,000 pictures that day – before kickoff, during the first half where he caused a commotion in the VIP section, at halftime and in a box where he was taken to watch the second half.
This is not the first time Mr. Ford's habit of posing for pictures has raised questions about his associates. Earlier this year a picture surfaced of Mr. Ford outside a house police have identified as a crack house with three alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods, a notorious Etobicoke street gang.Scientists have stumbled across a new species of flying frog—on the ground.
While hiking a lowland forest in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City (map), Vietnam, "we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log," said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney and lead author of a new study on the frog.
Rowley later discovered that the 3.5-inch-long (9-centimeter-long) creature is a relatively large new type of flying frog, a group known for its ability to "parachute" from tree to tree thanks to special aerodynamic adaptations, such as webbed feet, Rowley said. (Also see "'Vampire Flying Frog' Found; Tadpoles Have Black Fangs.")
Rowley dubbed the new species Helen's flying frog, in honor of her mother, Helen Rowley, "who has steadfastly supported her only child trekking through the forests of Southeast Asia in search of frogs," according to a statement.
The newfound species—there are 80 types of flying frogs—is also "one of the most flying frogs of the flying frogs," Rowley said, "in that it's got huge hands and feet that are webbed all the way to the toepad."
"Females even have flappy skin on their forearms to glide," added Rowley, who has received funding from the National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.) "The females are larger and heavier than males, so the little extra flaps probably don't make much of a difference," she said.
As Rowley wrote on her blog, "At first it may seem strange that such a fantastic and obvious frog could escape discovery until now—less than 100 kilometers [60 miles] from an urban centre with over nine million people."
Yet these tree dwellers can easily escape notice—they spend most of their time in the canopy, she said.
Flying Frog on the Edge
Even so, Helen's flying frog won't be able to hide from development near Ho Chi Minh City, which may encroach on its existing habitats.
So far, only five individuals have been found in two patches of lowland forest hemmed in by rice paddies in southern Vietnam, Rowley said. The animals can probably tolerate a little bit of disturbance as long as they have large trees and temporary pools, she added.
But lowland forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world, mostly because they're so accessible to people, and thus chosen for logging and development. (Get the facts on deforestation.)
"While Helen's flying frog has only just been discovered by biologists," Rowley wrote, "unfortunately this species, like many others, is under great threat from ongoing habitat loss and degradation."By London correspondent Tony Hughes
Follow us on Twitter @footyinsider247
Tottenham missed out on signing French sensation Ousmane Dembele for a cut-price fee last year because they insisted he must first join on a week-long trial – and pay his own expenses.
A Spurs source has told Football Insider that the £10million-rated Rennes wonderkid could have joined the north Londoners for a tenth of that valuation nine months ago.
He has subsequently made the breakthrough in Ligue 1 and is now being eyed by a number of leading European clubs, including Juventus and Bayern Munich as well as several Premier League big hitters.
Dembele, 18, has scored 12 goals and supplied five assists in 20 French division appearances since breaking into the first team this season and has made such an impact that he has been dubbed ‘the next Cristiano Ronaldo’.
Tottenham have frequently scouted the teenager this season and are in the mix to sign him in the summer but they have growing reason to feel aggrieved at not striking a deal last summer.
According to a well-placed source, the Londoners were in advanced talks with Rennes about £1million deal for Dembele and asked the player to travel to the capital at his own expense for a one-week deal.
The terms were deemed unacceptable to both the striker and the French club and the move fell through.
In other Tottenham transfer news, the club are eyeing two more Belgian stars as they make plans that could increase their Belgium quote to six next season.Electric-car maker Tesla Motors is requesting to study the wreckage of a stolen Model S sedan splitting in half and triggering a fire after a high-speed pursuit in Los Angeles.
The Palo Alto-based company led by Elon Musk is cooperating with Los Angeles police and fire officials probing the incident. On July 4 a 28-year-old man stole the car from the Tesla Motors dealership in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and led police on a high-speed chase reaching speeds of up to 100 mph. The Tesla has crashed into two lights poles alongside a West Hollywood synagogue, ripped in half and went up in flames.
The back end of the car ended up wedged between two walls of a synagogue, while the heavily damaged front end caught on fire in the street. The driver was initially believed to be dead, but was reanimated by paramedics and then taken into custody. Six other people were also hurt as the Tesla hit several other cars before crashing into a lamppost.
“We’ve asked to take a look at the vehicle as soon as that’s possible,” Simon Sproule, a company spokesman, said in a phone interview with Bloomberg. “There aren’t so many S’s involved in major crashes, and certainly not quite like this one, so we absolutely want to have a look to understand what happened.”
Electric-car maker is rebuilding its reputations as a manufacturer of safe cars. The company added a titanium plate to strengthen the casing, which protects its lithium-ion battery. It was done after the National Highway Traffic Association investigated crashes that triggered fires last year.
Tesla Model S is priced from $71,000. It was designated a five-star rating for crashworthiness by the NHTSA.The state legislature in Hartford is at it again. Despite Connecticut being an object lesson in “how not to tax,” Governor Dannel P. Malloy and top Democratic leaders introduced a two-year, $40 billion budget that further cements the state’s growth-averse reputation. Voting mostly along party lines, the Connecticut Senate approved the budget 19-17 last week. With that approval comes tax hikes on corporations, successful small business owners, and middle-class families.
It’s an understatement to say that these hikes will have a chilling effect on the Connecticut economy. The downward slide can be traced back to 1991, when the state adopted an income tax. (The highest rate at that time was 1.5 percent; it now stands at 6.5 percent.) Between 1992 and 2011, Connecticut lost $7.4 billion in net adjusted gross income (AGI) and lost nearly 200,000 residents.
One of the budget’s most egregious inclusions is a $700 million increase in taxes on businesses, including extending the state’s 20 percent surcharge on the corporate profits tax. Not surprisingly, the hikes are prompting corporations headquartered in Connecticut to seek friendlier economic climates in order to maintain their competitive advantage. Last week, House Republican Leader Themis Klarides equated the newly passed budget to “holding up a sign at the border to businesses and saying get out.”
Indeed, multinational companies are reading that sign and looking for an exit. Jeff Immelt, the Chief Executive Officer of General Electric, announced to his thousands of Connecticut-based employees he’s built a team tasked with evaluating a move to a state “with a more pro-business environment.” Insurance giant Aetna, currently headquartered in Hartford, already pays $65 million a year in state and local taxes; under this new budget, Aetna’s tax burden goes up by another 27 percent. (Aetna also raised concerns about the increase in the sales tax on computer and data-processing services.) In a statement, Aetna said, “Elected leaders have failed to address the state’s budget obligation responsibly. But it’s Connecticut’s businesses and residents that will pay the price.”
The tax hike is particularly unconscionable considering the fact that Connecticut ranks in the bottom 10 on the Tax Foundation’s 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index (and has the second-highest property tax in the entire nation). Connecticut Senator L. Scott Frantz summed up the situation: “There are many who feel if this budget is approved that we are committing fiscal suicide. How can this happen to us? What's going wrong with Connecticut?''
Those questions seem rhetorical, but the answer is clear: What’s wrong with Connecticut is the leadership’s insistence upon taxing the state into an economic death spiral.
A better solution to Connecticut’s fiscal woes is for state leaders to determine the best tax structure that will encourage employment growth and attract new businesses, rather than penalizing the state’s most productive industries. Phasing out the state income tax in favor of broadening sales taxes has been a proven stimulus package. In the book that I co-authored with Dr. Art Laffer, Stephen Moore and Travis H. Brown, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States, the evidence clearly indicates that states with high income tax rates perform worse than low and no income states across all meaningful measurements.
Connecticut’s failed experiment that began in 1991 continues to create repercussions that are driving businesses, jobs, incomes, and families out of the Nutmeg State.Old Man Winter’s got nothing on those bleary-eyed, cold, sore-backed boys plowing snow-packed streets as the Chicago area comes out of its third significant snow this winter season, which was followed by the coldest weather in two decades.
“So far so good,” Berwyn Public Works Director Bob Schiller.
Schiller said snow had been pushed to the curbs on the city’s main streets, salt spread, and plowing on residential streets would continue throughout the week.
Another 4 inches of snow fell over Saturday and Sunday, driving crews back out into the cold.
On Monday, temperatures plunged to 16 below zero in the Chicago region, with a wind chill of 40 below zero. Schools across the area canceled classes citing the extreme weather conditions.
While temperatures were supposed to be above zero, a frigid wind chill of 30 below zero cause schools to close classes for a second day.
Classes were scheduled to resume after break Monday for most students in Berwyn and Cicero, but classes were closed for all Berwyn and Cicero students.
South Berwyn School District 100 had an in-service day Monday and its students didn’t need to brave the sub-zero temperatures. However, students got another day off when school district officials closed all the schools on Tuesday as well.
The Arctic air that plunged temperatures far below the zero mark on Monday has only made efforts to make streets safer to travel more difficult as salt becomes ineffective when it gets that cold outside.
Public Works crews began plowing at 2 p.m. New Year’s Eve, running six shifts of 12 hours on, 12 hours off, Schiller said. He added their is a process when tackling storms that have a long duration.
“We were anticipating this storm to last 36 to 40 hours,” he said. “Our process is to put down a layer of salt to reduce the amount of bonding the snow and ice has to the road and we’ll begin plowing. We then use a bare minimum of salt until the end of the storm.”
Salting is then resumed during the final clean up.
Schiller cautioned that road salt begins to lose its ability to melt at about 25 degrees
“Salt will be virtually useless [Monday and Tuesday],” he said. “The only thing that will help us is the heat of the tires on the road and any sunshine we get.”
Schiller said about 1,400 tons of salt has been spread so far this year, which amounts to about a third of the city’s allotment. Another delivery of salt came Saturday.
“We’re doing all right,” he said. “Our orders are coming regularly.”
Cicero Public Works Commissioner Sam Jelic planted his tongue firmly in his cheek to describe the New Year’s Eve storm.
“It was a terrific gift for the new year,” Jelic said. “It’s one thing to go through a storm and clean up. Then to do it three times, it’s pretty stressful.”
Jelic said his crews had pretty much plowed main and side streets and the alleys last Friday and were getting ready for what the weekend was going to bring.
Jelic said a total of 16 plows were operating three shifts, 12 hours on, 12 hours off, to clear more than 900 miles of street.
“My main concern is clearing the main streets, then we’ll work on the side streets,” Gaelic said. “Then if we’re able,we’ll try to get the alleys done.”
As for salt supplies, Jelic said the Town is in good shape.
“We still have salt, We’re going through last year’s salt now,” he said. There is also an emergency stash on hand if needed, “but we’re pretty good, we’re OK.”Your first name
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan couldn’t hide his smile when Vice President Joe Biden repeatedly told protesting Democrats to sit down and shut up.
A joint session of Congress met Friday to certify the Electoral College votes cast during the 2016 presidential race.
“Mr. President, I object on behalf of the millions of Americans, including members of the intelligence committee,” Rep. Barbara Lee said before Biden cut her off and she was drowned out by boos.
“There is no debate. Debate is prohibited,” he said. “Objection cannot be received.”
Ryan can be seen smiling throughout the protests.
“Mr. President, I object to the votes from the state of Wisconsin, which should not be legally certified,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee insisted.
“Please come to order,” a visibly frustrated Biden said.
Jackson Lee then tried to bring up “the Russian intrusion,” and was again silenced.
Ryan finally lost it and started laughing when Rep. Maxine Waters stood up and asked, “is there one United States senator who would join me in this letter?”
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.Commonwealth Edison's leaders rarely miss a chance to tout how the evolving smart grid is ushering in green technologies and customer choice.
But while solar power grows in other states, including those with climates similar to Illinois' like Minnesota, the industry essentially doesn't exist here. In ComEd's vast service territory, with 3.6 million households, there are little more than 500 residential rooftop solar customers.
In Chicago itself, residential solar power is nearly nonexistent, in large part because so many residents don't own or control access to a roof on which to place solar panels.
Solar industry representatives and their environmentalist supporters say the lack of inroads here is no accident. ComEd recently went out of its way to halt a state rule aimed at jump-starting one of the most promising new technologies—solar energy fields built to serve groups of customers in densely populated areas like Chicago.
The utility's lobbyists persuaded the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a 12-member legislative panel that must approve major rules and regulations before they go into effect, to halt the rule, adopted late last year by the Illinois Commerce Commission after two years of work.
The ICC's rule would have overridden ComEd's blanket policy against allowing special rate treatment authorized in state law for these “community solar” projects.
No such projects have been built in Illinois despite passage of a ComEd-endorsed law nine years ago that allowed customers buying solar to receive a credit on their electric bills for the power they generate beyond what they need—known in the industry as “net metering.”
Under state law, ComEd must provide net metering to individual residents who apply to install rooftop solar, but it only has to “consider” doing so for groups of households.
The Emanuel administration wants ComEd forced to open the door to community solar. “Nearly eight years after enactment of the original statutory provision and nearly five years after the addition of community solar as an eligible meter aggregation application, the provision has been interpreted by ComEd... to stymie all initiatives,” the city of Chicago testified to the ICC in June.
To win environmental groups' endorsement of its controversial smart-grid law in 2011, ComEd agreed to a substantial increase in how much solar power could be put on its system. That law authorized a $2.6 billion grid modernization program and hundreds of millions in accompanying rate hikes.
The law boosted the cap on the amount of solar ComEd can allow from 1 percent of the utility's peak demand to 5 percent. Solar power today accounts for 0.1 percent.
ComEd executives say they support community solar despite the utility's blanket prohibition against net metering for such projects. “The issue is really the financing mechanism,” says Tom O'Neill, ComEd senior vice president for energy policy.
ComEd doesn't support net metering anymore. The financing method, crucial to making residential solar's economics work, is common in other states, but ComEd contends it's unfair to its other customers who, it believes, are subsidizing solar users.
ComEd wants to replace net metering with a flat, one-time rebate as part of a complex comprehensive legislative proposal that also would overhaul how delivery rates are set to make more of the utility's charges fixed rather than dependent on usage.
In an April 21 statement, ComEd announced the “new way to support solar in Illinois,” allowing that it was subject to approval by the Legislature but neglecting to mention its own move to halt the ICC's action. The utility described its initiative as “getting solar right in Illinois.”
SolarCity, the largest residential rooftop solar company in the country, disagrees.
“Net metering is central to making solar energy work,” says Rebecca Stanfield, San Mateo, Calif.-based SolarCity's vice president of policy in the central part of the U.S. “Every state with a robust solar market has full net metering. ComEd's proposal would derail solar in Illinois. That said, we are open to working with ComEd on ways to improve their proposal if they genuinely want to partner.”
ComEd has been in negotiations for months with environmental and consumer groups, as well as renewable energy companies, on its bill. Energy legislation is notoriously complex, however, and prospects for action this year are uncertain.
In the meantime, a law already on the books to incentivize residential solar development isn't achieving its goals. Critics say ComEd is impeding effective implementation of that law to win concessions that would be financially beneficial to it.
The ICC could still pass a community solar rule despite the legislative review panel's negative vote. But it has only a few weeks to do so under a deadline that, if missed, would require it to start the yearlong process over.
Given the panel's overwhelming 10-2 vote that the rule didn't comply in all forms with the pertinent state law, it's questionable whether the commission would be so aggressive as to go ahead.
“Our hope is that the commission will soon finalize an order that brings community solar to Illinois,” says Jack Darin, director of the Sierra Club's Illinois chapter. “It is being deployed elsewhere, but Illinois is stuck without it and all the benefits it can bring in terms of jobs, cleaner air and bill savings.”Charlotte School of Law may be close to closing. Enrollment has plummeted. About half the faculty has been laid off. The federal government is withholding millions in loans. And some of the remaining students can’t pay rent or afford food.
Yet school leaders found the time Tuesday night to notify student Jeremy Snyder that he had violated the honor code.
Snyder’s offense: Using a common curse word in a weekend email that strongly urged the school to release overdue details on a financial plan to help students pay their bills.
Cut the B***S*** and finally, actually level with the few students who remain. Charlotte School of Law student Jeremy Snyder to school leaders
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The correspondence, which Snyder shared with the Observer, offers a window into frustration at the beleaguered, for-profit school. In the past three months, Charlotte Law has been placed on probation by the American Bar Association and kicked out of the Department of Education’s student-loan program for chronic problems with admissions, curriculum and bar exam passage rates. Bar and government officials also accuse school President Chidi Ogene and Dean Jay Conison of hiding those problems from current and future students to maintain enrollment.
Every law student seeking entry to the bar must be certified by the law school that the student possesses satisfactory character and fitness. Your actions... call into question whether you possess that character and fitness. A school official’s response.
Students have filed at least five lawsuits. Meanwhile, the school’s student commons area has been turned into a food pantry for students who haven’t been able to pay living expenses since the school lost federal money. Late Tuesday, Charlotte Law announced it would offer alternative loans for tuition only.
Over the weekend, Snyder says weeks of frustration with what he described as the school’s absent or evasive communications boiled over.
“Without adequate stipends, many students who have relied (to our detriment) on your ‘updates’ … are not able to pay rent, ongoing bills, schoolbooks, or even cover basic necessities like FOOD,” Snyder said in a Sunday message to Ogene, Conison and others.
“Cut the B***S*** and finally, actually level with the few students who remain.”
Tuesday night, Snyder received an email from a school official, accusing him of violating an honor code requirement to “act professionally, respectfully and with integrity.” The school message described Snyder’s email as “unprofessional and obscene in nature,” and included a veiled threat.
“Every law student seeking entry to the bar must be certified by the law school that the student possesses satisfactory character and fitness,” wrote Branden Nicholson, the school’s director of student engagement. “Your actions, both by the language used in the emails and the subsequent post and comments on social media, call into question whether you possess that character and fitness.”
Nicholson acknowledged that “current events” surrounding the law school might warrant student demands for answers. That said, “a deprivation of professionalism and character is unacceptable.” In closing, he said a copy of the letter would go in Snyder’s permanent file and could be removed later “provided that we do not find further unprofessional conduct on your behalf.”
At 6:17 p.m. Tuesday, Snyder replied. “To Branden (and everyone else offended),” he wrote.
“We find the lack of care for the students’ interests egregiously offensive. … We find the constant stalling and non-informative ‘updates’ offensive.
“… So I guess ‘acting professionally, respectfully and with integrity’ applies only to students but not to the LEADERSHIP at this school? Got it.”
Late Tuesday night, the school issued details of a new financial plan, offering cash-paying students a 20 percent break on tuition this semester. The school also said that the $1,000 emergency loans announced last week were a one-time offer, and that institutional loans would cover tuition only.
Citing student-privacy considerations, a spokeswoman said the school could not comment about the dispute with Snyder.
Snyder, 34, is far from the first student to criticize the school. He acknowledged Wednesday that his Sunday email to school leaders contained “a certain disrespectfulness,” but he said he was simply trying to get answers.
“They have lost all respect in our minds,” said Snyder, who came to the school from Buffalo. “They stall. They stall. They stall. Now students are faced with evictions. They’re ruining their credit because they can’t pay their bills. … All that donated food in the student lounge is heart-warming. But it’s also really, really sad.”
Snyder also said he found it unsettling that school leaders appear to be monitoring what students are posting on social media, adding: “One would think that their time could be better spent fixing the crisis they caused.”Tuesday night’s ‘Word’ segment on The Colbert Report was hilarious to behold. Not too long ago, Texas Republicans adopted an education plank in their platform opposing critical thinking skills in school, and Colbert thoroughly embarrassed them for it.
Colbert observed that President Obama currently has a commanding lead among youth 43% to 26%. And pointed out that 63% of those born after 1981 support same-sex marriage.
“We conservatives are losing control of the youth, because the younglings don’t share our fundamental values… Thankfully, someone has finally found a way to bring our kids back into the conservative fold.”
Colbert then transitioned into the ‘Word’ segment and took aim at the Texas GOP.
“The minds of our young people are being poisoned by knowledge,” Colbert began.
“And the source of this toxic cerebral sludge is our schools. They fill our kid’s heads with dangerous concepts like evolution and PE. Happily, there is one bright spot in education, Texas, the large hadron collider of denying science. I have long praised the Texas Board of Education for their valiant work rewriting our nation’s history textbooks. But now, I believe they’ve got some stiff competition from the Texas GOP, who recently put a plank in their 2012 party platform regarding children’s education, that says, and I quote, ‘We oppose the teaching of critical thinking skills.’ Amen brother. For too long we have blindly accepted the idea of not blindly accepting ideas.”
Colbert then went on the blame Galileo and continued.
“For centuries we had a perfectly good explanation for the order of the universe. Bible says the sun goes around the Earth, making us the center of the universe. And you know what? Everyone was happy. But then numb nuts over here gets a telescope for Christmas, uses his critical thinking skills and suddenly the Earth goes around the sun, blah, blah, blah, and now we have lesbians… The Texas GOP is on |
deserving tribe of chest-thumpers.
* Neil says that “they” is now totally acceptable as a singular gender-nonspecific pronoun, but I’m still having trouble getting used to the idea.
** That’s why we don’t insult Donald Trump’s appearance. We’re better than that. His words and behavior are more than enough reason to oppose and despise him.The former chairman of IndyMac Bank has alleged a key banking regulator "specifically directed" him to backdate $18 million in capital onto the Pasadena thrift's books to help prop up the company at the peak of the financial crisis.
Michael W. Perry, who is battling fraud allegations connected to the thrift's failure in 2008, said that cash was added to the balance sheet during the first quarter of 2008 even though the money arrived more than a month after the quarter closed. The regulator was Darrel W. Dochow, former Western regional director for the Office of Thrift Supervision, a U.S. Treasury Department agency that "had the final say regarding IndyMac Bank's capital levels," Perry said in a statement posted online.
After conferring with IndyMac's auditors on May 9, 2008, Dochow approved adding the $18 million to IndyMac's books, and "specifically directed Mr. Perry to amend the Bank's Thrift Financial Report for March 31, 2008," the statement said. IndyMac's first-quarter earnings report to investors, issued May 12, also included the extra dose of cash.
Dochow's approval of the cash infusion had been widely reported previously. But Perry's contention that Dochow "directed" its inclusion on IndyMac's books adds a new twist to his defense by suggesting that the action was required by regulators. The statement from Perry was first reported by the New York Times.Ever wonder what the average age of professional photographers is? Dave Good of Rangefinder magazine writes,
Ed Lee is the group director of InfoTrends Worldwide Consumer and Professional Imaging Services. “The number of female photographers has grown,” he says. Now it’s a 2/3-to-1/3 split of males to females, a pickup from last year.” Forty percent of them are part time, while 28 percent, he says, are full time. “And it’s a younger female at that,” he says. “Age 45, and younger,” according to the 2011 & 2012 InfoTrends Professional Photographer Study. “It comes down to the economy,” Lee says. “With families still struggling, people are turning to part-time photography as a way to bring money into the home.” He sees the photo business as a changing of the guard. “The average age of the full-time male photographer is 50. The average age of the full-time female photographer is 41.” The implication is that more full time male photographers are retiring. “You’re going to see a shifting towards an even higher percentage of females.”
The magazine’s entire Business Trends Report 2012 is worth a read if you’re at all interested in how the photo industry is changing.
State of the Industry: Business Trends 2012 [Rangefinder]
Thanks for sending in the tip, Phil!
Image credit: Photo illustration based on Tree rings by eric.rayner@btinternet.comLet's talk about batting. Pakistan's batting. It's been talked about before - many times - but when your batsmen help you to No. 1 in Test cricket and drive you to the bottom in other formats, it needs to be discussed again. Not just discussed, it needs to be understood and addressed because the disparity is too great.
First, we need to understand what modern batting is. And for this we might turn to Graham Thorpe, the ECB's lead batting coach. Before the first Pakistan Test this summer, I hosted an event with him at Histon Cricket Club near Cambridge. He talked about his career, and he spoke mostly about batting.
When he spoke about batting method, he didn't speak about his batting method, which was gritty and pragmatic. He spoke about modern batting and future batting and what is required. He spoke about 360-degree run-scoring and fast hands. He spoke about generating momentum into a shot.
He spoke about unorthodox batting, or what we think is unorthodox batting, but will be normal batting in the future even if we think it is unorthodox now. He spoke about how England are embracing modern batting. He spoke about the sophistication in identifying future batting talents and the effort to make them, and the complexity in adapting coaching and mentoring to an individual's needs.
You don't need to take Thorpe's word for it, though perhaps you should because making batsmen is his job and England are doing rather well because of it. England might not yet be the best in any format, but they're impressive across them all - and there are any number of batsmen waiting to take the place of those who might fail in international cricket.
You need to look at what's happening in youth cricket in England, in youth county cricket, and in county academies. The system has its faults but they are making batsmen, batsmen who live Thorpe's vision, and they are making them from a young age.
The modern batsman isn't made when he has won a professional contract or when he has become an international cricketer. The modern batsman is made from a young age, with effort and time and investment and repetition and muscle memory. England are making better and better batsmen despite recreational participation in cricket dropping year on year.
It wasn't so long ago - less than 20 years - that England were bottom of the Test rankings. In August 1999, after losing a home series to New Zealand, England were the worst Test team in the world.
Even more recently England were off the pace in limited-overs cricket. All that has changed. Change has taken planning and structure and commitment and facilities and, importantly, an eye for talent.
Pakistan aren't making batsmen. Pakistan are making a mess of batting. That isn't itself new. Pakistan have always made a mess of batting to some degree. Just as Indians have peered over the border with envious eyes at Pakistan's pace bowlers, Pakistanis have done the same, looking at India's batsmen.
"Once Younis and Misbah are gone, only Asad Shafiq is established to lead the next generation of Test batsmen. Unless Pakistan acts now, the decline in one-day cricket will be followed by a collapse in Test cricket"
India has a batting culture and it continues to inspire. Pakistan has a batting culture too, but you wouldn't know it. Indeed there was a time when, despite the stylists over the border, you'd judge Pakistan's batting to be stronger.
That's a long time ago. Pakistan now makes hard work of batting for the simple reason that they aren't putting in the hard work. Making a batsman requires talent, yes, but it also requires effort, time, investment, and muscle memory. Consistent hitting and shot execution require a honed technique, mental bravery, and impeccable preparation.
On matters of effort Pakistan cricket falls short. When the game changed at the end of the 1990s, Pakistan failed to change with it. The talent pool didn't change. If anything, in desperate times cricket became more central to the nation's self-worth. But the performance of the batsmen continued to decline.
I say again, the talent pool doesn't change. From the 1970s to the 1990s, Pakistan produced world-class batsmen capable of excelling in both formats. Zaheer Abbas, Majid Khan, Javed Miandad, Salim Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saeed Anwar, Mohammad Yousuf. Not too many, just enough. Even Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq are really from that era.
You see the problem. Nobody of genuine substance, of world-class standing, has emerged for a decade or more. If the talent pool remains stable, then how can that be? The answer is that the game has changed. Batting has changed. And Pakistan's preparation of batsmen hasn't changed with it. When hard work was required, it wasn't done or prioritised. The cricket board didn't realise or care. Pakistan still thought that talent was enough.
Pakistan got away with it for too long thanks to their bowlers. Despite a broken infrastructure and inadequate domestic cricket, Pakistan continues to produce world-class pacemen and spinners.
Why is that? Well, a bowler can be made later, once his physique is established. A bowler can be developed with less support than a batsman. The luckiest bowlers boast a natural athleticism and don't need a bowling machine or someone willing to wield a sidearm to sharpen their skills. Yes, bowling requires high skill and fitness, but the fact that you haven't prepared since you were 12 years old or younger won't harm you as much as it will in modern batting.
Pakistan's decline in batting, then, was covered up by the bowlers. Until recently, that is, when two regulatory changes made Pakistan's bowling less effective in limited-overs cricket. First, in 2011, two white balls were introduced in one-day internationals. Now there is less reverse swing to pull back a runaway innings.
The way England's batsmen have evolved in the limited-overs game is a lesson for Pakistan Getty Images
But Pakistan stumbled on until the ICC clamped down on the actions of mystery spinners. That left Pakistan's batting exposed. It left its pace bowlers exposed. It left the emperor with no clothes. Pakistan's limited-overs performances fell off a cliff.
Pakistan still has good bowlers. The problem isn't as deep as the batting. It doesn't necessarily have good bowling. That can be put right with a modern coach and the quality of bowlers at his disposal.
Look no further than the evolution of Pakistan's bowling during the limited-overs series against England. During the T20 at Old Trafford, Pakistan's bowlers offered something different, something new. They won the match with an exceptional display, a world-class effort.
The batting came off too, at Old Trafford and in Cardiff. But there is some way to go before the right people are batting in the right positions and playing the right way. You don't end up ninth in the world for no reason. It has been said before: Pakistan's one-day batting is stuck in the 1990s. It's dot-ball cricket in a boundary world.
Yet, the end of the England tour offered a vision, the slightest hint, of something better.
When Mickey Arthur took charge as coach, he must have wondered at the disparity between Test and one-day performance - but not for long. The problem was obvious. The old virtues and teachings remain relevant to Test cricket, where Younis and Misbah are taking responsibility, leading and inspiring the next generation. Limited-overs cricket is different - and Pakistan haven't adapted.
But once Younis and Misbah are gone, only Asad Shafiq is established to lead the next generation of Test batsmen. Unless Pakistan acts now, the decline in one-day cricket will be followed by a collapse in Test cricket. The modern batting skills developed for T20 and one-day cricket are diffusing upstream, and will eventually transform Test cricket too.
Talent isn't enough, it's time for hard work. That hard work isn't just with the national team. It is there but also in academies, in domestic cricket, and on A tours, to prepare the next generation of batsmen. Pakistan cricket's greatest bane is its failure in player development. That needs to end or cricket will go the way of squash and hockey.
Responsibility for the failure rests squarely with the cricket board. The board creates the infrastructure, organises domestic cricket and academies, and appoints selectors and coaches. The board must act because Arthur can only succeed with its support - and he knows what's required.
Cricket is more a batsman's game than it has ever been but Pakistan aren't making batsmen. Yet they could. We've seen it in Test cricket. We saw glimpses towards the end of the limited-overs series. Pakistan's batting isn't done yet. It needs hard work, not just talent.
An entertaining tour of England is a moment to savour but it isn't a moment to be self-satisfied. It's a moment to reflect and analyse and build for the long term, for Pakistan leave England with an unexpected positivity and ambition, a Test ranking to preserve and a World Cup place to secure.
Pakistan are still in the game, fighting. They kill your hope and then they raise it from the depths. The story of Pakistan cricket moves on but the emotions endure.When I came out as a lesbian in 1978 aged 16 (having been publicly identified as a dyke two years earlier by bullies), it was miserable. I lost friends, was labelled a "freak", beaten up, sexually assaulted, and routinely harassed and threatened in public places. A year later, when living away from home with my girlfriend, we were both arrested for stealing a tin of peas and two lamb chops. In my pocket was one of those strips of photographs lovers take in a photo booth. When the magistrate was presented with "evidence" of our sexual deviance he asked if we could be referred to a psychiatrist in order to ascertain whether our thieving behaviour was all part of a psychotic madness.
I am now in my 50s and the world I live in is a million miles away from those bad old days. Or is it? The law reform charity Stonewall, in its latest survey, has found that anti-gay prejudice is routine in schools, and violence towards lesbians and gay men is still very much a fact of life in the UK.
No Premier League footballer is out as gay, and there are still places in cities and villages across the UK where same-sex couples dare not hold hands in public. The brilliant charity the Albert Kennedy Trust would not need to operate were it not for the fact that young LGBT people are still thrown out of their family homes, or treated so badly they run away, because they are not straight.
It is because of the huge changes in attitudes and legislation of late, along with the realisation that there is still much more to achieve, that I decided to write a book about lesbian and gay culture and politics today. I want to find out the state of the gay nation, and have lots of questions to ask of lesbians, gay men and straight people as I assemble my portrait.
As a young woman I met lesbian feminists who refused to accept the conservative view that sexuality is innate. We could see that heterosexuality, under the system of patriarchy, was bad for women, and would wear badges bearing the question, "Y B A wife?". It was liberating to be a lesbian and to opt out of the nuclear family.
How ironic, one might say, that today the introduction of equal marriage legislation is seen by many as the ultimate victory in the battle for equality. No longer are lesbians and gay men calling for liberation from the tyranny of normality; rather we consider assimilation to be the end goal. But is this a bad thing? Maybe it became tiresome being sexual outlaws and radicals, hanging on to our difference rather than striving for acceptance. Perhaps being seen as "ordinary" is a huge political achievement?
I want to know what makes us lesbian or gay. A gene? Opportunity? The desire to break free of convention? Is sexual preference biologically determined or socially constructed? Many of us say, "We can't help the way we are. We were born this way." Do we say it because we truly believe it, or is it in order to console those with an anti-gay agenda? Have we happily gone from the picket line to the picket fence without a backward glance?
What about relations within the "gay community"? Do lesbians and gay men have anything at all in common except for being the potential or actual targets of anti-gay bigotry?
Have we now reached a stage where being a "sexual outlaw" and maintaining the "only gay in the village" mentality has no place in a society that has granted (almost) full legal and civil protection and acceptance of same-sex relationships?
Thirty-five years ago, women who had children prior to coming out as lesbian would lose custody battles, often to violent and abusive ex-husbands, for no other reason than being "sexually deviant". Lesbians and gay men would lose jobs, homes and the right to be recognised as each others' next of kin in sickness and death.
But have we reached the utopia of equality, or have we simply blended into a straight society hell-bent on making us respectable? I want you to help me figure this out by answering my questions online and following me as I focus on topics such as religion, the science of sexuality and gay and lesbian families on Comment is free over the next few weeks. The 70s and 80s may well be viewed as the golden age of "gay politics". But has this politics really gone away, or just slipped below the radar? Is the personal still political for gay people in the 21st century? We shall see.
To fill out the survey that will inform Julie Bindel's book Straight Expectations, go here if you identify as heterosexual and here if you identify as other than heterosexualTo a particular strain of nerd, it feels like only yesterday that we were bemoaning the loss of Joss Whedon’s Firefly, probably because it was yesterday. Much like the loss of the Unification War for the browncoats, some people will never get over it. The actors, on the other hand, got over it just fine—for the most part. Nathan Fillion now has enough money to buy a small island, Morena Baccarin has been a regular on Homeland and Gotham—to name but a few of her gigs—and Adam Baldwin is living on some distant planet where straight white men are a brutally oppressed people. And dear sweet ship mechanic Kaylee, a.k.a. Jewel Staite, now has a new gig to follow up her previous roles on Stargate: Atlantis and The Killing. TV Line reports Staite is set to have a guest-starring role on DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, appearing in the season’s 10th episode.
Staite will play the part of Rachel Turner, “a tech genius/roboticist who exists in a future in which technology has an even firmer grip on our lives than it does today.” This not-at-all-predictable future state of affairs will be a place where Turner creates a form of tech that might fall into the hands of series villain Vandal Savage, unless the superheroes can stop it from happening. (That prior sentence will now be available for usage in every future episode description of DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, give or take swapping in different names and “past” in place of “future.”) Also, Turner is supposedly related to someone from the current Arrow-verse, though hopefully not Quentin Lance, because that guy is a total dud.Former Canadian software developer and current carpenter Joel Allen built a unique egg-shaped tree house, The HemLoft. It is located in the woods near Whistler, British Columbia. The exact location of the house is a secret though, because Allen built it on Crown lands – government property – without permission. Allen had to hand-carry all of the materials out to the site and carry the construction waste back out. The HemLoft is a treehouse in the truest sense: the entire weight of the egg-shaped structure is supported by the tree around which it is built.
It hangs on a precipitous slope, in a towering stand of hemlocks, about a five minute walk from the nearest road. The story of how it came to be and the future of HemLoft is a fascinating tale.
After graduating with a degree in software development in 2003, Joel went to work for a start-up company that would eventually fold in 2006. Jobless and without direction, he met ‘Old Man John’ in the spring of 2008 at a festival. A self-taught caprpenter, Old Man John would inspire Joel to pursue his passion for carpentry. Joel decided to trade the keyboard and mouse for a hammer and nail.
When Joel first began his foray into carpentry he was living out of his car. On a random job site he met a friend who was also an outdoor-adventure type (and also living out of his car). They quickly bonded and got into a pastime they called ‘sport sleeping’ which involved outdoing each other by sleeping in outrageous places outside (e.g., inside a hollowed out log). This pastime led Joel to want his own little place in the woods.
Joel mentioned the idea of a loft in the woods to his friends Mark and Jayne who casually suggested the shape of an egg. It was at that moment that the HemLoft took its form. The design was based on triangular strength (with one side of the traingle curved). To test the design, Joel built a scale-model 1/4 the size. After tweaks and alterations to the proportion the final model was slightly fatter than a pure-egg shape to create a more spacious interior. With the design set, the next challenge was to find the perfect tree.
Joel had an informal checklist of requirements for the perfect tree:
Within a reasonable distance to a road, yet out of sight and out of earshot of human traffic
The shape of the egg would need to suit the environment and be proportionate to the tree
A south western aspect, some sort of view, and proximity to running water
When Joel finally found ‘the tree’ it shot out of a 45 degree slope, was remarkably straight, perfectly proportioned and nearly bare of branches up to the sweeping canopy sixty feet above the forest floor.
In 2010 Joel would find his life partner Heidi, and together they would complete the HemLoft. With an extra pair of hands and a new partner with an eye for design and carpentry skills to match.
Together Heidi and Joel finally completed the HemLoft in August of 2011. The pictures seen in this post were taken by the couple and shared in a 21-picture gallery on Flickr, which you can find here.
Sources: ignant.de, twistedsifter.com
Photos by Heidi and Joel Allen
RelatedUseful Git Commands
I've used git quite a bit but I don't consider myself a git expert, per se. I often find myself looking up the same basic commands so I thought I'd share them there so I'd have a fast reference, and maybe this will help you out too!
Create and Checkout a New Branch
#branches from currently checked out directory git checkout -b <branchName>
Checkout a Remote Branch
git checkout -b <localBranchName> origin/<remoteBranchName>
Abort Changes of a File
git checkout -- <fileName>
Modify the Previous Commit's Message
git commit --amend
Partial Change Checkin
git add --edit
Undo the Previous Commit
git revert HEAD^
Temporarily Stash Changes, Restore Later
# After changes have been made... git stash # Do some other stuff here, like switch branches, merge other changes, etc. #Re-apply the changes git stash pop
Delete a Remote Branch
git push origin :<branchName>
Pull in the Latest from a Shared Repository
# Add a remote branch git remote add <remoteName> <gitAddress> # For example: git remote add lightfaceOfficial git://github.com/darkwing/LightFace.git # Get changes from that branch git fetch <remoteName>
Tagging, Deleting, and Pushing Tags
# Create a Tag git tag <tagName> # Delete the tag git tag -d <tagName> # Push Tags git push --tags
Who F'd it All Up?
git blame <fileName>
These basic git commands should help you on your way. Have a tip you'd like to share with others? Please share!OTTAWA – A shift in the campaign against the so-called Islamic State has resulted in Canadian soldiers spending more time on the front lines and engaging in more firefights with the enemy, a senior officer revealed Thursday.
Some of those battles included defending civilians as well as Kurdish allies, said Brig.-Gen. Peter Dawe, deputy commander of Canada’s special forces.
READ MORE: Canadian general says anti-ISIS fight about to grow harder
No Canadians were killed or injured in the “sporadic” skirmishes, he said, adding: “In all cases, self-defence is what is being exercised.”
Dawe’s comments came during a briefing at National Defence Headquarters on Canada’s mission against ISIS, which enters its third year on Friday. The briefing coincided with Iraqi forces preparing to launch a major operation to take back the city of Mosul, the last urban centre held by ISIS in Iraq.
The liberation of Mosul is expected to eliminate ISIS as a serious threat in Iraq. But there are also fears that it will unleash a number of internal conflicts between Iraq’s various ethnic and religious groups, which to this point have been loosely united in their fight against the extremist group.
While the Liberal government withdrew Canada’s fighter jets from Iraq and Syria earlier this year, about 170 special forces troops are continuing to work with Kurdish forces in the north of the country.
Their mission has been billed as “non-combat,” though the government says they can shoot in self-defence. Some critics have accused the Liberals of tailoring the definition of combat to fit with promises made during last year’s election campaign.
READ MORE: Canadian-trained Kurdish forces won’t clear ISIS from Mosul
Dawe said Canada’s mission has “evolved” since the spring, as Iraqi and Kurdish forces have shifted from defending against ISIS attacks to liberating territory occupied by the extremist group. As a result, he said, there has been more demand for advice and assistance. That includes helping the Kurds call in airstrikes.
Earlier in the mission, military commanders revealed the number of airstrikes Canadian troops had called in as well as the number of times they had engaged in firefights with ISIS forces. Dawe, however, would not provide such details on Thursday, citing operational security.
“The key takeaway for Canadians is we are more engaged at the line,” he said. “There should be no doubt about that. And by extension, the risk has increased to our troops simply by virtue of time spent at the line and the work we’re doing right now in a more dynamic and fluid environment.”
Added Lt.-Gen. Stephen Bowes, commander of all Canadian military operations at home and abroad, who was also at the briefing: “It’s the Iraqis that are in combat. Let’s be clear on that.”
READ MORE: ISIS prisoner kept as sex slave describes her dangerous struggle for freedom
Canadian troops have trained about 2,000 Kurdish fighters over the past two years. Many of them are now moving into position around Mosul in preparation for the assault to retake the city, which is home to 1 million people. But exactly how that battle will play out, and what will come after, is far from clear.
International leaders have previously warned about the need to control which groups are involved in clearing Mosul. The focus has largely been on the Shia militia groups, which are accused of indiscriminately killing Sunni Muslims in areas freed from ISIS’s grip. The groups say those killed were ISIS sympathizers.
READ MORE: Turkey in cross-border operation to free Islamic State-held Syrian town
But the Kurds, who have a semi-autonomous government in northern Iraq, have made no secret of their hopes for full independence after ISIS is defeated. They have also clashed several times with the Shia groups, and warned they will not return territory liberated by the peshmerga but claimed by Baghdad.
The fear is that while the liberation of Mosul will mark the end of ISIS as a major threat in Iraq, it will mark the beginning of a new round of violence as the various ethnic and religious groups that have been fighting ISIS stake claim to territory and power.
Bowes acknowledged the “tremendous complexity” on the ground in northern Iraq, as well as the uncertainty of what will come after Mosul.
“The ground is fluid and it is extremely complex, even for people that are devoting attention to this day in and day out,” he said.
“There’s a history that is complicated going back hundreds of years. And for anybody to sit here and say ‘This is how it’s going to unfold, this is how Mosul is going to be liberated,’ I’m not going to go there.”The Department of Defense Excess Property Program (1033) has seen a lot of criticism lately, as news surfaces about how local police departments are using the Pentagon's extras. Pentagon equipment used by the St. Louis County Police in Ferguson, Missouri -- the scene of riots following the shooting of Michael Brown -- includes multiple $47,000 trucks and scores of military rifles. The New York Times highlighted the program and produced an interactive graphic to show the flow of weapons from Defense to police. According to the Times, the program started as a countermeasure to high crime in the 1990s.
Using data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and covering 2006-2014, we looked into the type and cost of equipment that local law enforcement has been receiving from the Pentagon. Items ranged from aircraft (some costing over $5 million each) to screws and washers (36 cents each). Most of the equipment filtering down to local law enforcement will not surprise the average citizen -- mostly rifles, handguns and related equipment -- but we found a lot of questionable line items.
1. 240 pair of "DRAWERS,EXTREME COLD WEATHER" for a total cost of $1,770.65. San Diego County, California.
La Jolla Beach, San Diego ( kan_khampanya/Shutterstock.com )
The documentation on just where the equipment goes is not clear, so a lot of the equipment could be used in county jails, by county or city law enforcement or any other number of places. But one thing's for sure: Almost no one in San Diego County, California, needs underwear for "extreme cold weather." San Diego is one of the most pleasant places in the world, weather-wise, with a year-round average temperature of 75 degrees.
2. 200 pairs of "SOCKS" for a total cost of $468. Wichita County, Texas.
The Pentagon gave or sold a lot of socks to different counties. The document contains 175 line items with the word "socks" in them, with nearly every state receiving the all-important garments. Wichita, Texas, received 200 pairs of Pentagon-issued socks, presumably, for inmates at the James V. Allred Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Otherwise, law enforcement in Wichita County is swimming in socks.
3. 18 units of "HAMMER, HAND" for a total cost of $2,683.86. Oakland County, Michigan.
Oakland County is part of the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI, Metropolitan Statistical Area and has a population of 1,202,362, but that does not explain why the local law enforcement needed to receive 18 hammers from the Defense Department at an average cost of $149.10 each. Considering Sears sells a Craftsman hammer for a quarter of the same price, it seems cost-prohibitive that the Pentagon is buying hammers at such a price in the first place.
4. One "1996 FORD EXPLORER" for a total cost of $24,500.00. Estill County, Kentucky.
The notion that a county of 15,000 could need a police department sport utility vehicle is completely reasonable, but at issue is the specific vehicle. In 2012, Estill County received a Ford Explorer valued at $24,500, which is more than 11 times the current Kelly Blue Book value for a 1996 Ford Explorer ( just over $2,100 ).
5. One "BOAT FISHING" for a total cost of $100.00. Aroostook County, Maine
Aroostook got $7,441,065.48 worth of equipment from the Pentagon -- including 65 rifles, 25 pistols and a $138,870 truck. It appears the Aroostook is the second-largest county by geography in the United States, but it's very curious that " the county " received a fishing boat from the Defense Department. One wonders how that aids in law enforcement activities.
6. 58 "HELICOPTER,UTILITY" for a total cost of $53,491,640.00. Brevard County, Florida.
(Brevard County Sheriff)
As highlighted in pieces in the Times, helicopters are a popular item. The District of Columbia received five helicopters, Los Angeles County received one and even Stephens County, Oklahoma -- population 45,000 -- received one. However, the Space Coast's Brevard County got a mind-boggling 58 helicopters from the Pentagon. The department even features its aviation unit online.
7 (tie).
1 "MINE RESISTANT VEHICLE" for a total cost of $733,000.00. Dekalb County, Georgia.
1 "MINE RESISTANT VEHICLE" for a total cost of $412,000.00. Montgomery County, Kansas.
3 "MINE RESISTANT VEHICLE(s)" for a total cost of $1,236,000.00. Honolulu County, Hawaii.
John Oliver's Last Week Tonight highlighted a video from the police in Doraville, Georgia, located in Dekalb County, showing off the police department's mine resistant vehicle. It could be this one that nearly cost three quarters of a million dollars, shown in the video during a training exercise.
Dekalb County is not the only county to receive such a vehicle. The phrase "MINE RESISTANT VEHICLE" occurs 341 times in the document, suggesting the Pentagon had a huge excess of such vehicles after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Honolulu County, Hawaii, received three mine resistant vehicles, despite the fact that Hawaii rates 36th in crime in the United States and is not a popular place for landmines.
Perhaps most curious is the acquisition of such a vehicle in Montgomery County, Kansas. Montgomery County is only the seventeenth-most populated county in the state of Kansas and is over 100 miles from the state's largest city: Wichita.
8. 92 pairs of "SNOWSHOES" for a total cost of $6,191.60. El Paso County, Texas.
Several counties received snowshoes from the Pentagon excess equipment (including counties in Idaho, Montana and Illinois), but no county's receipt of snowshoes needs a second look more than El Paso County, Texas.
While El Paso does get some snow because of its elevation, the county has a median snow measurement of 0 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The likelihood of a need for law enforcement to wear snowshoes is low.
9. One "TRUCK, ARMORED" for a total cost of $65,070.00. Lincoln County, Montana.
Lincoln County is a heavily wooded area on the Canadian border, with a sparse population of just under 20,000 people. It's also an area of low crime, which makes one wonder why a local police department received a $65,000 armored vehicle. Fear of invasion from the Royal Mounted Police?
10. Five "LAUNCHER,GRENADE" for a total cost of $3,600.00. Buena Vista County, Iowa
A Marine trains with a grenade launcher at Camp Pendleton in 2013. (Defense Department)
In the conversation for most well-equipped police departments in the United States, Iowa's Buena Vista County Sheriff's Office must be near the top. The BVCSO is responsible for all law enforcement in the county of 20,000 and has the weaponry to do so. The BVCSO received two mine resistant vehicles, four sets of night vision goggles, 20 rifles, nine handguns and eight shotguns from the Pentagon, among its 180 line items in the document.
But most shocking is probably the five grenade launchers. Buena Vista County is not known for being a war zone, but rather a group of small communities in northwest Iowa. The need for multiple grenade launchers anywhere outside a war zone is small, but minuscule for the BVCSO, considering its last two press release-worthy law enforcement actions included a capsized boat and a traffic accident.
***
All of these line items bring up a host of other questions about the 1033 program. First, is training included for this weaponry? The spectre of improperly trained St. Louis County law enforcement has been raised in the reporting on the situation in Ferguson. And what about maintenance? Does Brevard County have a trained helicopter mechanic for its 58 helicopters?
But mostly: Who in the Pentagon approved these transfers? Defense spokesman John Kirby told reporters this week that the equipment "is made available to law enforcement agencies, if they want it and if they qualify for it." That statement suggests that someone in the Pentagon looked at an application from Buena Vista County for five grenade launchers and did not bat an eye.Dame Vera Margaret Lynn CH DBE OStJ (née Welch; born 20 March 1917),[1] widely known as "the Forces' Sweetheart", is an English singer of traditional pop, songwriter and actress, whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during the Second World War.
During the war she toured Egypt, India, and Burma as part of Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), giving outdoor concerts for the troops. The songs most associated with her are "We'll Meet Again", "The White Cliffs of Dover", "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "There'll Always Be an England".
She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the UK and the US and recording such hits as "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" and her UK Number one single "My Son, My Son". Her last single, "I Love This Land", was released to mark the end of the Falklands War. In 2009, at age 92, she became the oldest living artist to top the UK Albums Chart, with compilation album We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn.[2] She released the compilation album of hits Vera Lynn 100 in 2017, to commemorate her centennial year, and it was a number 3 hit, making her the first centenarian performer to have an album in the charts.
She has devoted much time and energy to charity work connected with ex-servicemen, disabled children, and breast cancer. She is held in great affection by veterans of the Second World War to this day and in 2000 was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the 20th century.[3]
Early life [ edit ]
Vera Margaret Welch was born in East Ham, Newham, on 20 March 1917, to parents Bertram Samuel Welch (1883–1955) and Annie Martin (1889-1975), who had married in 1913.
She began performing publicly at the age of seven and adopted her maternal grandmother's maiden name, Margaret Lynn, as her stage name when she was eleven.[4] Her first radio broadcast, with the Joe Loss Orchestra, was in |
of the raid on the Banski dvori, the official residence of the President of Croatia at the time.
Bombing [ edit ]
Approximately at noon of 7 October 1991, Tuđman met with Stjepan Mesić, then President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia and Ante Marković, then Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, both ethnic Croats, in the Banski dvori. The purpose of the meeting was to persuade Marković to leave his position as the head of the Yugoslav federal government, which he appeared reluctant to do, and to discuss the need for Croatia's independence. The meeting was adjourned for lunch that was to be attended by presidential aides. Tuđman made another effort at persuading Marković, trying to appeal to his Croatian origin. The three left the lunch as dessert was being served and moved into the president's office to continue their discussion. After Tuđman left the room, everyone else followed.
Just after 3 pm, minutes after the lunch had ended, the Yugoslav Air Force attacked the Banski dvori and other targets in the Gornji Grad area of Zagreb and elsewhere in the Croatian capital city, two or three minutes after everyone had left the hall where the lunch was hosted. Zagreb was attacked by approximately 30 Yugoslav jets, however the Gornji Grad raid was carried out by two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s carrying eight Munja 128-millimetre (5.0 in) unguided missiles each and two Soko G-4 Super Galebs carrying two Mark 82 bombs each. The Banski dvori building was struck by the Mark 82 bombs set off by proximity fuzes 5 metres (16 feet) above the target, scoring two direct hits.
One civilian was reported killed by the aircraft strafing of the Tuškanac area of Gornji Grad. None of the three leaders was injured, but four people were wounded in the attack. The facade of the Banski dvori and nearly all its rooms were damaged, and a part of its roof structure was destroyed. The first estimates of the damage inflicted on the building and its contents ranged between 2 and 3 million US dollars. Apart from the Banski dvori, other buildings in the area sustained damage. Those included the Croatian Parliament building, the Old City Hall, St. Mark's Church, the Museum of History, the Institute for the protection of cultural monuments as well as residences and offices in the vicinity, including the residence of Swiss consul Werner Mauner.
Aftermath [ edit ]
plaque commemorating the attack was placed in 2011
In a television report taped and broadcast shortly after the bombing, Tuđman said that the attack appears to have been meant to destroy the Banski dvori as the seat of the statehood of Croatia, and as a decapitation strike. He concluded with statements of resolve to end foreign occupation and rebuild the nation. Marković telephoned his office in Belgrade blaming Yugoslav Defence Secretary General Veljko Kadijević for the attack. He demanded his resignation, threatening not to return to Belgrade until Kadijević was out of office. The Yugoslav Defence Ministry brushed away the accusation, claiming that the attack was not authorized by the central command and suggesting that the event might have been stage-managed by the Croatian authorities. The Yugoslav military later suggested that Croatian leadership planted plastic explosives in the Banski dvori.
In response to the situation, the United States consulate advised American nationals, including journalists, to leave Croatia. The US State Department announced that it would consider introducing economic sanctions against Yugoslavia. Germany condemned the attack, calling it barbarous, and blamed it on the Yugoslav military.
On 8 October 1991, as the independence declaration moratorium expired, the Croatian Parliament severed all remaining ties with Yugoslavia. That particular session of the parliament was held in the INA building on Pavao Šubić Avenue in Zagreb due to security concerns provoked by the recent air raid; Specifically, it was feared that the Yugoslav Air Force might attack the parliament building.
After the bombing, the residence of the President of Croatia was moved from the Banski dvori to the Presidential palace—formerly known as Villa Zagorje—in the Pantovčak area of Zagreb. Funds to repair the Banski dvori were approved in 1995, and the site became the official residence of the Croatian Government. A plaque commemorating the bombing was placed at the Banski dvori facade 20 years after the attack, in 2011. The bombing is also commemorated by the Zagreb City Museum as the event is featured in the Zagreb in Independent Croatia collection of its permanent display.
References [ edit ]
Books and scientific journal articles
News reports
Other sources
Coordinates:Oracle is sharing plans for building a DIY tablet called the DukePad using a Raspberry Pi with the world. Yes, that Oracle — the same people who develop the Java platform that runs on billions of devices.
It’ll cost you around $370 to build your own DukePad. Beyond the Raspberry Pi, you’ll also need to pick up an LCD kit. Oracle’s plan calls for a 10-inch panel, and from the looks of the cable mess visible through the back side of the DukePad, they needed every last square inch that size affords.
Oracle tacked on a few extras to the default Pi configuration. There’s an RJ45 Ethernet port for LAN connections and a two-port USB hub that provides external connections for peripherals. They also sprang for the $25 RasPi camera kit.
It’s not the most elegant DIY tablet around, but it is incredibly simple to build. Since the DukePad utilizes plug-and-play components like a USB battery pack, even hardware hacking neophytes should have no trouble slapping one together.
So why is Oracle sharing a Raspberry Pi DIY tablet project? Because it let them show off Java SE Embedded 8 to a crowd of partners and developers at the JavaOne 2013 conference in San Francisco. The DukePad runs a JavaFX user interface designed by Oracle on top of of Raspbian, the Debian remix that’s custom-built to run on the Raspberry Pi.
If you’re intrigued by the DukePad but don’t feel like spending $370 to build one, you can probably shave a few items off Oracle’s shopping list. If you can do without a gyro/accelerometer/magnetometer, for example, you can knock off $50. A different Wi-FI, USB hub, and battery pack will save a few bucks, too.Introduction
If you want to create any kind of on-line store, you will probably need a shopping cart.
A shopping cart is basically a list that contains products selected by the user while he shops. When the user is finished shopping, he will usually examine the list to double-check that the items, quantities, and prices are correct. If he finds any errors, he should be able to edit the list. Once he is ready, he should be able to check out. The checkout process involves an exchange of information that results in a sale.
Sounds simple, right? And it actually is. The only challenge is performing the checkout, because that involves personal information and money. Fortunately, there are services that handle this type of transaction and you can leverage them. Some of the most popular are PayPal and Google Wallet.
This article describes the implementation of a shopping cart using JavaScript. The cart uses PayPal and Google Wallet payment services. Adding other providers is fairly easy. If you have your own payment infrastructure for example, you can extend the shopping cart to use that in addition to the PayPal and Google Wallet options. Offering more payment options should increase sales.
The article includes a sample application called “Angular Store” that demonstrates how to use the shopping cart in AngularJS applications.
Shopping Cart Requirements
When I started developing the shopping cart, I had the following requirements in mind:
Must be 100% pure JavaScript (so it is easy to integrate into any site)
Must follow the MVVM architecture (so it is easy to customize its look and feel)
Must be safe (we don't want to be responsible for storing people's credit card numbers, etc.)
Must be fast and reliable (we don’t want users to give up before they checkout!)
Must be flexible (it should allow payments to be processed using different services)
Must be extensible (adding new payment methods should be easy)
Must be easy to use (because there's no reason for it to be complicated)
I believe the “ shoppingCart ” class described below addresses all these requirements. It uses jQuery and integrates well with AngularJS applications. The “ shoppingCart ” class contains all the logic and provides the object model needed to create flexible and attractive views.
The Angular Store Sample Application
To understand how the cart works, let’s take a quick look at a typical application. The Angular Store app has three main views:
Store
This is the main view. It presents a list of the products available. Users can search for items using a filter, get detailed information about specific products by clicking their names, add products to the shopping cart, and see a quick summary of what is in their cart. Clicking the summary navigates to the cart. This is what the store view looks like:
Product Details
This view shows details about a product and allows users to add or remove the product to/from the shopping cart. The view also presents a quick summary of the cart so users can tell whether this product is already in the cart. This is what the product details view looks like:
Shopping Cart
This view shows the shopping cart. Users can edit the cart and checkout using PayPal or Google Wallet. Offering more payment options tends to increase sales, because some users may have accounts with one service or the other. This is what the shopping cart view looks like:
AngularJS Infrastructure
The sample application starts with the definition of an AngularJS module that represents the application. The AngularStore module is defined in the app.js file as follows:
var storeApp = angular.module('AngularStore', []). config(['$routeProvider', function ($routeProvider) { $routeProvider. when('/store', { templateUrl:'partials/store.htm', controller: storeController }). when('/products/:productSku', { templateUrl:'partials/product.htm', controller: storeController }). when('/cart', { templateUrl:'partials/shoppingCart.htm', controller: storeController }). otherwise({ redirectTo:'/store' }); }]);
This first block of code defines the storeApp object that represents the application. It contains a routeProvider that specifies which view should be displayed based on the URL.
For example, when the URL ends with “/cart”, the app should display the view defined in the “partials/shoppingCart.htm” file. The view should be bound to a controller of type “ storeController ”.
When the URL ends with “/product/:productSku”, the app should display the view defined in the “partials/product.htm” file. The view should be bound to a controller of the same type “ storeController ”. In this case, the “/:productSku” represents a variable parameter used to identify the product being shown. It will be replaced at runtime with an actual product code.
In this case, all views have the same type of controller, a class that contains a “ store ” and a “ cart ”.
Because in this case, all views refer to the same store and cart, it makes sense to create these data objects once, at the app level, and allow all controllers to use them. This will improve performance because it eliminates the need to re-load the store and cart items whenever a new view is displayed.
The easiest way to share data between controllers in AngularJS is by defining an app-level “ service ”, and later using this service to initialize the controllers that need them. This link shows a simple example that illustrates the concept.
Here is the definition of the “ DataService ” that provides data shared by all views in the Angular Store application:
storeApp.factory( " DataService", function () { var myStore = new store(); var myCart = new shoppingCart( " AngularStore" ); myCart.addCheckoutParameters( " PayPal", " your PayPal merchant account id" ); myCart.addCheckoutParameters( " Google", " your Google merchant account id ", { ship_method_name_1: " UPS Next Day Air", ship_method_price_1: " 20.00", ship_method_currency_1: " USD", ship_method_name_2: " UPS Ground", ship_method_price_2: " 15.00", ship_method_currency_2: " USD" }); return { store: myStore, cart: myCart }; });
The service creates a “ store ” object that contains a list of the products available and a “ shoppingCart ” object that represents the shopping cart.
When the “ shoppingCart ” object is created, it automatically loads its contents from local storage, so users can add items to the cart, close the application, and continue shopping later on.
After creating the cart, the service configures the cart’s checkout parameters. In this example, the cart provides two checkout options:
The “PayPal” option specifies the merchant account to use for checking out, and has no additional options. To use the shopping cart with PayPal, you have to create a merchant account with PayPal. You can do that here. The “Google” option specified the merchant account and additional options related to shipping charges. To use the shopping cart with Google Wallet, you have to create a merchant account with Google. You can do that here.
Once the data service has been created, it can be used by the “ storeController ” objects that will drive all the views in the application. This is done in the controller.js file:
function storeController($scope, $routeParams, DataService) { $scope.store = DataService.store; $scope.cart = DataService.cart; if ($routeParams.productSku!= null ) { $scope.product = $scope.store.getProduct($routeParams.productSku); } }
The “ storeController ” function retrieves the store and cart from the “ DataService ” discussed earlier and adds them to the AngularJS $scope object. The $scope object works as a data context for the view.
The app.js and controller.js files contain all the AngularJS part of the application code. The remaining classes (store.js, product.js, and shoppingCart.js) are platform-agnostic.
The ‘store’ and ‘product’ Classes
The ” store ” class is defined in the store.js file.
It exposes a list of products and provides a getProduct method that retrieves an individual product by SKU. This method is used by the “ storeController ” to set the current product when the URL routing specifies a productSku.
function store() { this.products = [ new product( " APL", " Apple", " Eat one every…", 12, 90, 0, 2, 0, 1, 2 ), new product( " AVC", " Avocado", " Guacamole…", 16, 90, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2 ), new product( " BAN", " Banana", " These are…", 4, 120, 0, 2, 1, 2, 2 ), new product( " WML", " Watermelon", " Nothing…", 4, 90, 4, 4, 0, 1, 1 ) ]; this.dvaCaption = [ " Negligible", " Low", " Average", " Good", " Great" ]; this.dvaRange = [ " below 5%", " between 5 and 10%",… " above 40%" ]; } store.prototype.getProduct = function (sku) { for ( var i = 0 ; i < this.products.length; i++) { if ( this.products[i].sku == sku) return this.products[i]; } return null ; }
The ” product ” class is defined in the product.js file as follows:
function product(sku, name, description, price, cal, carot, vitc, folate, potassium, fiber) { this.sku = sku; this.name = name; this.description = description; this.price = price; this.cal = cal; this.nutrients = { " Carotenoid" : carot, " Vitamin C" : vitc, " Folates" : folate, " Potassium" : potassium, " Fiber" : fiber }; }
The product class has three properties that will be used by the shopping cart: sku (unique ID), name, and price. All other members are used elsewhere within the application, but not by the cart.
Decoupling the cart from the raw product class makes it easier to integrate the cart with existing applications (which often already have product classes generated automatically from databases).
The ‘shoppingCart’ Class
The “ shoppingCart ” class is the most interesting class in the project. It is defined in the shoppingCart.js file and implements an object model as follows:
shoppingCart(cartName)
This is the constructor.
The cartName parameter identifies the cart when saving it to or loading it from local storage. Before you can actually use the cart for checkout operations, you must initialize it by adding one or more payment providers. This is done with the addCheckoutParameters method.
addCheckoutParameters(serviceName, merchantID, [options])
This method defines a set of checkout parameters.
The serviceName parameter defines the name of the payment provider to use. In the current implementation, this must be set to either “PayPal” or “Google”.
The merchantID parameter specifies the merchant account associated with the service. You can create PayPal and Google merchant accounts using these links:
The options parameter defines additional provider-specific fields. In our example, we used this parameter to specify custom shipping methods associated with the Google checkout. Both PayPal and Google support a large number of optional parameters that you can use to customize the checkout process.
addItem(sku, name, price, quantity)
This method adds or removes items from the cart.
If the cart already contains items with the given sku, then the quantity of that item is modified. If the quantity reaches zero, the item is automatically removed from the cart.
If the cart does not contain items with the given sku, then a new item is created and added to the cart using the specified sku, name, price, and quantity.
After the cart has been updated, it is automatically saved to local storage.
clearItems()
This method clears the cart by removing all items. It also saves the empty cart to local storage.
getTotalCount([sku])
This method gets the quantity of items or a given type or for all items in the cart.
If the sku is provided, then the method returns the quantity of items with that sku. It the sku is omitted, then the method returns the quantity of all items in the cart.
getTotalPrice([sku])
This method gets the total price (unit price * quantity) for one or all items in the cart.
If the sku is provided, then the method returns the price of items with that sku. It the sku is omitted, then the method returns the total price of all items in the cart.
checkout([serviceName], [clearCart])
This method initiates a checkout transaction by building a form object and submitting it to the specified payment provider.
If provided, the serviceName parameter must match one of the service names registered with calls to the addCheckoutParameters method. If omitted, the cart will use the first payment service registered. The clearCart parameter specifies whether the cart should be cleared after the checkout transaction is submitted.
The checkout method is the most interesting in this class, and is listed below:
shoppingCart.prototype.checkout = function (serviceName, clearCart) { if (serviceName == null ) { var p = this.checkoutParameters[Object.keys( this.checkoutParameters)[ 0 ]]; serviceName = p.serviceName; } if (serviceName == null ) { throw " Define at least one checkout service." ; } var parms = this.checkoutParameters[serviceName]; if (parms == null ) { throw " Cannot get checkout parameters for '" + serviceName + " '." ; } switch (parms.serviceName) { case " PayPal" : this.checkoutPayPal(parms, clearCart); break ; case " Google" : this.checkoutGoogle(parms, clearCart); break ; default : throw " Unknown checkout service: " + parms.serviceName; } }
The method starts by making sure it has a valid payment service, and then defers the actual work to the checkoutPayPal or checkoutGoogle methods. These methods are very similar but are service-specific. The checkoutPayPal method is implemented as follows:
shoppingCart.prototype.checkoutPayPal = function (parms, clearCart) { var data = { cmd: " _cart", business: parms.merchantID, upload: " 1", rm: " 2", charset: " utf-8" }; for ( var i = 0 ; i < this.items.length; i++) { var item = this.items[i]; var ctr = i + 1 ; data[ " item_number_" + ctr] = item.sku; data[ " item_name_" + ctr] = item.name; data[ " quantity_" + ctr] = item.quantity; data[ " amount_" + ctr] = item.price.toFixed( 2 ); } var form = $('<form></form>' ); form.attr( " action", " https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" ); form.attr( " method", " POST" ); form.attr( " style", " display:none;" ); this.addFormFields(form, data); this.addFormFields(form, parms.options); $( " body" ).append(form); this.clearCart = clearCart == null || clearCart; form.submit(); form.remove(); }
The checkoutPayPal method builds a form, populates it with hidden input fields that contain the cart data, and submits the form to the PayPal servers. The whole process is described here.
The checkoutGoogle method is very similar. It also builds and submits a form, the only difference being the name and content of the fields. Details are available here.
Both checkout methods allow you to add custom fields specified in the options parameter of the cart’s addCheckoutParameters method. These custom fields can be used to specify things like return URLs, custom images for the cart on the server’s site, custom shipping rules and prices, etc.
When the checkout method submits the form, the user is taken to the appropriate site (PayPal or Google Wallet), where he can review the information about the items, update his own personal and credit card information, and finalize the transaction. All this happens outside the scope of the application. The payment provider will then use the information associated with the merchant id provided by the form to notify you of the transaction so you can collect the payment and ship the goods to the customer.
If you wanted to add more payment options to the cart, you would have to:
Modify the addCheckoutParameters method to accept the new service name. Create a new checkout<ServiceName> method to handle the checkouts using the new service. This would probably be similar to the existing checkoutPayPal and checkoutGoogle methods. Modify the checkout method to call the new method depending on the service name specified by the user.
For example, if you wanted to leverage an existing payment infrastructure you have on your site, you could create a method similar to checkoutPayPal, but with a URL on your site. The server would receive the form with all the information encoded as hidden fields, and would have access to the current session, user, etc. At this point, you would have all the information required by your payment infrastructure (cart and user).
AngularJS Views
Now that we have covered the AngularJS infrastructure and the controller classes, let’s turn our attention to the views.
The default.htm file contains the master view. It is implemented as follows:
<!doctype html > < html ng-app =" AngularStore" > < head > <!-- <!-- <!-- < script src =" js/product.js" type =" text/javascript" > < / script > < script src =" js/store.js" type =" text/javascript" > < / script > < script src =" js/shoppingCart.js" type =" text/javascript" > < / script > < script src =" js/app.js" type =" text/javascript" > < / script > < script src =" js/controller.js" type =" text/javascript" > < / script > < link href =" css/style.css" rel =" stylesheet" type =" text/css" / > < /head > < body > < div class =" container-fluid" > < div class =" row-fluid" > < div class =" span10 offset1" > < h1 class =" well" > < a href =" default.htm" > < img src =" img/logo.png" height =" 60" width =" 60" alt =" logo" / > < /a > Angular Store < /h1 > < div ng-view > < /div > < /div > < /div > < /div > < /body > < /html >
Notice the following important points:
The “ ng-app ” attribute associates the page with the AngularStore module defined in the app.js file. This attribute takes care of the URL routing, view injection, and providing each view with the appropriate controllers. The “ ng-view ” div marks the place where AngularJS will inject the partial pages that correspond to the routed views. Recall that our application has three partial pages: store.htm, product.htm, and shoppingCart.htm. The parts of the page around the “ ng-view ” div remain in place as you switch views, acting as a master page. In this sample, this area shows the app logo and a title. The sample application uses Bootstrap, twitter’s public framework that includes powerful and easy to use css styles. Bootstrap makes it easy to create adaptive layouts that work well on the desktop and on mobile devices (for details, see http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/).
The store.htm partial view is implemented as follows:
< p class =" text-info" > Welcome to the Angular Store < br / > Please select the products you want …. < br / > < /p > < p > Search: < input ng-model =" search" > < /p > < table class =" table table-bordered" > < tr class =" well" > < td class =" tdRight" colspan =" 4" > < a href =" default.htm#/cart" title =" go to shopping cart" ng-disabled =" cart.getTotalCount() < 1" > < i class =" icon-shopping-cart" / > < b > {{cart.getTotalCount()}} < /b > items, < b > {{cart.getTotalPrice() | currency}} < /b > < /a > < /td > < /tr > < tr ng-repeat =" product in store.products | orderBy:'name' | filter:search" > < td class =" tdCenter" > < img ng-src =" img/products/{{product.sku}}.jpg" alt =" {{product.name}}" / > < /td > < td > < a href =" #/products/{{product.sku}}" > < b > {{product.name}} < /b > < /a > < br / > {{product.description}} < /td > < td class =" tdRight" > {{product.price | currency}} < /td > < td class =" tdCenter" > < a href =" " ng-click =" cart.addItem(product.sku, product.name, product.price, 1)" > add to cart < /a > < /td > < /tr > < tr class =" well" > < td class =" tdRight" colspan =" 4" > < a href =" default.htm#/cart" title =" go to shopping cart" ng-disabled =" cart.getTotalCount() < 1" > < i class =" icon-shopping-cart" / > < b > {{cart.getTotalCount()}} < /b > items, < b > {{cart.getTotalPrice() | currency}} < /b > < /a > < /td > < /tr > < /table >
The view consists of a table with three regions: the first row contains a single cell that spans the entire table and shows a summary of the shopping cart. Notice how it uses the getTotalCount and getTotalPrice methods to retrieve the cart information. Clicking this element redirects the browser to “ default.htm#/cart ”, which shows the shopping cart.
The view uses Bootstrap’s built-in icons, in this case the “ icon-shopping-cart ” class to enhance the view with simple and attractive icons. Bootstrap includes a set of 140 icons that cover a lot of common scenarios (see the complete list here).
The body of the table uses an ng-repeat attribute to show a sorted, filtered list of all products. Each product row contains an image, a description that is also a link to the product details view, the product price, and a link that adds the product to the shopping cart. Adding items to the cart is accomplished by using the “ ng-click ” attribute to invoke the cart’s addItem method.
The “ orderBy ” and “ filter ” clauses are filters provided by AngularJS. You can learn more about AngularJS filters here.
The last row is a copy of the first. It shows another summary of the cart below the product list, making navigation easier in stores that have a lot of products.
The product.htm partial view is very similar, so we will not list it here.
The most interesting partial view is the shopping cart itself, in shoppingCart.htm:
< p class =" text-info" > Thanks for shopping at the Angular Store. < br / > This is your shopping cart. Here you can edit the items, go back to the store, clear the cart, or check out. < /p > < div class =" container-fluid" > < div class =" row-fluid" >
The first part of the view shows a title and sets up a Bootstrap “ fluid-row ” div that will show two items: the cart items on the left and the cart buttons on the right.
<!-- < div class =" span8" > < table class =" table table-bordered" > <!-- < tr class =" well" > < td > < b > Item < /b > < /td > < td class =" tdCenter" > < b > Quantity < /b > < /td > < td class =" tdRight" > < b > Price < /b > < /td > < td / > < /tr > <!-- < tr ng-hide =" cart.getTotalCount() > 0" > < td class =" tdCenter" colspan =" 4" > Your cart is empty. < /td > < /tr > <!-- < tr ng-repeat =" item in cart.items | orderBy:'name'" > < td > {{item.name}} < /td > < td class =" tdCenter" > < div class =" input-append" > <!-- < input class =" span3 text-center" type =" tel" ng-model =" item.quantity" ng-change =" cart.saveItems()" / > < button class =" btn btn-success" type =" button" ng-disabled =" item.quantity >= 1000" ng-click =" cart.addItem(item.sku, item.name, item.price, +1)" > + < /button > < button class =" btn btn-inverse" type =" button" ng-disabled =" item.quantity <= 1" ng-click =" cart.addItem(item.sku, item.name, item.price, -1)" > - < /button > < /div > < /td > < td class =" tdRight" > {{item.price * item.quantity | currency}} < /td > < td class =" tdCenter" title =" remove from cart" > < a href =" " ng-click =" cart.addItem(item.sku, item.name, item.price, -10000000)" > < i class =" icon-remove" / > < /a > < /td > < /tr > <!-- < tr class =" well" > < td > < b > Total < /b > < /td > < td class =" tdCenter" > < b > {{cart.getTotalCount()}} < /b > < /td > < td class =" tdRight" > < b > {{cart.getTotalPrice() | currency}} < /b > < /td > < td / > < /tr > < /table > < /div >
The items are shown in a “ span8 ” div. Bootstrap layouts are based on 12 width units, so this div will be approximately two-thirds of the width available.
The table that contains the cart items starts with a header row, followed by an empty cart indicator. The “ ng-hide ” attribute is used to ensure the indicator is visible only when the cart is empty.
The body of the table is generated with an “ ng-repeat ” attribute that loops through the items in the cart.items array. For each item, the table shows the item name, followed the item quantity and price.
The item quantity is shown using a composite element made up of an input field bound to the item.quantity property and two buttons used to increment or decrement the quantity.
Notice how the “ ng-change ” attribute is used to save the cart contents when the quantity changes. Notice also how the decrement button is disabled when the item quantity reaches one. At this point, decrementing the quantity would remove the item from the cart, and we don’t want users to do that by accident.
After the quantity field, the table shows the total price of the item (unit price times quantity) and a button that allows users to remove the item from the cart.
The table footer shows a summary of the cart contents, and is automatically updated as the user edits quantities or removes items from the cart. The updates are handled automatically by AngularJS.
In addition to the cart items, the view has a section with buttons used to return to the store, to clear the cart, and to check out:
<!-- < div class =" span4" > < p class =" text-info" > < button class =" btn btn-block" onclick =" window.location.href='default.htm'" > < i class =" icon-chevron-left" / > back to store < /button > < button class =" btn btn-block btn-danger" ng-click =" cart.clearItems()" ng-disabled =" cart.getTotalCount() < 1" > < i class =" icon-trash icon-white" / > clear cart < /button > < /p >
The section starts with a “ span4 ” div which fills up the page (remember the items were placed in a “ span8 ” div ).
The “back to store” button navigates back to the “default.htm” page, which maps to the store.
The “clear cart” button invokes the cart’s clearItems method, and is enabled only if the cart is not already empty.
< p class =" text-info" > < button class =" btn btn-block btn-primary" ng-click =" cart.checkout('PayPal')" ng-disabled =" cart.getTotalCount() < 1" > < i class =" icon-ok icon-white" / > check out using PayPal < /button > < button class =" btn btn-block btn-primary" ng-click =" cart.checkout('Google')" ng-disabled =" cart.getTotalCount() < 1" > < i class =" icon-ok icon-white" / > check out using Google < /button > < /p >
The checkout buttons call the cart’s checkout method passing in the appropriate service name. Remember we configured the cart in the app.js file to accept PayPal and Google as valid payment service providers.
< p class =" text-info" > < button class =" btn btn-block btn-link" ng-click =" cart.checkout('PayPal')" ng-disabled =" cart.getTotalCount() < 1" > < img src = https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_xpressCheckout.gif alt =" checkout PayPal" / > < /button > < button class =" btn btn-block btn-link" ng-click =" cart.checkout('Google')" ng-disabled =" cart.getTotalCount() < 1" > < img src = https://checkout.google.com/buttons/checkout.gif?... alt =" checkoutGoogle" / > < /button > < /p >
These buttons provide the same cart checkout services, but use images provided by PayPal and Google. Personally, I think the provider buttons may look a little less consistent on the page, but provide a familiar feeling to the user.
The nice thing about Bootstrap’s layout mechanism is that it is ‘adaptive’. If you view the page on mobile devices, the layout automatically adapts to the screen width. The screenshots below illustrate this. The image on the left shows a wide view, with buttons on the right of the items (typical desktop view). The image on the right shows a narrow view, with buttons below the items (typical mobile view).
Conclusion
The “ shoppingCart ” class presented here fulfills the requirements outlined in the beginning of the article. It is 100% JavaScript, and has no requirements on the server, so it should be easy to add to existing projects. The cart supports PayPal and Google Wallet, which are popular payment services. Many applications will probably want to extend this to support their own custom payment services, and that should be easy to do.
The MVVM pattern allows the same cart object to be exposed in multiple views, which contain very simple markup and virtually no logic. The sample application for example has a view that shows the whole cart, and allows users to edit it; but it also shows cart summaries on the store and product pages. These views are easy to create and customize, and there is no impact on the application logic.
I am a big fan of AngularJS. In addition to the MVVM support it provides, which is great, it has an amazing list of features that include routing and partial views, filters, custom directives, and more.
I especially like the fact that AngularJS’s data binding features work with plain JavaScript objects. Some MVVM libraries (like KnockoutJS) require special “observable” properties, which are declared and accessed using a syntax that is different from plain properties.
The one aspect of AngularJS I do not like is the lack of documentation. You can find a lot of information about the details of pretty much any aspect of AngularJS, but I have not found a good reference that presents an overall conceptual view of the framework. My favorite source of documentation on AngularJS is a series of videos created by John Lindquist which you can find here.
I also like Bootstrap, because it makes it easy to create attractive, responsive HTML layouts. In addition to a nice set of styles and icons, Bootstrap also provides some JavaScript components that you can use to enhance your UIs with things like tooltips, pop-overs, menus, etc. You can learn about Bootstrap here.
Github Version
A little while ago, a reader asked me to post this project on github, so he and others could fork it and add new features including payment processors in addition to PayPal and Google Wallet. The reader was interested in adding support for Stripe.js, a payment processor developed specifically for developers.
I loved the idea, but I wasn't fast enough, so he beat me to it. The project is now available on github, including the added support for Stripe.js, all courtesy of Mr. Spike! So thanks Spike, and for those interested in this new and improved version of the cart, here's the link:
ReferencesThe federal government has proposed tighter restrictions around two insecticides that are harmful to bees, but stopped short of an all-out ban.
Health Canada announced new mitigation measures today on the neonicotinoids |
for its expansion in China, at a time when competition from Didi Kuaidi, a rival that’s nabbing seven times as many daily bookings as Uber, is heating up.
Uber China’s 200 employees
Li Yifan, the former Uber employee, claimed in his open letter that Uber Guangzhou relied on interns to sign up drivers and answer emails from passengers and customers—tasks handled by full-time employees, or outsourced staff, in other locations.
The office was tasked with signing up as many as 50,000 new drivers in one week, he alleges, or 7,000 a day, and interns worked more than 10 hours a day to meet individual quotas. Each intern was required to personally register a minimum of 100 drivers a day, he said, though some signed up as many as 400, working 15 hours. At the same time, they had to answer hundreds of emails from drivers and passengers throughout the day.
Li said Guangzhou added so many many interns to meet the quotas that they outnumbered full-time employees 7 to 1. Uber paid most of them 30 to 100 yuan (about $5 to $15) per day, depending on a “monthly evaluation” given by superiors.
Uber has 200 employees in China, Didi has 4,000.
Outside of China, “a city maybe has 20 people working in operations, and five or six operations coordinators, and very few interns. In China, the situation is totally the opposite. This is definitely a form of discrimination,” he writes.
Uber would not provide any specifics about its intern to employee ratio in China. But the company does have a disproportionately small number of employees compared to rival Didi. Uber claims to only have 200 employees in China (paywall), versus Didi’s 4,000—making Uber’s employees seem a lot more efficient when judged by rides per employee.
Didi would not provide its employee to intern ratio.
Not an isolated case
Interns outnumber employees in Tianjin 10 to 1.
Uber interns have expressed similar complaints. Li posted a lawsuit (link in Chinese) that one intern who worked for him filed with the Guangzhou Municipal, Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, saying the company never paid the 6,400 yuan it owed, an average intern’s wages over four months.
The suit filed against Uber posted by Li Yifan.
Another former Uber intern, Ma Yingkai, posted a message on Weibo (link in Chinese) making similar claims. After joining Uber in May as an intern in Tianjin when he was a student, Ma claims that he and a few colleagues were tasked with fielding emails and activating accounts for the city’s rapidly expanding pool of drivers. A manager told his team to work from 6AM to 8PM, but after a few months, Ma said he and his teammates received a text message from a superior informing them they would be fired for accessing Uber’s “database during non-work hours.” Ma claims he and his teammates were just doing what they were asked to do.
Ma tells Quartz that interns in the Tianjin office outnumbered formal employees 10 to 1, and that he only met a formal employee in person once during his month with the company.
Meanwhile, a former Uber intern in Shanghai told Quartz on the condition of anonymity that the company did not offer her or her colleagues contracts for their internships, and said the working conditions described in the letters were “not far from the truth.”
“Shanghai wasn’t as strict, I think. But it’s true that the work atmosphere is not good,” she told Quartz. The ratio of interns to employees at the “Diver Support Division” where she worked was about 10 or 15 to 1, she said.
Fierce rivalry
The complaints from Uber’s ex-interns and employee come as competition between Uber and Didi Kuaidi has become cutthroat. The two companies are fighting bitterly for customers, drivers, funding, media attention, and talent. Tencent, a Didi investor, banned Uber from marketing on WeChat, the most popular social network in China. Uber, meanwhile, stole a major investor (paywall) from Didi during a recent funding round.
Uber and Didi are both facing pressure from the Chinese government, as authorities ponder the legal future of ride-hailing. While neither firm has suffered a nationwide crackdown, there’s evidence that the government is siding with Didi, which scored an investment from China’s sovereign wealth fund. Uber’s CEO, meanwhile, was conspicuously absent from a China-US tech summit photo with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Labor exploitation is not unusual in China, at local internet companies or foreign firms, Prof. Teng Bingsheng, who studies Uber and other Chinese tech companies at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing, told Quartz.
“It’s common that employees, including interns, of Chinese internet firms work very long hours, in order to get ahead of the competition,” he tells Quartz. “In the past [multinational corporations] in China have been trying to avoid abusive use of labor. However, when competition gets tougher, it certainly becomes a possible corner to cut,” says Prof. Teng.
The public airing of these allegations may be motivated by the rivalry between the two companies itself. After all, Li is now working for an Uber competitor, who he would not name, and he claims Uber is suing him for violating a non-compete clause. Executives or interns choosing between the two companies in China may be swayed by public reports of Uber’s business practices.
But that doesn’t explain away the accusation that Uber is overly dependent on cheap or unpaid intern labor in China. “When we talk about Uber, they portray themselves as heroes,” Li wrote on Weibo. “Two people start a city, twenty people can help manage 20,000 daily bookings…But is this really true?”
Zheping Huang contributed reporting.A fourth candidate has emerged in next year’s City Commission race, as attorney Hagen Brody filed paperwork today at City Hall for the March election.
Brody, a Sarasota native who graduated from Sarasota High School in 2000, said he entered the race because he wanted to give back to the community in which he grew up.
“I was afforded a lot of great opportunities,” Brody said. “This was a great place to grow up, and I wanted to make sure that kids who grew up here would continue to have those same opportunities, if not better.”
Now a partner at the Fowler Law Group, Brody spent more than three years working as a prosecutor in the local state attorney’s office. His departure from that role made headlines earlier this year: The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that Brody resigned after practicing law with a suspended license for several weeks.
That suspension came after Brody did not provide documentation he had taken the number of continuing legal education classes the Florida Bar requires. Brody acknowledged the error, but hoped voters wouldn’t judge him harshly for it.
“It was more of an administrative oversight than it was a substantive suspension of any type,” Brody said. “I took full responsibility for it; I admit it’s a mistake. But I don’t want it to define my candidacy.”
At the same time, Brody said his prosecutorial experience would be a valuable asset if he were elected to serve on the City Commission. He singled out homelessness as one issue he would have particularly trenchant insight regarding.
“What I think I understand better than most, having dealt with this issue a lot, is the complexity of it,” Brody said. “I can bring solutions that are based in my experience, that are viable and multifaceted, to adequately address our concerns.”
He was reluctant to stake out too many positions with his campaign in its infancy, but he also pointed to improving the pedestrian and bicycle experience — particularly downtown — as another issue that was important to him. In general, he said, he was interested in making progress on big-picture issues the city is facing.
“Commissioners need to be active in their role and not passive,” Brody said. “It doesn’t help voting ‘no, no, no, no’ without offering some solutions and working with community leaders and other representatives toward some.”
Brody joins three other candidates in the race for two at-large seats on the board: Martin Hyde, Jennifer Ahearn-Koch and City Commissioner Susan Chapman. The deadline to file for the race is Jan. 13.
The city election is scheduled for March 14. If two candidates do not win a majority of the votes in that election, a run-off will be held May 9 to determine the new commissioners.Movies allow us to take in sweeping views, armies of thousands, ancient lands that no longer exist, and magical ones that never did. But they also give us a lens into microscopic levels of human intimacy so we can share in the triumphs and tribulations of complex individuals.
It’s this second quality of cinema that has made it a perfect art to memorialize, teach, inspire, and recount the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, by bringing audiences into the close confines of personal victories, private suffering, and the hideous, human immediacy of an epidemic that ravaged a generation of gay Americans.
A number of films have memorialized that time, using the art of moviemaking to reach audiences even today. Here is a list of ten powerful films that tackle the AIDS crisis, after the break.
This Story Filed UnderThe BJP has termed this as a 'passing phase' and has decided to form new committees in Garo hill
Over 5,000 BJP youth workers in Meghalaya have decided to quit the party over the centre's new rules for cattle trade that ban the buying and selling of cattle in animal markets for slaughter. Among them is prominent youth leader Wilver Greham Danggo, who resigned as the Tura City District Youth president."Banning the slaughter means banning the beef as we cannot eat beef without slaughtering it. But why is Jammu and Kashmir excluded from this policy? Does this state not fall in India? If this state is excluded than north-east should be excluded too because it does not fall under 'Indian Regular Regulation Act' or it should be as a mark of respect to our culture and tradition of tribals in Northeast", he wrote in his resignation letter.He said that BJP government was making an attempt to suppress the tribal and other communities who consume beef. Mr Danggo said five BJP mandal committees have been dissolved and over 5,000 youth workers are resigning from the party.Meanwhile, BJP state President Sibun Lyndoh is in the Garo hills region, trying to reorganize the party after three leaders - Bernard Marak, Bacchu Marak and Danggo - quit the party.The BJP has termed this as a 'passing phase' and has decided to form new committees in Garo hill.For the BJP, Garo hills are very important. Out of the 60 member seat in Assembly, 24 are in the Garo hills and is a stronghold of the chief minister Mukul Sangma. Assembly polls in Meghalaya are due in early 2018.Live on the East Coast? Thinking of escaping to a warm Caribbean island right now? You might want to check a new, open access database of the world's deadliest volcanoes first.
Though not intended as a travel advisory, the database does include several Caribbean volcanoes, such as Montserrat's Soufrière Hills volcano, which sent pyroclastic flows down the mountain in 2010. (The rest of the island remains a lush resort.) However, researchers do hope the public learns more about volcanic hazards in their region by accessing the records.
"The long-term goal of this project is to have a global source of freely available information on volcanic hazards," principal investigator Stephen Sparks, a volcanologist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.
Compiled by an international team from the University of Bristol with colleagues from the United Kingdom, United States, Colombia and Japan, the database provides free access to large volcanic events of magnitude 4 and greater. The scale is a relative measure of the explosiveness of volcanic eruptions. The 2010 eruption Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland was a magnitude 4; the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington was a magnitude 5; and when the Philippines' Mount Pinatubo blew its top in 1991, it was a magnitude 6 eruption.
"Magnitude 4 or greater eruptions are typically responsible for the most loss of life," geologist Sian Crosweller of the University Bristol, who led the database team, said in a statement. "The database's restriction to eruptions of this size puts the emphasis on events whose low frequency and large hazard footprint mean preparation and response are often poor."
The open access database, called Large Magnitude Explosive Eruptions (LaMEVE), will provide crucial information to researchers, civil authorities and the general public, the statement said.
There are nearly 3,000 volcanoes and more than 1,800 eruptions in the database, spanning 1.8 million years. The team plans to extend the records back to the beginning of the Quaternary period, 2.58 million years ago.
The Smithsonian Institution also maintains an exhaustive database of the world's volcanoes, called the Global Volcanism Program, but only for those active in the past 10,000 years.
The LaMEVE database is part of a major international effort called the Global Volcano Model, aimed at better understanding volcanic hazards and risk and reducing the loss of life and damage from future eruptions.
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
Copyright 2013 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.I have been looking at a lot of the different databases that are working outside the traditional SQL style RDBMS (and I want to point out that having a true RDBMS might actually be something very different to what we have now). I have spent a lot of time with CouchDB compared to the others because it seems to occupy a special niche in data storage. It also builds in a REST interface right off the bat which effectively decouples the storage mechanism from the delivery and makes the whole system very language neutral.
CouchDB represents the first serious contact I have had with JSON and in deciding whether CouchDB is right for your project you really need to understand what JSON does and doesn’t offer. The first important thing is that JSON offers a kind of compromise from the heavy data definition in SQL or XML Schema and totally typeless data of something like flat files or Amazon SimpleDB. However to achieve that simplicity there are two consequences. Firstly data integrity is palmed off onto client applications and you will need to check data going in and coming out. I don’t personally believe that there is ever an application that doesn’t have some explicit or implicit data integrity. Second JSON documents can be very rich and complex but they cannot have detailed field structures, a telephone number is simply going to decompose into two numbers and its hard to get much finer grain description of the data. As a rule of thumb if you would normally create a well-formed XML document for the data or you would define a SQL data definition that would simply declare all the types of the column using all the defaults and never specifying a NOT NULL column then you probably have a good match.
JSON also favours dynamic languages over static types like Java. You need to decide if you are going to be able to take advantage of the full set of features in your chosen client language. XML might remain a better choice for static languages as you describe document instances declaratively.
Other good features about CouchDB include the fact that its incubating for Apache and will be a good addition to the projects there. It also leverages existing Javascript skills which are probably more common than people who know XPath, XQuery or even XML Schema and Relax NG. It has excellent support for incremental data and also fits well with highly irregular data like CMS page content. It also has an excellent UI that makes it easy to interact with the data. Finally it seems to have a good solution for scalability without doing anything too esoteric.
The negative features are tricky because we obviously have an alpha project here that is probably closer to the start of the public testing phase than the end. Some of these cons may well be addressed before the first release candidate. The first obvious omission for a server product is that there is no security built into the server. Just supporting optional HTTP Authentication would be enough to make it practical to start running some experimental servers for something more than sandbox exercises. One thing that is a major difference to the feature set in the standard pseudo-RDBMS is that there is no way of interacting with sets of data. There is a method for changing multiple documents in one pass but what you really want to be able to do is apply a set of changes to documents identified by a query, the equivalent of SQL’s UPDATE.
Related to this is the fact that data in CouchDB is currently heavily based on silos. If I have a set of data referring to authors and a set of data relating to books then I currently need to duplicate data in both. One of the problems that the developers are going to face in evolving CouchDB is how to address this without introducing a solution so complex that you ask why you are not using an RDBMS? Similarly I notice in the roadmap there is an item about data validation. If you start introducing data validation and rules for validating data then before long there is going to be a question as to why you don’t simply use one of the existing document systems as all the current simplicity will have gone.
One thing that definitely needs improvement is error logging and reporting. Often the only error feedback you have is a Javascript popup that says “undefined” and a log message that tells you that the Erlang process terminated. There needs to be some more human-readable issue logging that points you towards what is going wrong.Employment Minister Jason Kenney is taking a Canadian delegation on a study tour of Germany and the U.K. this week to learn from their respective education and skills training systems, a model he has touted as "enormously successful" and one Canada could learn from.
Germany's dual system of vocational education and training, where students learn a trade for a few years and then go on to obtain a university degree, is said to be one of the major factors in the country's economic success.
A small contingent from Saskatchewan as well as representatives from Alberta, Ontario and P.E.I. will be accompanying Kenney on the tour. Over a dozen stakeholder groups including business and labour leaders will also be on the six-day tour with Kenney.
In an interview with CBC News, Saskatchewan's Minister of Advanced Learning Rob Norris said the fact-finding mission is an opportunity for the province to learn best practices from world leaders.
"We're at a stage where some fresh eyes and some fresh ideas may serve us very well when we begin to think about how can we be undertaking our work better," Norris said in a phone interview with CBC News on Thursday.
"Building partnerships with industry and our post-secondary educational institutions but also starting those partnerships maybe even earlier so that we can get more young people interested in the trades and apprenticeships."
Norris will travel with the Institute of Applied Science and Technology as well as the provincial Building and Construction Trades Council.
"Let's give our young people as many choices as possible so they can see clearly a job at the end of the training program," Norris said, adding that Saskatchewan also wants to ensure there is greater access for First Nations and Métis students in the trades.
And that's precisely what Kenney hopes the provinces will take away from this trip — new ways to connect Canadians who are looking for work with open jobs.
"To learn how we can apply best practices to Canada in order to improve our labour market system," Kenney said in a statement sent to CBC News.
The employment minister, who recently earned himself some good will among his provincial counterparts by negotiating a notably different Canada Job Grant than the one originally proposed, has made no secret about the fact that he'd like to encourage the provinces to "re-engineer" their education systems.
"For too long our education system has been gearing young people away from the kinds of trades and vocations where they can make remarkable livelihoods," Kenney said during a speech at the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa last week.
"You have many young Germans making fantastic incomes as master craftsmen and ticketed journeymen in their early twenties realizing their potential and many of them a few years later then go to university and further upgrade their skills."
"I think we as Canadians, while we are a model in many areas, we should have some humility and recognize that perhaps we can learn a little bit from other countries," Kenney told the audience gathered in Ottawa.
Stigma around trades
The stakeholders on the delegation want to know how to compel Canada's businesses to take on a bigger role in training their would-be employees, and to how to change the Canadian culture so that parents and youth alike view skilled trades as an honourable vocation.
"The trades are held in very high regard in Germany, unlike in Canada," Sean Reid of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Thursday.
"It's starting to change a bit here now, but there's still a stigma about trades that doesn't exist in Germany, and we want to know what they've done to mitigate and minimize that stigma, how they've elevated trades and promoted them as a valid career path."
There are also lessons to be learned in Germany for Canadian businesses, Reid added. Under the German system, employers are critical players in both workplace and classroom training programs that are tailored to match labour market demands.
"Employers play a very central role in the German training system," he said. "In Canada, employers do train, but what they haven't done as much of is to take institutional ownership of the training system the way employers have in Germany."
That might be because Canadian businesses, on average, are much smaller than their German counterparts, and may not have the resources to invest so heavily in training, Ken Doyle, director of policy for Polytechnics Canada told The Canadian Press.
But Doyle and Reid — who are paying their own way to travel with the delegation, as are all members — say they want to hear first-hand how the Germans have achieved an eight per cent youth unemployment rate, the envy of the industrialized world.
"I want to ask the practitioners of the system what trends they're seeing, how they got to the stage where there's such an appreciation for the trades and what we can take away to plant the seeds for similar success in Canada," said Doyle.
February's federal budget announced the creation of the Canada Apprentice Loan, an expansion of the Canada Student Loans Program.
The fund will provide apprentices in so-called Red Seal trades with access to more than $100 million in interest-free loans every year to help them pay for their training.People aren’t supposed to eat the fish out of the Kalamazoo River, but many still do. Fish in the river are contaminated with PCBs - the toxin leftover from Kalamazoo’s old paper mills. Eating the fish over time could cause cancer, birth defects, neurological issues, and other health problems. Decades ago the state put up signs warning people of the risks that come with eating the fish, but those signs aren’t reaching everyone.
Hear the story
Ryan Dy of Holland fishes at Allegan Dam - also known as Calkins Dam - a few days a week. He's been going to the popular fishing spot for the past 20 years, but no one ever told him not to eat the fish.
"It's my close to home fishing spot," he says.
For the most part, the Michigan Department of Health recommends that people don’t eat any of the fish out of the Kalamazoo River at any time - especially if you’re younger than 15, have health problems, or you’re a woman of childbearing age.
Even downstream of Allegan Dam, where there’s less contamination, the health department advises people not to eat more than two fish out of the river per year. You can find more specific details on fish consumption guidelines here.
Low-Income, Spanish-Only Residents May Not Know The Risks
Michelle Bruneau with the Michigan Department of Health is heading up a project to create new fish advisory signs. She says the state has always had their Eat Safe Fish Guide online, but the people who eat the fish the most probably don’t read it.
Bruneau says some low-income people live off of the fish in the Kalamazoo River - and they likely don’t own a computer or a fishing license:
“So what we’re working on right now is designing new signs that will be much more accessible for everyone and that will include also people with low literacy and also people that speak other languages, namely Spanish. We’ve heard that there is a need for that in the area. So we will be translating some of the signs into Spanish as well.”
Current Signs Are Confusing And Don't Stand Out
Even affluent, English-speakers can miss the original 25 signs put up by the Department of Environmental Quality.
Jamie McCarthy works with the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, a local environmental group that’s been helping to spread awareness about the fish.
She says the old advisory signs are wooden and tend to blend in with their environment.
"They look like a lot of the other DNR kiosks. They can be sort of overlooked and people don’t always spend the time," she says.
"They’re excited to get out there, they’re excited to get their line in the water.”
The current signs were put together by scientists, not professional communicators. McCarthy says even without scientific jargon, the info in the advisories can be difficult to understand.
“You can eat certain species from certain parts of the river and not others, so that’s a little difficult to communicate,” she says.
New Easy-To-Read Fish Advisory Signs
"We really want people to understand that the water isn’t dangerous. People can still swim in the water, they can still paddle."
So what will these signs look like? First, they'll have pictures of the fish.
“We realize that not everybody calls the same fish species the same names,"says Michelle Bruneau.
"Then there’s a bar that goes from yellow to orange to red across the bottom that lets people kind of know really quick by looking which fish are going to be more contaminated versus others.”
Bruneau says there’ll also be an image that explains how PCBs actually get into the fish.
“Cause we really want people to understand that the water isn’t dangerous," she says. "People can still swim in the water, they can still paddle.”
Once the design is done, Bruneau says the state hopes to double or triple the number of fish advisory signs along the Kalamazoo River. Ideally, they’d have them up by early fall - just before the salmon run.
How Donald Trump Could Affect The Project
Bruneau says the health department has been working to get these signs for quite a while, but it only got funding for the project three years ago through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The iniative just happens to be one of the items on President Trump’s chopping block.
“So fortunately we were already pretty much planning on the project going away. Our grant ends September 30th and with the way the election went we weren’t expecting to get more funds," says Bruneau.
Fortunately, Bruneau says the Michigan Department of Health is now receiving state funding for education and outreach for state fish consumption guidelines. Bruneau says she hopes the project will continue - because even if just one person is eating the fish on the Kalamazoo River, that’s one too many.Dozens of Tennessee lawmakers believe they should have a say in the pending divorce of two Knoxville women, because any ruling could affect their authority to change state law when it comes to same-sex marriage.
The Family Action Council of Tennessee filed a motion on behalf of the fifty-three Republican legislators in the case of Sabrina Renae Witt v. Erica Christine Witt.
In April 2014, Erica Witt married Sabrina Witt in Washington D.C., which recognized same-sex marriages at the time. Tennessee law still does not recognize same-sex marriages, but they were validated by a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015.
The motion filed in the Fourth Circuit Court for Knox County by David E. Fowler, who serves as an attorney for the legislators, contends the legislators, “unique and substantial interest in the legislative power and process will be impeded, impaired, and and/or nullified” if courts interpret state law to “to apply to any persons other than a man and woman joined together as ‘husband’ and ‘wife.’”
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Sabrina is the biological mother of the child, becoming pregnant through artificial insemination with an anonymous sperm donor. The child was born in January 2015.
Erica never formally adopted the baby, and her attorney, Virginia Schwaam, said Erica didn’t think she needed to.
A judge ruled Erica was only a stepmother in the eyes of Tennessee state law during the couple’s divorce proceedings in June, barring Erica from making decisions about the child's life, including medical and school-related decisions.
Schwamm had asked the judge to apply the state's existing child custody laws, and apply "spouse and spouse" where the language specified "mother and father" or "husband and wife."
The state lawmakers don’t believe that legal designation should be made by a judge.
“Does the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision authorize judges to determine for state legislative bodies what policies it must have relative to custody issues in divorce proceedings?” Fowler said. “If it does, then matters of family law, which have historically been within the constitutional powers of the states to determine, will have essentially been judicially taken from the states and placed in the hands of federal judges.”
Related: Sunday marks one year since same-sex marriage ruling
The judge granted Schwamm's motion to take this case to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
"He didn't think he could extend the law the way we were asking him to, and so he stuck with a very narrow ruling," Schwamm said.$29 $21
The Federal Reserve caused the current economic crisis by suppressing interest rates and creating the housing bubble, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Euro Pacific Capital president Peter Schiff, and others have charged. And now there’s finally been enough political push-back for the damage the Federal Reserve has wreaked that the Fed will be hiring a lobbyist.
The Federal Reserve’s choice of lobbyist is Johns Hopkins University Vice President Linda Robertson, who serves in a public relations role at the medical school. Robertson served as an aide on Capitol Hill in the House of Representatives. She served throughout the Clinton administration as a senior advisor to three treasury secretaries, and won the Treasury Department’s highest award, the Alexander Hamilton award. Her partisan service in the Clinton administration could be a sign that the Fed will tie its future to the Democratic Party, which is currently in charge of both legislative chambers of Congress and the White House.
Robertson has experience lobbying for another Ponzi scheme besides the Federal Reserve, but it is not something she’d likely want to boast about. Bloomberg.com reveals that she headed the Washington lobbying office of Enron Corp., the energy trading company that collapsed in 2002 after an accounting scandal. Not surprisingly, Robertson’s Johns Hopkins biography omits her lobbying efforts on behalf of Enron.
Could the Fed be anticipating an Enron-style collapse? The political tides seem to favor a political debacle for the Fed, and even some former Fed officials are realizing it. Some members of Congress think there are votes in attacking the Fed after it unnecessarily and unwisely entangled monetary policy with fiscal policy, former St. Louis Fed President William Poole told Bloomberg.com.
Read the rest of the article
The Best of Thomas R. EddlemThe Goal: To Remember Each Jim Crow Killing, From The '30s On
The state of race relations in the United States has captivated the country for months. But a group of Northeastern University law students is looking to the past to a sometimes forgotten, violent part of American history.
The Civil Rights Restorative Justice Project is working to document every racially motivated killing in the American South between 1930 and 1970. So far, they've documented about 350 cases. Most of the crimes received little attention when they were committed, and often, even the family members of the victims don't know how their relatives died.
Margaret Burnham, the director of the project, spoke to Weekend Edition's Eric Westervelt to discuss how the project works and why it matters now.
Interview Highlights
Enlarge this image toggle caption Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty
On the project's race against the clock:
The project might seem unmanageable because the numbers might seem so large. But the cases from the 1940s and the early 1950s is really where we're focused at the moment. After the commencement of the civil rights movement, which people typically date at the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, the records about these cases grow more and more accurate. And so those are easily recoverable. And we'll do what we can do about the '30s.
But it's the 1940s where we now live, because in many cases, those who bore witness in one way or another are still alive, and their stories will be lost to history if we don't rescue them now. So that's the urgent piece of this.
On sharing the details of William Lockwood, a man slain by a police officer, with his family 60 years later:
We recovered as much detail about [Lockwood's death] as we could from Justice Department records and from the extensive record maintained at the time by the NAACP. Our student then gathered this material and took it to the Lockwood family just a few weeks ago, and they were, of course, elated to know the full facts of their relative's murder.
This is a case in which the family members want to know, but likely wouldn't go and hire a lawyer to get this information on their own. And so, in part, we're also just providing an important legal service to communities wouldn't have otherwise have access to this.
One case that sticks out:
In 1948, a young white man and a 56-year-old black man, co-workers at a base near Mobile [Alabama], got off of a bus on the same stop one night. And the black man asked the white fellow if he wanted to have a beer with him. The white guy said, "I don't drink with (blank)." And then he beat the other man to death on the street. The murderer was charged but he was promptly released and served no time in jail.
We found that man, the white murderer, living in Florida. We also found the family members of the victim, and many of them were still in Mobile. They weren't interested in reviving any criminal charges against the killer, but what they did want was acknowledgment that the legal system had failed them and their family member and some means of commemorating the life of their loved one, Rayfield Davis.
On the contemporary importance of the cases they've investigated:
What most troubles me in this research is that we're doing it so late. We call people and they say to us, you know, we've been waiting for this call for 50 years. But many times we don't reach them because they've passed on and their stories have died with them.
And so what's most compelling about this is how easy it is to lose pieces of our history and how important recovering this particular piece of it if we're to understand what's going on today. Not only should we not lose any of our history, but this is particularly important to understand the ways in which this past continues to resonate and recycle and reiterate itself through black experiences with the criminal justice system today.By Gina Martinez
An abandoned Fresh Meadows home that drew complaints from neighbors for years has finally been sold at auction for $710,000 to an unidentified buyer, according to the public administrator of Queens County.
According to state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), the 50-19 175th Place property was sold at the end of February. Avella has been at the frontline of a campaign to get the home sold and cleaned up for two years after neighbors asked for his help.
The owner of the home, Stella Beckman, died in 2001 and since then the conditions of the house have severely deteriorated. Although her son, Franklin, was listed as the administrator of the property, he has been nowhere to be found and no one has up kept the house.
The property was sealed and declared vacant by the city in January 2014 and in the last few years the roof caved in, the house had raccoon infestations, overgrown trees grew on the lot, the driveway was filled with debris and newspapers were piled up in abandoned vehicles.
The public administrator said the house was sold to a buyer who was not identified for $710,000 in February.
Neighbors said they feared the home would become a drug haven and that it was an eyesore in a clean, middle class neighborhood.
Finance Department records classify the home as a one-family dwelling whose tax rate is 19.157 percent. The home’s market value is $774,000 and the assessed value is $36,054.
Avella worked with various city agencies to get the property cleaned and late last year the public administrator was able to have the property auctioned. The house was auctioned in December and sold in late February.
“I am extremely happy to be able to tell the community today that as a result of the relentless efforts of my office and the incredible help of the public administrator that this property is no longer going to haunt the community,” Avella said. “Being able to get this house sold will certainly go a long way in returning a better quality of life to the neighbors who had to live with this hazardous property on their block. I hope that this sale can also set a precedent for the control and auction of the many other zombie properties that haunt communities across the city.”SignalFx is known for monitoring modern infrastructure, consuming metrics from things like AWS or Docker or Kafka, applying analytics in real time to that data, and enabling alerting that cuts down the noise. Core to how we do that is search. It’s not good enough to just process and store/retrieve data faster than anything out there, if it takes a long time for users to find the data they care about. So to match the speed of the SignalFlow analytics engine that sits at the core of SignalFx, we’ve been using Elasticsearch for our searching needs from day one.
In this post we’ll go over what we’ve learned about scaling Elasticsearch while maintaining availability for all the search capabilities inside SignalFx, both for internal services and out to |
down Jefri’s wealth, much of which the B.I.A. would claim was squirreled away in bank accounts and shell companies registered in remote tax havens. Revising the Bruneian constitution in order to have absolute rule over his brother, the sultan, starting in 2000, froze Jefri’s assets through injunctions—to little effect. Jefri allegedly sold off untraceable hoards of art, cars, and jewels included in the freezing order and somehow milked money from his properties to keep himself and his family afloat. When he failed to respond to a British summons in 2008, the court issued a bench warrant for his arrest. Facing a potential two-year prison term for refusing to divulge his bank accounts, Jefri lay low in his five-star hotels and palatial homes until he finally reconciled with his brother and returned to Brunei, with an alibi for at least a small portion of the lost fortune: he hadn’t spent all of the money, he said; his lawyers Faith Zaman and Thomas Derbyshire had stolen at least $23 million of it in “seven breaches of trust, the seven frauds,” which his attorneys would detail in court and which Zaman and Derbyshire would contend were schemes to funnel money through them to benefit the prince. “His modus operandi has been to try to ‘salt away’ or realize assets which are frozen, then try to blame his advisors if he is caught out,” Thomas Derbyshire wrote in an affidavit in December 2006 in response to a supplemental U.K. lawsuit Jefri filed to freeze the couple’s assets. “I regret to say that my wife and I have been drawn into this web of deceit.” The federal suit was dismissed, but Jefri immediately refiled in New York State. Four years passed, with detours through courts in London and Delaware, before a jury heard the case in New York City. Order in the Court
When the trial began, in Courtroom 242 of New York Supreme Court last year, those in the know assumed that the louche secrets of Prince Jefri’s boundless excesses would finally come to light. However, Judge Ira Gammerman soon decreed that the case was not about the prince or his extravagant lifestyle but strictly about whether Zaman and Derbyshire had stolen money from their client. The 81-year-old judge was a well-known veteran of the courts. He had presided over Woody Allen’s 2002 civil case against his former producer Jean Doumanian, and when Allen attempted to respond to a question with a rambling answer, Gammerman interrupted him midsentence, barking, “Stop talking I’m the director here.” Now, slouched behind the bench, he surveyed a surfeit of lawyers in his courtroom: nine attorneys from blue-chip firms on each side, getting hourly fees of up to $1,000 apiece, all paid by the Sultan of Brunei. The sultan was picking up not only his brother’s legal fees but also the Derbyshires’, owing to their role as officers of Prince Jefri’s Delaware-based entities, which provided indemnities and paid legal fees in work-related claims. “It’s a lawyer’s dream, but not good for the system,” one attorney told me, adding that the legal fees on the case were then up to $100 million. Why Prince Jefri’s family would spend $100 million to sue two lawyers for taking $23 million in graft—“chump change for the sultan,” as Gammerman put it from the bench—was a mystery in itself. Most people believed that the sultan was running the show, and that Jefri had been forced to testify as punishment for dragging his family through years of embarrassment. However, Richard Chalk, the B.I.A. lawyer who attended the trial, told me over lunch one day that it was all about recovering assets. “There are three things of significant value,” he said, enumerating back salaries (which, in Zaman’s case, included 5 percent of the gross operating profit of the New York Palace during her year as managing director) and the couple’s leases on the hotel’s private apartment and steak house, which all together Chalk valued at almost $50 million. If Jefri were to win, Chalk said, the B.I.A. would “go after [Derbyshire and Zaman] for everything, and we’ll be entitled to reimbursement of legal fees.” (Zaman’s and Derbyshire’s legal costs alone would exceed $30 million.) Before the trial began, the defense had released photographs to the press of sculptures Prince Jefri had commissioned from J. Seward Johnson for $800,000, allegedly portraying the prince and his fiancée at the time, Micha Royale Raines, in the throes of sex. (One of the prince’s lawyers insists that the statues were meant to depict an anonymous couple, not Jefri and Raines.) An infuriated Judge Gammerman promptly issued a gag order, forbidding attorneys and witnesses to speak to reporters. Worse still for the defense, the judge pronounced that “this case is not about the relative wealth of the people. It’s not about lifestyle, it’s not about sex. It’s about the claim that the two lawyers breached their fiduciary obligations … and I’m going to limit the evidence to that issue.” “The first thing that met you was this rock-crystal waterfall, 30 to 40 feet high, and in front of it was a life-size statue of Prince Jefri with a polo mallet in solid gold,” says Derbyshire. Gammerman kept a tight rein on the proceedings, blaring at attorneys and witnesses whenever they tried to introduce personal evidence about the prince, “Stop talking! When I talk, nobody else does!” He interrupted witness after witness if they attempted to elaborate after a mere yes or no, shouting, “That’s the answer!” In the end, what had been expected to be a trial of shocking revelations devolved into a dry procedural, its 22 witnesses reduced mostly to short answers. “How do you greet your father when you see him?,” Jefri’s youngest son by his first wife, the portly Prince Bahar, 29, was asked. “Kiss his hand,” he replied. Although Bahar had the title of president of the New York Palace hotel and had signed off on many of the contracts and leases the defendants were accused of wresting from his father, he testified that he had only “skimmed” the documents and would sign whatever Zaman placed in front of him. “Shopping, restaurants, enjoyed life,” he replied when asked how he had spent his time while performing his seemingly minimal duties in New York. During his two days on the witness stand, he answered “I don’t remember” to an estimated 285 questions. When defense attorney Mark Cymrot attempted to discredit the characterization of Jefri as a business neophyte by showing a slide of a diagram he claimed documented Jefri’s blinding constellation of holdings—including 250 companies, seven hotels, and 150 residential properties in 12 countries—the judge went ballistic. “Turn that off!” he boomed. “That’s a complete violation of my instructions!” The defense finally reached its limit when attorney Peder Garske, questioning Zaman, was repeatedly interrupted and muzzled while asking about her personal background. When Garske dared to shoot back, “May I represent my client?,” Gammerman exploded. He instructed the jury to leave the room and threatened to place a court officer behind Garske in order to restrain him if he didn’t toe the line. The trial dragged on for six weeks, giving rise to more questions than answers. On the last day, I hoped to pin down Prince Jefri, since he had indicated that he might consider talking to me once the trial was over. But by then the prince was nowhere to be seen. However, once the gag order was lifted, I was able to interview Zaman and Derbyshire as well as lawyers for the B.I.A., including Richard Chalk, and Jefri’s attorney Geoffrey Stewart. With the addition of Jefri’s own words in various affidavits, an extraordinary story comes to light. It is the story the jury was not able to hear. Working for Prince Jefri
It began, as fairy tales often do, with an unforeseen messenger, a London hairdresser named Jay Maggistro, who was something of a celebrity within the London jet set. “From his gold Cartier watch (£35,000, ‘a present from my brother’) to his £1,000 Gucci suit, the 38-year-old entrepreneur’s style is pure Eurocash,” wrote one London newspaper in 2002. He met the prince after answering the phone in his North London salon near closing time one day. “Can you come to cut a boy’s hair on the Bishop’s Avenue?” the caller asked; that was such a tony address that the hairdresser went in person. It was Prince Bahar he had been called about, but within a short time he was styling Prince Jefri too. According to Derbyshire, “Jay became the royal hairdresser when Jefri was Brunei’s minister of finance, and he flew Jay all over the world.” As Prince Bahar grew, he and his hairdresser forged “an unbreakable friendship,” says Derbyshire. They eventually opened a London hotel, restaurant, and club together, No. 5 Cavendish Square. When the partners were sued in a civil matter, they turned to a rising barrister they had met at No. 5, Thomas Derbyshire, who specialized in cases involving money-laundering and fraud and who was then representing Terry Adams, one of Britain’s most notorious gangsters. Derbyshire won the case for Bahar and Maggistro, worth $1.6 million, he says, and they were impressed enough to mention him to the Boss, as intimates call Prince Jefri. Celebrating a court victory with fellow barristers in a private dining room at No. 5 one evening in 2004, Derbyshire was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Prince Jefri would like to meet you,” said Maggistro, and Derbyshire says he entered a dimly lit drawing room where the prince was holding hands with Micha Raines, whom he had met in a Las Vegas hotel, and with whom he would soon have a child. After five minutes of small talk, the meeting was over. “I met Prince Jefri today,” Derbyshire told his 27-year-old fiancée, Faith Zaman, who had recently been laid off from a job at an investment bank. Within a few days a call came from Maggistro: the prince wanted to see Derbyshire. “And bring Faith,” Derbyshire says Maggistro added. The next day the hairdresser picked up the couple in a convertible Bentley Jefri had given him and drove them to St. John’s Lodge, in the Inner Circle of Regent’s Park, which, next to Buckingham Palace, is the grandest residence in London. After clearing intense security, they were escorted into a vast hall and then into a dining room with a table that could seat 50, where a battalion of servants brought out drinks and silver trays of appetizers. Prince Jefri and Micha Raines greeted them.
‘I was paid a salary when I was working for him and then as a fiancée I was given gifts,” Raines testified at the trial. The $45,000 a month she testified she received surely paled compared with the gifts Jefri and the sultan were known to bestow. An official list from 2002, exposed in Jefri’s legal battle with his brother, details more than $17 billion in payments and presents to family, friends, V.I.P.’s, and entourage, including $18 million to the father of one of the Bolkiahs’ wives, nearly $1.5 million to a badminton coach, and millions more to government officials, some of whom got Porsches, real estate, and jewelry. (Raines now lives in an $8.5 million house in Las Vegas that Jefri gave her.) After Jefri came under siege by the sultan, he made Raines his aide-de-camp: she acted as his spokesperson, especially with women. “When Prince Jefri asked a question at his first meeting, he looked at Tom,” says Zaman. “But when he wanted to ask me a question, he prompted Micha, and Micha would ask me the question.” “At the first meeting with Mr. Derbyshire and Ms. Zaman at St. John’s Lodge, Jay [Maggistro] and I explained the difficulties I was having with the B.I.A., with Joe Hage [Jefri’s previous attorney] and The New York Palace Hotel,” Jefri wrote in an affidavit. Derbyshire, Zaman, and Richard Chalk agree on Jefri’s situation at the time of his initial meeting with the couple. Frustrated over still being unable to get full disclosure of his assets, the B.I.A. was reviving proceedings against the prince, refreezing assets in his name, leaving him “without access to monies that were in his direct accounts,” says Chalk. “So that starts the process,” he continues, meaning Jefri’s by then well-known habit of accessing undisclosed accounts in companies that weren’t under his name but were under his control. He had to sell real estate, art, diamonds, cars, and other possessions that hadn’t been disclosed to the B.I.A. and the sultan and place the funds in his secret accounts in order to support his exorbitant lifestyle and pay his far-flung lawyers. It was an intricate game that involved moving billions of dollars among individuals, accounts, and companies around the world—a game that, Jefri’s attorney Geoffrey Stewart insists, Zaman and Derbyshire would come to orchestrate. According to Stewart, any financial trickery Jefri was charged with, the barrister couple “were at the center of it.” Several more meetings ensued, which Jefri always insisted be “four-eyes meetings,” meaning face-to-face. Eventually he was ready to engage the couple. His life, he said, was run by a tangle of teams of lawyers around the world, defending him against the B.I.A. and the sultan’s ongoing campaign to “crush” him. Because there was no coordination among these legal teams, he was concerned that he was paying too much for duplicated work. He wanted Derbyshire to act as his lead attorney, liaise with his other lawyers, and coordinate his defense against his brother and the B.I.A. As for Zaman, Jefri would later insist that he didn’t initially intend for her to be part of his legal team at all, but he named her a director of some of his companies, responsible for everything from hiring to paying the bills. In short, the couple’s mandate, they claim, was to streamline and obtain an accounting of Jefri’s empire of businesses—a difficult process, since most of them were registered in the names of persons or companies acting on his behalf, “barriers of protection that would make it hard for his brother to seek to take the assets from him,” Derbyshire alleges. “Prince Jefri was incapable of doing any of this himself,” says Chalk. “It was all done through his legal advisers. They’re the ones who came up with the ideas and schemes. I mean, that’s basically what Tom and Faith were doing for him. They were helping to try and see which assets could be utilized for the purpose of raising funds—which weren’t caught by the freezing injunction.”
‘We agreed that we would work for the same basic retainer that he paid his previous legal adviser, a British barrister, which he calculated would be around $8 million a year, plus expenses,” says Derbyshire, adding, “He got two people for the same price, and he was delighted with it.” (Geoffrey Stewart’s response: Prince Jefri insists that the payment was $2 million apiece for the two lawyers, including expenses, and that it was Derbyshire’s idea to include Zaman, who Jefri claims was not a practicing barrister at the time—“she was a legal advisor to me more than anything else.”) “He told us he could not pay us immediately, because he didn’t have a bank account that wasn’t frozen,” says Derbyshire. “He had no access to money himself. He had no credit card, no checkbook, no liquid assets, and he said he relied upon the generosity of family members and friends who supported him financially. I just thought, This is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. Because he was living a billionaire’s lifestyle. The staff alone would be a quarter-million dollars a month.” Their first assignment was to fly to New York and review the books of Jefri’s most important asset, the New York Palace hotel, which was then turning an annual profit of $50 million, and determine why the invoices to the hotel from a company they would later learn Jefri controlled—averaging between $550,000 and $1.5 million a month—had suddenly stopped being paid. Jefri had registered the hotel in a limited partnership in New York owned by two Delaware corporations, which in turn were owned by a third Delaware corporation, followed by two shell corporations in Labuan, the tax haven off the coast of Malaysia, and finally ending in a Malaysian trust company. But now the hotel was under siege, as Jefri outlined in his affidavit: its directors had passed an order preventing their removal by him, and a former director had filed suit challenging Jefri’s very ownership of the New York Palace and Hotel Bel-Air. “I thought there was no time to lose,” Jefri wrote of sending Derbyshire, Zaman, and Jay Maggistro to the New York Palace. The day the couple left for New York, they and Maggistro signed a letter that would later be repeatedly shown in the New York courtroom. In order to give them full and absolute authority to act on his behalf, the prince granted them power of attorney. “Looking back at it now, I think he gave us power of attorney so that at some stage in the future he would be able to turn around and deny knowledge and involvement in things he’d done,” says Derbyshire. (Prince Jefri’s lawsuit claimed that it was Zaman and Derbyshire, not he, who suggested they be given power of attorney in order to work most effectively on his behalf. Maggistro declined to respond concerning specific issues of the case.) Money Problems
On August 11, 2004, they arrived at the New York Palace. Along with Maggistro and Jefri’s Manhattan lawyer, they had arranged a meeting with the hotel’s managing director, John Segreti. He greeted them in the lobby, and they presented letters of introduction and their power of attorney and requested to review the books. “We have a very amicable chat, and he says he is going to his office and will be with us again in a few minutes,” says Derbyshire. “Then he didn’t return,” says Zaman. Hotel security showed up and asked them to leave the premises. They discovered that the managing director and a former director had filed a temporary restraining order in a New York court against Jefri “to prevent him from asset-stripping the hotel,” Derbyshire wrote in an affidavit. (Jefri claimed that the hotel’s directors did this to prevent him from removing them as directors.) Zaman and Derbyshire later alleged that they had unearthed documents showing that the hotel had been making large payments to individuals and companies that performed no services that they could determine. “These payments were made to banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein,” Derbyshire wrote in an affidavit. Even more alarming, a $30 million mortgage had been taken out on the hotel. (Jefri claimed in an affidavit it was $35 million.) “But $25 million of this sum was repaid very quickly,” Derbyshire wrote. “Our further investigations revealed that a number of properties (which appeared as Prince Jefri’s assets on the freezing orders) had, in fact, been sold in breach of those injunctions.” (According to Stewart, the property had been sold without Jefri’s authorization.) Next Derbyshire visited Hotel Bel-Air. While he determined that the hotel was in good financial order, he found that at least $10 million worth of Jefri’s supposedly frozen properties in California had been sold. (A Los Angeles lawyer who represented Jefri’s real-estate interests declined to comment.) When Derbyshire presented his findings to the prince, he stated in an affidavit, Jefri had an easy explanation. He claimed that one of his previous attorneys had taken out the mortgage and sold the properties without his consent. Why didn’t the prince report him? According to Geoffrey Stewart, the prince is “conflict averse.” Stewart speculates, “Any kind of public proceeding sooner or later would get back to the B.I.A.... and Jefri by then heard that the B.I.A. was going to be coming after him, and I think his view was ‘Why create trouble for myself?’ ” Having no reason to disbelieve Prince Jefri, Derbyshire and Zaman say, they continued to petition the courts on his behalf, eventually winning a ruling that he was indeed the owner of the New York Palace. According to the Derbyshires’ attorney, distributions from the Palace to Argent International, one of the prince’s companies, began flowing again, overseen by John Segreti.
Next assignment: representing the prince before the Brunei supreme court. Their first visit was in late 2004. The B.I.A. had filed a motion to force Jefri to comply with the settlement agreement he had signed back in 2000 and return all property. Because only a member of the British Queen’s Counsel can be heard in Brunei courts, and because the Derbyshires contend that by then many of Jefri’s lawyers refused to work for him, owing to not being paid, the couple enlisted Sir John Nutting, a friend of Prince Charles’s, to travel with them to Brunei. Nutting won an adjournment of the sultan’s case against Jefri until the following February. (In 2006, the case was decided against Jefri and in favor of the B.I.A.) “The family had a rule: ‘We don’t come to you, you come to us, however inconvenient that may be,’ ” wrote Zaman in an affidavit. She and her husband were soon living out of suitcases, flying to wherever the prince, his sons, or his lawyers ordered them. By February 2005, Jefri had regained full control of his biggest asset, the New York Palace, and installed Zaman to represent his interests there. Meanwhile, Derbyshire often met with Jefri’s legal teams. “I was effectively a conduit of information between the different lawyers in all the different jurisdictions around the world,” he testified in New York, adding that because this information frequently had to do with the prince’s frozen and hidden assets, it was necessary to deal with those lawyers in person. When asked on the witness stand how many lawyers he had met or retained for the prince, Derbyshire disgorged a startling list of attorneys in every conceivable corner of the globe. Derbyshire would routinely rush to the airport, where a private plane would fly him off to wherever Jefri had a lawyer, in order to sign papers, retrieve documents, or receive further instructions. Many of Jefri’s lawyers refused him further service, saying they had not been paid or they had been paid with tainted funds—proceeds from the sale of assets that the sultan and the B.I.A. had not seized. (According to Stewart, “Some attorneys claimed that they suddenly realized that funds they had been receiving and depositing for years were under injunction by the freezing order—but wouldn’t return any of the money.”) Zaman claimed in an affidavit she worked a full year without receiving any of her $4 million annual salary, although Jefri would write in an affidavit that he believed both Derbyshires had received payment for services. Derbyshire contended that he worked for more than seven months before receiving his first payment, which was $660,000 in expenses instead of $4 million in salary, and by then, he claims, he had spent approximately $600,000 of his own on travel expenses for himself and lawyers he had recruited to travel with him to Brunei. At one point, according to Derbyshire, when Jefri said he was desperate for untainted funds, Derbyshire even returned $600,000 that the prince had reimbursed him for expenses, so that Jefri could pay other lawyers who were threatening to stop their work in defending him against the sultan and the B.I.A. (Jefri disputed this in his affidavit. “I have no idea about how many law firms [Derbyshire] contacted,” he wrote. “I do not recall him mentioning having any difficulties in retaining solicitors or any problem with clean funds.”)
Why did Derbyshire and Zaman continue to work without payment, as they claim? First, they say, because they felt sure payment would eventually come. Second, they say, because they believed what Jefri told them: the sultan had reneged on the lifestyle agreement, and the properties were rightfully his. Zaman says, “Under the terms of the lifestyle agreement, the sultan had made it legally permissible for Jefri to maintain his lifestyle by keeping for himself certain assets, including the Palace and Hotel Bel-Air, and any assets in Jefri’s own name, including his jewelry and paintings. Insofar as Jefri’s argument that he was entitled to deal with these assets as his own, he was correct. To this day... Jefri has never been held in contempt in Brunei.” (The B.I.A. maintained that there never was a finalized “lifestyle agreement,” and a British court agreed.) As Zaman and Derbyshire pushed forward, they say, little by little the prince showed them his hand. “He was [Brunei’s] finance minister for a reason: he is a very, very smart man,” says Zaman. “And he had hidden assets so well that the sultan, with all of his resources and all of his private investigators, couldn’t find [them].” The assets were registered in layer upon layer of “bearer shares,” according to Derbyshire, with “nominee directors” in jurisdictions around the world. Derbyshire adds, “Eventually we gained his trust, and then he opened up and we got to know everything: the art vaults full of paintings, the jewelry, gold, diamonds, bullion, and secret bank accounts.” Geoffrey Stewart groans at the Derbyshires’ portrayal of the prince as a financial mastermind: “Prince Jefri dropped out of school at 15. I’ve never seen him add numbers. He has no concept of money that I’ve seen. He has been raised to preside over things as a prince. But all this was run by other people in the Brunei civil service. In terms of hiding money, he certainly didn’t want the B.I.A. to know where he had his personal bank accounts. He wanted to keep his personal financial affairs private. Where he was not required to disclose assets, he wouldn’t. If there was any hiding of assets, it was done by his lawyer advisers.” Jefri’s corporate structures were set up by tax accountants in the 1980s, says Stewart, when Jefri was still on good terms with the sultan, “to help keep taxes down.” As for allegations of hidden art, cars, and jewels, he says, “I’ve certainly never seen it. It’s very hard to move that stuff.” Princely Trappings
On April 17, 2005, Jefri’s oldest daughter, Princess Hamidah, was married in Brunei to Jefri’s sister’s son, her first cousin. According to Derbyshire, Jefri sent Zaman and him to the wedding as his emissaries, and they sat at the family tables inside the sultan’s palace. Jefri then hosted a second wedding for Hamidah in the ballroom of London’s Grosvenor House, near the Dorchester, the sultan’s hotel. “It was a massive wedding,” says Derbyshire, who also attended that one with Zaman. “Jefri came with Micha Raines, and the sultan’s son Aziz turned up with Val Kilmer and Jerry Hall. Everybody was drinking Dom Pérignon, and there were millions and millions of dollars of tiaras and diamonds and emeralds.” According to Derbyshire, “After the second wedding, a letter comes through the B.I.A.’s lawyers, [essentially] saying, ‘Prince Jefri, sons Prince Hakeem and Prince Bahar, and Princess Hamidah: All of your property in Brunei is being repossessed, and you have until June to vacate.’ They were given about four weeks.” (Richard Chalk confirms the eviction: “Title had been transferred, but physical possession hadn’t. He was ordered to leave [the palaces] because he no longer owned them.”) Jefri was upset over the eviction notice, according to Zaman and Derbyshire. “This is an act of war,” they say the prince declared. (Stewart denies that Jefri declared the eviction notice an act of war.) Not only were his two sons being booted from their palaces, but his eldest daughter, “married to my sister’s son, pregnant with a child,” was effectively being evicted from her home as well. The fight with his brother had escalated from a legal battle to a personal war. “I am never going to put myself in a position again where he can tie up my assets,” Jefri said, according to Derbyshire, and he dispatched Derbyshire and Zaman to Brunei to pack up his belongings. Before the couple left for Brunei, Jefri named Princes Hakeem and Bahar as directors of the New York Palace. According to Zaman and Derbyshire, the big, burly princes are true heirs to Jefri’s life of extravagance. Rod Stewart performed at one of Hakeem’s birthdays, and when Bahar turned nine, the sultan threw a bash at Claridge’s in London, transforming a ballroom into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle headquarters. According to Fortune, when Hakeem wanted to learn football, Jefri imported N.F.L. stars Joe Montana and Herschel Walker to Brunei, at a cost of seven figures each, to teach him the game. Hakeem and his friends showed up in brand-new uniforms, the gargantuan prince weighing 300 pounds, trailed by a valet and guarded by a state security force. Hakeem was not able to catch the ball, so a teammate would hand it to him, and he would then shuffle down the field for an easy touchdown, because no one was allowed to tackle a prince. When Hakeem turned 18, his father gave him $1 billion as a birthday present, according to one of Zaman’s affidavits. Bahar, for his 16th birthday, received $400 million. (Of the money allegedly given to Jefri’s children, Stewart says, “I don’t know any of that to be true.”) In June 2005, Derbyshire and Zaman flew to Brunei to oversee the packing of the personal possessions Jefri had left behind in his two palaces and in his children’s palaces—the structures had about 1,000 rooms each. “Anything that could be salvaged Prince Jefri instructed be moved to [another] location in Brunei,” says Derbyshire. When they arrived, a crew was waiting to help.
‘The first thing that met you was this rock-crystal waterfall, probably 30 to 40 feet high, and in front of it was a life-size statue of Prince Jefri with a polo mallet in solid gold,” says Derbyshire. “That was on a crane that was being swung out the front doors, probably to be chopped up and sold.” They packed up art, furniture, and jewelry. Then they moved the cars—a total of about 2,300. “Every one of the cars was a Bentley, Ferrari, or Rolls-Royce,” says Derbyshire. “All had been built individually, where you open the door and along the running board it says, BUILT BY ROLLS-ROYCE FOR HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE JEFRI, and you look at the odometer and it would be four miles. The rubber around the windows had melted in the heat.” Zaman says the tires were melting, too, because the air-conditioning had been cut off. (Stewart’s response: The state of the cars wasn’t due to lack of air-conditioning but to a “lack of necessary maintenance.” As to the contents of the palaces, they were legally Prince Jefri’s to take.) According to Derbyshire, Jefri had instructed that all these possessions be taken to Gurkha-guarded warehouses, where they would be crated and shipped to other locations, then marketed. “I think it’s fair to say that, between 2004 and probably August 2008, there were still instances where suddenly we would become aware of blatant breaches by Prince Jefri of the freezing order, where an asset had obviously been sold,” says B.I.A. attorney Richard Chalk. It’s called “trickle feeding”: selling off assets bit by bit, in this case to avoid B.I.A. suspicion. Three of Jefri’s wristwatches, gem-encrusted and reportedly worth more than $850,000 total, were sold in November 2009 in London’s Hatton Gardens jewelry quarter. A collection of 48 rare “supercars,” including 27 Ferraris, was rumored to have been shipped out of Brunei for sale in Singapore. Diamonds and gold were sold through brokers in Britain, according to Derbyshire and Zaman. (Of Jefri’s alleged trickle feeding, Stewart says, “He didn’t need to,” since he had “a setup” with the New York Palace that paid his company Argent enough to cover his expenses. “It was running, safe to say, a million to a million and a half a month, and that’s how he was living.”) Zaman and Derbyshire say that the art was sold in Paris, where Jefri’s fourth wife, the New Zealand-born Claire Kelly (who adopted the Bruneian name Madame Salma), lived with the prince in his palatial residence in the Place Vendôme. At the trial, Derbyshire testified that an important sale had been pending, which included one of Jefri’s most valuable remaining paintings, Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Napoleon and His General Staff, which he kept in a secure Swiss vault with more than 200 other paintings. (Stewart says, “Prince Jefri loved art and bought fantastic amounts of it. Actually had a pretty good eye. But Jefri had nowhere to hang a lot of it.”) Micha Raines was concerned about the sale, since the British court was pursuing Jefri. “She did not want to see him committed to prison for contempt [should it be] discovered he was selling assets which he had never disclosed,” according to an affidavit submitted by Derbyshire, who called a meeting in Paris with Jefri and Claire Kelly. (Raines could not be reached for comment.) They agreed to stop the sale, but Jefri still wanted the entire collection appraised, because he planned to sell the art as a job lot—which he eventually did. (According to Stewart, the prince sent Derbyshire to sell the artwork, which had been a wedding gift to Claire Kelly.) The sultan and the B.I.A. continued to press their case against Jefri in every court they could, and soon they would have contempt charges against him in England, meaning that he could be jailed if he set foot there. He Said, They Said
Jefri was ostensibly pleased with Zaman and Derbyshire’s work, they claim. Micha Raines sent a fax to Zaman on September 18, 2005: “You and your husband are saving his life now and that is something we are grateful for.... May more blessings come this way—where truth prevails—and good people are rewarded for their good intentions.” Did their duties include devising ideas to help Jefri evade freezing orders and manufacture cash? “No,” says Zaman. “Our job was to work with a group of Jefri’s advisers and carry out Jefri’s instructions.... We consulted with 50 to 70 independent advisers in various jurisdictions over the years.” In November 2005, as part of Zaman’s contract with the New York Palace, she claimed in her affidavit, Jefri gave them a 17-year lease on a 2,800-square-foot apartment on the third floor of the hotel, which rented as a suite for $20,000 a night. The prince gave the apartment to them rent-free for the first five years, they say. After that, the charge would be $500 a month, with an option to renew for 51 years. Should the sultan ever be successful in taking over the hotel, he would have to deal with them for the rest of his life. They also contended that the prince gave them a second lease, also at a low price, for the Maloney & Porcelli steak house on the hotel’s ground floor, on East 50th Street. (Prince Jefri flatly denied giving the Derbyshires the two leases. “I never even knew of the existence of the third-floor apartment at The New York Palace Hotel,” he wrote in an affidavit. Of the couple’s contention that Prince Bahar signed both leases, Jefri insisted that Bahar didn’t recall signing either one. “Although I understand that he often signed whatever was put in front of him by Ms. Zaman,” he wrote in an affidavit.)
In February 2006, John Segreti, the managing director of the Palace, dropped dead of a pulmonary embolism. “I need someone who is loyal,” Zaman recalls Jefri saying. According to Jefri’s lawsuit, “Even though she had no experience in managing hotels or business operations, after interviewing a few candidates, [Zaman] informed Prince Jefri and Prince Bahar that there were no candidates as qualified as she was and recommended that she be appointed the hotel’s managing director.” (Zaman’s response: “Prince Jefri never let any person dictate to him how he should manage his assets. He’s a prince in a dictatorship, used to getting his own way. He made me the general manager because he wanted someone he could trust who wouldn’t kick him out of the hotel, as had happened to him before.”) “Relying on Zaman’s position as a fiduciary to him, Prince Bahar appointed her as Managing Director of the Palace Hotel in late March 2006,” according to Jefri’s lawsuit. She |
%), and Europe/UK (66.9%). iOS device usage among screen reader users was notably higher than for the standard population, whereas Android usage was much, much lower. Those with more advanced screen reader and internet proficiency were much more likely to use iOS over Android. Mobile Screen Readers Used Which of the following mobile screen readers do you commonly use? (Choose all that apply) Mobile Screen Reader % of Respondents VoiceOver 69.0% TalkBack for Android 29.5% Voice Assistant 5.2% Mobile Accessibility for Android 1.9% Nuance Talks 1.8% MobileSpeak 1.5% Other 3.2% Since July 2015, VoiceOver usage increased to 69% from 56.7%. TalkBack increased to 29.5% from 17.8% over the same 2.5 year period. All other mobile screen readers saw decreased usage over that period. 20.9% of respondents commonly use multiple mobile screen readers. Mobile vs. Desktop/Laptop Usage Do you use a screen reader most often on a desktop/laptop computer or a mobile/tablet device? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Desktop/Laptop 528 34.6% I use mobile/tablet and desktop/laptop screen readers about the same 825 54.0% Mobile/Tablet device 174 11.4% 54% of respondents use both devices about the same amount. Users are more likely to predominantly use desktop/laptop screen readers than they are mobile/tablet screen readers. Respondents with disabilities are more likely to use a mobile screen reader than respondents without disabilities. Mobile App vs Web Site Usage When performing common online tasks such as banking or shopping are you most likely to use a mobile app or the web site? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Mobile App 779 46% Web site 916 54% Respondents with disabilities are more likely to use the mobile app than respondents that do not have disabilities. Those with advanced screen reader proficiency were much more likely to use the mobile app than those with beginner proficiency. Mobile Keyboard Usage When using a mobile screen reader how often do you use an external keyboard? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Always 39 2.6% Often 181 12.0% Sometimes 394 26.2% Seldom 320 21.2% Never 577 38.2% Mobile devices are often considered to be touch-only interfaces, yet many screen reader users use a keyboard when using their mobile devices.
Web Accessibility Progress Which of the following best describes your feelings regarding the accessibility of web content over the previous year? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Web content has become more accessible 711 40.8% Web content accessibility has not changed 703 40.4% Web content has become less accessible 327 18.8% Respondents have a slightly more positive perception of the state of web accessibility now than they did in 2015. Respondents without disabilities tend to be more positive about recent progress (51.7% thought it has become more accessible) than those with disabilities (39.6% thought it has become more accessible).
Impacts on Accessibility Which of the following do you think would have a bigger impact on improvements to web accessibility? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Better (more accessible) web sites 1490 85.3% Better assistive technology 257 14.7% Over time, more respondents have answered "better web sites" to this question—68.6% of respondents in October 2009, 75.8% in December 2010, 81.3% in January 2014, and now 85.3% on this survey. This change perhaps reflects improvements to assistive technology. It certainly indicates that users expect site authors to address accessibility issues.
Social Media Accessibility In general, how accessible are social media web sites to you? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Very Accessible 253 14.9% Somewhat Accessible 921 54.3% Somewhat Inaccessible 246 14.5% Very Inaccessible 83 4.9% I Don't Know 192 11.3% Compared to responses from previous surveys, respondents are increasingly positive about the accessibility of social media sites - 69.2% find them very or somewhat accessible compared to 55.2% in 2012 and 60.3% in 2015. 73.1% of respondents with advanced screen reader proficiency rate social media sites as very or somewhat accessible, compared to only 62.8% of respondents with beginner proficiency.
Landmarks/Regions How often do you navigate by landmarks/regions in your screen reader? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Whenever they're available 307 18.0% Often 213 12.5% Sometimes 491 28.8% Seldom 364 21.3% Never 332 19.4% The frequent use of landmarks and regions has continually decreased from 43.8% in January 2014, to 38.6% in July 2015, to 30.5% on this survey. It's difficult to know the reasons for this. It could be due to infrequent or improper usage of landmarks/regions in pages. Or perhaps because other mechanisms are continually better. 45.4% of JAWS users reported always or often using landmarks in July 2015 compared to only 28.5% now just 2.5 years later.
Finding Information When trying to find information on a lengthy web page, which of the following are you most likely to do first? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Navigate through the headings on the page 1180 67.5% Use the "Find" feature 252 14.4% Navigate through the links of the page 118 6.8% Navigate through the landmarks/regions of the page 69 3.9% Read through the page 128 7.3% While reliance on headings as the predominant mechanism for finding page information had notably increased between 2008 and 2014, responses to this question are largely unchanged since 2014. While 30.5% of respondents indicate that they always or often use landmarks when they are present, only 3.9% use this method for finding information on a lengthy web page. Those with advanced screen reader proficiency are much more likely to use headings (73% use headings) than those with beginner proficiency (42% use headings) who are more likely to read through the page.
Heading Structures Which of the following page heading structures is easiest for you? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents One first level heading that contains the site name 95 6.6% One first level heading that contains the document title 858 60.0% Two first level headings, one for the site name and one for the document title 476 33.3% Preference for a single <h1> that presents the document title has significantly increased from 37.1% in 2010 to 60% in 2017. A single <h1> for the site name was by far the least desired.
"Skip" Links When a "skip to main content" or "skip navigation" link is available on a page, how often do you use it? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Whenever they're available 273 15.8% Often 283 16.4% Sometimes 480 27.8% Seldom 374 21.6% Never 319 18.4% When compared to July 2015, the frequent usage of "skip" links has decreased from 37.8% to 30.2%. 54.9% of respondents without disabilities always or often use "skip" links compared to only 29.6% of respondents with disabilities. This represents a very significant disparity in usage. It is important to note that while usage has decreased among screen reader users, "skip" links still provide notable benefit for other keyboard users.Vilsack: ‘I took it as a slam on rural America’
By Ezra Klein
Yesterday afternoon, I got an e-mail from a “usda.gov” address. “Secretary Vilsack read your blog post ‘Why we still need cities’ over the weekend, and he has some thoughts and reflections, particularly about the importance of rural America,” it said. A call was set for a little later in the day. I think it’s safe to say Vilsack didn’t like the post. A lightly edited transcript of our discussion about rural America, subsidies and values follows.
Ezra Klein: Let’s talk about the post.
Tom Vilsack: I took it as a slam on rural America. Rural America is a unique and interesting place that I don’t think a lot of folks fully appreciate and understand. They don’t understand that that while it represents 16 percent of America’s population, 44 percent of the military comes from rural America. It’s the source of our food, fiber and feed, and 88 percent of our renewable water resources. One of every 12 jobs in the American economy is connected in some way to what happens in rural America. It’s one of the few parts of our economy that still has a trade surplus. And sometimes people don’t realize that 90 percent of the persistent poverty counties are located in rural America.
EK: Let me stop you there for a moment. Are 90 percent of the people in persistent poverty in rural America? Or just 90 percent of the counties?
TV: Well, I’m sure that more people live in cities who are below the poverty level. In terms of abject poverty and significant poverty, there’s a lot of it in rural America.
The other thing is that people don’t understand is how difficult farming is. There are really three different kinds of farmers. Of the 2.1 million people who counted as farmers, about 1.3 million of them live in a farmstead in rural America. They don’t really make any money from their operation. Then there are 600,000 people who, if you ask them what they do for a living, they’re farmers. They produce more than $10,000 but less than $250,000 in sales. Those folks are good people, they populate rural communities and support good schools and serve important functions. And those are the folks for whom I’m trying to figure out how to diversify income opportunities, help them spread out into renewable fuel sources. And then the balance of farmers, roughly 200,000 to 300,000, are commercial operations, and they do pretty well, particularly when commodity prices are high. But they have a tremendous amount of capital at risk. And they’re aging at a rapid rate, with 37 percent over 65. Who’s going to replace those folks?
EK: You keep saying that rural Americans are good and decent people, that they work hard and participate in their communities. But no one is questioning that. The issue is that people who live in cities are also good people. People who live in exurbs work hard and mow their lawns. So what does the character of rural America have to do with subsidies for rural America?
TV: It is an argument. There is a value system that’s important to support. If there’s not economic opportunity, we can’t utilize the resources of rural America. I think it’s a complicated discussion and it does start with the fact that these are good, hardworking people who feel underappreciated. When you spend 6 or 7 percent of your paycheck for groceries and people in other countries spend 20 percent, that’s partly because of these farmers.
EK: My understanding of why I pay 6 or 7 percent of my paycheck for food and people in other countries pay more is that I’m richer than people in other countries, my paycheck is bigger. Further, my understanding is that a lot of these subsidies don’t make my food cheaper so much as they increase the amount of it that comes from America. If we didn’t have a tariff on Brazilian sugar cane, for instance, my food would be less expensive. If we didn’t subsidize our corn, we’d import it from somewhere else.
TV: Corn and ethanol subsidies are one small piece of this. I admit and acknowledge that over a period of time, those subsidies need to be phased out. But it doesn’t make sense for us to have a continued reliance on a supply of oil where whenever there is unrest in another part of the world, gasoline prices jump up. We need a renewable fuel industry that’s more than corn-based, of course, and there are a whole series of great opportunities here. But as soon as we reduced subsidizes for biodiesel, we lost 12,000 jobs there. So if you create a cliff, you’re going to create significant disruption and end, for a while, our ability to move beyond oil. And keep in mind that the Department of Agriculture has moved, for years, to reduce our spending. We cut $4 billion in crop insurance and put that to deficit reduction. So we are making proposals to get these things in line. But a lot of our money goes to conservation, and goes to some of those 600,000 farmers who are barely making it.
EK: Let me go back to this question of character. You said again that this is a value system that’s important to support, that this conversation begins with the fact that these people are good and hardworking. But I come from a suburb. The people I knew had good values. My mother and father are good and hardworking people. But they don’t get subsidized because they’re good and hardworking people.
TV: I think the military service piece of this is important. It’s a value system that instilled in them. But look: I grew up in a city. My parents would think there was something wrong with America if they knew I was secretary of agriculture. So I’ve seen both sides of this. And small-town folks in rural America don’t feel appreciated. They feel they do a great service for America. They send their children to the military not just because it’s an opportunity, but because they have a value system from the farm: They have to give something back to the land that sustains them.<
EK: But the way we show various professions respect in this country is to increase pay. It sounds to me like the policy you’re suggesting here is to subsidize the military by subsidizing rural America. Why not just increase military pay? Do you believe that if there was a substantial shift in geography over the next 15 years, that we wouldn’t be able to furnish a military?
TV: I think we would have fewer people. There’s a value system there. Service is important for rural folks. Country is important, patriotism is important. And people grow up with that. I wish I could give you all the examples over the last two years as secretary of agriculture, where I hear people in rural America constantly being criticized, without any expression of appreciation for what they do do. When’s the last time we thanked a farmer for the fact that only 6 or 7 percent of our paycheck goes to food? We talk about innovation and these guys have been extraordinarily innovative. We talk about trade deficits and agriculture has a surplus.
EK: I feel like I hear a lot of paeans to the good people of rural America. I feel like politics is thick with tributes to farmers and to the heartland -- and that’s fine with me. Which isn’t to say I doubt what you’re telling me. But I guess I’d offer a hypothesis: Some of the frustration you hear is because of the subsidies that go to rural America. If rural America wasn’t getting these subsidies but was flourishing, they’d get more of the respect you’re saying they deserve. But as long as they’re heavily subsidized, people are going to feel that there’s something wrong.
TV: I don’t know if it’s that. I think one of the reasons that there’s a safety net for American farmers is that we don’t really want to be so dependent on other countries for our food. How much more do we spend on the military in order to protect our ability to get oil? I make the same argument on immigration: One reason we need immigration reform is that 50 percent to 75 percent of our food is, at some point or another, touched by immigrant hands. Growing our own food is important. That’s where I come from in my attitude that there should at least be some acknowledgment of the role that farmers and ranchers play in our country. You may be right that politicians speak up for these folks, but I have a hard time finding journalists who will speak for them.Plane Finder relies on a global network of sharers to help maintain ADS-B clients all over the world. To help make the process of sharing ADS-B data with us as easy as possible we released a ground-up rewrite of our Plane Finder ADS-B Client just over a year ago. The update included a beautiful new web-based user interface, a quick and intuitive setup process, support for MLAT, at-a-glance statistics and a live air traffic map.
We remain incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received from our sharers and understand that maintaining an ADS-B receiver isn’t always easy. Unfortunately improving the reliability of ADS-B software is only half of the battle. Which is why, earlier this year, we were excited to announce the roll-out of our very own ADS-B hardware – the Plane Finder Radar – which comes packaged out-of-the-box with our client software to make it the easiest way to setup and maintain a reliable and high-quality ADS-B receiver.
Adding a new dimension to ADS-B data visualisation
Since the rollout of our new ADS-B client, we’ve listened to user feedback and have been hard at work updating the software. Today we’re pleased to announce a new version which uses the latest in web technologies to give receiver owners access to real-time polar and air traffic visualisations in both 2D and 3D.
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Making the most of the Plane Finder ADS-B Client
The Plane Finder ADS-B Client is completely free to download, works on Linux (Raspberry Pi’s, BeagleBone, etc…), Windows and Mac, and is already compatible with the most popular ADS-B receivers on the market:
Plane Finder Radar
Beast
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RTL dongles (via Dump1090 or another decoder)
If you’re new to the world of ADS-B but would still like to get involved – you can apply for a free Plane Finder Radar. If you’re selected we’ll handle shipping you everything you need to get started.
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As always, we have a healthy community of enthusiasts over on the forums who are always willing to help new users out. Alternatively, if you have questions about either the Plane Finder ADS-B Client or the Plane Finder Radar please feel free to contact us (we respond to every message).PHOTOS: France Begins Evicting Thousands Of Migrants From Notorious 'Jungle' Camp
Enlarge this image toggle caption Pete Kiehart for NPR Pete Kiehart for NPR
French security forces have started evicting the thousands of migrants living in a notorious camp known as "The Jungle" near the port of Calais.
Authorities intend to dismantle the squalid camp that, despite its poor living conditions, has housed thousands of people fleeing wars or poverty for a better life in Europe. Many hope to reach the U.K. — which lies just 26 miles away across the English Channel. Others are seeking asylum in France.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Pete Kiehart for NPR Pete Kiehart for NPR
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson was at the camp and says that despite concerns about violence, the eviction process went smoothly on its first day. "What we're seeing is a steady stream of migrants who are coming out of this camp, going up the road to where police have set up registration centers," she says. "A lot of rolling bags going past — it almost feels like its an airport or a train station or something."
The French Interior Ministry says some 2,300 migrants were voluntarily uprooted from the camp on Monday, Soraya adds. A spokesman for the ministry said none of them were "being forced to leave the camp or get on the buses, at least not yet."
toggle caption Pete Kiehart for NPR
However, many migrants — like Issa Jabakheir from Afghanistan — say they don't feel like they have other option but to leave. "What choice do I have? The police are going to bulldoze the camp," he tells Soraya.
At registration centers, people were given two choices: east or west France. Soraya reports: "And once they've selected one of those regions, the authorities pick out one of the towns where they've set up refugee homes or centers."
toggle caption Pete Kiehart for NPR
Buses carrying migrants have started moving from the camp to areas around France, Soraya notes. The approximately 450 homes or centers across the country "are intended to be temporary" and "will each hold 40 or 50 people for up to four months while their asylum cases are examined," as The Guardian explains.
toggle caption Pete Kiehart for NPR
However, "those who do not claim asylum will be sent back to their country of origin," according to the newspaper, and "almost two-thirds of those surveyed in the camp have said they do not want to be evicted and taken to French accommodation, while one-third say that they will continue to try to get to the U.K."
An estimated 6,100 migrants live in the camp, Soraya reports, though aid workers say the number likely is much higher. Most of them are young men from Afghanistan and countries in Africa. Soraya adds: "So the question becomes, if in fact there are 8,000 or 10,000, what happens to the remaining 2,500?"
toggle caption Pete Kiehart for NPR
Some migrants say they intend to hide within the Jungle, in hopes of avoiding being moved to another place in France, Soraya reports. Over the weekend, police fired tear gas at stone-throwing migrants. And Soraya says there are concerns that tensions might escalate as authorities tear down the camp. "I think it's to be expected that as they start to raze the Jungle, that you're not going to have as much peacefulness," she says. "If police catch people, then it might not be as friendly as it is now."
toggle caption Pete Kiehart for NPR
Refugee advocates are particularly concerned about what will happen to an estimated 1,300 unaccompanied minors living in the camp. "About 200 have been sent to England, in large part to be reunited with family members there," Soraya says. And the remaining 1,100 are "going to be put into special housing for unaccompanied minors in close to 300 centers in France." It remains to be seen whether they will be allowed to travel to the U.K.
Soraya adds that in an operation several months ago, 129 children went missing, and it remains unclear what happened to them.
The migrant camp is viewed as a disgrace. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley says the name "The Jungle" stems from the level of squalor and chaos there.
toggle caption Pete Kiehart for NPR
Authorities hope the current eviction process will stand in contrast to what happened in March, The Associated Press reports, when they dismantled the southern half of the camp in a "chaotic, even brutal bulldozing operation that drew complaints from human rights groups."The video will start in 8 Cancel
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Jeremy Corbyn tonight questioned Britain's entire defence policy as he refused to say he would defend a NATO ally which comes under attack.
At a hustings event in Birmingham, the famously-pacifist Labour leader was asked four times if he would use British troops to defend a fellow European country if it was invaded by Russia.
“I would want to avoid us getting involved military, by building up democratic relationships,” Mr Corbyn replied.
“I don't wish to go to war - what I want to do is achieve a world where we don't need to go to war.”
Article Five of NATO's founding treaty makes clear that all member states must rush to the defence of any fellow ally which comes under attack.
It has been the central plank of Britain's entire defence policy for more than half a century.
(Image: Getty)
Mr Corbyn's refusal to back the treaty had echoes of his previous luke-warm stance on NATO, which he has heavily criticised for “excessive and obsessive expansion”.
By contrast his rival Owen Smith said it was “obvious” Britain must defend NATO allies against Russian attack, but admitted the outcome would be “calamitous.”
“We would have to come to the aid of a fellow member of NATO, that is the nature of the NATO accord,” Mr Smith said.
“That would be the job of Britain in the event of a fellow NATO member being invaded, obviously.”
Mr Smith tried to open up a clear dividing line between himself and Mr Corbyn by attacking the leader's lack of enthusiasm for the EU.
Urging a second referendum, Mr Smith said: “If we still believe in the EU, if we are genuinely internationalists, why on earth would we not be fighting harder?
“I am not prepared to accept it. I would fight for us to stay in the EU - every day.”
Bur Mr Corbyn shot back that the EU referendum was a democratic vote of the British people and that its outcome must now be accepted.
"The issue is a referendum took place," Mr Corbyn told him.
"You and I both wanted a different result."Mike Ashley has struggled to win over the Newcastle fans during his time in charge
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley says he "regrets" buying the club and that its bank account is virtually empty.
The Magpies are second from bottom of the table despite more than £82m being invested in the squad in the past two transfer windows.
When asked how much money was left in the club's bank account, he told the Daily Mirror: "Virtually nothing now. They have emptied it."
Ashley has vowed to stick by the club, even if the Magpies are relegated.
He said: "I'm wedded to Newcastle. They have got me and I have got them, that's just the way it is."
Newcastle are three points from safety with eight games remaining and are in danger of losing their top-flight status, which they have held since 2010.
"Do I regret getting into football?" said Ashley. "The answer is yes. I have had tonnes of fun in it but I haven't been able to make the difference I wanted to in football."
Disillusioned by 'negativity'
Relegation to the Championship would mean a huge drop in revenues for the club.
Ashley said: "All I say is, there is a bank account, when you have emptied it, it's empty. Don't come crying to me for more money."
The Sports Direct owner, who bought the club in 2007, has seen his time in charge filled with controversy, but he has backed investment in the squad and handed over a £129m interest-free loan, according to the last published club accounts.
Ashley has become increasingly disillusioned with the "negativity around me as an individual when it comes to Newcastle" and admitted he wants to have less involvement in the club.
He said: "I don't really want to have any influence in football to be honest. Looking after Sports Direct is more than a full-time job."
Backing for new boss Benitez
Ashley expressed his faith in former Real Madrid boss Rafael Benitez, who replaced manager Steve McClaren earlier this month, but admitted he did not appoint him and is yet to speak to the Spaniard.
Speaking to Sky Sports on Monday, he said: "I think we have the right man in the job. If there's any chance of us staying up, let's hope Rafa can do the business and keep us up there."
Ashley was disappointed his side had not beaten fellow strugglers Sunderland on Sunday, but said the 1-1 draw was "not a disaster".
He said: "It's disappointing because I want to win every game for Newcastle United and it really doesn't matter who they are playing.
"It doesn't matter if it's a friendly, doesn't matter what it is, but I wanted us to win, so I'm a little disappointed."For nearly a year, Princeton researchers Steven Englehardt and Arvind Naranyan have been hard at work on a new project called the Princeton Web Census. Their goal is to log all the cookies, scripts, and trackers in the various corners of the internet, providing a running tab of all the tricks companies use to follow you from site to site.
Today, the team released its first report — and it shows Google and Facebook in a more dominant position than ever. Google Analytics was by far the most popular third party, present on 61 percent of sampled websites. DoubleClick and Google’s GStatic service took second and third place.
It's not practical to sample every site on the web, so the Census focuses on the 1 million most-visited sites, as determined by the analytics firm Alexa. By looking at the third-party domains that load content on a given site, researchers were able to get a sense of which trackers were most popular. Google owns seven of the 10 most loaded third-party domains. The remaining three are all owned by Facebook.
Those third-party domains are used for a wide variety of purposes. Google Analytics tells website owners how much each of their pages is being visited, while the GStatic service stores content off-site for faster loading. Still, the vast majority of those trackers feed data into services like Google's Doubleclick advertising network. Those networks allow advertisers to target web-goers who display certain interests or view specific pages, sometimes following users with the same ad from site to site.
Trackers that aren’t affiliated with giants like Google or Facebook have limited reach. The survey encountered 81,000 different third-party domains, but only 123 of them were present on more than 1 percent of sampled sites, and many shared a common owner. "Our data suggest that there is a trend toward economic consolidation in the third-party ecosystem," the paper reads. "The number of third parties that a regular user will encounter on a daily basis is relatively small." On more than 10 percent of surveyed sites, Google, Facebook, and Twitter were the only third-party entities present.
"We envision a future where measurement provides a key layer of oversight of online privacy."
News websites appear to be an exception to that rule. Researchers found news websites had more trackers than any other website category. "Since many of these sites provide articles for free and lack an external funding source," the researchers write, "they are pressured to monetize page views with significantly more advertising." Arts- and sports-themed websites also had significantly more trackers than average sites.
The report also looks at tracking methods that can’t be blocked with a simple browser plugin. Techniques like canvas fingerprinting, for example, follow the unique way a given device renders a page and use that data to identify users, a practice that was found in 5 percent of the 1,000 most popular web pages. More exotic techniques looked at the way a visiting device processes sound, or how full its battery was, and used that information to follow a single user from site to site. Other tracking systems exploit aspects of the WebRTC protocol to unmask a user's local IP address, although the practice is still relatively rare.
The Princeton team hopes that, by keeping a running tab of those activities, it can pressure tracking companies into better behavior. The Princeton group has published the source code for its OpenWPM tool, making it easy to keep an eye on canvas fingerprinting and other techniques as they develop. "We envision a future where measurement provides a key layer of oversight of online privacy," the study reads. "We expect that measurement will be useful to developers of privacy tools, to regulators and policy makers, journalists, and many others."Profile > portfolio > All photos Back to profile: Mark Miremont
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Password is incorrect. If you would like to view this album, please contact Mark Miremont.In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we’re talking about some of our favorite songs about drinking.
Dillinger Four, “Doublewhiskeycokenoice” (1998)
The best drinking songs aren’t celebrations of alcohol, nor are they castigations of the same. No, the best drinking songs encapsulate a feeling that wouldn’t be expressed were the singer not in his or her (or their, or your, or my) cups. It’s the way that the drinks loosen the tongue, allowing the words to convey meaning and emotion that would otherwise be kept bottled up inside. It’s that testament to what may or may not be better left unsaid that animates Dillinger Four’s “Doublewhiskeycokenoice,” a paean to the fine art of drinking your troubles away, only to keep having those troubles smack you in the drunken face.
Dillinger Four has always explored the fine line between the restorative and destructive powers of booze, and on this track (off of 1998’s Midwestern Songs Of The Americas), the group calls out the way that liquor provides a welcome respite from the crushing unpleasantness of everyday life. Except, of course, the drinker always knows that it’s not really a temporary fix—it’s barely even a fleeting bulwark against the darkness. As the narrator gets further into their alcohol-fueled reflections, they also ruminate on the way drunken ramblings are often as wrong as they are right. (“Praise God and pass the bottle of Beam / Because tonight I can’t seem to say what I mean / Don’t know if I would even if I could, Amen.”) The song acknowledges that booze is there to help trick you into thinking you can forget your problems, and maybe call some friends to help you do it.
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The first of many times I saw Dillinger Four was a particularly boisterous set at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The group was clearly well into the liquor by the time they took the stage, and amid the eventual nudity, onstage wrestling with members of openers Lifter Puller and Murder City Devils, and a poorly thrown bottle of Heineken (don’t ask), I discovered a newfound appreciation for the midwestern punk rock I had spent much of high school avoiding. Here was music I could drink to. It was a glorious, ramshackle rage against the dying of the light, but with better jokes than usual. And in the coming years, after I had become loose acquaintances with several members of D4 (various bands of various members playing shows together, the usual commingling of any local music scene), I developed an even greater respect for their songwriting. Few punk groups generate as many ideas, musically and lyrically, as Dillinger Four. Like a caffeine-fueled brainstorming session, their albums and shows were stuffed full to bursting, a wonderfully ADHD sing-along that loses none of its immediacy the 20th time, or even the 200th time.
And whiskey was often a large part of those live shows. More times than I can remember (the whiskey probably had something to do with that), a bottle of something strong was passed around during their sets, like communion wine for our musical Mass. “Doublewhiskeycokenoice” always represented something special about the band for me, and I’m not alone—Craig Finn gives it a shout-out on the opening track of The Hold Steady’s Stay Positive. A quick search online reveals that most people know it as the song Green Day ripped off (a fact that didn’t go unnoticed in our recent inventory of sound-alike songs), but for me, it will always be the song that testifies to what can make punk rock so revelatory. To paraphrase the final lyrics, Dillinger Four had a basement full of booze, blues to lose, and at least for the duration of this song, it’ll be all right.Major problem in India
Corruption is an issue that adversely affects India's economy of central, state and local government agencies. Not only has it held the economy back from reaching new heights, but rampant corruption has stunted the country's development.[1] A study conducted by Transparency International in 2005 recorded that more than 62% of Indians had at some point or another paid a bribe to a public official to get a job done.[2][3] In a study conducted in 2008, Transparency International reported that about 50% of Indians had first hand experience of paying bribes or using contacts to get services performed by public offices.[4]
Although, Transparency International's 2018 Corruption Perception Index ranks the country 78th place out of 180 countries reflecting steady decline in perception of corruption among people.[5]
The largest contributors to corruption are entitlement programs and social spending schemes enacted by the Indian government. Examples include the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the National |
an absolute mess of an offensive line due to youth and injuries, UCLA was within one score of those clearly superior opponents heading into the fourth quarter of both games. From there they went on to win at Arizona, beat a good Washington team at home and crush USC and Virginia Tech but lose to Arizona State. Their talent was undeniable but experience and consistency weren’t there yet.
While stars Brett Hundley and Myles Jack are the headliners, the Bruins should be particularly strong across their defensive front. Ends Owa Odighizuwa and Eddie Vanderdoes could be the best one-two tandem in the country. With all those dangerous Pac-12 quarterbacks this year, the champion will be the team that fields the best week-in, week-out defense. Admittedly, that could be Stanford or even Washington, but not likely Oregon. The questions are whether Hundley can stay healthy — because UCLA will be in big trouble if he doesn’t — and how the Bruins will deal with their loftiest expectations in 14 years.
Stewart, in five of the last seven years, a redshirt freshman or sophomore has won the Heisman Trophy. Do you see the trend continuing for the underclassmen or do you see an upperclassman winning the trophy this year? With Jameis Winston removed (because I don’t see any repeat winners again), who’s your pick?
— Shawn, Elida, Ohio
The Heisman has undergone an interesting transition over the last 15 years. For most of the award’s history, the electorate was clearly biased in favor of established upperclassmen. No underclassman had won it prior to Tim Tebow in 2007. We’d assumed that was due to some unwritten tradition. Now, I think it was more a reflection of the media industry, which produces most of the 900-plus voters, which of course has changed dramatically.
There was a time when many of the reporters voting on the Heisman saw very few of the candidates actually play. Now you can see pretty much everyone, every week. So while there was definitely a time when preseason name recognition mattered, now someone like Johnny Manziel can vault from obscurity to frontrunner in a matter of weeks. If anything, the Heisman has now gone in the opposite direction, where voters are increasingly drawn to the Next Big Thing. So I’m not even bothering with a preseason pick this year. Winston, Marcus Mariota and Hundley are probably too well known for their own good. They will be held to an impossible standard. The winner will likely be someone who started with no bar to reach.
Hey Stewart, I’m wondering why you’re so high on Duke this year. Obviously last year was a great season for the Blue Devils, but even though they bring their starting QB back in Anthony Boone, Brandon Connette, who transferred to Fresno State, was the one who got them in the end zone. Plus, losing their All-ACC tight end (Braxton Deaver) and middle linebacker (Kelby Brown) to injuries can’t help. I get that the Coastal is wide open, but I’d say they are rightfully outside the Top 25 with all those questions of their own.
— Mark, New York
It’s admittedly not been a great preseason for Duke with those two key injuries. I questioned the coaches poll voters for leaving the Blue Devils out of the top 25, but that was back on July 31, before the injuries. I wouldn’t blame anyone for leaving them out now. But, when I sat down to write my ACC picks last week, I still placed Duke on top in a very mediocre, very closely bunched Coastal Division, albeit in a tie with North Carolina. Everyone in that division is flawed and a bit of a mystery. A team like Virginia Tech could finish anywhere from first to fifth.
But I look at Duke and see a team that won 10 games last year while still fairly young. Nearly half the players on the two-deep for the Chick-fil-A Bowl were sophomores or freshmen. This team should be better than that one. Furthermore, its schedule is quite favorable, with no Florida State, Clemson or Louisville. North Carolina may be a better team by season’s end, but over a four-week stretch beginning Sept. 20 it plays at East Carolina and Clemson, hosts Virginia Tech, then visits Notre Dame. Only two of those count in the conference standings but the entire stretch could take a toll. So I’ll stick with Duke.
Now watch Georgia Tech win the thing.
Stewart — With the very real possibility of the Bret Bielema era at Arkansas starting 0-16 in SEC play, what are the chances of Arkansas dumping Bielema and going after a more hurry-up/spread oriented coach? Baylor offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery’s offensive philosophy and his connections to Texas recruiting would be an attractive candidate to replace Bielema’s ground n’ pound regime.
— Dave, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
You’re writing him off already, are you? I don’t believe Arkansas will go winless in the conference again this year. The Razorbacks got better toward the end of last season, taking Mississippi State to overtime and nearly knocking off LSU. And that was with Bielema starting seven freshmen. It’s a tough division for a rebuilding team to see its record improve considerably, especially given the dearth of talent left behind by Bobby Petrino and John L. Smith, but winning two or three SEC games is not out of the question. Even if that doesn’t happen, I just can’t see AD Jeff Long axing a three-time Big Ten champion coach after two seasons.
Now, I’m not guaranteeing Bielema will ultimately be successful. He’s already dug himself quite a hole. I’ve likened his situation before to that of Rich Rodriguez’s at Michigan. Continuing that parallel, I’d be cautious about pushing for yet another radical change in style. It takes two to three years for a coach to reinvent the roster to fit his system, as Bielema is doing now. If you fire him and bring in a Baylor guy, it’s going to take him another two to three years to switch back from a ground-and-pound team to a spread passing team. It’s the inverse of what Michigan has gone through in yo-yoing from Lloyd Carr’s pro-style to Rodriguez’s spread back to Brady Hoke’s pro-style. I’d advise against it unless absolutely necessary.
A 6-7 season was cause for celebration in Durham just two seasons ago, so I don’t think it’s possible for David Cutcliffe to fall victim to Ole Miss/Clemson syndrome a second time, but are there any deluded fanbases out there whose expectations currently surpass what they should reasonably expect from their programs?
— William Kimmitt, location unknown
Definitely Oregon. Mark Helfrich may be the first coach in history to garner skepticism for going 11-2.
Stewart, I see you have my East Carolina Pirates in the Peach Bowl? Finally someone in the national media recognizing what we have this year. Do you think it is our schedule that will allow us to play in the Peach? Most “experts” think it kills us to play South Carolina, Virginia Tech and North Carolina. So, why are you so big on my Pirates this year?? Thanks.
— Chris Allen, Roxboro, North Carolina
Well first of all, obviously, I think East Carolina has a very good team, though it certainly has its work cut out in the American contending with Cincinnati, UCF and Houston. But if the “experts” think those three tough out-of-conference games kill their chances, then clearly they don’t yet understand one of the key changes in the new system. Which is, the selection committee, unlike BCS voters, will look at more than just record in determining which of those Group of 5 champions actually deserves the highest ranking.
In the BCS era, we basically just lumped all the non-power conference teams together, and if someone from that group managed to go undefeated, it rose to the top of the heap. There was no attempt to differentiate between an undefeated team that played a horrific schedule and a one-loss team that may have actually been a better team.
Consider this: Had the American lost its AQ status a year earlier, UCF never would have made a BCS game last year because of its loss to South Carolina. Never mind that it won at Louisville and at Penn State. So those three tough games should help ECU with the committee, not hurt it, but the Pirates probably need to win at least two of them. And then, obviously, they need to run through their conference.
Your Bowl Projections article on Fox Sports today is just completely ridiculous my man. To put Oregon below Washington, UCLA, and Stanford this year is just an irresponsible call, and you know it.
— Matthew Shanon, Phoenix
Irresponsible? I may well be wrong about the Ducks’ season, but I don’t think I’ve put someone in harm’s way or run up a budget deficit.
Hi Stewart: While I certainly appreciated your responses to the brainwashed Notre Dame faithful, their naivety actually raises an interesting question. What percentage of NCAA investigations are launched after a school self-reports as opposed to the alleged infraction being "reported by a third party?”
— Kyle, Miami
According to an NCAA spokesperson I contacted, only about 18 percent of major violations (now referred to as Level I and II) are self-reported, as opposed to nearly all secondary violations (now referred to as Level III). If Notre Dame did uncover widespread academic fraud with institutional involvement that would certainly fall under major violations, so give some credit for turning themselves in.
That being said, the assumption made by so many of my Domer e-mailers – that they’re the ONLY one who would do that, and that EVERYBODY ELSE would cover it up – comes off just a wee bit arrogant. Oklahoma turned itself in when it found out its starting quarterback at the time had a phony job with a local car dealership. Miami alerted the NCAA about Nevin Shapiro months before that story went public. This may be hard to believe, but the non-Notre Dame programs of college football are not all circa-‘80s SMU replicas.
Observation — These are your worst bowl projections ever. My LSU Tigers ARE NOT being relegated to the Capital One Bowl.
— Russell Macomber, Ormond Beach, Florida
Yep. It’s football season.
Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. Before joining FOX Sports, he covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. His new book, “The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the College Football Playoff,” is now available on Amazon. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel. Send emails and Mailbag questions to Stewart.Mandel@fox.com.by Samuel Dale
Last summer, Labour Uncut ran a series about telling ten hard truths for the Labour party after an epic election defeat in May 2015.
Those were the days. Remember Andy Burnham giving his opening leadership speech at Ernst & Young and talking about attracting business support? Or Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper fighting over who could say aspiration the most times in a speech?
For a few heady days in May, we were all Blairites. An incredible 12 months in Labour politics has passed and it is time to tell 10 hard truths to Labour moderates about our role in the party.
1. Jeremy Corbyn won because Labour members backed him. Corbyn currently appears to have the overwhelming support of Labour members, not to mention affiliated and registered supporters. In fact, he is one of the most popular leaders the party has ever had among its membership. The only realistic route to removing Corbyn is persuading these members that there is a better alternative. Telling them they are clowns or morons (as I have done many times) is self-indulgent and clearly unpersuasive.
2. Momentum have out-organised the Labour right. Last summer, the Corbyn campaign signed up 88,449 registered supporters paying £3 each to vote for him. That was a huge effort of organization and political skill. Without those registered supporters then the vote would have gone into a second round and anything could have happened. This year’s election has been an even bigger effort with an estimated 150,000 registered supporters signed up in the last 48 hours. Some will be moderates for Saving Labour but it seems likely that most will be Corbynistas.
3. Corbyn’s successor will be very, very left-wing. The membership revolution in the Labour party means the next leader will be very left wing. More left-wing than Ed Miliband. Corbyn has significantly, and perhaps permanently, dragged the party leftwards and that will be his crowning legacy. The next leadership election will be run by triangulating between the ideas of Corbyn and Miliband, not Miliband and Cameron.
4. Corbyn has inspired hundreds of thousands. The Labour party now has more than 600,000 members, nearly four times as many as the Conservatives. This is a big achievement and clearly Corbyn is partly seen as an inspirational leader and a symbol of a more hopeful politics. Moderates can’t mimic the politics but they must learn to show an inspiring vision to change modern Britain. Blair did it in the late 1990s, not because he was seen as a flaccid centrist but as a radical inspiring liberal leader. In changed circumstances, the same rules apply to winning Labour leadership elections.
5. Labour MPs will likely face re-selection battles. The Conservatives will ram through their boundary changes during this parliament and it will give the hard left the chance they have always wanted. They will be able to fight hundreds of primary campaigns against sitting Labour MPs as well as future candidates. Mandatory re-selections (or primaries) have been a disaster in the US where politicians are forced to fight off any party challengers before turning to the electorate at large. They have fuelled the rise of the Tea Party and far right and added an unpredictable and centrifugal effect to US politics. It is not a process that favours moderate candidates.
6. Creating a new party is seductive but self-destructive. A new SDP would deliver the Conservatives into government for the next 15 years. It would be impossible to build a new party and organization in time for the next election so the Tories would win easily. Under our electoral system then it could even allow Ukip or Tories to come through the middle to win extra seats. The collective seats of left-wing parties would be lower in 2020 than it is today. Labour under Corbyn would win more seats than any new party. A new SDP would become the equivalent of the Lib Dems with a ceiling of 60 to 100 seats even in 2025. The Tories will be the permanent lead party of government until Labour gets its act together. We should be in the party for when it does. Splits are seductive but futile.
7. Anti-establishment politics is the new norm. Immigration was the scapegoat and driving force behind Brexit but wage stagnation, economic disparity and distrust of political elites were the causes. It remains to be seen whether general elections can be won on this basis but Brexit and the rise of the SNP and Ukip suggest it is a important driving force. Any Labour moderate must recognise the anger and try to provide policy solutions through tax and spending solutions and political reform. It cannot be dismissed or ignored.
8. Blair did not do enough to tackle inequality. The Blair and Brown governments were too focused on creating a growing economy and maintaining market and electoral fiscal credibility. There was no mission to drive out inequality of outcomes in all its guises. Changes to welfare were significant and helpful to the cause but did not go far enough. There was no attempt to redistribute on a larger scale through wealth or property taxes, for example. For all its many successes, it was too timid from 1997 and 2010.
9. Blair was far too timid in winning social democratic arguments. Tony Blair transformed the size and nature of the British state through the minimum wage, tax credits and billions in NHS investment. But he never made the full-throated arguments for a larger more active state. Only once – in the 2002 budget – did Labour launch a national debate over a 1% increase in National Insurance to fund NHS spending. And this was small beer. After 2001, Blair and Brown should have been winning arguments and changing Britain’s soul rather than through stealth taxes and silent spending and welfare reforms. It should have welcomed big arguments more often, and won them.
10. It is a long road back to a liberal, centrist Labour government. I have been tempted by the argument that if only we could remove Corbyn then we will immediately have a chance to govern again soon. But that is fantasy. The rise of the SNP shows no sign of dissipating while boundary changes will make the mountain even steeper to climb. Ukip is genuinely challenging the party in its northern heartlands and Wales, and it could be re-invigorated under a new, less bombastic leader. The Lib Dems could win voters back from a more left-wing Labour in their millions. These are structural problems for the next election that will not be immediately undone if we remove Corbyn. It is a long road back for a liberal centrist Labour party in government. Settle down for hard slog.
Sam Dale is a financial and political journalist
Tags: 10 hard truths, elections, inequality, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leadership election, Momentum, Samuel Dale, Tony BlairSo when I put this on I was amazed at how easy it was. No bubbles. Nothing. I was super happy, almost ordered another right away. Then I remembered why in the morning. It doesn't adhere to the screen so there was the rainbow effect. I can tell it is there when the screen is on. So disappointing. It is a pretty thick glass, noticeably more than other glass protectors I've Used so the quality is great. In the beginning that rainbow ruins it. After using it for 3 months I must have gotten used to it because I didn't notice it. Water...or sweat got underneath the protector (ran with it in a belt) so I took it off, got the moisture off and put it back on but it didn't stay well.
Might buy another. I currently am using a glass protector that's normal and adheres 100% but only covers the actual screen, so the camera and buttons on the bottom are not covered and protected.
Bottom line...you will notice the rainbow in the beginning but will probably get used to it and be happy with the protector.Fox News is claiming that a top climate scientist said global warming "doesn't equal warming," when he actually pointed out that much of recent warming has gone into the oceans.
A recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change concluded that much of the warming since the year 2000 has been absorbed by the ocean. In a story on the new findings, Reuters quoted Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, as saying "Global warming is continuing but it's being manifested in somewhat different ways":
"Global warming is continuing but it's being manifested in somewhat different ways," said Kevin Trenberth, of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. Warming can go, for instance, to the air, water, land or to melting ice and snow. Warmth is spreading to ever deeper ocean levels, he said, adding that pauses in surface warming could last 15-20 years.
However, on Tuesday's edition of Special Report, Fox's flagship nightly news show, Trenberth's words were warped beyond recognition. Claiming that there may be "a breach in the wall of climate science," Fox News played a clip of industry-funded climate misinformer Marc Morano alleging that Trenberth "is announcing that global warming doesn't mean rising temperatures. In other words, that warming doesn't equal warming."
Actually, Trenberth noted that air temperatures make up only a small fraction of the way we measure climate change. As this chart from a study published in Physics Letters A shows, oceans have absorbed much of recent warming -- a factor that Fox News completely ignored:There's 5 tiers in the SSE Airtricity League now and with 16 games over the next 4 days all of them are going to be effected this weekend. We look at how it might play out
1) The title race
It was starting to look ominous for Cork City but last week Colin Healy's wondergoal gave them a huge three points as Dundalk struggled in Drogheda. Dundalk still have a 4 point lead but they look to have the tougher weekend ahead. They host a newly-confident Limerick side this evening and on Monday travel to Sligo in what is always a tough game. Cork on the other hand travel to a depleted Derry City side this evening before a home game against strugglers Bray Wanderers on Monday. It won't surprise too many if the gap is narrowed this weekend
2) The battle for Europe
The title is gone for champions St Pats and they'r level on points with Shamrock Rovers and new manager Pat Fenlon. If someone outside the top 4 wins the FAI Cup, one of these will miss out on Europe and both clubs kinda need that. Pats have 2 home games this weekend; tonight v UCD (live on Setanta Ireland, 8pm) and Monday v Limerick. They've won their last 8 home league games and need to make it 10. Rovers play in Athlone this evening and Monday see Fenlon take Rovers to his old club Bohemians for what's always a grudge match. His first club as a player (Pats) will be hoping Bohs can pick up points.
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3) The fight to avoid relegation
Athlone are running out of games to avoid finishing bottom. They host Shamrock Rovers tonight while UCD travel to Inchicore and Bray host Sligo Rovers. if all 3 lose (as likely), they're left with 9 games to make up 6 points (considering they've won 12 all season...). On Monday Bray should lose in Cork so the game between UCD and Athlone in Belfield is huge.
4) The hunt for promotion
Longford Town had their first stumble in a while last week drawing at home to Finn Harps. They still have a 4 point lead with only 7 games left but a failure to win at home to Galway tomorrow will make everyone there start to wonder if Tony Cousins is about to half a Tony Cousins-like choke again. Waiting in the wings are Shelbourne who travel to Wexford knowing a slip-up can't happen if they're to put pressure on. They final play off spot is between Galway and Wexford too...
5) The midtable hunt chase race fight splodge
There are lots of teams with little to play for with 10 games left in the Premier Division. Some like Derry, Bohs, Drogheda will hope that they can add an FAI Cup run to their season. For others like Sligo or Limerick it's a case of new managers taking stock of what they have to offer.
Whatever happens, enjoy the games!The list of music considered the worst consists of albums or songs that have been considered the worst music ever made by various combinations of music critics, television broadcasters (such as MTV), radio stations, composers, and public polls. A piece of music needs to be notable, popular, or memorable to be deemed the "worst ever", or it would be unlikely to top all-time public polls a few years after it was released. As such, a piece usually needs to have been high-profile at the time of its release, such as an unexpected hit that was highly disliked outside of its fan base, albums with poor material, or songs that are most disappointing by artists. Scholarly accounts are rare concerning the "worst music ever". Most polls or critical lists are light-hearted in nature, especially in pop music. Magazines reflect the preferences of their readers, and polls can provide unreliable results if they are influenced by too small a group of readers or critics. Most "worst ever" lists do not take into account all music ever created, but are limited to certain time periods, styles of music, and geographical areas. Furthermore, individual tastes can vary widely such that very little consensus can be achieved; the winning song in a CNN e-mail poll received less than 5 percent of the total votes cast.[1] There are a handful of scholars who have done more in-depth analysis of music perceived to be bad, including Irwin Chusid, Barry Hansen (better known by the stage name Dr. Demento), and Darryl W. Bullock, author of the 2013 book The World's Worst Records.[2]
Albums
Albums contain material that most people will not be familiar with, apart from fans and professional critics. Therefore, "worst-ever" lists usually contain poorly recorded albums that many readers have not heard in their entirety, or the "worst" or most disappointing albums by well-regarded artists. An artist's actions or reputation might also influence the results. Such lists are harder to compile in the form of a public poll, unlike singles or music videos, which will usually be heard or seen even by non-fans of the artist.
Songs
The following songs have been named by critics, broadcasters, composers, and listeners as the "worst ever". Examples of sources include VH1's "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever" and Blender magazine's "Run for Your Life! It's the 50 Worst Songs Ever!".
Others
In 1997, artists Komar and Melamid and composer Dave Soldier released "The Most Unwanted Song", designed after surveying 500 people to determine the lyrical and musical elements that were the most annoying. These elements included bagpipes, cowboy music, an opera singer rapping, and a children's choir that urged listeners to go shopping at Walmart. As described by the online service UbuWeb, "The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos... with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition." The conceptual artists also had a project known as "The Most Wanted Song", organized similarly. Both tracks include, as an in-joke, references to famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.[169]
Classical music media have run fewer "worst-ever" lists than pop, either for composers or individual pieces. There have been articles on the worst recorded versions[170] and the worst classical album covers.[171]
In film music in the United States, the worst song of the year is given the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song. This "award" was given from the ceremony's inception in 1980 until 1999 and resurfaced in 2002. It parodies the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Some publications have compiled lists of the "worst" music videos ever.[172][173][174] Album cover artwork has also been subject to "all-time worst" lists.[175][176][177][178]
See alsoPhoto
What happened to the In Memoriam segment of the Tony Awards?
At the end of Sunday night’s broadcast of the Tonys on CBS, some theater fans were confused by the absence of the annual photo montage honoring members of the Broadway industry who died during the past year. Cyndi Lauper memorably performed “True Colors” during the In Memoriam on the 2013 telecast, and such segments have been staples of the Oscars and other award shows.
“It’s usually a beautiful and moving moment, and a lot of people noticed it was gone,” said John Breglio, a longtime theater producer.
This year, Tony Award Productions and CBS decided to air the In Memoriam only for the audience at the Tonys ceremony inside Radio City Music Hall during a commercial break. It is also posted the segment online.
“Presenting in this manner allowed us to include more individuals than we have been able to include most years, and as a result, more accurately reflected the depth of loss suffered by our community this past year,” Shawn Purdy, a spokeswoman for Tony Award Productions, said in an email. This year’s montage was about two minutes and 40 seconds long, the same length as Ms. Lauper’s last year.
Ms. Purdy’s explanation did not sit well with some Broadway veterans.
“The montage should absolutely be included in the telecast, because it means a lot to people in the audience and theater lovers watching from home,” said Elizabeth I. McCann, a Broadway producer and a former managing producer of Tony Award Productions. “It looks like somewhere along the way theater people have lost control of the Tonys, and CBS is pushing them around. So we end up with a star like Jennifer Hudson singing a song from ‘Finding Neverland’ even though she isn’t in the musical – and the musical isn’t even on Broadway.”
The “Finding Neverland” number was out of step with tradition – usually only Broadway shows are represented with numbers on the Tonys – but CBS and the musical’s producer, Harvey Weinstein, engineered it to provide a sneak peek of the show. “Finding Neverland” is opening this summer at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., but has no firm plans for Broadway at this point.
Two members of the Tony Awards Management Committee, which helps run the Tonys, insisted this week that the In Memoriam segment was not changed to make way for “Finding Neverland.” The committee members, who spoke on condition of anonymity because committee issues are meant to confidential, said they had mixed feelings about leaving the segment out of the telecast, admitting that they want to be included in the montage on live television when they die. They said they did not know if the segment would be restored next year.
Several artists said they were troubled by the omission from the contact, while others responded with a touch of gallows humor.
“Next year maybe they could make the In Memoriam segment even longer by reading it backstage, or in someone’s living room!” Tony Kushner, the Tony-winning playwright of “Angels in America,” wrote in an email. “Why should dead people expect special treatment? The composer/lyricist, book writer and designers who won this year were also upstaged by commercials, and unlike the stars of In Memoriam, they actually had to show up!”Tupac called time on his relationship with Madonna because she was white, it's been claimed.
TMZ has obtained a handwritten letter penned by the late rapper from his prison cell, which is set to go under auction later this month at Gotta Have Rock and Roll with a starting bid of $100,000.
The emotional note, written by the talented California Love lyricist when he was 24 - 18 months before he was gunned down and killed, was reportedly sent to Madonna, now 58, when he decided to end their sexual relationship.
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'For you to be seen with a black man wouldn't jeopardise your career': A handwritten letter from Tupac Shakur to Madonna in 1995 revealed the reason for their split as race-related
Dated January 15 1995 and written from prison, the Hit Em Up star's letter gave an insight into his relationship with the Material girl singer, then 37.
Appearing to explain why he called time on their relationship, Tupac explained: 'For you to be seen with a black man wouldn't in any way jeopardise your career, if anything it would make you seem more open and exciting.
'But for me, at least in my previous perception I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was', the rapper, whose mother Afeni Shakur was an active member of the Black Panther Party activist group wrote, adding: 'I never meant to hurt you.'
'Can you understand that?' he added.
Honest: The emotional note, penned by the talented California Love lyricist aged 24- a year and a half before he was gunned down, will go up for auction, starting at $100k
In 2015 Tupac's brother Mopreme Shakur confirmed Madonna's claims that the pair had dated, revealing that it began with a 'passing of a note' during the star's Above The Rim press day in 1993.
But by the time the letter was written in 1995,things had clearly taken a turn between the A-list duo.
Keen to give his side of the story to the apparent breakdown in their relationship, Tupac's note began: 'I've waited a long time 2 finally write this.
Handwritten note: By the time the letter was written in 1995,things had clearly taken a turn between the A-list duo
Emotionsl: Keen to give his side of the story to the apparent breakdown in their relationship, Tupac's note began, 'I've waited a long time 2 finally write this'
Making amends: And appearing to want to make amends, Tupac went on to offer an olive branch to the hitmaker
'Mainly because I was struggling to find all the answers so that I wouldn't leave any unanswered questions.
'First and foremost I must apologise to you because like you said I haven't been the kind of friend I know I am capable of being,' he said of their relationship, thought to have started
Appearing to address a public media feud, he continued: 'An interview where you said 'I'm off to rehabilitate all the rappers and basketball players' or something to that effect, those words cut me deep, seeing as I'd never known for you to be with any rappers besides myself.
Rare: Dated January 15 1995 and written from prison, the Hit Em Up star's letter gave an insight into his relationship with the Material girl singer, then 27, after they met in 1993
'It was at this moment out of hurt and natural instinct to strike back and defend my heart and ego that I said a lot of things.'
With another section blurred, the Rose That Grew From Concrete poetry book author continued: 'Can you feel me?
'In the time since, as you can see, I have grown both spiritually and mentally.
'It no longer matters how I'm perceived. Please understand my previous position as that of a young man with limited experience with an extremely famous sex symbol.'
And appearing to want to make amends, Tupac went on to offer an olive branch to the hitmaker.
'For me, at least in my previous perception I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was': Tupac explained to the icon in the note
'I offer my friendship once again this time much stronger and focused. If you are still interested I would like to further discuss this with you but some of it couldn't wait.'
Proving his caring side, the political rapper added: 'PLEASE BE CAREFUL MADONNA.
'Everyone is not as honourable as they seem. There are those whose hearts bleed with evil and envy'.
In an ominous message Tupac, who had previously survived being shot five times, but was gunned down a year and a half after the letter was penned, added:
'They would not hesitate to do you harm let my five bullets be proof of that!'
'Ps If there is any information you can share with me regarding Jack and crew please do, it could well be a matter of life and death.
'Always, Tupac.
'I was dating Tupac Shakur at the time, and he had got me all riled up about life in general', Madonna (pictured in 1985) confirmed her relatinship with Tupac in a 2015 interview
'I don't know how you feel about visiting me but if you could find it in your heart I would love to speak face to face with you. It's funny but this experience has taught me not to take time for granted,' the poet and rapper finished his heartfelt letter with a heart.'
In 2015 Madonna confirmed the duo had dated after being introduced by Do The Right Thing actress Rosie Perez, in an interview with Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show.
'One time I was mad at [Letterman] when I said the f-word a lot, but the rest of the time was good,' she said.
'I was in a weird mood that day. I was dating Tupac Shakur at the time, and he had got me all riled up about life in general. So when I went on the show I was feeling very gangster.'
Tupac's brother backed this up in a later interview, explaining: 'She gave me a note to give to him.
'[I didn't read it,] I was just happy she was giving him a note. Everybody was there, I went over and gave it to him. He was about the business and then they linked up. I would take him to her house and s**t when we got back to L.A. Yeah. They were a thing for a minute.'
Beef: Tupac's success triggered an East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry, that led to a contentious relationship with The Notorious B.I.G. (pictured)
A photo taken at a Vogue dinner in New York City the following year shows the Material Girl sitting at the same table as Tupac in 1993.
It's not clear exactly how long the two were together but it was certainly over by February 1995 when he started serving a prison sentence for an alleged assault.
The letter, due for action in mid July, is expected to fetch a sizeable sum.
In 2015 another handwritten letter by Tupac went up for sale for $225,000.
Tupac Amaru Shakur was known by his stage names 2Pac and (briefly) Makaveli.
He sold over 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Tragic: On September 7, 1996, Shakur) was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand with Death Row Records founder Suge Knight
His album All Eyez On Me was one of his biggest hits, including political, racial messages as well as themes around the hardship of inner cities and his life.
However his success soon triggered an East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry, that led to a contentious relationship with The Notorious B.I.G. and the label Bad Boy Records.
On September 7, 1996, Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand with Death Row Records founder Suge Knight.
He was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he died six days later.
No-one has ever been charged with his murder.It’s starting to look as though the historic mission of Donald Trump, who was a registered member of the Democratic party as late as 2009, is to revive American liberalism. On Tuesday night, Trump, who earlier in the day had tweeted ‘Roy Moore will always vote with us’, accomplished his most improbable feat since winning the presidency. He helped hand over a Senate seat in Alabama, sweet home Alabama, the reddest of red states, to the Democratic candidate Doug Jones, a supporter of abortion rights and stricter gun controls. |
a huge range of experience and understanding through life and books that she brings into this book.
Lurking behind it is Seneca: the Roman philosopher who talked about anger being a useless emotion. What Nussbaum argues in the book is that there is something confused about what we think we will get from our emotion of anger. We feel anger, anger is often used in political contexts, and anger is often praised: we feel that we should feel angry about how people have been treated, the injustice. She argues that we should get beyond anger, and the associated desire for payback, and that it usually exacerbates the evil in a situation rather than removing it. It is often more about getting a good feeling from expressing the anger than it is about bringing about beneficial results of the kind that we claim to want to bring about.
It’s a great idea, but how does she set about proving that?
Think about what happened after apartheid in South Africa. You might have expected a situation where there were reprisals, a justifiable humiliation of the people who’d committed torture and murder, and harassed people. This retributive approach would have come very naturally to most people. The world almost expected payback. Instead, we had Nelson Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The choice of a civilised, not straightforwardly forgiving but transparent process of coming to terms with what had happened was, in most people’s eyes, a better solution.
“Justice is a human invention. It’s not a natural given that if somebody harms you, you have to harm them back in proportion to the harm that they brought about.”
Martha Nussbaum is making the case for a new Stoicism in society. Stoicism famously involved control of the emotions and not giving in to irrational passions when they could not bring about any benefit. In society, we should hold back on anger, hold back on something which comes very easily to most of us. We will produce a better world by looking for other solutions.
What about justice, though? If we give up the anger, then there’s no justice.
There isn’t justice in the sense of an eye for an eye, but there’s a question whether that is the best view of justice. Justice is a human invention. It’s not a natural given that if somebody harms you, you have to harm them back in proportion to the harm that they brought about. True, many of us are predisposed to behave that way, but we can resist that temptation. What Martha Nussbaum is inviting us to do is to step back from that and ask, does it actually bring about a better situation, than some alternative, more restorative approaches to wrongdoing? Ultimately the message of the book is that love is better than hate.
The book is stimulating a debate about how we should respond to wrongdoing. It’s an important book, it’s beautifully written and it draws on a wide range of sources, but it is not the final word on the issue. It’s somebody putting forward an interesting position, defending it, arguing for it, believing in it sincerely. That opens up a conversation that we wouldn’t otherwise have had. That, for me, is the great value of philosophy: that it allows and encourages people to think. It doesn’t simply present a pre-packaged view that you have to learn.
Anger is such an important issue. Everyone has felt it in their personal, day-to-day life, and in their relationships. Now, in the age of the internet, we also see it online — the rage and angry comments. We see it in politics. It is something that we’re confronted with every day in some shape or form. But it’s not something that one normally thinks about philosophically. Not being a philosopher, I can safely say that it would never have occurred to me to think about anger philosophically.
What’s nice about the way Martha Nussbaum does it is that she can draw on some of the great philosophy of the past. She knows the classic texts very well and has read them in Latin and Greek. These topics were much discussed in ancient philosophy. So there’s a really interesting way it can feed back into the present debate. Philosophy can be very good at renewing its past and making it relevant to today, and that’s true of my final book choice as well.
Read 5 The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything by Christine Gross-Loh & Michael Puett Read
Which is The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life. It has two different subtitles, actually, in England and America. The alternative is A New Way to Think About Everything. Anyway. Whether I’m learning about the good life or thinking about everything: Why is this on your list of the best philosophy books of 2016?
Within academic philosophy departments there is a conventional cannon that goes from the pre-Socratics through to contemporary philosophy and largely excludes eastern philosophy. That’s dismissed as either religion or homespun wisdom. That’s the caricature — but there is an element of that, certainly in the degree that I studied and that many people study.
And there is an argument for that, because there is a causal influence from Plato through medieval philosophers to the present. It’s a particular story in which Confucius and Mencius and various other Chinese philosophers don’t have much input. There’s a debate about whether, possibly, some Buddhist philosophy could have come in through Schopenhauer and perhaps earlier, even, in Hume’s writings about the self. But, generally, eastern philosophy hasn’t had a huge impact on that particular story, though Arabic translators and philosophers were responsible for preserving some key Greek philosophy.
And, yet, there are a number of very rich traditions in eastern philosophy, and most western philosophers are quite ignorant about those, as, I confess, am I. They may have read some Confucian writing, but they have very little sense of what the best of Chinese philosophy might be like.
“Philosophy can be very good at renewing its past and making it relevant to today”
The Path is very interesting because it’s written for a popular audience. It’s a very easy read, but it makes Chinese philosophy quite fresh. It’s written by a Harvard academic, who put on a course in Chinese philosophy that was incredibly popular with students. So he’s worked out ways to draw people into the subject. The big focus is on how you should live. That is the basic question in philosophy, the question Socrates was asking. It is not a trivial question, nor an easy one to answer.
What he does in the book is run through a number of answers given by Chinese philosophers in a way that makes them seem, to me at least, part of the same activity as the greats of western philosophy. He talks, in particular, about the philosopher Mencius, who was working in a Confucian tradition. Mencius made some important points about the cultivation of virtue, starting with the family and how important it was to recognise your place within the family before you try to extend the circle wider and include other people.
So Chinese philosophers are addressing the kinds of questions that Peter Singer addresses, for example, about how much care we should give to people beyond our nearest circle. But they do it in very interesting ways.
This is not the last word. I’m not in a position to judge it as a work of scholarship on Chinese philosophy, but one thing it does is make you want to read further in Chinese philosophy. That’s another thing that a good introductory book should do. It shouldn’t leave you satisfied, it should leave you dissatisfied, feeling there’s something else you want to find out, something else you want to learn. So one book leads to another, and this book certainly leads to other books.
You were a bit nervous about including The Path among your best philosophy books of 2016 because you thought it was a bit self-helpy. I know this is something you feel strongly about, that philosophy is not self-help. Can you explain?
There are some popular philosophy writers around at the moment whose books could just as easily sit in the self-help sections of bookshops as under philosophy. Some have their source in Roman philosophy, which put a big emphasis on studying philosophy to improve how you live. The problem with that for me is not so much that people are writing these books, but rather that they give the impression that this is what philosophy essentially is – a set of psychological techniques gleaned from great thinkers of the past that will make things go better for individuals. In contrast, I see philosophy as enquiry: you can’t prejudge the outcome. It is an on-going enquiry into the way things are, and how best to cope with them; but you can’t know in advance that following that enquiry—thinking about the nature of reality, the limits of your knowledge and how best to live—will actually improve your life or make you happier than you would otherwise have been. It might make things worse. You might get a glimpse of the abyss and find life unbearable.
“Perhaps we would lead happier, more fulfilled lives if we just followed some simple ‘divine’ rules about how to behave, even if these are entirely human fabrications.”
Perhaps it would’ve been better not to spend so much time reading philosophy books. Perhaps it would have been better not to recognise that there are no pre-existing values that shape our lives and no easy solutions to questions about how we should live. Perhaps we would lead happier, more fulfilled lives if we just followed some simple ‘divine’ rules about how to behave, even if these are entirely human fabrications.
Philosophy might take you way away from happy ignorance. Some people who study philosophy are led away from religious faith, and from confidence in traditional ways of living; they’re taken away from certainties about how we should live. So it seems to me presumptuous to say that studying philosophy will make your life go better, or even that it might be, at heart, a form of self-help. It could be self-destructive. It could be disruptive. There are cases of people who have studied philosophy in depth and with great seriousness who’ve broken down as a result of it.
“I see philosophy as enquiry: you can’t prejudge the outcome.”
It’s the kind of subject that, if approached sincerely, leaves you fundamentally ill at ease at a certain level, because most of the things you take for granted are questioned, and there may not be any certainties to put back in their place. There can be some consolation in knowing that you have tried hard to understand what’s really going on, of course, but success in understanding is not guaranteed as human intellect is very limited. Socrates made clear that his strength lay in knowing how little he knew, not in how much – that’s were his wisdom lay. There’s an important message there.
Philosophy aims to give a clearer picture of how things are, and how we might live better. It may or may not achieve those things. It’s an on-going conversation aiming to reduce our ignorance, a subject with a 2,500 year history. It is not a subject of neat little answers that will, if applied to your love life, bring amazing outcomes. If that’s what you want, I recommend studying empirically-tested psychology. Philosophy is still a wonderful subject, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to put anyone off exploring it. But we should recognise it for what it is.Labour has approved a gender quota that will ensure 45 per cent of its MPs are women after the next election and at least 50 per cent are women in 2017.
A late amendment to bring the 50 per cent level forward to 2014 was defeated.
Labour leader David Cunliffe said in the current Labour caucus 41 per cent of the MPs are women, so 45 per cent would not be a hard target to meet, especially with a lift in Labour's share of the vote from 27.48 per cent in 2011, and to 50 per cent in 2017.
"I will personally be backing that."
Party president Moira Coatsworth said the target would be achieved by calculating the gender mix at various different levels of support and taking into account the likely electorates Labour would win.
The list would be selected in "bands" of five with an equity check after each band.
Cunliffe said it was possible the party could fall outside its target by a small amount because of that process, but if so, male candidates who were elected would not be pressured to stand aside.
Coatsworth said skills were the first thing to take into account in selecting candidates.
"It's 120 years this month since women got the vote, but we still have less than a third of women in the New Zealand Parliament.
"For the last 120 years women have missed out. This is about getting women equity.
"There are lots of women with merit. It's not about merit or representation, it's about representation that includes merit."
She said Labour had a good record but it wanted to keep going with that by lifting it to 45 and then 50 per cent.
The conference also approved a trial plan for a separate list of Maori candidates, determined by Maori, that would then go as an "input" to the final list moderating committee.
The conference approved a constitutional change that requires the candidate selection process to consider various factors including ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender and geographical spread, with an amendment that referred also to Pasifika people.
It would require the list to ensure such groups were fairly represented, but does not set specific quotas.
Other proposals, including a call for Labour to hold a binding referendum on replacing the monarch with an elected head of state, were passed on for further consideration by the party but they will not be automatically included in the policy manifesto in 2014.
A proposal to make abortion a woman's choice was lost and instead abortion law will be referred to the Law Commission for review.New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take stock of the economy with experts at NITI Aayog on Tuesday against the backdrop of currency crunch post demonetisation and discuss ways to speed up growth.
“The theme of tomorrow’s meeting is ‘Economic Policy Reform, Road Ahead’. The prime minister will make opening remarks. There are 15 invitees who will make their presentations before the prime minister," a senior government official said.
The meeting assumes significance in view of various multilateral agencies and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lowering growth forecast for the current fiscal. RBI has reduced the economic growth forecast to 7.1% from 7.6% in its monetary policy review earlier this month.
Multilateral funding body Asian Development Bank (ADB) too slashed growth projection to 7% for the current fiscal, from its earlier 7.4% due to the impact of demonetisation on economic activities. Indian economy expanded by 7.1% and 7.3% in first and second quarters of 2016-17.
Economists, including former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, have raised concerns that demonetisation will disrupt the economy and pull down GDP growth rate for this fiscal by up to two percentage points.
The official said the prime minister will also take stock of various initiatives of NITI Aayog to promote digital economy like Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapaar Yojana to incentivise digital payments. The estimated expenditure on the first phase of the schemes (up to 14 April 2017) is likely to be Rs340 crore.On Sunday, former White Stripe and mighty Blunderbuss-weilding blues-breaker Jack White will perform at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. He also has a chance at winning three statues (Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song), and we’re guessing that one has to prepare for these things, like, fairly extensively, but that hasn’t stopped him from developing a whole lot of new songs for his next record. Even though this one has only been out 10 months, outsold the Beatles in vinyl, made our 50 Best Albums of 2012 list, and inspired a lovely career-spanning Austin City Limits set.
“I’m writing a lot of songs for another record,” White told BBC 6 Music News today. “I have over 20 tracks I’m working on right now.” He’s also been busy with his Third Man Records label and store, of course, having shared his collaboration with Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes “Paul’s Not Home” only yesterday. True indeed, the man seems ceaselessly dedicated to doing right by rock’n’roll, but does that mean he should win a Grammy this year? Under other circumstances, perhaps, but we’ve made our picks for the major categories and White isn’t one of ‘em. Find out why: Grammys 2013: Who Should Win.lol @ Meta Knight banned in Melee
Your team stage list might actually make me practice Melee in preparation even though no one should lose to an old fogey like me :B
sad at Sm4sh EVO stuff, desperately wish for 3 stock / 8 minute timer
Wish skyloft was legal, it's another Delfino, although it does have some natural timer issues in campier matchups
Also FYI:
1. The first game is played on a Stage selected from the Starter Stage List either by mutual consent
or through the Stage Striking Method. The pattern of stage striking will be P1-P2-P2-P1.
^the above striking method is for 5 stages, but there are 7 on the list so it'd be P1-P1-P2-P2-P1-P2 or some variation thereof.
Also the suicide rule is a carry-over from Brawl, there is no randomizing factor for suicide moves anymore. If ZSS does her dair spike, she dies first. If Sheik does her dair spike, opponent dies first. Etc., etc.
If Bowser koopa suicides, he dies first; Opponents can sometimes even make it back to the stage by jumping and using their up+bs. With the current rule, you could grab someone with over-B, kill yourself, show your opponent on the victory screen, and you'd still have won. There are no SD moves to my knowledge that result in sudden death naturally.Vegan Salted Caramel Pecan Rolls
I’ve been on a yeasty baking kick lately. I find it strangely satisfying when a ball of dough doubles in size in about an hour. It’s like magic…magic that leads to really fluffy, chewy, delicious things.
This prolonged carb high has led to many versions of sweet rolls. For the past several weeks, I’ve arrived at our Sunday family dinners with a new version of sugary, rolled-up goodness. The version I’m sharing today has been my very favorite.
They’re Teia’s favorite, too.
It all started on Easter morning, when I scanned my Instagram feed and saw that eeeeeeveryone was making cinnamon rolls. I suddenly had a craving that wouldn’t go away. Unfortunately, I had overslept and needed to leave for brunch at my parent’s house in about an hour. A google search for quick cinnamon rolls brought me to Minimalist Baker’s beautiful blog (one of my very favorites), so I threw together “The World’s Easiest Cinnamon Rolls” before I left my home, baked them at my parent’s house, and bam, craving fixed in record time.
Over the next couple weeks I played around with the simple recipe, and ended up with these salted caramel pecan rolls. They’re 100% vegan, made with mostly whole wheat flour, and pretty darn easy. I have a new favorite sweet roll, and it’s going to make its way into my weekend mornings a wee bit too often.
I recommend you make these for Mother’s Day, and every Sunday after that for the rest of eternity.
I covered my rolls tightly with plastic wrap, stored them on the kitchen counter, and took bites when I passed by for 4 days before I felt weird about it. Since there is no dairy in the recipe, I had no qualms about leaving them on the counter. You can refrigerate them if you want, but they will dry out faster, so you’ll want to eat them within a day or two. They taste best when warmed in the microwave, although I ate them at room temperature (…with a fork, directly from the pie pan), so do as I say, not as I do.The deer once considered a nuisance in Mt. Lebanon, and culled over the past year are serving a new purpose for local food banks.
Over the past year, White Buffalo Deer Management said 104 deer were killed in Mt. Lebanon. White Buffalo and the Pennsylvania Game Commission were called in to hunt the deer after various complaints, including increases in car crashes and concerns over Lyme disease.
White Buffalo and the state game commission gave those hunted deer to Hunters Sharing the Harvest, an organization that finds processors and donates the meat to food banks.
One of those processors is Hoffer’s Ligonier Valley Packing, which gave the venison to New Florence and Rector food banks in Westmoreland County.
“The Hunters Sharing The Harvest provides us with bags, and we run it in the bags. This local food bank we have, they come pick it up on the day they’re distributing, and they hand it out then,” said Mark Zimmerman of Hoffer’s.
According to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Pennsylvania is one of 12 states where hunger costs rose more than $1 billion since 2007. Hunters Sharing The Harvest estimates there's statewide waiting list of 5,000 food pantries requesting more deer meat.
Sandra Hershberger, volunteer coordinator at the West Hills Food Pantry in Moon Township, said it recently received 400 pounds of donated ground venison. She said 75 percent of the pantry’s clients prefer ground venison over beef.
“They pretty much use it for anything,” she said. “They use it in spaghetti sauce, chili. Some say they just make burgers with it. Some say they have to doctor it up to get their family to eat it with spices and different seasoning.”
The West Hills Food Pantry helps about 150 families per week, Hershberger said.Puerto Rico means a lot to me. I love Puerto Rico. I love playing for these guys out here. When I came back, everybody told me, “Every time you hit a home run we scream at home and we go crazy!”
For me to be able to create that impact means everything. At the end of the day, it is a sport, and they love watching it, but it really does have an impact. For me, that’s really gratifying — something really special.
This offseason, everything changed. I thought it was going to be the same as when I left, but I talked to my mom right before I flew into Puerto Rico, and she told me I had to be ready. People were going to be all over me. The fans were going to go crazy.
I was like, “No. mom, I don’t think so. I don’t think it’ll be different …”
But as soon as I got home, I could tell. It was different. People were noticing me everywhere. At the airport. At the mall. At restaurants. People ask me for autographs or pictures everywhere I go. But I enjoy it. I have fun doing it. These fans have supported me since I was a little kid. To be able to be back home with my people and to share these moments with them?
That means the world to me.
Puerto Rico is home for me, but it’s a tropical, beautiful kind of place, with a lot of nice beaches, great people, great food. It’s a small island with great atmosphere. I just love being home.
I kayak probably once a week, for fun. I love to be on the ocean.
My draft year, we knew it was a pretty good draft class, we knew a lot of these players were going to make it to the big leagues, and there’s still a lot of good Puerto Rican players in the minors who are going to make an impact in the big leagues at soon as they get there.
For me, it’s really important to take time for the fans, especially the kids, because they look up to me as a role model. I don’t take that lightly. I like to embrace that and be a good role model for them on the field and off the field as well.
There are a lot of great young Puerto Rican players coming up that will bring a lot of happiness to the fans here. We are all looking forward to the World Baseball Classic next year, where we can play together and represent Puerto Rico. Carlos Correa
I see my family pretty much every afternoon and night, but in the morning, I wake up early and go straight to the gym.
Most nights, I train at the Estadio Municipal Luis Guillermo Moreno in my hometown of Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico.
I eat ice cream during the season, but in the offseason, I get a frozen yogurt after my workout most days. I try to be smart and disciplined about what I eat, especially in the offseason.
Family plays a big role in my life. My dad showed me how to have a great work ethic every single day. He would wake up at 4 a.m. and work construction all the way until 6 p.m., and then he would go to the ballpark with me. He made so many sacrifices so that I could succeed. Carlos Correa
I miss my mom cooking during the season all of the time, but you’ve gotta adjust in every single way to be able to preform on the field in this game. I eat pretty much anything. I have a strict diet, but I’m not that picky. I eat everything that I can. When my mom is in Houston, she cooks for me, and it’s great. But when she’s not there, I adjust.
Most days, we all eat together. And then at night when I go to the ballpark, we all go together. We’re very close. I’m a family guy. I love spending time with my family. I’d rather be spending time with my family than be partying out there with some random people.
We have a great time together and we all love baseball. They come to every game that they can. I’m excited because when my brother graduates from high school, they’ll be able to come to a lot more of my games.
My little brother works out with me at the ballpark almost every day. He’s a good player, too, and he has a great work ethic. He’s not going to be like me and get drafted right out of high school. He’s gonna go to college first. But eventually, he’ll get drafted and become a great player.
This year, we asked the manager here to please let us practice at his stadium. He said, “Okay, but you have to let the kids watch you while you practice.” I love that stuff. I love to be able to show the kids how work gets done and how I work every day to get better. Carlos Correa
A lot of people come out to watch me play. I don’t big-league anybody out here. I treat everybody like I want to be treated, so it is all respect. I want to be a good baseball player, but a good person as well.
It’s really fun when the kids are out there watching me and they see how it’s done and how hard you need to work every single day to become a better player. I hope that they don’t only watch, but that they apply it to themselves and see that they’ll have to work as hard as I do in order for them to accomplish their goals.
For me, it is not only about being a good baseball player. It is about being a good citizen as well.
It is not about myself. It’s about helping others and being able to do things for others — to create an impact on other people’s lives.
That is what I want to focus on throughout my career, to be able to be a great player and help my organization win multiple championships. But I also want to be able to help the community. To help kids and be able to teach kids to play the right way.
I enjoy every single moment because this is something that isn’t going to last forever. So while it lasts, I will have fun doing it, and I embrace it and I love doing it with the fans because at the end of the day, they support your career. You have to have a great relationship with the fans.Samsung Electronics won an Outstanding Achievement in Innovation Award for its Smart UX Center at the Buyers Laboratory (BLI) Summer 2016 Awards.
The Smart UX Center is the printing industry’s first ever Android-based system, enabling users to store, photocopy, print, edit and transfer documents in any form between printer, computer and mobile.
BLI, the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging hardware and software, gave Samsung’s Smart UX Center a high rating, particularly noting its unique and innovative properties in customizing and expanding printing functions to meet users’ needs.
“The combination of a true Android tablet UI and accessible ‘app store’ by end users, resellers and IT administrators, puts Samsung in the vanguard as MFP makers begin to embrace the app paradigm,” said Jamie Bsales, Director of Office Workflow Solutions Analysis at BLI.
BLI also believes the Smart UX Center to be a highly innovative industry innovation. The Printing App Center effectively supports users who wish to enhance the features of their MFPs according to their own needs by downloading low-cost – and sometimes free – apps and widgets.
“Customers should have no trouble finding solutions to boost productivity, streamline daily workflows, and realize the full potential of their MFPs. Samsung has just scratched the surface of the platform’s possibilities,” Bsales added.
“Since its debut in 2014, Samsung UX Center has been creating changes in offices around the globe – designing a hassle-free printing environment through printing task digitalization” said David SW Song, Senior Vice President, Printing Solutions Business at Samsung Electronics. “As an industry leader in office innovation, Samsung will continue to develop high-technology, user-friendly printing goods and services.”
Buyers Lab (BLI) is the global document imaging industry’s resource for unbiased and reliable information, test data and competitive selling tools. In summer and winter each year, BLI hosts its Pick Awards and Outstanding Achievement Awards, acknowledging high-performing printing hardware and software products, with a unique and rigorous evaluation system.Today Canada Basketball named the roster for the Cadet (U16) Men’s National Team and the list is STACKED with budding stars on the national Canadian hoops scene.
Just check the roster list below to see names including Rowan Barrett Jr., Simi Shittu, Andrew Nembhard, Keshaun Saunders, and Jonathan Kabongo.
So many of the top talents NPH has been scouting for years will come together to squad up under head coach Dave DeAverio for the FIBA Americas qualifier later this summer.
Per Canada Basketball:
The U16 Men’s National Team will hold its final training camp in preparation for U16 FIBA Americas in Bahia Blanca, Argentina from June 10-14. Head Coach, Dave DeAveiro will gather his 14-man squad in Toronto, Ont. at Humber College – North Campus from May 28-June 4. The U16 team will compete in the FIBA Americas competition, which serves as a qualifier for the 2016 FIBA World Championships. DeAveiro, a native of Toronto, returns for his fourth year coaching the U16/U17 age-group team. He is joined by assistants Michael Meeks (Canada Basketball) and James Derouin (University of Ottawa), as well as apprentice coach Nicky Davis (Sheridan College).
Roster
ATHLETE NAME POSITION HOMETOWN CLUB Barrett Jr, Rowan Wing Mississauga, ON REDA/Brampton Warriors/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand Bediako, Jaden Forward Brampton, ON Team Breakdown/Brampton Warriors/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand Brazdeikis, Ignas Wing Oakville, ON Oakville Venom/CIA Bounce/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand Carr, Marcus PG Woodbridge, ON Northern Kings Courtney, Liam Forward Cambridge, ON REDA/Waterloo Wolverines/Canada Elite Djuricic, Danilo Forward Brampton, ON CIA Bounce/Team Tyler Ennis Kabongo, Jonathan PG Toronto, ON CIA Bounce/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand Kirkwood, Noah Wing Kanata, ON Ottawa Next Level Llewellyn, Jaelin PG Mississauga, ON Oakville/CIA Bounce/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand Team Nembhard, Andrew PG Aurora, ON Vaughan Panthers/ Brampton Warriors/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand Shephard, Grant Forward Kelowna, BC Junior Heat Shittu, Simisola Wing Burlington, ON REDA/CIA Bounce/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand John, Brandon Forward Brantford, ON CIA Bounce/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand Saunders, Keshaun Wing Brampton, ON Oakville Venom/CIA Bounce/Tyler Ennis Jordan Brand
Coaches
NAME POSITION Dave DeAveiro Head Coach James Derouin Assistant Coach Nicky Davis Assistant Coach Michael Meeks Assistant Coach Mary Lancette Therapist Chris Cheng Manager Mark Leung Doctor
Be sure to check back soon for more in-depth coverage of the Men’s U16 National Team by NorthPoleHoops!Also – be warned, when you’re looking at anything for a set from an upcoming film, understand there’s an implied gigantic, neon lights ablaze, air horn siren Spoiler Warning here. Turn back now if you want to be completely in the dark when it comes to those lovable miscreants protecting the galaxy!
Welcome to another preview of the Marvel HeroClix: Guardians of the Galaxy v2 Movie Gravity Feed based off of the upcoming sure-to-be-a-smash-hit film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2! Today, we’re taking a look at one of the most beloved curmudgeons in the galaxy, Rocket!
Rocket is the team’s resident tinkerer and ordinance expert – he cobbles together weapons and is the oft-times foul mouthed voice of reason for the Guardians. While he’s not exactly what you’d call a team player, Rocket has the ability to play on four different themed teams, Guardians of the Galaxy, Animal, Pilot, and Robot. He clocks in at a very affordable 65 points, which nets you five clicks of life and a range of six squares with two targets. Rocket is also naturally nimble, as shown by his Improved Movement – Ignores Hindering Terrain and Improved Movement – Ignores Characters.
Powers wise, Rocket has a measure of standard powers that fit his character perfectly – Running Shot for when he’s on the move and blasting baddies, Flurry for when he closes in and needs to finish off an opponent, Energy Explosion for those times when things need to get explosive, Super Senses to show those natural animal instincts, and Probability Control, which plays to his combat expertise and ability to predict and readjust to situational battle. Along with his standard powers, Rocket also sports a special defensive power called Stand Still Ya Vermin, which states that Rocket can use both Mastermind and Super Senses. As an added bonus, he can use Mastermind regardless of point value if the friendly character shares a keyword with Rocket.
That’s it for today, ‘Clix fans! Stay tuned as we continue to explore the far reaches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with more exciting previews from the upcoming Marvel HeroClix – Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 set! Until then, I AM GROOT!ANTAKYA, Turkey — Wars, as businessmen have recognized for centuries, can be very profitable. Evidence of that is on display here, where a half-dozen military supply stores in the center of this town near the Syrian border are busy catering to a clientele flooding in from all over the Middle East.
Exactly where the shoppers come from, the store owners say, is not their business.
“Look, we don’t ask our customers their nationalities,” said Tayfur Bereketoglu, the owner of a store bearing his name. “But they have long black beards, they don’t speak Turkish, and the reality is that there is a war next door. Why should we ask where they’re from?”
The new customer base, as most everyone here recognizes in private, consists of foreign jihadis, mostly Sunni extremists drawn to fight the Shiite-aligned government in Syria’s increasingly sectarian civil war. The foreign fighters, easily spotted because of their bushy beards, enter Turkey through Istanbul, land at the airport in Antakya and slip into Syria, though not before doing some shopping here.
The stores cater to the needs of the fighters coming here for the first time or coming out of Syria for air: military vests, camouflage pants, knives, gas masks, prayer beads, brigade banners, solar generators, telescopes, binoculars, flashlights, not to mention razors and shampoo — pretty much everything short of arms, which are waiting for them in Syria.Full Disclosure mailing list archives
By Date By Thread Apple iOS v9.2.1 - Multiple PassCode Bypass Vulnerabilities (App Store Link, Buy Tones Link & Weather Channel Link) From: Vulnerability Lab <research () vulnerability-lab com>
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2016 09:52:02 +0100
Document Title: =============== Apple iOS v9.2.1 - Multiple PassCode Bypass Vulnerabilities (App Store Link, Buy Tones Link & Weather Channel Link) References (Source): ==================== http://www.vulnerability-lab.com/get_content.php?id=1778 Video: http://www.vulnerability-lab.com/get_content.php?id=1779 Release Date: ============= 2016-03-07 Vulnerability Laboratory ID (VL-ID): ==================================== 1778 Common Vulnerability Scoring System: ==================================== 6.4 Product & Service Introduction: =============================== iOS (previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Originally released in 2007 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, it has been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPad and Apple TV. Unlike Microsoft`s Windows Phone (Windows CE) and Google`s Android, Apple does not license iOS for installation on non-Apple hardware. As of September 12, 2012, Apple`s App Store contained more than 700,000 iOS applications, which have collectively been downloaded more than 30 billion times. It had a 14.9% share of the smartphone mobile operating system units shipped in the third quarter of 2012, behind only Google`s Android. In June 2012, it accounted for 65% of mobile web data consumption (including use on both the iPod Touch and the iPad). At the half of 2012, there were 410 million devices activated. According to the special media event held by Apple on September 12, 2012, 400 million devices have beensold through June 2012. ( Copy of the Homepage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS ) Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Its |
as stockroom positions present challenges to you if you have a conviction,” he says. “So they kind of paint you into a corner—they tell you they want you to be militant and do all this time, and you come out and there’s limitations on the things that you can do.” Gibbs’s record can affect his ability to obtain public housing—even private housing if the landlord runs a background check. “The irony is, I still have to provide for myself,” he says. “So if I can’t have access to all these things, what am I supposed to do?”
Although he’s been doing well since his release, Gibbs worries about other people in the same position. “The uniqueness about me is that I kind of defied the odds and all that. Which is cool—it’s a great story,” he says. “But that shouldn’t have to be the case, because not everyone is going to think like me and navigate these obstacles.” Stories about those who have defied the odds, he thinks, leave out the vast majority of people who continue to be marginalized. “You’re talking about the lion’s share of the population that experiences this,” he adds. “This is what the day-to-day adversity is.”
The equalizing potential of education relies on the premise that it can open doors for every child who has access to it. But where does that leave the children whose lives consist not of open doors, but of locked ones?Fancy on Vimeo/Screenshot Applications for Google Glass are popping up left and right. We've seen official and unofficial Glass apps for services like Evernote, Path, Facebook, and even for watching porn.
Now social shopping startup Fancy is hopping on the bandwagon with its "Fancy Color Search" service for Google Glass.
Users first take a picture with Glass and share it to Fancy to discover products with matching colors.
In the demo video, one person takes a picture of his kitchen appliances and shares it to the Fancy app. He then sees 20 "matching" items like storage drawers, shutters, rugs, and wallpaper. From there, he can "Fancy" the item and save it to his collection, or buy it on the spot with a tap and a swipe.
One feature that would make it even more amazing would be buying with just the wink of an eye.
Check out the Fancy app for Glass in action in the video below.
Fancy Glassware from Fancy on Vimeo.The nation of road movies, freeway freedom and dreams of endless horizons is waking up to the reality of soaring fuel prices. Paul Harris in Riverside, California, reports that people are leaving their gas guzzlers in the garage
It is known as the Inland Empire: a vast stretch of land tucked in the high desert valleys east of Los Angeles. Once home to fruit trees and Indians, it is now a concrete sprawl of jammed freeways, endless suburbs and shopping malls.
But here, in the heartland of the four-wheel drive, a revolution is under way. What was once unthinkable is becoming a shocking reality: America's all-consuming love affair with the car is fading.
Surging petrol prices have worked where environmental arguments have failed. Many Americans have long been told to cut back on car use. Now, facing $4-a-gallon fuel, they have no choice.
Take Adam Garcia, a security guard who works near the railway station in Riverside. Like many Inland Empire residents, he commutes a huge distance: 100 miles a day. He used to think nothing of it. But now, faced with petrol costs that have tripled, he is taking action. He has even altered the engine of his car to boost its mileage. 'I have to. Everyone does. I can't afford to drive as much as I did,' he said.
Recent figures showed the steepest monthly drop in miles driven by Americans since 1942. At the same time car sales are collapsing, led by huge SUVs.
General Motors, once the very image of American industrial might, is in deep trouble. Cities are now investing in mass transit, hoping to tempt people back into town centres from far-flung commuter belts where they are now stranded by high petrol prices.
Jonathan Baty used to be a pioneer. The lighting designer has cycled to work every day since 1993. It's a nine-mile round trip through the heartland of a car-based culture once famously termed 'Autopia'. But now Baty has company on his daily rides as others choose two wheels rather than four to navigate southern California's streets. 'We have seen a whole emergence of a bike culture in this area. There is a crescendo of interest,' said Baty, who does volunteer work for a cycling group, Bicycle Commuter Coalition of the Inland Empire.
In Riverside, bus travel is up 12 per cent on a year ago, rising to 40 per cent on commuter routes. Use of the town's railway link is up eight per cent. A local car pooling system is up 40 per cent. It is the same in the rest of the US. In South Florida a light rail system has reported a 28 per cent jump in passengers. In Philadelphia one has shown an 11 per cent rise. Even nationwide scooter sales have shot up. At the same time car sales are hitting 15-year record lows. Last week major American car-makers reported a devastating 18 per cent drop in car sales.
The numbers point to a more fundamental shift. In America car sales carry a symbolic value that transcends the wheeler-dealering of the showroom. This is a nation of fabled road trips and Route 66. 'There is an American dream of mobility and freedom and wealth. The car is part of all that,' said Professor Michael Dear, an urban studies expert at the University of Southern California.
In the 1950s the confident nation that helped win the Second World War was expressed in classic car designs of huge fins and open tops. By the 1990s it had become the Hummer, a huge bulking car born from the military. Now there is to be another shift. For, hidden within the car sales figures, is a more complex story than a simple fall. Sales of big cars are plummeting while smaller vehicles, especially fuel-efficient hybrids, are replacing them.
GM has now closed SUV production at four plants. Its Hummer brand is up for sale, or might even be closed. GM is ploughing huge resources into its 2010 launch of the Chevy Volt, a hybrid car that may get up to 150 miles a gallon. It needs to. GM's share price recently hit a 54-year low, prompting one top investment bank to warn that the firm could go bankrupt.
The Volt, and cars like it, could become symbols of a new more conservation-minded car age. As Americans enjoyed the 4 July holiday weekend, increasing numbers of them were staying at home rather than hitting the road. Newspapers were full of tips for'stay-cations', not weekend breaks away. Customs once scorned, such as car pooling and cutting out trips to the mall, are now commonplace. The fact is, the vast majority of Americans cannot give up their cars altogether. Too many cities lack any reliable public transport.
Adam Garcia is one of those caught. He does two jobs and his daily road trip by car is a necessity. 'We don't have much of a choice. I have to drive,' he said. Sacrifices come elsewhere, in giving up trips to the cinema and to see friends.
But America's changing relationship with the car is just part of the story of how the most powerful nation is changing in the face of the oil price rise. America has been built on an oil-based economy, from its office workers in the suburbs to its farmers in the fields.
Since the 1950s and the building of the pioneering car-orientated suburb of Levittown in Long Island, the American city has been designed for the convenience of the car as much as its human inhabitants. People live miles away from jobs, shops or entertainment. If you take away cars, the entire suburban way of life collapses. To some, that development is long overdue.
'Suburbia has been unsustainable since its creation,' said Chris Fauchere, a Denver-based film-maker who is producing a new documentary on the issue called The Great Squeeze. 'It was created around cheap oil. People thought it would flow easily from the earth forever.'
Fauchere's film, due out later this year, aims to tackle the profound changes caused by a world where oil is becoming scarcer. He does not think that it is going to be easy for America to make the adjustment. 'It is going to be tough. It is like a chain reaction through the economy. But if you look at history, it is only crisis that starts change,' he said.
The suburbs are already being hit. As cars become more expensive, the justification for suburbs seems to disappear. Some commentators have even suggested that suburbs - once the archetype of an ideal American life - will become the new slums.
In the face of expensive fuel and crashing property prices, the one-time embodiment of a certain American dream will become crime-ridden, dotted by empty lots and home to the poor and unemployed. That is already happening as crime and gang violence has risen in many suburban areas and tens of thousands of homes have been reposessed because of the mortgage crisis.
In effect, suburbs will become the new inner cities, even as once-abandoned American downtowns are undergoing a remarkable renaissance. Even malls, the ultimate symbol of American life since the war, are undergoing a crisis as consumers start to stay away.
But there are even deeper changes going on. The car, the freeway system and cheap air travel made America smaller. Everywhere was easily accessible. That, too, is ending. Higher fuel prices have dealt a terrible blow to America's airlines. They are slashing flights, raising costs and abandoning routes. Some small cities are now losing their air connections.
In effect, America is becoming larger again. That will lead to a more localised economy. To many environmentalists that is a blessing, not a curse. They point out that cheap fuel for industrial transport has meant the average packaged salad has travelled 1,500 miles before it gets to a supermarket shelf.
'Distance is now an enemy,' said Professor Bill McKibben, author of the 1989 climate-change classic The End of Nature. 'There's no question that the days of thoughtless driving are done.'
The worst hit parts of the US are not yet the suburbs or the freeways of southern California, but the small towns that dot the Great Plains, Appalachia and the rural Deep South. Even more than the Inland Empire, people in these isolated and poor areas are reliant on cheap petrol and much less able to afford the new prices at the pump. Stories abound of agricultural workers unable to afford to get to the fields and of rural businesses going bust.
Even farmers are not immune. They might not need a car to get to their fields but their fertilisers use oil-based products whose prices have gone through the roof. A handful have started using horses again for some tasks, saving petrol on farm vehicles.
The American dream of the last half century is thus changing. The car and its culture is now under a pressure unimaginable even a few years ago. 'The frontier of endless mobility that we've known our entire lives is closing,' said McKibben.
America's excess has had many imitators. Recently a delegation of Chinese government officials and architects visited an Arizona suburb near Phoenix. Approving notes were taken as they surveyed the luxurious car-driven suburban lifestyle on display. This was just one of the many delegations that regularly come from the Far East or South America.
Even as America is sobering up from its excess of cheap oil, other parts of the world are seeking to join the party. They, too, want homes far from dirty city centres, huge open roads and fast cars. It is still a beguiling vision of freedom, mobility and bountiful riches.
McKibben spent last week on a visit to Beijing. He was worried about what he saw. Even as America's obsession with the car lifestyle is ending, others are embracing it. 'The Chinese have spent the Bush years starting to build their own version of America. A key question for the planet is whether they still have time to build a version of Europe instead - global warming will probably hinge on the answer to that question,' he said.
Car culture
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck's classic novel follows 14 passengers and a dog as they set out from the Oklahoma dust bowl for California in a decrepit sedan. 'The ancient Hudson, with bent and scarred radiator screen... with hub caps gone and caps of red dust in their places - this was the new hearth, the living centre of the family; half passenger car and half truck, high-sided and clumsy.'
On The Road
Written in April 1951, Jack Kerouac's autobiographical account of a road trip across the US and Mexico with Neal Cassady is the definitive account of American wanderlust.
Rebel Without a Cause
James Dean's fate is sealed when he accepts the challenge to a Chickie Race from the high-school gang of Buzz Gunderson. The game ends in tragedy for Buzz, when his car goes over the cliff. Dean was later to die when he crashed his Porsche Spyder.
Bullitt
The 1967 Dodge Charger was the most elegant car of Detroit's muscle era. The car, with its sinister occupants, is destroyed by Steve McQueen, left, in a Ford Mustang GT Fastback, and consumed in a ball of flame. The scene provides the climax to nine minutes and 42 seconds of cinematic car intensity in the hills of San Francisco.For more information about Póstumo, including where to order the decks after the Kickstarter, please visit ScallywagsInternational.com
STRETCH GOALS
$9,000 - MET! Upgrading the deck to Bicycle-grade paper and USPC printing.
$20,000 - MET! Alternate "Red Back" deck of cards.
$30,000 - MET! Unlocking the Green Brain Chips. All $4 chip sets will automatically include all five chips. All 100- and 300-chip orders will be able to customize their final numbers between the five colors.
$40,000 - A free 5x7 card print for all backer levels, plus we unlock the Purple Brain Chips. All $4 chip sets will automatically include all six chips. All 100- and 300-chip orders will be able to customize their final numbers between the six colors.
Póstumo is the creation of Obsidian Abnormal and Darren J. Gendron, mixing playing cards with zombie inspirations. It's printed on Bicycle-grade paper from the USPC.
Póstumo
We remixed the suits into spades, clubs, hearts and brains, taking literal representations of each. Spades are now actual shovels, while clubs are shown as bats and other blunt objects. Hearts take on a fleshy connotation. Diamonds are replaced by the most valuable thing to a zombie - BRAINS.
The Ace of Brains
The font is specially designed for Póstumo by Obsidian, creating a distressed and fleshed interpretation of Garamond. The final versions of each card have up to 10 different illustrations of brains, clubs, spades or hearts.
The 10 of Hearts
Face cards harken back to their classic medieval roots, with Kings, Queens and Knights rising from the dead to fill full houses.
The King of Clubs
The Queen of Hearts
The Jacks
The Green Card Back
The Red Card Back
The Silver Back
NOTE: The Silver Back is a Limited Edition run of only 2,500 decks, printed on Bee paper and using a metallic pewter ink for the silver parts. The design is not finalized.
The Dice:
We're working with Chessex to create these dice, which are being sold in sets of four (one of each design per set). They're 16mm d6s, with the design replacing the "6" pip.
The Chips:
We're dubbing them Brain Chips. They're 11.5-gram composite chips hot-stamped with gold inlays. Note: Sets of 100 chips will come with 25 of each color. Sets of 300 chips will come with 100 white, 100 red, 50 blue and 50 black chips.
You can now add one chip of each color by adding only $4 to any backer level $9 or higher!
The Screen Print:
A mock-up of the design we'll be using for the screen prints
Note: The screen prints will be done on 100 lb paper and will measure 18 inches by 24 inches.
And here's O working on the Jack of Hearts:
The Jacks
The QueensSanders argued during a rally for Clinton in Dearborn, Mich., that the Republican nominee "is manufacturing his ties in China, his clothing in Mexico, his furniture in Turkey."
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"Mr. Trump, you can be an American hero — become a model for your fellow billionaires. Bring those plants back to America," Sanders said.
Sanders went after Trump for using "manufacturing plants in Bangladesh" and accused the New York businessman of "exploiting poor people" by using cheap labor overseas.
The independent Vermont senator is campaigning for Clinton on Thursday in Michigan, where he pulled out an upset win over her in the Democratic presidential primary in March.
Sanders argued during the rally that the election shouldn't be "a personality contest" but should be about the "survival of the American middle class."
"I read the polls. I understand that neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump are particularly popular. I get that. But forget about that for a moment. Take a hard look at the agendas of the campaign, what these candidates stand for," he said.
"This campaign is not about Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. It is about you and your families and your kids," Sanders said.
Sanders also needled Trump, a "multibillionaire" who "owns mansions all over the world," over his decision not to release his tax returns.
"He does not pay a nickel in federal income taxes, and he's proud of that. Because he thinks we can just stiff the middle class, you pay taxes," Sanders said.
He also incorporated Trump's comments on women in portraying Trump as a divisive figure.
"In this campaign, what Trump is trying to do, trying to win votes, by dividing us up... by every day hurling insults at women that I can't even repeat," Sanders said.
"I would be embarrassed. I've got them down here, but I'm not going to repeat them. My wife would kill me."
Sanders was speaking at UAW Local 600 in Dearborn and was scheduled to make campaign stops Thursday at four different locations, according to the Detroit Free Press.Digital Track Digital Track Streaming + Download Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Purchasable with gift card Buy Digital Track $1.30 USD or more You own this Send as Gift
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lyrics
DANCEFLOOR SLAMMER
DANCEFLOOR SLAMMER, SUCH A TIGHT JAMMER
GIVING IT ALL THAT YOU GOT
YOUR HAIR'S SUCH A MESS IT'S AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT YOU'RE HOT
BEFORE I SAW YOU, I WAS LOST IN A HAZE
NOW I'M FINALLY HOME
'CAUSE THE WAY YOU MOVE IT GOT ME LOSING MY MIND
GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY ZONE
STARS ALIGN
END OF TIME
NOW YOU REALLY GOT ME. I JUST CAN'T QUIT
GOT TO KEEP YOUR LOVING AROUND
YOU KNOW I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL IT'S TIME TO SPLIT
AND GET YOU TO MYSELF ALL ALONE
BECAUSE THE WAY YOU SHAKE IT GOT ME FEELING SO GOOD
WANNA TAKE YOU DANCING TONIGHT
AND IF YOU LOVE ME LIKE YOU KNOW THAT YOU SHOULD, LITTLE GIRL
YOU KNOW WE'RE GONNA BE OUTTA SITE
STARS ALIGN
END OF TIME
STOLE MY HEART
I DON'T MIND
credits
Music and Lyrics by Kevin Bingo Richey and David Catching
©2014 HOOP SNAKE BMI, IT CAME FROM WITHIN ASCAP from Unfuckwithable, released August 7, 2014Music and Lyrics by Kevin Bingo Richey and David Catching©2014 HOOP SNAKE BMI, IT CAME FROM WITHIN ASCAP
license
all rights reservedIndia’s pension system is ranked 28 out of the 30 countries, highlighting the inadequacy of the nation’s retirement program in the world’s second most populous nation.Still, with Asia’s third-largest economy growing at a relatively healthy pace, India’s overall index value rose to 44.9 in 2017 from 43.4 a year ago, according to the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index for 2017. India’s pension system was also found to be more sustainable than that of Poland, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Austria, Brazil, China and Argentina though it ranked low on the ’adequacy’ sub-index.Only 7.4 percent of the working age population in India is covered under a pension program. That compares with 65 percent for Germany and 31 percent for Brazil, another major emerging market economy, according to the World Economic Forum’s report on Global Human Capital.Part of the reason for the low usage of pension funds is India’s vast informal sector and a lack of a variety of retirement programs."Encouragement to employees in the organized sector for greater participation in statutory and supplementary pension plans and increased level of communication both in organized and unorganized sector will be key to further strengthening the adequacy and integrity of a pension system in the country,” said Preeti Chandrashekar, India Business Leader, retirement, health and benefits at Mercer.The index, which is in its ninth edition, measured 30 countries and covered 60 percent of the world’s population. Denmark topped the list while Argentina is at the bottom of the overall index value, with Colombia, New Zealand and Norway added to the index this year.Last week, Papa John’s made quite the splash by publicly ripping NFL leadership and threatening to end their sponsorship of the league, over how Commissioner Goodell has mishandled that national anthem protests.
This week, according to an executive at NBC, we learn that Papa John’s isn’t alone and that other NFL advertisers have threatened to withdraw their business over the anthem protests as well.
Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships at NBC Universal, spoke recently at an industry chat hosted by AdAge. During the discussion, she said that while no sponsors have actually followed through and pulled their advertising from the NFL, yet, several have threatened to do so.
According to AdAge via Awful Announcing, “Yaccarino … said that none of NBCUniversal’s NFL advertisers have pulled out of NBC’s Sunday Night Football or Thursday Night Football games. However, a “list of advertisers have made themselves very clear: if you continue covering the political coverage of the issue, we will not be part of the NFL,” she said. “Because think about it: they have half the country that is cheering about that, and they have half the country that is emailing them, saying, don’t do that. So that’s a real thing.”
Yaccarino continued to say that she believes the protests have impacted NFL ratings: “She noted that prior to the controversy, which started last season when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began to kneel during the national anthem, “most” NFL games didn’t broadcast the anthem, aside from big games like the Super Bowl. “The story has morphed dramatically, from social injustice to patriotism,” said Yaccarino. “While I don’t think there’s any way you could ever really prove it, I do think it has impacted the ratings.”
On the other hand, according to AdAge, CBS CEO Les Moonves said that he had seen no such hesitation on the part of NFL sponsors: “I don’t know of one sponsor that has pulled out of any spot that they had, Moonves said. “I don’t think it’s affecting advertising or their desire one iota.”
While the points made by Moonves and Yaccarino seem to contradict each other, at least a bit. Both points are believable and completely unsurprising. The downturn in NFL ratings and popularity, primarily beginning in 2015, is still relatively new. Most of these advertisers signed their deals with the NFL when the ratings collapse either had not yet materialized, or, was considered a blip on the radar that would soon pass.
So naturally, these companies which signed long-term deals at the confiscatory rates the NFL could afford to charge due to their monstrous popularity, at the time, will start to get nervous when the see the ratings dive continue. Which, is why it’s not surprising that there has been some, primarily behind the scenes, rumbling about pulling advertising.
After all, these sponsors want the NFL to get back to making them the kind of money they were making three years ago.
However, it also makes perfect sense that these advertisers haven’t pulled out yet. While the ratings are nosediving and the league has done tremendous damage to itself; the fact remains, that whether it’s Sunday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, Monday Night Football, NFL football is still almost always the most watched thing on television.
So while the NFL is losing popularity, it’s popularity is not quite lost, yet. Keeping the league a worthwhile investment for advertisers. However, with the league not earning what it was when most of those contracts were signed, these sponsors are letting the league know, behind the scenes, not to expect to get the sweetheart deals they got in the past.It is the great paradox of pro sports.
Athletes form brotherly bonds with their teammates in order to become as tightly knit as possible -- and therefore as great a team as they can be -- and then players are moved around as stock-market commodities because, after all, it is a business.
That hit home yet again for Shea Weber when the Nashville Predators captain, like the rest of us, was stunned to hear that his young pal Seth Jones was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday in exchange for forward Ryan Johansen.
"I called him maybe 10 minutes after the news had come out," Weber said Thursday over the phone. "It was a tough phone call, to be honest with you. Not easy,” he said. "I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he’s a good friend. He’s almost, I want to say, like a son, but I don’t want to feel like I’m too old yet. But, I mean, he was a kid that I tried to help as much as I could; I saw a lot of potential in him and obviously still do."
Weber is not one to let his guard down often, but it’s clear in this instance that while he completely understands that the acquisition of a top center like Johansen makes total sense, the immediate emotional response for the veteran blueliner was to the loss of a kid he had become so fond of.
"Part of me is really excited for him because I think that he’s got so much potential; the sky’s the limit now in Columbus, there’s nothing holding him back," Weber said.
In other words, there’s no Shea Weber blocking him on the right side in Columbus.
"Yep, that’s pretty much what I told him," Weber said, chuckling.
But was he stunned to see Jones dealt? Indeed, just as much as those of us on the outside looking in.
"We were all in shock as well. It's obviously a tough part of the business. Especially when it's something you don't expect or see coming," Weber said. "When it does happen, it catches you off guard."
I pushed forward to Weber the notion that, if for no other reason than the nine-year age gap between him and Jones, many of us on the outside viewed Jones as the more untouchable of the two.
"Yeah, a GM may tell you that someone is untouchable, but I think for the right price, guys will be moved,” Weber said. "You’re right, though, that's probably one of the guys you wouldn't have thought would be moved because he’s got so much potential. But if you want to get something good, you have to give up a good player and a good asset as well."
Weber gets it, and he's excited to get a player of Johansen's ilk in return. Weber is 30, and star Predators goalie Pekka Rinne is 33. The time is now.
Preds GM David Poile went over the trade with Weber on Thursday morning, but it was pretty self-explanatory. The Preds have been looking for a top center for almost two decades. They're deep on defense, so the move made sense.
"Yeah, that’s the flip side of it. You go through different emotions of the trade, you lose a friend and a good player, but you get a tremendous player and talent that's coming the other way," Weber said.
"Just coming into the locker room today and listening to the excitement and hearing the guys talk, you could tell that there's a little bit of a buzz for us right now. And we're definitely happy and thrilled to have him on our team."
Right off the hop, Johansen will be able to prove his worth in the Central Division during a Friday matchup against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. The Avs have Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon coming down the middle, and now the Preds can counter with a No. 1 center of their own in Johansen.
Matchups down the middle were part of the difference last spring when Nashville lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round of the playoffs. Having Johansen in the lineup to match up with Jonathan Toews should give the Preds a better chance.
"It definitely helps," Weber said. "We were so close last year to beating the eventual Stanley Cup champs. We've got hunger this year knowing we were close but still have work to do. We're hoping the addition of Ryan will help us get over that next hump."Is Darrelle Revis a diva? Is he a malcontent? Will he be a distraction, a problem in the locker room, a bad character? Those are some of the questions I keep seeing, and I'm a little baffled by them. Darrelle Revis has held out twice, yes -- but he was never a bad character. The issue was never how hard he worked to be a good player, or his functioning in the locker room, or even being a distraction while he's with the team.
There's only one issue with Darrelle Revis: he wants to get paid. That's what every contract has been about. When he held out as a rookie, it was about money. When he held out in 2010 coming off arguably the best season a cornerback has ever had, it was about money. Nothing else. I can't begrudge a man wanting to get paid, and I don't see how this would be a problem anyway. If the Buccaneers are going to trade for Revis, they will pay him very, very well. He will get the money he wants.
So if he gets the money he wants, what's the problem?
Former Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli still thinks it's a problem, though. Here's what he said about Revis on Sirius XM NFL Radio, via JoeBucsFan:
I've talked to other general managers who love Darrelle as a player, but there is some concern around the league. Is this player ever going to be happy? Now he has rewarded the Jets, he has given the Jets tremendous performance over the course of his contract. The flip side of that is the Jets have rewarded him handsomely from a financial standpoint. But there's always been noise along with his contract. For one reason or another something always comes out about him wanting more money, him wanting a new contract. And if you're a team that's going to take on Darrelle Revis, yes you want this player. He's going to be one of the best workers on your team, he's going to lead, he's going to show up on Sunday. But you don't want the other noise that comes with it, because it just becomes a distraction.
To me, the key phrases aren't the distractions. That's all about contracts, and will disappear when he does get rewarded (as it has in the past). Note the other things Pioli did say: he talked about Revis being one of the best workers on the team, leading, and playing on Sunday. That, to me, is the key, not the fact that he wants to get paid. Every NFL player wants to get paid. So why not pay them, if they're worth it? And no, I don't buy that nonsense about being a man of your word and sticking to a contract for a second. NFL teams never do, so why should players? Holdouts are their only recourse. They can't quite and sign with another team.
So what about those holdouts?
Well, let's look at the history of Revis' contract rumblings. It's not that complicated. It started before he signed his first rookie contract, when he held out for more money. He was the fourteenth pick in the draft and his contract eventually compared favorably with the previous year's pick, as he managed to finagle $1 million more in guaranteed money. Well done, Revis -- and we didn't hear him talk about his contract anymore until 2010.
That's when Revis was entering the final year of his contract and when he was coming off quite possibly the best season a cornerback had ever had. He was the best cornerback in the NFL, and he was playing on a contract worth around $4 million per year, if I reverse engineered the numbers from NYJetsCap.com correctly. That's not a lot of money for the best cornerback in the NFL and arguably the best defensive player in the NFL at the time. It's not dissimilar from Donald Penn's stance back in 2010, either -- and no one's complaining about his being a malcontent.
After a protracted holdout, Revis signed in 2010 what was essentially a four-year deal worth $46 million with the New York Jets. That was a very respectable $11 million per year and near the top of the market for cornerbacks, but it didn't come close to Nnamdi Asomugha's $15 million per year deal. It also didn't come close to the top of the market at other non-quarterback positions, where pass-rushers were leading the league with deals from $12 to $14 million. So did he hold out for some ridiculous contract? No, not really. He certainly got paid well, but all the rhetoric and hyperbole about being the highest-paid defender was just bluster.
Here's another notable fact about that Darrelle Revis deal: it's filled with provisions preventing him from holding out. Most notably, if he does hold out, three years at a salary of $3 million per year get tacked onto his deal -- well below what he makes over the rest of his contract.
Did we then see malcontent Revis resurface? No. He didn't talk about wanting more money at any point after that. No reports came out about him wanting more money. There were a few rumblings about wanting a long-term contract in 2012. Those reports didn't focus on money, but just on the fact that Revis had two years left on his deal and wanted to be a Jet in the long term. He didn't threaten to hold out (because he couldn't) and didn't miss any significant offseason work. He didn't complain about the terms of his contract, and in fact repeatedly noted that he had no problem with his contract.
And ultimately, Revis did not get a contract extension, and he didn't mention any real offseason work. There was no holdout, and the distraction was minor. More importantly, though, there was a clearly defined reason: he did not have a long-term contract.
As you may note, Revis hasn't caused problems in the locker room. He has been a hard worker and a very good player on the field throughout his tenure. And his contract complaints disappeared after signing a contract. Yes, complaints re-appeared, but only when his deals were nearing an end.
Will this be an issue for the Buccaneers?
It shouldn't be, for a number of reasons. First, the Bucs will give Revis a massive contract if they manage to trade for him. That would take care of Revis' objections for at least the first three or four years of his contract, if not longer. More importantly: the Bucs can build in simple clauses in his contract to prevent holdouts, similar to the ones the Jets built into his current contract.
And for those of you worried that Revis would then stink it up in the regular season: he hasn't done that before. He's always been a good worker when he was in town. So those worries are, essentially, baseless.
If the Bucs do trade for Darrelle Revis, they won't contract any contract headaches for at least three years, and probably for the lifetime of that deal. And if those headaches do show up, they can simply ignore them. They'll build provisions into the contract that will neuter Revis' ability to turn himself into a distraction. Problem solved.
You can worry about a lot of things in this potential trade: Revis' health, his ability to get back to his normal level of play and the price the Bucs would have to pay the Jets and him to acquire him. One thing you don't need to worry about is Revis' penchant for holdouts.
Read more:
The Bucs' worst pass defender
Analyzing the Bucs' pass defense
Mel Kiper gives the Bucs their ideal draft
A theory of coaching stylesThis article is about an American slang term. For the Hank Williams Jr album, see Out of Left Field "Out of left field" is American slang meaning "unexpectedly", "odd" or "strange". The phrase came from baseball terminology, referring to a play in which the ball is thrown from the area covered by the left fielder to either home plate or first base, surprising the runner. According to mlb.com there is another meaning: "The term ' |
’s important for more experienced activists to resist that temptation and meet people where they are.”
Title added that keeping spirits high and enthusiasm up would be a major catalyst to keeping the ball rolling.
“We want people to find intrinsic motivation in their activism, something that brings them back, not for them to feel like it’s a chore or that they are being admonished for not doing enough,” she said. “The truth is that all of us could do more. But one lesson I learned with drug policy is that if you make activism fun and interesting, people will keep coming back, and that’s when change happens”
For Drug Policy Alliance Marijuana Policy Manager, Dr. Amanda Reiman, the involvement of women in the cannabis industry relative to other industries is a sign of how far things have come.
“The cannabis industry is newly legal, but it has existed underground for a long time, mostly run by men. The emergence of women in the legal industry shows the willingness of women to take risks, to have vision and to jump on opportunity in a way that makes a real difference,” Reiman said. “These general concepts, risk taking, vision and jumping on opportunity have been traditionally described as masculine traits. The cannabis industry is changing that, and perhaps seeing women claim power in industry and/or in protest is threatening to those who cling to antiquated gender roles.”
Despite her cannabis expertise, Reiman has spent much of her time looking at the broader impact of the War on Drugs.
“In drug policy activism, it quickly becomes clear that it’s not about drugs, it’s about oppressing people viewed as threats to some crazy moralistic ideal. Women’s health rights, work rights, voting rights, are more about controlling women than they are about the issues themselves,” she said. “Trying to control a woman’s body, her economic freedom and her role as a parent is ultimately about maintaining the patriarchy. However, not all women are impacted by this control to the same extent. White privilege, economic privilege and biological privilege play a role in the issues addressed by the Women’s March just as much as they do in drug war activism. Recognizing this and naming it is the first step in adopting the values of drug war activism.”
Longtime activist, Diane Fornbacher has had a unique view on women in the cannabis industry for years. NORML’s Women’s Alliance was founded during her time on the organization’s board of directors. In 2013 she went on to found Ladybud Magazine.
Fornbacher said it’s not all sunshine yet for women in the cannabis industry.
”I would not say the cannabis industry has provided women more opportunity in work or pay,” Fornbacher said. “There are many women in the cannabis industry as well as the non-profit sector who do not get paid their worth, nor are able to rise through the ranks as quickly as their male counterparts even while more qualified or experienced”
Fornbacher said, like most progressives, she is not a one issue activist.
“I don’t live exclusively in the cannabis world. I am a worldly citizen with many causes,” she said. “My primary focus has been drug policy but that encompasses a multitude of concentric causes for which I advocate like prison reform, harm reduction, the links between poverty and the drug war, feminist issues, relieving the homeless population and encouraging communities to be involved in sharing resources to alleviate suffering, and so much more.”
The lab space is one of the places in cannabis where women have found themselves ahead of the pack. Emily Joyce, vice president of business development at CW Analytical Laboratories, said the work women like her have put in to make that a reality over the years was not an afterthought as she hit the streets in Oakland, California.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now, and being a woman and being a member of the cannabis industry amplifies these feelings,” Joyce said. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned working in this industry for the past seven years, it’s that our ability to conduct business and make a living is never certain, and should never be taken for granted. Apparently, even in 2017, being a woman with the right to make decisions for her own body and her health shouldn’t be taken for granted either.”
Activists plan to continue having their voices heard through the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency, every 10 days will see a different political action. The first action is a massive postcard campaign to the Senate. Judging from the 5 million people who made it out this past weekend, they better be ready for a lot of mail on Capitol Hill.
TELL US, were you at Women’s March or any of its sister marches? What was your experience like?A 16-year-old is missing from Montana and the FBI says she may be in Washington.
Sandy Moore, 16, may be traveling with Rodney Zahn, 60, in a black 1987 Ford pickup with a 19-foot trailer, the FBI agents said.
Moore was last seen on Wednesday morning in Sheridan, Montana.
Zahn is described as a white man, 5-foot-5 and about 135 pounds with short gray and brown hair and brown eyes. He has a tattoo of a cross on his left hand and a Tazmanian Devil tattoo on his arm.
Moore is described as a white girl, 5-foot-7 and 116 pounds with glasses, brown eyes and brown hair. She may be developmentally delayed.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at (406) 843-5301.
Follow this link to see photos of missing children in Washington State.Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez will likely be the national campaign manager of the slate, under the battle cry '12-0,' says Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III
Published 1:09 PM, October 06, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III on Friday, October 6, revealed the initial 6 senatorial candidates of the ruling PDP-Laban’s for the 2019 midterm elections.
Answering questions from the media, Pimentel said that aside from him, the other candidates will include Negros Occidental 3rd District Representative Albee Benitez, Bataan 1st District Representative Geraldine Roman, Davao City 1st District Representative Karlo Nograles, former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino, and House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas.
If other reelectionist senators would join the party, Pimentel said they would have priority in the slate.
He earlier said Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito might join PDP-Laban and might be included in their slate. Asked if this was already confirmed, Pimentel said, “We have to wait for it to happen.”
The PDP-Laban president said he would ask Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to be the national campaign manager for the slate under the battlecry “12-0," or a clean sweep of the senatorial race. (READ: Is it 2019 yet? Speaker Alvarez tells Bacolod to vote 12-0 in senatorial race)
Pimentel said the party will try to complete a 12-member slate but should they fail, he said PDP-Laban is open to joining a coalition with other parties.
“We will try our best to come up with a complete 12-person slate. If we cannot come up with 12, then we are open to entering into coalition agreements with other parties. This is a 'developing/evolving' matter hence not final not official; just my personal preferences,” Pimentel said in a text message.
Pimentel’s expected battle
Pimentel earlier said he would seek reelection amid possible legal challenges against his candidacy.
While the 1987 Constitution allows senators to serve only two consecutive terms, Pimentel said his case is different because he was not able to complete his first 6-year term.
He was proclaimed senator only in August 2011 after a protracted and bitter election protest against Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri. Pimentel served only one year and 10 months of his first term and won another term in the Senate in 2013.
Pimentel also earlier told Rappler that he might leave the Senate presidency to "focus" on his reelection.
Roman, the first transgender woman elected to Congress, Benitez, and Fariñas were former members of the Liberal Party. Tolentino was initially included in the LP senatorial lineup for 2016 but left after being embroiled in a lewd performance controversy.
Benitez, the 3rd richest man in the House, supported then presidential front runner Senator Grace Poe in the 2016 elections. – Rappler.comClub Atlético Boca Juniors ( Spanish pronunciation: [kluβ aˈtletiko ˈβoka ˈʝunjoɾs]) is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. Boca Juniors is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the Argentine Primera División, becoming the most successful team of Argentina in number of official titles, with 67 won to date.[1][2] National titles won by Boca Juniors include 33 Primera División championships,[3][4] and 12 domestic cups.[5] Boca Juniors also owns an honorary title awarded by the Argentine Football Association for their successful tour of Europe in 1925.[6][7]
Internationally, the Boca Juniors have won a total of 22 international titles,[8][9] with 18 organised by CONMEBOL[10] and other international bodies. Consequently, Boca is ranked fifth in the world in terms of number of internationally recognized titles, tied with A.C. Milan and CA Independiente, and behind Real Madrid (25), FC Barcelona, (20) and Egyptian side Al Ahly (20).[11][12][13] Boca Juniors' international achievements also include Tie Cup,[14] Copa de Honor Cousenier,[15] and Copa Escobar-Gerona,[16] organized jointly by the Argentine and Uruguayan Associations.
Boca Juniors is also one of only eight teams to have won CONMEBOL's treble. Their success usually has Boca ranked among the IFFHS's Club World Ranking Top 25, which they have reached the top position six times (mostly during the coaching tenure of Carlos Bianchi).[17] Boca was named by the IFFHS as the top South American club of the first decade of the 21st century (2001–2010).[18] Boca Juniors is also known to be one of the most popular football clubs in Argentina, along with River Plate.[19][20]
Boca has always had a fierce rivalry with River Plate, as both clubs were established in La Boca. Matches between them are known as the Superclásico, and are one of the most heated rivalries in Argentina and the world, as both clubs are the two most popular in the country. Boca's home stadium is Estadio Alberto J. Armando, which is colloquially known as La Bombonera. The youth academy has produced many Argentine internationals such as Sebastián Battaglia, Nicolás Burdisso, Carlos Tevez, Éver Banega, and Fernando Gago, who have played or are playing for top European clubs.
In addition to football, Boca Juniors has professional basketball and volleyball teams. Other (amateur) activities held in the club are: athletics, futsal, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, martial arts (judo, karate and taekwondo), swimming, weightlifting and wrestling.[21]
History [ edit ]
The first recorded photo of Boca Juniors taken in 1906, after winning the Copa Reformista.
On 3 April 1905, a group of Greek and Italian boys (more specifically from Genoa) met in order to find a club. The house where the meeting was arranged was Esteban Baglietto's and the other four people who attended were Alfredo Scarpatti, Santiago Sana and brothers Ioannis (Juan) and Theodoros (Teodoro) Farengas from Chios and Konstantinos Karoulias from Samos.[22] Other important founders members include Arturo Penney, Marcelino Vergara, Luis Cerezo, Adolfo Taggio, Giovanelli, Donato Abbatángelo, Bertolini.
In 1913, Boca obtained the promotion to Primera División that the team had wanted for many years. This was possible when the Asociación Argentina de Fútbol decided to increase the number of teams in the league from 6 to 15.[23]
In 1925, Boca made its first trip to Europe to play in Spain, Germany and France. The squad played a total of 19 games, winning 15 of them. For that reason Boca was declared "Campeón de Honor" (Champion of Honour) for the 1925 season by the Association.
During successive years, Boca consolidated as one of the most popular teams of Argentina, with a huge number of fans not only in Argentina but worldwide. The club is one of the most successful teams in Argentine football, having won 33 Primera División titles, second only to River Plate with 36. In South American and international club football, Boca Juniors have won 18 titles, the same as A.C. Milan; Boca also won four international official titles (played between teams from the Argentine and Uruguayan Association), although not recognized by FIFA yet.
Those honors include 1919 Tie Cup, 1920 Copa de Honor Cousenier and 1945 and 1946 Copa Escobar-Gerona.
Kit and badge [ edit ]
According to the club's official site, the original jersey colour was a white shirt with thin black vertical stripes, being then replaced by a light blue shirt and then another striped jersey before adopting the definitive blue and gold.[24] Nevertheless, other version states that Boca Juniors' first jersey was pink, although it has been questioned by some journalists and historians who state that Boca, most probably, never wore a pink jersey, by pointing out the lack of any solid evidence and how this version stems from, and is only supported on, flawed testimonies.[25]
Legend has it that in 1906, Boca played Nottingham de Almagro. Both teams wore so similar shirts that the match was played to decide which team would get to keep it. Boca lost, and decided to adopt the colors of the flag of the first boat to sail into the port at La Boca. This proved to be a Swedish ship, therefore the yellow and blue of the Swedish flag were adopted as the new team colours.[26] The first version had a yellow diagonal band, which was later changed to a horizontal stripe.[24]
Kit evolution and rare models [ edit ]
First kits[24]
Notes
^ [27] A very similar model honoring this jersey was launched by Nike in 2005 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the club, but only for sale at stores. ^ A similar model was used as the alternate kit in the 2006–07 season, 100 years after it was worn by the first time.
Rare models and special editions
Notes
The first jerseys used by the team in the 1900s.
Badge [ edit ]
The club has had five different designs for its badge during its history, although its outline has remained unchanged through most of its history. In 1955, laurel leaves were added to celebrate the club's 50th anniversary, and the colours were changed to match those on the team's jersey.[43] In 1970, one star was added to the badge for each title won[44] domestically (at the top, above the initials) and internationally (at the bottom). A new star is added to the corresponding section whenever Boca wins a title, currently standing at 52.
1920
1955
1960
1970
1995–present
Stadium [ edit ]
La Bombonera, in the same place. The old Boca Juniors stadium in Brandsen and Del Crucero. It was later demolished to build, in the same place.
La Bombonera, Boca Juniors' current venue. Interior view of, Boca Juniors' current venue.
Boca Juniors used several locations before settling on their current ground on Brandsen. Club's first ground was in Dársena Sur[45] of the old Buenos Aires port (currently Puerto Madero) but it was vacated in 1907 as it failed to meet the minimum league requirements. Boca Juniors then used three grounds in the Isla Demarchi area between 1908 and 1912.[46][47] In the first year in the Primera Division (1913) the club hadn't an own stadium and played the home games in the pitches of the other teams, likely in Estudiantes de Buenos Aires in Palermo (on Figueroa Alcorta y Dorrego), but also in Avellaneda (first official derby against the River).[48] Between 1914 and 1915, the club moved away from La Boca for the second time in its history (beyond the 1913), moving to Wilde in the Avellaneda Partido of the Greater Buenos Aires but a relatively poor season[49] and poor attendances in 1915 forced the club to move back to La Boca.
On 25 May 1916, Boca Juniors opened its new stadium at the intersection of Ministro Brin and Senguel streets, playing there until 1924 when the club moved to its current location on Brandsen and Calle Del Crucero (currently Del Valle Iberlucea) streets.[50]
Building of Boca Juniors' current stadium began in 1938, under the supervision of Engineer José L. Delpini. Boca played its home matches in the Ferro Carril Oeste ground in Caballito until it was completed in May 25, 1940.[47] A third level was added in 1953, originating then its nickname La Bombonera ('The Chocolate Box').[51] The stand opposite the Casa Amarilla railway platforms remained mostly undeveloped until 1996, when it was upgraded with new balconies and quite expensive VIP boxes. Three sides of the Bombonera are thus made up of traditional sloping stadium stands, but the fourth side was built vertically, with several seating areas stacked one on top of the other, the only way that makes it stand into the club premises.
La Bombonera is renowned for vibrating when fans start to jump in rhythm; in particular, the unique vertical side will sway slightly, leading to the phrase, "La Bombonera no tiembla. Late" (The Bombonera does not tremble. It beats)[52][53]
La Bombonera currently has a capacity of around 49,000. The club's popularity make tickets hard to come by, especially for the Superclásico game against River Plate.[54] There are further improvements planned for the stadium, including measures to ease crowd congestion, use of new technology and improved corporate facilities.[55]
List of stadiums used by the club [ edit ]
All of them placed in La Boca with the exception of Wilde (1914–15), located in Avellaneda Partido. Boca Juniors also used the Estudiantes de Buenos Aires (in 1913, then located on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue)[56] and Ferro Carril Oeste stadium (1938–40) as temporary venues.[57]
Supporters [ edit ]
La Bombonera (north side), 2009 Boca Juniors' supporters displaying their flags at(north side), 2009
Boca Juniors is traditionally regarded as the club of Argentina's working class, in contrast with the supposedly more upper-class base of cross-town arch rival Club Atlético River Plate.[58]
Boca Juniors claims to be the club of "half plus one" (la mitad más uno) of Argentina's population, but a 2006 survey placed its following at 40%,[19][20] still the largest share. They have the highest number of fans, as judged by percentage in their country.
The Boca-River Superclásico rivalry is one of the most thrilling derbies in the world.[59] Out of their 338 previous meetings, Boca have won 126, River have won 107 and there have been 105 draws.[60] After each match (except draws), street signs cover Buenos Aires at fans' own expense, "ribbing" the losing side with humorous posters. This has become part of Buenos Aires culture ever since a Boca winning streak in the 1990s.
In 1975, a film (La Raulito) was made about the life of Mary Esher Duffau, known as La Raulito, a well-known Boca Juniors fan. She died at the age of 74 on 30 April 2008, the same day Boca Juniors played a Copa Libertadores match against Brazilian club, Cruzeiro Esporte Clube with the players and fans observing a minute's silence in her memory.[61]
Nicknames [ edit ]
La Bombonera during a night game v. during a night game v. Colo Colo, with the refurbished boxes at right, March 2008.
Boca fans are known as Los Xeneizes (the Genoese) after the Genoese immigrants who founded the team and lived in La Boca in the early 20th century.[62]
Many rival fans in Argentina refer to the Boca Juniors' fans as Los Bosteros (the manure handlers), originating from the horse manure used in the brick factory which occupied the ground where La Bombonera stands. Originally an insult used by rivals, Boca fans are now proud of it.[63]
Reflecting the team's colors, Boca's shirt is also called la azul y oro (the blue and gold).[64]
There is also a society which dedicates all of its activities to supporting the team known as la número 12 or la doce (player number doce or 12, meaning "the 12th player")[65] "La doce" is a criminal organization similar to other "barra brava" gangs associated with football clubs in Argentina.[66] Illegal activities by La doce include assault, drug sales and trafficking, extortion, and murder.[67] La doce finances its activities by selling parking, reselling club tickets as well as extorting commission from the sale of players. La doce also extorts Boca Juniors for transportation to domestic and international events as well as their means of financing their activities. If their demands are not met they threaten violence at home matches or to take down club officials.[68]
The naming of "La 12″ (the twelfth player), by which Boca Juniors' fans became known, dates back to the year 1925, during the European tour they made that year. At that time, the team was accompanied by a Boca fan called Victoriano Caffarena, who belonged to a wealthy family and funded part of the tour. During that tour he helped the team in everything, thus establishing a strong relationship with the players, so they named him "Player No. 12″. When they returned to Argentina, Caffarena was as well known as the players themselves. Nowadays, this nickname is used primarily to name their group of supporters, known as "La 12″.[69]
International [ edit ]
Peñas (fan clubs) exist in a number of Argentine cities and abroad in countries such as Russia, Ukraine,[70] Spain,[71] Israel[72] and Japan.[73]
Boca Juniors are particularly popular in Japan because of the club's success in recent years at the Intercontinental Cup held in Japan. All over the world, fans are drawn to Boca by the club's international titles, and by the success of Boca players who went on to play in European football such as Hugo Ibarra, Rodolfo Arruabarrena, Diego Cagna, Enzo Ferrero, Roberto Abbondanzieri, Nicolás Burdisso, Fernando Gago, Diego Maradona, Claudio Caniggia, Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Román Riquelme and Carlos Tevez.
Boca have fans throughout Latin America and also in parts of the United States where there has been Latin immigration and where in July 2007, after the club had toured pre-season, it was reported that the club were considering the possibility of creating a Boca Juniors USA team to compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) with New York City, Miami, Los Angeles and Arizona mentioned as possible locations.[74]
Rivalries [ edit ]
Boca Juniors has had a long-standing rivalry with River Plate. The Superclásico is known worldwide as one of world football's fiercest and most important rivalries.[75] It is particularly noted for the passion of the fans, the stands of both teams feature fireworks, coloured confetti, flags and rolls of paper. Both sets of supporters sing passionate songs (often based on popular Argentine rock band tunes) against their rivals, and the stadiums are known to bounce with the simultaneous jumping of the fans. Sometimes the games have been known to end in riots between the hardest supporters of both sides or against the police. The English newspaper The Observer put the Superclásico (played at La Bombonera) at the top of their list of 50 sporting things you must do before you die.[76]
The two clubs both have origins in the poor riverside area of Buenos Aires known as La Boca. River however moved to the more affluent district of Núñez in the north of the city in 1923.
Boca Juniors and River Plate have played 338 games all time against each other, with Boca winning 126, River winning 107 and 105 draws. In the First Division Professional Era the two clubs have played 198 games with Boca winning 72, River 66 and 60 draws.[77]
This intense rivalry has not stopped players from playing for both clubs, most notably José Manuel Moreno, Hugo Orlando Gatti, Alberto Tarantini, Oscar Ruggeri, Julio Olarticoechea, Carlos Tapia, Gabriel Batistuta and Claudio Caniggia.
Players [ edit ]
For a list of all former and current Boca Juniors players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Boca Juniors footballers
Current squad [ edit ]
As of 14 February 2019.[78]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player No. Position Player
Out on loan [ edit ]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player No. Position Player
Reserves and Academy [ edit ]
For the reserve and academy squads, see Boca Juniors Reserves and Academy
Records [ edit ]
Top 10 scorers of all time [ edit ]
Last updated on: 6 July 2016 – Top 10 all time scorers at historiadeboca.com.ar
Top 10 most appearances of all time [ edit ]
Last updated on: 6 July 2016 – Top 10 most appearances of all time at historiadeboca.com.ar
Notable players [ edit ]
This section lists players who have appeared in least 100 matches[79] or scored at least 35 goals[80] for the club.
Players gallery [ edit ]
Coaches [ edit ]
The first Boca Juniors coach recorded is Mario Fortunato, who had been player before becoming coach of the team. Fortunato led Boca to win a total of five titles (4 league in 1930, 1931, 1934 and 1935) and one National cup (Copa de Competencia Británica in 1946).[132] He had three tenures on the club, coaching Boca Juniors in 1930–1936, 1946 and 1956.
Carlos Bianchi is the most successful coach in Boca Juniors' history, having won nine titles, including Aperturas in 1998, 2000 and 2003, the 1999 Clausura, the Copa Libertadores in 2000, 2001 and 2003, and the Intercontinental Cup in 2000 and 2003.
Juan Carlos Lorenzo (1976–79, 1987), El Toto, won five titles with the team, including the Copa Libertadores in 1977 and 1978, the Intercontinental Cup in 1977, and the Metropolitano and Nacional in 1976.
Alfio Basile also won 5 titles along with Mario Fortunato and Toto Lorenzo. With Basile, Boca won two domestic titles, 2005 Apertura and 2006 Clausura and three international (2005 Copa Sudamericana, 2005 and 2006 Recopa Sudamericana), all of them won within two years.
Miguel Ángel Russo was hired as Ricardo Lavolpe's replacement. Under his coaching Boca Juniors won the 2007 Copa Libertadores with a 5–0 overall rout of Brazilian Grêmio.
Julio César Falcioni led the team to the 2011 Apertura championship, which Boca won unbeaten with only 7 goals conceded in 19 rounds. With Falcioni as coach, Boca also won the 2011–12 Copa Argentina.
Institutional [ edit ]
Executive Board 2011–2014[133]
President: Daniel Angelici
1st Vice-president: Oscar Moscariello
2nd Vice-president: Juan Carlos Crespi
3rd Vice-president: Rodolfo Ferrari
Chairmen [ edit ]
Pedro Pompilio was the club's last elected chairman, succeeding Ing. Mauricio Macri (current President of Argentina). Pompilio died during his presidency on 30 October 2008 due to heart attack. His family asked not to send flowers to his funeral and donate money to UNICEF instead. He was 58 years old at that time.[134] He was married and had two children.[135]
Jorge Amor Ameal, 1st vice president during Pedro Pompilio's direction, took charge after.[136]
In December 2011, the same day Boca defeated Banfield to win the Apertura 2011 title, Daniel Angelici was elected as new president of the club over Ameal, getting 54% of the votes.[137]
Honours [ edit ]
National [ edit ]
League [ edit ]
National cups [ edit ]
International [ edit ]
Notes
^ Organised by UEFA and Conmebol together a b c d e f CONMEBOL competition a b c Organised by AFA and AUF together
Friendly [ edit ]
Records and facts [ edit ]
Merchandising [ edit ]
Boca Juniors has expanded its activity beyond sport, providing its fans with a number of other products and services.
In 2003, it became the fifth football club in the world to open its own TV channel. Boca TV broadcasts 24 hours a day, featuring sports programs and talk shows.
There is a line of Boca coffins available for dead fans, [160] as well as an official Boca Juniors cemetery. [161]
as well as an official Boca Juniors cemetery. Boca has its own fleet of taxis operating in Buenos Aires. [162]
The club also sells its own brand of wine, called Boca Wine. [163]
In 2012 Boca Juniors opened in Buenos Aires its first thematic hotel not only in Argentina but worldwide. The hotel was designed by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott. All the rooms were decorated with the colours of the club, apart from photos and paintings of notable players in the history of the club.[164][165]
Other sections [ edit ]
The reserve and youth academy football teams of the club, currently coached by former club player Rolando Schiavi,[166] who debuted in February 2015.[167] Boca Juniors is the most winning Torneo de Reserva championships with 21 titles won since it was established in 1910.
Notable players from the youth academy include Américo Tesoriere, Natalio Pescia, Ernesto Lazzatti, Antonio Rattín, Ángel Clemente Rojas, Roberto Mouzo, Oscar Ruggeri, Diego Latorre, Carlos Tevez and Fernando Gago, among others.
Basketball [ edit ]
The Boca Juniors basketball team has won the Argentine league three times (1996/97, 2003/04, 2006/07), five Argentine Cups (Copa Argentina 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006), the Argentine Top 4 (2004), and three South American Club Championships (2004, 2005, 2006).[168][169] It also reached the 2004–05 national finals (losing to Ben Hur). Their home arena is the Estadio Luis Conde, better known as La Bombonerita (small Bombonera).
Volleyball [ edit ]
Boca Juniors has a professional volleyball team that won the Metropolitan championship in 1991, 1992 and 1996, and achieved the second place in the 1996–97 A1 season. Because of a lack of sponsors, the team was disbanded, but later it was reincorporated through the coaching of former Boca player Marcelo Gigante; after playing in the second division, it returned to the A1 league in 2005.
In August 2015 it was announced that Boca Juniors's volleyball team would not participate in the Argentine major league (A1) from 2016. The decision was personally taken by Boca Juniors chairman, Daniel Angelici. The club alleged that taking part in a professional league resulted in a hugh commercial deficit so Boca Juniors declined to participate, although the volleyball department had reached an agreement with several sponsors which would put the money to cover the costs (about A$ 3 million).[170]
The Boca Juniors women's football team plays in the Campeonato de Fútbol Femenino and have won the championship a record 23 times of which 10 were in succession from the 2003 Apertura to the 2008 Clausura.[171]
Though the club has not yet won any international competition, it secured the third place at the 2010 Copa Libertadores de Fútbol Femenino.
Other [ edit ]
Boca Juniors themed street vendor in La Boca.
Starting 2005, the Argentine Turismo Carretera stock-car competition league spun off the Top Race V6 category, in which teams are sponsored by football teams. Veteran race pilots Ortelli and Bessone and former Boca player Vicente Pernía drive for the Boca team; Ortelli finally won the first Top Race V6 championship for Boca Juniors.
In Futsal, Boca has won 6 Championships: 1992, 1993, Clausura 1997, Apertura 1998, Clausura 2003 (Men), and 2004 (women).
Boca representatives also compete in other disciplines such as judo, karate, taekwondo, wrestling, weight lifting and gymnastics.[172]
There is an Argentine steakhouse in Queens, NYC which is a Boca Juniors theme restaurant.[173]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Formerly, Del Crucero street. a b [141] Established by the Argentina Uruguay and Rosario Football Associations before CONMEBOL was created. ^ Title shared with NacionalLast May, Caitlin Rosberg wrote a feature on the differences between digital comics and webcomics, and how an online environment wildly alters what comics are and can be. (For a deeper dive into the evolution of sequential art and concepts like the infinite canvas, we’d recommend Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form.) But this development has also led to some cognitive dissonance; Paste once published year-end lists celebrating the best webcomics only a few years ago. Now we don’t. Why? Because print and online have never been so confusingly enmeshed, with creators like Emily Carroll, Farel Dalrymple and Ben Towle straddling that tight rope, or in some cases, crossing over to print completely. Some works that were only available online are now exclusively in print, or have transitioned to third-party hubs like comiXology.
That said, online comics remain the perfect gateway into the world of sequential art. We wanted to create a resource for anyone attempting to spread the comic gospel, with (save a few) completely free works that carry the same caliber of quality as mainstream print publishers. In the following list, we’ve curated specific picks from those aforementioned year-end lists while adding 20-plus new webcomics to look into. And we know: there are a lot of webcomics, so this is just the beginning. If we’ve missed your favorite, let us know on our Twitter feed.The Cyclo-cross World Championships are being held in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium
International Cycling Union president Brian Cookson has confirmed the first top-level case of "technological fraud" in the sport.
A bicycle in Saturday's Cyclo-cross World Championships was allegedly found to contain a hidden motor.
The electric device was discovered inside the frame of the machine being used by Belgian teenager Femke van den Driessche.
"It's absolutely clear that there was technological fraud," said Cookson.
"There was a concealed motor. I don't think there are any secrets about that.
"The UCI is committed to protecting riders who do not want to cheat in whatever form and to make sure that the right riders win the race.
"To all the people who want to cheat, Saturday sent a clear message: we will catch you and we will punish you because our technology to detect such fraud seems to work."
'The bike was not mine'
Van den Driessche, 19, who was taking part in the under-23 race that was won by Britain's Evie Richards, denied suggestions she had deliberately cheated.
"The bike was not mine. I would never cheat," she told Belgian television.
"It was my friend's and was identical to mine. This friend went around the course Saturday before dropping off the bike in the truck. A mechanic, thinking it was my bike, cleaned it and prepared it for my race.
"I'm aware I have a big problem. I have done nothing wrong,"
The bike was taken for inspection along with others after the teenager had pulled out on the last lap of Saturday's race with a'mechanical problem' and had to walk to the finish.
The UCI reportedly used a computer which can read radio frequencies to detect the hidden motor and then removed the seat post to see wires sticking out.
The governing body's regulations on 'technological doping' were introduced last year with guilty riders liable to a minimum suspension of six months and a fine of between 20,000 and 200,000 Swiss Francs (£13,728 and £137,280).
Bike checks for road racing were brought in over the past season, including at the Tour de France where |
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29 Blake Ferguson, $314,200, 15.59% ownership
30 Tohu Harris, $383,600, 15.19% ownership
31 Martin Taupau, $369,200, 15.05% ownership
32 James Tedesco, $469,500, 14.69% ownership
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media_camera Roger Tuivasa Sheck (L) has dropped in popularity.
38 Shaun Fensom, $407,400, 13.13% ownership
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50 Anthony Milford, $408,900, 11.58% ownershipEven as the rest of the world welcomes the new year with celebrations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s men behind fiscal maths, led by trusted friend (pictured), probably enter what will be North Block’s toughest quarter in years.
India’s fiscal deficit in April-November, according to data released on December 31, stood at Rs 5.25 lakh-crore, an astounding 99 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 5.3 lakh-crore — with three months still left in the financial year.
During the corresponding period last year, the government’s fiscal deficit had stood at 93.9 per cent.
In the last quarter of 2014-15, therefore, Jaitley will inevitably have to enforce massive spending cuts, to meet the ambitious fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). As a member of the Opposition, Jaitley had last year criticised large by the then finance minister, P Chidambaram.
Faced with a potential shortfall of Rs 1.05 lakh-crore in tax revenues, Jaitley will hope for disinvestment, spectrum sales and dividends from state-run companies to garner more funds than estimated in the Budget, as alone might not be enough to meet the fiscal deficit target.
It, however, is easier said than done. With stake sale in only one company so far — in SAIL, which fetched about Rs 1,700 crore — the next two months are going to be crucial for the department, which is looking to pare stakes in Coal India, NHPC, ONGC, and a host of smaller companies like Concor, REC and PFC.
As such, the planned Rs 15,000-crore residual stake sale in Hindustan Zinc and Balco, and the plan to raise Rs 6,500 crore by selling the government’s stake in private companies, held through the Special Undertaking of UTI (Suuti), are already off the table for this financial year.
As reported earlier, Jaitley might lean on state-owned companies, which are sitting on a Rs 2-lakh-crore cash pile, to pay the Centre higher dividends. But in doing so, he would be eschewing long-term investment gains for short-term fiscal comfort.
When state-run companies pay higher dividends to the Centre, it is usually at the cost of capital expenditure on new and existing investment. This move might not go down well with policy watchers, especially at a time when his hand-picked chief economic advisor, Arvind Subramanian, has made a case for increased public investment to spur future economic growth.
While the finance ministry has already instructed other central departments to effect a 10 per cent cut in non-Plan spending, excluding interest payment, repayment of debt, capital spending for defence, salaries, pensions and grants to states, there will likely be substantial cuts on Plan spending as well which, in turn, will affect centrally-sponsored schemes.
How he manages the widening fiscal gap in 2014-15 will go a long way in proving — or undermining — Modi’s pro-reform image in the years to come. After all, even rating agencies and investors see managing finances as part of reforms.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article has over 474,202 views, and 96% of readers who voted found it helpful. It also received 13 testimonials from readers, earning it our reader-approved status. wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 23 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article has over 474,202 views, and 96% of readers who voted found it helpful. It also received 13 testimonials from readers, earning it our reader-approved status. Learn more...
In this Article:Article SummaryIn the Northern HemisphereIn the Southern HemisphereDetermining Your HemisphereCommunity Q&AReferences
If you ever find yourself lost in the wilderness or adrift at sea with no way to tell which direction you're traveling, an analog watch (or any similar clock face) can act as a compass and help you get your bearings. All you'll need for this survival trick is an analog (not digital) clock or watch that's set to the correct time and a clear view of the sun. See Step 1 below to get started.Rise of the violent 'Little Emperors': Children lashing out at parents to get own way
Children are becoming increasingly violent towards their parents when they do not get their own way, a leading psychologist has warned.
The ‘little emperors’ of this ‘spoilt generation’ lash out both at home – particularly at mothers who stand in their way – and school or even nursery.
Experts have blamed the decline in respect for authority on a lack of clear parental boundaries and rules, as well as an emphasis on children’s rights.
The problem is getting worse and spans the class divide, according to Dr Aric Sigman, a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Out of control: Many mothers suffer abuse from their children who become violent when they do not get their own way (picture posed by models)
He said the age at which children were violent and disrespectful towards their teachers 'is coming down to nursery level'.
He added: 'They’re swearing and throwing chairs at their teachers at younger and younger ages. It isn’t surprising this is happening in a domestic setting.
'Parent abuse and parent battery appear to be on the rise and what seems to underlie this is to do with parenting, the lack of boundaries and the reversal of authority.
'It’s the extreme end of the spoilt generation where they actually lash out at parents, almost exclusively their mothers. There’s a lack of impulse control, demands for instant gratification and not accepting deferred gratification.
'They’ll beat up their mothers if they don’t get what they want now. It’s a beastly combination of a sense of entitlement and a lack of respect for one’s mother.'
Dr Sigman analysed academic studies, psychologists’ observations and police reports in Britain, America and New Zealand to update his book on the subject, The Spoilt Generation.
Analysis: Dr Sigman looked at academic studies, psychologists' observations and police reports in Britain, America and New Zealand to update his book
He said: 'There’s been a change, it’s getting worse and it’s going further down the age scale.
'I’m talking about younger and younger children, including girls, beating up their mothers and kicking them down the stairs. Mothers are ashamed to ask for help.
'You can’t just throw your ten-year-old out of the house because she slaps you around. It’s a very dark area that isn’t being addressed.'
One of the studies, from Brigham Young University, Utah, published in the American Association of Behavioural and Social Sciences Journal, found 82 per cent of parental abuse is against mothers.
It estimated that 11 per cent of children under ten physically abuse their parents. Researchers warned that 'parental permissiveness is shown to be a significant factor in parental abuse'.
Meanwhile, Government figures show that 15 children aged between four and six are being excluded from school each day for attacking teachers in England.
Statistics for the academic year 2008/9, the most recent available, revealed that 7,620 children from reception, year one and year two were given fixed-term exclusions.
The largest single reason was for attacking an adult. The number of cases – 2,890 – marked an increase of 19 per cent in just two years.
Dr William Shanahan, executive medical director at the Capio Nightingale Hospital in London, helps parents who have lost control and inadvertently 'facilitated' their children’s bad behaviour by indulging them too much.
He said: 'We are looking at a generation of children who are not getting simple ground rules, where boundaries are put in place.
'There’s definitely a fall-off of respect and a loosening of boundaries with a view that no discipline is acceptable. It’s got to the point where people aren’t correcting their children any more.
'Parents should be saying in advance what the rules will be.'
Justine Roberts, co-founder of the Mumsnet website, said: 'This generation of parents has moved on from the "because I said so" style of parenting of our own parents into more of a praise model.Pollinating flowers with drones
[+]Enlarge Worker bee: Sticky fibers attached to the bottom of a drone turn it into a flying pollinator. Credit: Eijiro Miyako
In a beehive, the female worker bees are the ones that fly out to gather pollen and nectar—transferring pollen from one flower to another in the process—while the main job of the male drones is to romance the queen. But in Eijiro Miyako’s lab at the Nanomaterials Research Institute in Japan, another kind of drone is being readied for fieldwork. By adding sticky fibers to the underside of a flying robot, Miyako and his group have shown that such drones can act as artificial pollinators (Chem 2017, DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2017.01.008).
A decade ago, Miyako developed an ionic-liquid gel for use in batteries and other electrochemical applications. But it didn’t perform better than conventional ionic-liquid gels, so he put it away and forgot about it. When he found it again two years ago, he accidentally dropped the material on the floor and noticed how well it picked up dust. “TV programs about the pollination crisis, honeybee decline, and cutting-edge robotics also emotionally motivated me,” he tells Newscripts. He realized that his gel could find a new life as a semipermanent adhesive, perfect for picking up and transferring pollen.
Miyako and his colleagues coated horsehair fibers from a paintbrush with the gel and attached a patch of the fibers to a palm-size, wirelessly controllable drone. Then they ran tests on lilies, flying the robot to one flower’s stamen to pick up pollen, then maneuvering to another flower’s pistil to brush on the grains. Using fluorescent microscopy, they confirmed that the pollen did indeed get transferred. The next day, they even saw the formation of fibrous pollen tubes, indicating successful fertilization.
Dive bomb A drone with a patch of sticky fibers attached to its underside picks up pollen from a lily and transfers it to another flower. Credit:Chem
Honeybees are vital to agriculture as pollinators; could drones provide an alternative? Miyako admits that with the cost of commercial drones at $100 each and the strong operator skills required, it would be costly to do wide-scale pollination this way. “It was very hard work to control the robotic pollinators to precisely hit onto the target sites,” he says. However, he’s optimistic that the cost of drones will come down and artificial intelligence could make the process more efficient. For the time being, though, bees probably don’t need to worry about robots taking their jobs.
A honeybee whoop-de-do
[+]Enlarge Big whoop: Honeybees make a distinctive sound when they’re startled. Credit: Shutterstock/C&ENTokyoGirls'Update
Beauty and Fury: BRATS Release Live Video for “Pain”
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BRATS, the girls band featuring sisters Rei (The Idol Formerly Known As LADYBABY) and Aya Kuromiya, and childhood friend Hinako, have unwrapped the live video for “Pain” from their long-awaited new single “Ainikoiyo/Nounai Shoukyo Game” (release date: June 21)!
Contributor Wanted!!
Filmed during their March 29, 2017 invitation-only revival performance at Ikebukuro Live Inn Rosa, “Pain” is a new song with lyrics co-written by Rei Kuromiya that was one of several new songs debuted that day.
“Ainikoiyo/Nounai Shoukyo Game” will be released in a CD/DVD version and a CD version. The DVD includes the MVs for “Ainikoiyo” and “Nounai Shoukyo Game” as well as the live videos for “Ainikoiyo”, “Nounai Shoukyo Game”, “Nakattakoto”, “Pain”, “Seitouka Pride Monster”, and “Kimarigoto”. “Ainikoiyo” is the theme song for the anime To Be Hero and “Nounai Shoukyo Game” is the theme song for the film Slaveman. BRATS will be holding release events for the week of June 21 across Japan, including a return to Ikebukuro Live Inn Rosa on the day of the single’s release. They have also been confirmed as one of the performers for Urbangarde’s Utsu Fes on September 10, 2017!
Ainikoiyo/Nounai Shoukyo Game
Regular Edition
1. Ainikoiyo
2. Nounai Shoukyo Game
3. Ainikoiyo (instrumental)
4. Nounai Shoukyo Game (instrumental)
Limited Edition
CD
1. Ainikoiyo
2. Nounai Shoukyo Game
DVD
1. Ainikoiyo (Music Video)
2. Nounai Shoukyo Game (Music Video)
3. Ainikoiyo (Live Video)
4. Nakattakoto (Live Video)
5. Nounai Shoukyo Game (Live Video)
6. Pain (Live Video)
7. Seitouka Pride Monster (Live Video)
8. Kimarigoto (Live Video)
Buy Item
Ainikoiyo/Nounai Shoukyo Game [iTunes]
Related Links
BRATS Official site : http://brats.tk/
BRATS Official Twitter : https://twitter.com/brats_official
BRATS Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BratsJP/
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Author Kai Okudara Writer, researcher, photographer, foodie, KSDD
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DisqusBritain’s Scott Redding says he is still a little bit behind the curve when it comes to fuel strategy over the course of a MotoGP race because his size means the Desmosedici will use more juice to haul him around.
Weight is a factor for the Octo Pramac Ducati man but the other difficulty is a lack of data. Due to mechanical and other issues that prevented him from finishing races this year, Redding is missing data on fuel consumption and also flag to flag races mean the fuel usage figures aren’t much help.
Redding will always have to switch to a more fuel efficient engine map in the course of a race which inevitably mean less power but the Gloucestershire rider is upbeat and says he and the team are learning all the time.
“It’s fuel mapping, slowing the bike down, basically. We have six maps, three fuel maps and power maps so we can have smoother power at the bottom to try to use less fuel but the thing with the fuel map it leans the bike off so it starves the bike of fuel which means less power,” Redding said at Brno this evening.
“So really it is about finding the strategy. In the first half, you can use more fuel but you can’t put more fuel in the tank so it’s trying to find a balance. You can use more but then if you don’t have enough you have to go to the lowest fuel map which means you are going around to finish.
“The difference at Spielberg was about three tenths, which doesn’t sound a lot but when it’s over 28 laps it is a lot. I was 1’25.2 in the middle of the race, then changed map and went to a 1’25.9 but I wasn’t going to catch the group so I went back again. I would like to have the A-map all the race but we wouldn’t finish at some circuits.
“The first five laps are blind, it doesn’t give any signal so you have to trust yourself and the strategy. If you use too much, then you get lights on the dashboard so map B and that should do the race if you ride smoothly. If you get map C you can do it but if the light comes on, that’s end of the story.”If you’re weary of the War on Christmas, rejoice! The Supreme Court settled this issue long ago. A public nativity scene is not a religious symbol. It’s ‘ceremonial deism.’
Many people know Bryan, Ohio — if they know it at all — as the home of Dum-Dum lollipops. But in northwestern Ohio, Bryan is famous for another thing: its annual “Christmas on the Square” celebration.
With “Christmas on the Square,” Bryan displays a bric-a-brac collection of inflatable snowmen, outsized nutcrackers, and a kitschy Saint Nick pulled by a fleet of reindeer, placed around the town’s centrally located Chamber of Commerce. The focal point of the celebration, however, is what appears to be an explicitly Christian scene — shepherds, wise men, and the holy family gathered around a manger, awaiting the Christ child’s birth.
Hundreds of towns across the United States put up similar nativity scenes around Christmastime, and every year, someone complains about how this practice violates the separation of church and state. The war on Christmas ensues, and by December 25, culture warriors from both the Christian and non-Christian camps are too embattled with each other to enjoy the holiday season.
But rejoice — the Supreme Court settled this issue long ago! A nativity scene placed in the public square is not a religious symbol. It’s an instance of “ceremonial deism.”
Ceremonial deism is when a government promotes nominally religious statements or practices with the public understanding that these have been deemed to be merely ritual and non-religious through long customary usage. But a more straightforward definition is this: As long as no one believes in the thing the symbol signifies, displaying it in public does not violate the First Amendment freedom of religion clause.
It’s Okay as Long as You’re Pretending
We see ceremonial deism everywhere in the American public square. The Pledge of Allegiance, the president’s oath of office, the words “In God We Trust” on our money — all use religious language for an arguably non-religious purpose. Government bodies frequently use the phrase to justify including religious motifs in the public square. For example, this past September, an Illinois judge used ceremonial deism to justify affixing the words “In God We Trust” in big metal letters to the front of the local courthouse.
The Supreme Court treats nativity scenes in the public square as an instance of ceremonial deism in the 1984 case Lynch v. Donnelly. According to the court’s opinion, erecting a nativity scene in the public square does not encourage any religious belief, but instead, it reminds local townspeople of their unique American heritage. So, while nativity scenes have had a significant place in American history, two centuries of use has changed their meaning from a religious symbol to secular and commercial commodity.
Believe it or not, the Supreme Court actually had a methodical test that helped it come to this conclusion. The court used the 1971 case Lemon v. Kurtzman, which struck down teaching the Bible in public schools, to decide if nativity scenes are religious symbols. The test has three parts:
The statute in question has to have a secular legislative purpose. It can’t promote or inhibit religion or religious practices. It can’t give the government leeway to get too involved with any religion.
Nativity scenes only pass the Lemon test if society divorces them from what they symbolize. That’s because, let’s face it, there really is only one way to interpret angels, shepherds, and wise men fawning over a baby Jesus. Unless they become independent entities with their own meaning and history, nativity scenes obviously signify Christ’s coming. But, thanks to the court’s opinion and the resulting cultural fallout, nativity scenes have become stand-alone objects upon which the public can impose its own meaning.
Nativity Scenes May Be a Pyrrhic Victory
For example, this year, a scene depicting the “hipster nativity” went viral. The scene features Mary and Joseph crouched above the manger — but Joseph is taking a selfie and Mary is wearing a low-cut shirt, Starbucks coffee cup in hand. Around them, three “wise men” stand on Segways holding Amazon boxes, presumably their gifts to the Christ child. Not exactly a reverent homage to God’s only begotten son.
The popularity of things like the hipster nativity makes clear that depictions of Christ’s birth are no longer strictly sacred symbols, but instead more in the category of pop-culture icons, like Santa Claus or Frosty the Snowman.
This was apparent to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun when he penned his dissenting opinion for Lynch v. Donnelly: “The creche has been relegated to the role of a neutral harbinger of the holiday season, useful for commercial purposes but devoid of any inherent meaning and incapable of enhancing the religious tenor of a display of which it is an integral part,” he wrote.
And he’s right. Public depictions of the nativity are empty displays, upsetting to everyone. Non-Christians don’t get the satisfaction of the complete public removal of Christ from the holiday season. And although the religious get to keep their rituals, they only retain them under the auspices of ceremonial deism: a compromise which takes away any deeper significance the symbol once held.
Small towns like Bryan may have won a victory in being able to display scenes of Christ’s birth, but without the full meaning behind the nativity scene, theirs is a Pyrrhic victory.Jared Gurman: The Walking Dumped.
Not That Bad: 26-year-old Long Island man Jared Gurman, of Williston Park, is convinced that the zombie outbreak as portrayed in AMC’s The Walking Dead could be caused in real life by some sort of "military mishap."
A Bit Worse: Gurman’s passionate belief in this possibility led on Sunday night to a heated, extended argument with his girlfriend of three and a half years, who felt that a belief in zombie outbreaks was "ridiculous." After the two parted ways, the fight continued over text.
Wow, Terrible: When the girlfriend showed up at Gurman’s house late that night to check in on him, he shot her in the back with a rifle. "Gurman initially told police the shooting was accidental but later admitted it was not," reports NBC New York. The girlfriend is in stable condition.Anne Burrells Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Radicchio, Pecorino, and Fried Capers I have to say that when I first seen this combination of ingredients I really had to say to myself...mmmm what's Anne up to now? BUT...this is one of the most tastiest combo's I have ever experienced in a salad! Every bite is a new experience. The Cauliflower is so full of flavor and that light char on the outside just makes it double-good! And who ever thought about frying capers! What an incredible taste that is. The slight bitterness of the Radicchio just adds so much and the light lemon-olive oil dressing is the ultimate. It's pretty too as the chives give it an unexpected look! Top it all off with the shavings of Pecorino or Parmesan and it's "devine". Just loved this recipe! This is definitely a Keeper and I'm craving more now! During this episode Anne also made a to-die for "Braised Calamari Stuffed with Shrimp, Spinach and Herbs" which I also made with this salad. For recipe: Click here Ingredients
1 large or 2 small heads cauliflower, cut into bite size florets
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
3/4 cup capers, patted dry
2 radicchio trevisano, cut into chiffonade
1/2 cup aged pecorino, shaved
1 bunch chives, cut into 2-inch lengths
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice Directions Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Add the cauliflower florets to a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and toss. Transfer to a baking sheet and roast until the cauliflower is very brown and crispy, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven to a large bowl and reserve.
Coat a large saute pan generously with olive oil. The oil should be about 1/8-inch deep. Heat the pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the capers. As the capers cook they will open up and start to look like little flowers (very cute). Fry the capers until they are crispy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the capers from the pan, dry them on paper towels and season with salt immediately.
Toss together the cauliflower, capers, radicchio, pecorino, and chives. Dress the salad with lemon juice, olive oil and salt, to taste. Divide between 4 serving plates or arrange on 1 big platter and serve.
What a Lovely Salad
Episode: The Secret to Stuffed Calamari
Recipe courtesy Anne Burrell“Aamar Shonar Bangla” seems to be slipping fast. And now it’s not just an economic downward spiral but has become social as well. Kolkata, earlier thought of as one of the safer cities for women, seems to be striving really hard to compete with Delhi as far as the crime against women is concerned.
Consider the latest incident which happened yesterday. A girl gets molested in a pub and when she protests, she is attacked and chased on the road, the assailants joined by a group of locals who also want to have some ‘fun’. Badly bruised and bleeding, the girl manages to board a bus to save her life, but the rouges stop the bus, drag her out and beat her mercilessly till she is bleeding profusely and unconscious. To make it worse, all this happens not in a deserted alley but on a crowded road in the New Market area with hundreds of mute spectators!
More shocking was the reaction of some who blamed the girl for going to the bar at late hours and getting molested. They implied that a girl is asking to be raped if she is out of her house at night in India where law ceases to exist, wolves roam in the street and the public in general is either impotent or an abettor in the crime. How pathetic can this get? In the same newspaper, I read about a schoolgirl who was raped by her teacher. Now will these morons come and say that the girl deserved to be raped because she dared to go to school?
I wonder what kind of society are we living in. There is so much apathy and lack of sensitivity towards the fact that women are individuals and have as much a right to security and dignity as any one else. If there is a rape, we blame the victim, if a girl is molested; we say she asked for it. And in the meanwhile, we never fail to brag that we are the greatest civilization in the world, the spiritual Guru of humanity!
Read the News Reports on this incident:
India Today
Times of IndiaSAN JOSE, Calif. -- Jason Hernandez last played for the San Jose Earthquakes in 2014. But the impact left by the New York City FC defender still looms large with the Quakes’ fan base.
Midway through NYCFC’s first-ever visit to Avaya Stadium -- and Hernandez’s return to the Bay Area after joining the expansion team last year – the Quakes’ leading supporters group unveiled a banner to mark Hernandez’s seven years of yeomanly service following San Jose’s rebirth as an MLS side in 2008.
“Forever in our hearts,” the sign read in part. “Jason -- one of us.”
“Honestly, that’s the closest I’ve been to crying on a field,” Hernandez said after NYCFC held on for a scoreless draw against San Jose. “As a defender, your name doesn’t get called out a lot -- especially not in a good way. So to have the supporters show me that appreciation was really cool.”
Hernandez and the other members of NYCFC’s back line -- R.J. Allen, Frederic Brillant and Maxime Chanot -- kept their collective cool even as San Jose relentlessly pounded on the door. The hosts launched 19 shots and collected a season-high nine corner kicks, using high pressure to help knock NYCFC off-stride and hem them inside their half of the field.
“I think tonight we probably defended a little more than we wanted to,” Hernandez said. “For the most part during the season, we’ve been able to dictate the tempo of games. Tonight, San Jose made it tough on us. That’s their MO; they’re going to work their socks off and make it difficult for anyone who’s coming in here to play.”
Hernandez should know, having made 165 appearances for the Quakes -- still fifth on the club’s all-time list -- in their old home of Buck Shaw Stadium. Seeing Avaya Stadium in person was “the most surreal experience” for the 32-year-old, who also renewed his acquaintance with old friend Chris Wondolowski. Hernandez marked Wondolowski on set pieces, and the pair even earned a talking-to from referee Ricardo Salazar during one first-half stoppage.
“He’s obviously a great player, a legendary player,” Hernandez said. “I’m just glad he didn’t get on the board tonight.... That [battle] probably happened 300 times over the years in training. Tonight was no different.”
Keeping the clean sheet -- NYCFC’s first in five matches -- allowed the club to pull four points clear of Toronto FC atop the Eastern Conference. Hernandez and Co. blocked seven shots, and goalkeeper Josh Saunders had four saves, a couple of them in spectacular fashion.
“Analyzing the game, to not give up a goal, our back four and our keeper had to perform well,” NYCFC coach Patrick Vieira said. “And I was really pleased with our performance. Coming in here, we didn’t play our best football, but on the other side, we defended really well.”David Sparks, director of basketball analytics for the Boston Celtics, graduated from Duke with a Ph.D. in political science in 2012, and earned his undergraduate degree in economics and political science from Vanderbilt University in 2006. Sparks is scheduled to give a talk sponsored by the political science department detailing the progression of statistical modeling in basketball analytics Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Gross Hall 111. Ahead of Sparks' talk, The Chronicle's Brian Pollack sat down with Sparks to discuss his career path, time at Duke and thoughts on analytics in sports:
The Chronicle: You earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke—how did a degree like that lead to a career in basketball analytics?
David Sparks: I found that I needed a lot more math and stats to be a graduate student in political science. So I spent a lot of my coursework the first two years getting that. In the course of that, I learned statistical programming, first in Stata and then in R. So I took, with some of the other political science Ph.D. students, some courses in the stat department, and there was one in particular where we were trying to learn statistics and learn R at the same time. One of the ways I dealt with that was I found some baseball and then basketball data sets because they were very familiar to me, and you could sort of ask lots of direct and interesting questions to those and get answers very quickly.
In my spare time, I would kind of do the things I was trying to do in class—I would use Stata, and then later, R—to do the same sorts of things. I thought it was interesting, and I started making graphs. I really liked the graphing part of it. I thought it was sufficiently interesting that I wanted to share it. Online there’s a forum for basketball research called APBR Metrics [Association for Professional Basketball Researchers], and so I posted a few things there, and then I started my own little blog where I put things. I did that for a couple of months and Mike Zarren, who’s now the assistant general manager of the Celtics and my boss, he posted an internship opening to the message board and I applied and he had seen some of my work, so I got the internship. So while I was doing my Ph.D., I was sort of doing very part-time work for the Celtics from Durham.
What I found was doing things in political science and I’m getting better at statistics and getting better at statistical programming meant that I was a better basketball analyst. The difference in the subject matter wasn’t a hindrance. It actually ended up making it easier to get better at both, I think, and a lot of what I do now, I sort of describe as “social science for basketball”, where someone has an idea about what wins basketball games or what a good player is, and we can test that. It’s similar to ‘what creates democracy?’, ‘what creates a good economy?’, those kinds of questions, it’s just different data.
TC: How does the analytical work you do with the Celtics get filtered down to the management and coaching staffs?
DS: We do both personnel evaluation and strategic kind of things. So we work with both the general manager and the coaching staff. I don’t typically interact directly with the players. In general, things go through the coaching staff, which I think is the appropriate way to handle that stuff. There are very different kinds of problems—sort of macro-scale, ‘Who’s a good player? What makes a player good?’ and the more micro-scale, ‘How should we be playing in this certain game situation?’ So there’s a lot of interesting variety in those different kinds of domains.
TC: What has been the biggest development in basketball analytics you've seen in your time working there?
DS: To me, the big change is sort of obvious. Starting two seasons ago, the NBA installed SportVU cameras in all 30 arenas for all 30 teams and that data has been very interesting. It has let us answer, or start to answer, a lot of questions we couldn’t really get at with points, assists, rebounds, steals, things like that. So that has created a lot more potential for doing interesting things and building interest in different kinds of models.... The other difference is essentially every team has someone doing a similar sort of role [as me].
When I started, it was probably half a dozen teams doing it and I believe now I can at least remember reading about someone working for every team. I’m sure it varies from team to team the extent to which those groups are integrated. Maybe it’s a consultant for a team, in my case I’m full-time. I think that it’s not a secret anymore. I feel like it’s something most teams recognize it as something they should be working on and paying attention to.
TC: What exactly do SportVU cameras track and how is that data used?
DS: What SportVU does is there are six cameras in every arena and those cameras track the x and y coordinates of every player on the court, and also x, y and z for the ball. So that obviously is a lot of numbers—I calculated it out, that’s 11 values 25 times a second…it’s like 2 billion values. That’s a lot of data. It needs to be processed significantly before you can get useful things out of it. But because the resolution is so fine, it means you can do a lot of things. Essentially, almost any question that you can ask, if you can figure out a way to wrangle x and y into things you can count, you can start to answer those questions.
TC: The Duke basketball team is one of a handful of collegiate programs that uses SportVU cameras as well. Is this something that could open the door to analytics being more prevalent in the college game?
DS: Absolutely. People will email me and ask, and like I told you, I suggest starting a blog and getting your work out there. The other thing I suggest is I think college teams will be increasingly interested.... I will say that the NBA, that the data available for NBA teams is really good. I don’t know how easy it is to get data for college teams. Part of what a college stats analyst might be doing is data gathering themselves. That’s an obstacle only insofar as you have to do some work before you can do your stats, but I think it’s just a matter of time. I don’t really forsee a lot of obstacles and I think coaches want to win and taking a statistical approach to basketball can help teams win. So I think it’s just a matter of time
TC: How would you compare the state of analytics in basketball to similar movements in other sports?
DS: My impression is that the statistical approach to the game is there, and its well-entrenched, and it’s there to stay. I think |
my riches, my time, my friends, and my honor." ―Tyranus, to Darth Sidious [src]
During the Clone Wars, Dooku posted a bounty on Jedi that members of a mining colony attempted to collect. They killed a Jedi named Lunis, but his Padawan Obs Kaj escaped. Dooku shot down the fleeing Padawan and only paid the miners the bounty for the one Jedi they had killed.[77]
While Dooku spent much of his time shepherding the Separatist Council and running the war, he occasionally completed missions for Sidious personally. On one such mission he slipped under the eye of Jedi Ki-Adi-Mundi and Aayla Secura to complete a vital task on the planet Hitaka. The two Jedi had been diverted on a supposedly important mission by Palpatine. The mission they were given was meaningless, however, and served only to distract them from his apprentice's work.[78]
Dooku continued to assist local Separatist leaders, sending droids to aid Alto Stratus in his struggle on Jabiim.[79] Dooku also found it sometimes necessary to take action to protect Sidious's identity, such as when he arranged the death of Jedi General Ronhar Kim at the Battle of Merson.[80]
Balance of power
The war continues
"Though we have had setbacks on vital worlds, we shall avenge the defeats on Muunilinst and Metalorn, and strike back with renewed spirit. Our droid armies, under unfaltering command by the most proven of Generals, are indefatigable. Our flesh-and blood soldiers have iron wills bolstered by the knowledge that they fight for the truth." ―Dooku [src]
As the war continued, Dooku and Grievous planned to destroy an invading Republic army on Viidaav as well as the Separatist-allied inhabitants of the planet by rendering the surface uninhabitable. Droids planted charges on the planet and prepared them for detonation. However, the Republic forces and the Viidaav colonists discovered the plot and fought through the droids to stop the detonation sequence. The detonation charges did not go off, and the planet was saved.[81] In general, Dooku kept a careful watch on Grievous, sending his servant Vulpus to observe the general when he decided to do cyborg experiments on Jedi Padawans.[82]
Despite taking no direct action in the Separatist invasion of the critical communications hub of Praesitlyn, Dooku and Ventress advised Admiral Pors Tonith. Tonith was tasked with capturing the planet and denying its use to the Republic. Opposing him were Jedi Generals Anakin Skywalker and Nejaa Halcyon. Skywalker in particular was being watched closely by Tyranus and Sidious, who wished to test his power and bring him closer to the dark side. Once again manipulating the battles of the Clone Wars to suit the Sith schemes, Tyranus delayed reinforcements to the Separatists until the last moment, resulting in a defeat for Pors Tonith's forces and a victory for the Republic.[83]
Dealing with Hutts
"Lord Jabba, allow me. I would like to go some way toward making up for our failure to save your son. I have MagnaGuards ready for him, and I'll deal with Skywalker personally."
"«His skull. Remember, I want his skull.»" ―Dooku and Jabba Desilijic Tiure [src]
In a plot some time during the war to bring the Hutt Jabba Desilijic Tiure into the folds of the Confederacy, Dooku enlisted the Hutt's uncle Ziro to kidnap Jabba's son Rotta. After Ziro's agents delivered the young Huttlet to the planet Teth, Dooku contacted Ziro again to arrange for Asajj Ventress to take custody of Rotta. Jabba had requested Jedi assistance to rescue his son, and the Count wished for Ventress to frame the crime on would-be rescuer Anakin Skywalker.[84]
As Separatist and Republic forces battled on Teth, Dooku met with Jabba personally on Tatooine. In one of several audiences with the Hutt, Dooku displayed a partially forged recording of Skywalker and Rotta that Ventress had produced. This recording enraged Jabba, who demanded that Rotta be rescued and Skywalker's head delivered to him. The Count agreed, and commanded Ventress to retrieve Rotta from Skywalker and return him alive to Jabba. However, Ventress was unable to prevent the escape of Skywalker, his new Padawan Ahsoka Tano, and Rotta from Teth.[84]
On Tatooine, Dooku informed Jabba that Rotta had been killed by the Jedi, and offered to kill Skywalker in return. He dispatched IG-100 MagnaGuards in fighters to destroy Skywalker's incoming ship, the Twilight. While the fighters were destroyed, they succeeded in disabling the vessel, which crashed in the desert. Tano and Skywalker split up after landing, with Tano carrying Rotta and Skywalker playing decoy.[84]
Dooku sent other MagnaGuards to lay in wait along the route to Jabba's Palace, but was delayed in seeking Skywalker by a message from Ziro the Hutt, who was concerned about their plot. However, their discussion was interrupted by the discovery of Senator Amidala eavesdropping on Ziro. Dooku suggested that Ziro hand her over to Nute Gunray and collect the bounty, and left to confront Skywalker.[84]
Riding his speeder bike into the desert, the Count soon discovered Skywalker, who was waiting for him. They proceeded to duel, and the Count noted that Skywalker's swordplay had greatly improved since their previous encounter. Dooku sliced Skywalker's backpack in the midst of the battle. As Skywalker was acting as Tano's decoy, the backpack contained only rocks and not Rotta. Skywalker noted that he had delayed Dooku long enough for Tano to reach the palace. Dooku, not fooled, then displayed a hologram of Tano fighting MagnaGuards, telling Skywalker that the MagnaGuards would kill Rotta, but Tano would be delivered to Jabba alive to face his vengeance.[84]
Anakin then managed to knock the Count down a sandy embankment, ending the duel in a draw. Sprinting to Dooku's speeder, Skywalker stole it and raced to Jabba's throne room to defend Tano from the Hutt's wrath. However, the young Togruta made it past Dooku's minions and delivered the infant Hutt to his father. While enormously pleased at the return of Rotta, Jabba still demanded the deaths of the Jedi for other slights. However, a call from Senator Amidala delivering evidence of Ziro and Dooku's involvement in the kidnapping deflected Jabba's fury onto his uncle and the Separatists.[84]
Further designs
The Sith Lord was somewhat disconcerted by his failure on Tatooine, though Sidious advised him that the tide of the war was still in their favor. After escaping the desert planet, Dooku sought to bring various unaligned worlds into the Confederacy. He personally led a Separatist army that occupied the planet Kiros. When the governor of Kiros objected that he was putting Kiros's people into harm's way by bringing the war to them, the Count offered to evacuate the world and offer its population "sanctuary". After the people of Kiros gave themselves into his hands, he sold them to the Zygerians.[85]
While on Serenno, Tyranus received word of a Jedi plan to destroy the Separatist shipyards on Gwori. He contacted Sidious to inform him of this, but Sidious told him that he already knew about the plot and that he believed it had little chance of success. Dooku soon after learned that some Jedi had breached the perimeter security on Gwori and he contacted Overseer Juhm, who commanded the shipyards, to offer him extra security, although Juhm refused and claimed he didn't need it. The Overseer soon contacted Dooku and claimed to have captured Kenobi, Skywalker and Tano. The Sith Lord was very pleased by this news and decided to travel to Gwori, so that he could watch their execution. He flew there in his solar sailer, with Asajj Ventress, but on arrival, he discovered that the Jedi had escaped and destroyed the shipyards. He had Ventress kill Juhm for his failure and contacted Sidious, who told him not to worry, as the shipyards would have eventually been destroyed anyway and that the incident had shown them just how powerful Kenobi and Skywalker were. Tyranus vowed that they would change that in the future.[86]
Dooku also sent his protégé, Asajj Ventress, to Toydaria to negotiate with the Toydarian monarch Katuunko. She and her forces fought with the Republic representative Yoda and his forces to determine which side Toydaria would join. After Yoda won their contest, Dooku ordered Asajj to kill Katuunko. Yoda prevented her from doing so, and she was forced to make her escape, defeated.[87]
Dooku participated in a Separatist attack on the planet Falleen. During the battle, he infiltrated a temple and forced the King of Falleen to cede Falleen to the Confederacy.[88] He contacted Sidious to report the recent Separatist victories to him. Sidious soon after contacted him again, to get Dooku to begin a plan to kill Bail Organa and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Dooku had an agent who had infiltrated the Friends of the Republic, a group that provided intelligence for Organa. On Sidious's orders, Dooku had his agent give them information that the Sith were on the planet Zigoola. Zigoola was the location of a Sith temple which contained dangerous artifacts and Kenobi and Organa were supposed to be lured to the planet, where the power of the temple would destroy them. However, they escaped and Dooku's failure further undermined Sidious's confidence in him. Around this time, Dooku also attended a high profile Separatist convention on Chanosant, to try and gain the Confederacy more support.[89]
The Malevolence
Count Dooku: "General Grevious, this will be a suitable test for our new weapon. You may fire when ready." General Grevious: "Yes, my lord." ―Count Dooku orders General Grevious to fire the Malevolence on incoming Republic ships[src]
Grievous's next move would be the command of the new battleship, the Malevolence, which carried a powerful ion cannon that could neutralize any ship, battling Republic warships over planets such Phu and Ryndellia, as well as the Kaliida Nebula.
After Jedi Master Plo Koon survived in the battle of Abregado,[90] the official description of the Malevolence was launched in the HoloNet news, making more scores to Grievous' actions. After a battle on the Ryndellia system, that end in success to the Confederacy, Dooku gave the Kaleesh general another opportunity, at attacking a Republic Medical base in the Kaliida Nebula, that by the time, was totally unprotected. Grievous attacked the target, but after a skirmish in the space, the Malevolence ion cannons were totally damaged, and just in time, when Republic reinforcements arrived to protect the base, and destroy the ship.
Dooku gave Grievous a final opportunity to triumph, and told him that Senator Padmé Amidala was arriving at that time to the sector, and if the separatist could capture her, the clone forces would need to stop and retreat, leaving the way free for the Malevolence to escape. However, a Jedi invasion of the vessel forced Grievous to retreat and leave his command ship. The Malevolence was totally destroyed, and the senator rescued.[91]
Nute Gunray's capture and rescue
Ventress: "Master?" Darth Tyranus: "There is no margin for error this time, child. You must prove yourself worthy of being my apprentice." Ventress: "I am worthy, as you shall see." ―Darth Tyranus speaks with his would-be-Sith apprentice[src]
When Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray was captured by Republic forces in the Rodia system, Sidious told Tyranus that Gunray would not last long under Jedi interrogation. Tyranus said that he was already on the task, for he was sending Asajj Ventress to either free the Neimoidian or, should he talk, silence him. Sidious was concerned about Ventress's past failures, but Tyranus gave him his word that the Dathomirian would complete her mission "to the letter." As Sidious's hologram faded away, Ventress stood before Dooku in private. This time, he said, she must prove herself worthy of being his Sith apprentice.[12]
Ventress went to rescue the Viceroy on the Jedi prison, Tranquility, and signaled Captain Faro Argyus, who was convinced with a huge amount of money by Dooku, to liberate him, while she faced the Jedi securing the prison.[12]
Viceroy Gunray was rescued by Captain Argyus, and Ventress defeated Jedi Master Luminara Unduli and Anakin Skywalker's Padawan Ahsoka Tano, finally running away with the traitor captain. When Ventress killed the senatorial captain for boastfully discrediting her, Dooku showed no care for his life.[12]
Testing his best General
Dooku: "I apologize for the deception, Master Jedi." Fisto: "Count Dooku. You have a great talent for unexpected appearances." Dooku: "It's a shame you came so far to be frustrated. While the Viceroy is unavailable for capture, allow me to offer you an alternative prize." ―Count Dooku directs the Jedi to Grievous Listen (file info) [src]
In light of Grievous's recent failures, the Count contacted Grievous telling that Lord Sidious demands more dramatic examples: more dead Jedi. Thus, Dooku prepared a test for his general, leading Jedi Master Kit Fisto, and Jedi Knight Nahdar Vebb inside maximizing on Gunray's escape. The Republic beacon broadcasted from inside the castle, and after discovering that Gunray wasn't there, they were greeted, in hologram form by Dooku, offering them another prize. Simultaneously, he ordered Grievous to destroy them.[92]
Afterwards, the Count learned that Grievous managed to kill the clones and young Jedi Vebb, which was expected. However, Grievous failed to kill Fisto and Dooku told him there was room for improvement, thus frustrating the General even more.[92]
Raid on Vanqor and kidnapping on Florrum
"They're devious and deceitful. And most importantly, stupid." ―Dooku, speaking about the Weequay pirates [src]
When Count Dooku moved his fortress to Vanqor, having captured the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, he was ambushed by Republic forces, and forced into retreating. After a dogfight over the planet, his Solar Sailer was heavily damaged, and it crashed in the surface.
Both Skywalker and his Master, Kenobi, were pursuing him and had landed on the the surface. The Sith Lord managed to escape from them by going into a nearby cave and hiding until the Jedi went looking for him. He blocked their exit by throwing rocks at them, and took Anakin's lightsaber. He ran out of the cave and he found a gang of pirates. He asked the leader of the pirates, Hondo Ohnaka to get him to a civilized planet, far from Vanqor and the Republic. The pirates told him, that the planet they were going to was Florrum, but Dooku refused to travel to go, so he was secretly disarmed and captured by the pirates.
Ohnaka contacted the Republic Supreme Chancellor, asking for a million credits in spice, in exchange for the Count. The Republic sent Skywalker and Kenobi who were still looking for him, but they were captured too by Ohnaka to gain more spice. Senator Kharrus, Representative Jar Jar Binks and Commander Stone's escort meanwhile were arriving there to pay them. Dooku managed to escape with the Jedi three times, but they were recaptured and taken to the cell again. When the power went out due to representative Binks fight, the Sith Lord escaped one more time, killing the guard outside his cell, then Force choking Turk Falso and forcing him to shoot his compatriot Barb Mentir. Dooku then took their ship, escaping the system.[93]
The Defoliator
"I have located a world in which we can test my… excuse me, our new weapon."
"I hope it turns out to be worth the expense. You may proceed." ―Lok Durd and Count Dooku Listen (file info) [src]
Later, Count Dooku authorized the Neimoidian general, Lok Durd, to build his new project, the Defoliator, a weapon that could destroy every living organic within a certain area, while leaving droids, which comprised the majority of the Separatist military, unharmed. Dooku examined the general's treachery, and knew that he only planned to win his confidence, so he could be promoted.
After the first test was successful, Dooku told the general to make a trial on the Lurmen inhabitants, so they could see the effectiveness of the weapon upon living creatures. Soon, Dooku was informed of the failed Durd's plan, and the Neimoidian's capture, but he didn't care at all.[94]
Battle of Ryloth
Dooku: "Emir Tambor, why haven't you evacuated?" Tambor: "Our exit strategy is taking more time to implement." Dooku: "I want you out of the city before the Republic arrives. Once Master Windu has invaded the capital, you will bomb it from afar." ―Dooku and Wat Tambor Listen (file info) [src]
When Techno Union Emir, Wat Tambor, took control of the planet Ryloth, Dooku gave him orders to take extremely precautions against the Jedi moves on the system. Although the Skakoan was in no contact with the count, his spies in the separatist army, informed him about the failed moves against the republic army, and the supposed death of Neimoidian blockade Captain Mar Tuuk,[95] and the T-series tactical droid TX-20.
Dooku demanded Tambor that he needed to take off the planet, and steal every available resource on the only separatist base at the city of Lessu. Tambor's personal tactical droid, TA-175, communicated directly with Dooku, despite the foreman's orders, and insisted in Dooku's demands to the Skakoan Emir. Although Tambor didn't like Dooku's plan, he needed to obey him, when he was forced by clone forces and the Twi'lek freedom fighters, led by General Mace Windu and Cham Syndulla, he was betrayed by TA-175 and Dooku, who planned to destroy by bombing the capital city, with the foreman in it, but after he was captured by Windu, and their space forces were definitely destroyed, 175 retreated, and abandoned Tambor, under Dooku's orders.[96]
Duel on Behpour
Count Dooku: "Ever the righteous one, Obi-Wan. Much like your former master." Obi-Wan Kenobi: "So you still remember what it means to be a Jedi." Count Dooku: "Such ignorance is hard to forget, my dear Obi-Wan" ―Count Dooku and Obi-Wan Kenobi before their duel.[src]
Dooku was present on the small planet of Behpour in the Naboo system in 22 BBY to see if Kul Teska’s new weapon could destroy the Naboo sun. Teska contacted Dooku at one stage and was forced by Dooku to hurry it up as they were running out of time. When the clone army led by Padawan Ahsoka Tano and Mace Windu broke through the facilities defenses, Dooku found the Twilight and clones Rex and Cody stationed there. They attempted to shoot him but he swatted the bolts aside and used the Force to throw them in and then push the ship of the docking platform.
Once he had done that, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu sensed the Sith Lord and went to engage him while Tano and Anakin Skywalker went on to complete the mission at hand by defeating Teska. Kenobi and Windu confronted the count and forced him to surrender, but Dooku leapt away and sent his Magna Guards after them. Windu and Kenobi defeated them and then engaged Dooku himself. The count fought well, but the two powerful Jedi Masters proved too much for him. He fell off the docking platform, defeated but not killed.
Dooku and Asajj Ventress attempted to escape Behpour, but were trapped in space when their ship broke down. The bounty hunter Cad Bane watched this from afar.
Mandalorian power struggle
"With your Death Watch army in place, all we need do is to sit and wait." ―Dooku, to Pre Vizsla [src]
During the Clone Wars, Dooku and the Confederacy officially backed the Death Watch, a group of Mandalorian terrorists whose goal was to bring down the government of the pacifist New Mandalorians. Dooku urged the leader of the Death Watch, Governor Pre Vizsla of Concordia, to give the Galactic Republic a reason to send a military presence to Mandalore, which Dooku believed would inspire the inhabitants of Mandalore to start a revolution, spearheaded by the Death Watch movement.
However, his plan fell through. Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore presented her case to the Galactic Senate, urging them to hold off a military force, despite the attempts of a Death Watch assassin, sent by Dooku and Vizsla, to silence her. Dooku ordered Vizsla and his men to hold off the attack force, claiming he had further plans for them.
Continuing the war
"After our attack, chances of peace will disappear." ―Dooku [src]
After the Galactic Senate halted it's debate on the de-regulation of the banks, Count Dooku was contacted by representatives of the Trade Federation, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, and the Techno Union. They wanted Dooku to bring the war to Coruscant's doorstep. Dooku ordered General Grievous to send droids disguised as sanitary units to commit acts of sabotage on the capital. Meanwhile, on Raxus, Dooku publicly supported a peace treaty from the Separatist Parliament to the Galactic Republic. Despite this, Dooku sought to continue the war. The attack set by Grievous worked and the de-regulation bill was passed in the Galactic Senate, continuing the war.[97]
After bombing on Coruscant, Dooku sent a message to the Galactic Senate, accusing them of launching their own barbaric attack on the Separatists on their territory and murdering the sponsor of their peace treaty, Mina Bonteri. Dooku then formally withdrew the Separatist's peace treaty. In actuality, Dooku's agents killed her, to disrupt any further attempts at a peaceful resolution to the war. Dooku also arranged a pair of bounty hunters to threaten Senators to vote for or abstain from appropriating funds for the creation of millions of more clone troopers and continuing the war.[98]
Treachery of the Sith
Ventress's "demise"
"Master, I need your help quickly, I'm surrounded."
"You have already lost the battle, child. I've ordered your reinforcements to return."
"No! I will destroy the Jedi. I will show you."
"You have failed me for the last time. You are no longer my apprentice. And now you shall die." ―Darth Tyranus, abandoning Ventress to her fate. [src]
On his homeworld of Serenno, Tyranus was contacted by his master, Darth Sidious, who was concerned with his assassin Ventress' growing power in the dark side and that the Count was training his own apprentice to destroy him. To prove Tyranus' loyalty, Lord Sidious ordered his apprentice to eliminate Ventress. Tyranus began to protest that Ventress was his most trusted subordinate, but as Sidious harshly repeated his demand, the Sith apprentice bowed and obeyed.[99]
Thus while Ventress commanded the Separatist forces at Battle of Sullust, Tyranus ordered her reinforcements back, dismissed her and left her to die.[99]
Dealing with the Nightsisters
"We could certainly use the powers of the Nightsisters against the Jedi." ―Dooku to Mother Talzin [src]
Unknown to Tyranus, Ventress survived the count's attempt to eliminate her. Ventress made her way back to her homeworld of Dathomir, where she received help from her clan, the Nightsisters and Mother Talzin. With their help, Ventress and two other Nightsisters fought Tyranus with Jedi lightsabers, but they could not beat him; even when disarmed, he unleashed a torrent of Force lightning on his assailants and threw them out the window. The Count, blinded by a toxic dart, was under the impression that the Jedi were had attempted to capture him and began looking for a new acolyte.[99]
Mother Talzin saw this as an opportunity to give Dooku a new assassin to replace Ventress, one that would be controlled by Ventress and the Nightsisters to slay Dooku at their behest. After Talzin contacted Dooku,[99] the Count traveled to Dathomir, where he spoke to Talzin of a possible alliance between the Separatists and the Nightsisters. Despite how the Count helped Talzin out of some manner of predicament, Talzin stated that their loyalty was to their own clan and that she hoped to never make contact with Dooku again once their business was done. Talzin then asked Dooku if he had heard of the Sith warrior Darth Maul. When the Count remembered the name of his predecessor, Talzin said that there were others of his bloodline who still lived and could be as powerful as Maul. With Ventress "dead" and the Jedi attacks increasing, Dooku accepted Talzin's offer for a new assassin.[100]
Training the brother of Darth Maul
"I foresee we will do great things together. I shall teach you the ways of the dark side. Soon, your powers will rival that of the great Sith Lord Darth Maul. We will be even more powerful than Lord Sidious. We shall rule the galaxy together, my apprentice."
"I am your servant, master." ―Darth Tyranus to Savage Opress [src]
After the Nightsister used their mystical powers on Opress, they deliver him to Dooku on Serenno. There Savage was given his first mission by Dooku: to take out the Temple of Eedit on Devaron. After slaughtering the Republic forces present there almost singlehandedly, including two Jedi, Savage returned to Serenno, where Tyranus promised that they would be more powerful than Lord Sidious and rule the galaxy together.[100]
On Serenno, Tyranus trained Opress in lightsaber combat and in Sith skills. He was seen as a hard taskmaster, as he strives to stir Opress' anger and hatred in order to unlock the power of the dark side within him, torturing and agitating his disciple with demeaning criticism and Force lightning.[13]
After the first training has been completed, Dooku sent Opress on yet on another mission, this time to Toydaria: he was to capture King Katuunko and bring him to the Sith Lord alive. Unfortunately, Opress inadvertently killed Katuunko while fending off Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, angering Tyranus upon his return to the Sith Lord's ship, who brutally punished Opress for his failure. To Tyranus's surprise, Ventress arrived and revealed Opress's true loyalty to her.[13]
Tyranus, under attack from both his apprentices, proved more than a match for both of them; however, the derisive criticism of both his masters sent Opress into a berserk fury, and he used the Force to choke both of them into submission. The arrival of Skywalker and Kenobi, looking to exact justice on Katuunko's murderer, put an end to the duel; Opress fought his way off the ship and fled back to Dathomir, where Talzin advised him to seek aid from his long lost kinsman. Tyranus and Ventress continued fighting in the bowels of the ship; Tyranus proved too strong for Ventress to kill alone, but she managed to escape Tyranus before he could execute his defeated apprentice.[13]
Skirmish on Naboo
"Why bring the war to Naboo?"
"How quickly you forget. After all, the war started here years ago."
"You were a part of that first battle?"
"The Sith control everything. You just don't know it." ―Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku [src]
Dooku then had his agent, Gungan mystic Minister Rish Loo, hypnotized Gungan leader Boss Lyonie into rallying his people and the Gungan army against the Naboo. However, Rish Loo's plan backfired after Representative Jar Jar Binks–posing as Lyonie–stopped the invasion. When Darth Sidious got news of General Grievous's capture, he contacted Tyranus in Rish Loo's secret Lab on Naboo. Sidious told Tyranus that Grievous was still needed in their plans for the Clone Wars. Tyranus was told by Sidious that he must lay a trap for Anakin Skywalker and that he would exchange Skywalker for Grievous. At first, Tyranus doubted that the Republic would trade Grievous for Skywalker, but Sidious was confident that Senator Padmé Amidala would do so nonetheless.[101]
Dooku then contacted Rish Loo and ordered him to leave a trail for Skywalker to follow. When Loo, followed by Skywalker, walked in, Dooku killed him for his stupidity. When Anakin asked why Dooku would bring the war to Naboo, Dooku told him that the war was started there by the Sith since they, in Dooku's words, "control everything." Dooku then engaged Skywalker in a lightsaber duel. He summoned MagnaGuards to help him. Dooku was able to subdue Skywalker with a combination of Force choke, Force lightning, and attacks from the MagnaGuard's electrostaffs. Dooku then placed Skywalker in a containment field.[101]
Dooku, using Skywalker's communicator, contacted Amidala, offering her Skywalker in exchange for Grievous. Amidala was at first hesitant, but when Dooku ordered his MagnaGuards to torture Skywalker and gave her one hour to respond, Amidala agreed to Dooku's term and freed Grievous.[101]
Plot to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine
"Well done Master Kenobi, you were a worthy adversary. I cannot say the same about your young apprentice." ―Count Dooku to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker [src]
Dooku and bounty hunter Moralo Eval then planned to kidnap the Chancellor Palpatine during Naboo's Festival of Light. After Eval was freed by fellow bounty hunters Cad Bane and Obi-Wan Kenobi, disguised as Rako Hardeen, Dooku then held a "friendly" contest for 13 of the galaxy's best bounty hunters. Dooku and Eval then took their weapons away and then sent them into the Box. While watching the bounty hunters performance, Dooku was very interested in Rako Hardeen. After the surviving bounty hunters finished the box, Dooku told them of his plan; that they would kidnap the Chancellor and that they would use to demand the freedom of Separatist prisoners. He also promised that they would be paid with enough credits to never work again and that they would be famous for doing this task.[102]
Dooku and his bounty hunters then went to Naboo. After securing a hangar, Dooku and Bane laid the plan. After Dooku and Bane finished explaining the plan, he secretly planted a listening device on "Hardeen"'s rifle case, revealing that he knew who he was along. After Bane and Eval were failed in their kidnapping plot, Dooku and his MagnaGuards then went to capture the Chancellor themselves.[103]
As Anakin escorted Palpatine to the palace dining room, Dooku and his Magnaguards were waiting. He taunted Anakin that with the Jedi being lulled into a false sense of security by Bane and Eval's attack, he would easily be able to defeat the young Jedi and capture the Chancellor. Anakin quickly cut down the two Magnaguards in the room and rushed forward to duel with Dooku, ordering Palpatine to flee. Palpatine did so, but was confronted by a third Magnaguard, who held him and forced him to watch the fight, which was what he wanted to do anyway. Dooku used the Force to throw chairs and cutlery at Anakin, who easily batted them aside. He then used the Force to block Skywalker's blade, and was barely able to stop Anakin's lightsaber from piercing his skull. As the Magnaguard took Palpatine to the waiting Separatist shuttle, Dooku continued to hold Anakin back. The Sith Lord chose to fight one handed, which almost cost him his life when Anakin kicked him down on a set of stairs, and was able to batter down Dooku's blade long enough to grab Dooku's throat. As Palpatine watched in eager anticipation, Anakin began to choke the Sith Lord, who was just able to blast Anakin away with Force lightning, before he led the Chancellor to his shuttle.[103]
Dooku almost got Palpatine into the shuttle when Anakin, now joined by Obi-Wan Kenobi, engaged Dooku and his last Magnaguard. Obi-Wan was able to cut down the Magnaguard before freeing Palpatine and taking him off the shuttle. Dooku proceeded to push Anakin back onto the landing platform and faced the two Jedi. He congratulated Obi-Wan on his victory, but threw one last insult at Skywalker before the shuttle flew off.[103]
Battle of Dathomir
"I can sense him, Grievous. That creature Savage Opress is growing stronger and stronger as each day passes."
"You consider him a threat?"
"He is a threat to all of us, even the Jedi. With the Nightsisters eradicated, there is no one left to control him. Something is rising, something sinister." ―Count Dooku and General Grievous [src]
Dooku then summoned General Grievous to Serenno, where he ordered the general to destroy Mother Talzin, Asajj Ventress, and their fellow Nightsisters out on Dathomir. As Dooku overlooked the battle in his palace on Serenno, he then felt great pain. He then realized that Talzin was using her Magic on him to kill him if he did not call off the attack.[104]
Dooku then contacted Grievous and told him to kill Talzin before she had a chance to kill him. Dooku advised Grievous to follow the green mist, which was her magic. The general was able to stop Talzin from killing Dooku.[104]
At some point thereafter, Dooku consulted Grievous, informing him about Savage Opress' growing powers, which he could sense from afar, and cautioned about the threat he potentially posed to all who crossed his path, including themselves.[105]
Battle of Onderon
Dooku then supported Sanjay Rash when he moved against Onderon's king, Ramsis Dendup and made himself king of Onderon.[106] When Rash asked for reinforcements from him to aid in quelling a rebel insurgency, Dooku responded by sending him General Kalani to assist him.[107]
When the rebels stormed the city and defeated the droid armies, Dooku - via holo transmission - had Kalani shoot Rash dead for his repeated failures. He then ordered a full droid retreat from the system.[108]
Second Battle of Florrum
Dooku then ordered General Grievous to invade and attack Hondo Ohnaka and his forces on Florrum. Via transmission, he spoke directly to Ohnaka and said that the invasion was in retaliation for Ohnaka holding him for ransom some time before.[109]
Ringo Vinda & Order 66
Dooku received word from Admiral Trench of a malfunctioning clone trooper that killed their Jedi General during the battle at Ringo Vinda. In response, Tyranus informed his Master of this unforeseen development, knowing that it could cUK tech metal outfit Aliases have today announced more information surrounding the release of their new sophomore record. Titled ‘Derangeable’, the album will be released through Basick Records on April 15th. Founded by SiKth guitarist Pin and fellow axe slinger Leah Woodward, the band’s last creative output came in the form of their debut ‘Safer Than Reality’, which was released back in 2011:
Discussing moving their sound on to the next level, Leah Woodward explains; ‘We’d like to give a huge shout out to our incredible and patient fans, a thank you to everyone who has pledged to make ‘Derangeable’ more than just a dream. It’s never easy to explain how you feel about finally unleashing a new album upon the world.
Having worked with the best people imaginable to create something we’re so proud to showcase, there aren’t many words capable of doing it justice. To anyone about to listen to these new tracks, I hope you brought spare pants. Aliases will not be held responsible for any adverse consequences pre or post listening.
We can only hope you love these new tracks as much as we do. If you do then we’re your new favourite band. We love you too!’.Two lakes underneath the ice in Greenland that previously held billions of gallons of water were rapidly drained, probably in a matter of weeks, researchers discovered recently.
Researchers from various universities involved in a comprehensive mapping effort |
connection with the stabbing. They say Lane, who was a Colorado certified nurse’s aide from 2010 to 2012, attacked Wilkins, 26, at Lane’s modest blue apartment in the 1600 block of Green Place.
Police have not yet said what happened from the time Wilkins arrived at Lane’s home at 11:51 a.m. to the time Wilkins placed the 911 call at 2:41 p.m. — nearly three hours later.
“Don’t go to sleep,” dispatcher Beth Kemper repeatedly pleads with Wilkins while assuring her help is on the way.
Four minutes into the 911 call, Wilkins repeats “Help, help me.” She told Kemper the stabbing happened when she was “trying to leave.” After hearing the doorbell ring, Wilkins perks up at the end of the call as police arrive, telling Kemper, “Yeah, they’re here. They’re here.”
The Wilkins family said in a statement Thursday evening: “Michelle is in critical but stable condition and resting comfortably.”
The family thanked Longmont police and the staff at Longmont United Hospital, adding: “We are thankful for the outpouring of love and support from the local community and others who have expressed their condolences. We know you are grieving too, and we truly appreciate the support.”
Officials said Wilkins and Lane did not know each other.
Unsafe for release
Lane made her first court appearance in the case on Thursday at the Boulder County jail, where a judge ordered her held on $2 million bail after a prosecutor said “there are no conditions that could make this defendant safe” for release.
Lane was not in the courtroom; she was in a side room away from the gallery. A deputy held a door open just enough so she could hear the proceedings through a crack. Boulder County assistant district attorney Ryan Brackley said in court that “this was an extremely violent act, a premeditated act.”
Lane did not speak during the hearing and left the courtroom clad in an orange jail jumpsuit and shackled, her head bowed as she shuffled away.
She is being held on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and child abuse knowingly and recklessly resulting in death. The Boulder County district attorney’s office says it plans to file formal charges Wednesday.
According to the police report, Lane showed her two teenage daughters an ultrasound in December and told them she was having a baby boy.
The report says Lane’s husband, David Ridley, came home at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday to take his wife to a prenatal checkup and was met at the stairs by Lane, who was covered in blood.
She told her husband that she had a miscarriage and that the baby was in the bathtub upstairs. Ridley said he “rubbed the baby slightly then rolled it over to hear and see it take a gasping breath.”
He then drove his wife and the baby to the hospital. He left the hospital to return home to get his stepdaughters, and it was then that he encountered police.
Police located Lane at Longmont United Hospital, where she told staff members she had a miscarriage. A Longmont police detective reported seeing no signs of Lane having given birth and she refused to submit to an examination.
She then admitted to the detective that “she cut (Wilkins’) abdomen open” to remove the baby. Lane was arrested at the hospital at 7:46 p.m.
Arrest charges only
Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said Thursday before the hearing that the charges Lane is being held on “are arrest charges only,” making it clear that a determination of the counts she faces has yet to be completed.
POLICE REPORT: Arrest report for Dynel Lane
One of the primary questions his office will have to grapple with, Garnett said, is whether the baby lived independently outside Wilkins’ womb. He said it’s unclear how long the fetus would have to live outside the womb to be considered a child.
“It’s not a defined time,” Garnett said at a news conference.
Garnett says if Lane is not charged with murder in the baby’s death, she could face a charge related to the unwanted termination of a pregnancy.
The baby is scheduled to undergo an autopsy Friday, Garnett said. Lane’s public defender asked in court Thursday that an expert witness for the defense be present at the autopsy.
“In this particular case, the cause of death is going to be essential,” the public defender said.
Lane, who has a Facebook page under the name Dynel C. Ridley, last posted a message to her page March 12. She is pictured with a man in several photos in her timeline. On Sept. 30, 2014, a friend posted a comment under one of those photos, congratulating Lane for being pregnant.
“You guys are a cute couple and I am 100% you are going to have just an equally cute baby,” the friend wrote.
Chelsea McKnight, of Denver, said she worked with Lane at Seniors’ Resource Center in Lakewood in 2012 caring for Alzheimers and dementia patients. She was shocked to hear the news.
“Knowing Dynel, I can’t fathom her doing this,” McKnight said. “For her, it must have been a total mental break — or maybe I never knew her.”
She said Lane appeared pregnant late last year and even told her she had had a baby boy. But she said Lane never invited her to see the baby and told her she wasn’t going to post pictures of the child on Facebook.
“I thought it was odd,” McKnight said. “I thought she would go crazy with photos of him.”
Lane lists herself on Facebook as an assistant manager at Once Upon a Child, which is a consignment store for used baby clothes. The manager at the Longmont store said Lane had never worked for her — under the name Lane or Ridley. Calls to Once Upon a Child stores in Arvada and Fort Collins yielded the same answer.
Garnett said his office is looking into the suspect’s mental health in determining what charges to file.
“We’re looking very thoroughly through Ms. Lane’s history,” he said.
Son drowned in 2002
Nearly 13 years ago, Lane lost a 19-month-old son when he drowned in a backyard fish pond, according to a 2002 story published by The Pueblo Chieftain.
The July 3 story stated that Lane, who then went by her married name Dynel Cruz, performed CPR on her son after finding him unconscious in the decorative pond.
Assistant Pueblo County Sheriff Chip DeLuca told the newspaper that the boy and his sisters “were eating and playing a game while their mother was occupied in another part of the house” when the boy went missing.
DeLuca told the Chieftain that “at first glance, this tragedy looks completely accidental.”
Quiet cul de sac
The chaos Wednesday has rattled the typically quiet cul de sac in Longmont, which is lined by modest rentals and dotted with trees. On Thursday afternoon, a stream of cars made its way down the street to catch a glimpse of a home that is now making headlines across the country.
Police asked anyone who has been in contact with Lane to call 303-651-8501.
John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abuvthefoldMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Martin Patience reports the baby is in very good health
The Chinese baby boy rescued from a sewage pipe has been released from hospital to relatives, officials say.
The baby had been in hospital in Jinhua city, Zhejiang province, since being cut free from the pipe on Saturday.
His 22-year-old mother, who has not been named, said the baby slipped into the toilet and went down the pipe by accident as she gave birth.
The baby left with his mother's family, an official with the Pujiang propaganda department told the BBC.
Police initially treated the case as an attempted murder, believing the baby had been thrown down the toilet, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.
But now police say the evidence shows this is not the case.
"This was an accident," an official from the Pujiang propaganda department told the BBC.
"The baby was taken by his mother's family. His father's family went to the hospital too. He left in good heath condition."
Local police told Reuters news agency on Thursday the baby's maternal grandparents took him to a rural location.
'Baby 59'
According to local reports, the mother alerted her landlord after the baby fell into the pipe, but did not admit the baby was hers until later.
An official told the Associated Press news agency it was because she was frightened.
China's Zhezhong News reported that she told police she could not afford to have an abortion. She was unmarried, did not think she could afford to look after the baby, and kept her pregnancy secret, reports say.
The father said he intended to verify whether the baby was his, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting local officials.
Pre-marital sex is now common in China, but single mothers are often shunned by society, our correspondent adds.
The infant has been referred to as Baby No 59 - after the number of his hospital incubator. He suffered minor abrasions on his head and limbs after being confined in the 10cm (4 inch) pipe.Story highlights Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday that he would take back his decision to personally attack Donald Trump
The Florida senator ramped up personal attacks against the real estate mogul late last month
Hialeah, Florida (CNN) Sen. Marco Rubio says if he could do it all over again he wouldn't have gone personal with insults to Donald Trump.
"At the end of the day, you know it's not something I'm entirely proud of," the Florida Republican told MSNBC during a town hall airing Wednesday night. "My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn't."
But Rubio told NBC's Chuck Todd in a clip released early by the network that aside from the personal insults, Rubio stands behind his attacks on Trump's business record.
He repeated the regret in an interview with Fox's Megyn Kelly filmed before a live audience at his rally here Wednesday evening.Multi-Platinum, Los Angeles rock band 311, announced the launch of their disposable vape pen – the Grassroots Uplifter™ on Tuesday. It’s a product the band has designed from scratch. Physically, the vape pen is stainless steel, requires no recharging and no refilling. It’s described as easy, discreet and convenient to use as no cartridges or USB chargers are needed. The backtrack in the launch video is a brand new 311 song entitled “Island Sun,” which was debuted at 311 Day last month.
The vape pen is something the 311 camp has had in the works for nearly two years. Shortly after the announcement, 311 frontman, Nick Hexum, explained to Alternative Nation the intent behind the band launching this product. “About three years ago it occurred to me that vaping concentrates is really the best way to use cannabis. I went out and bought various vape pens on the market and decided there was a lot of room for improvement. Generally, people are using e-cigarettes that were designed for nicotine which requires dilution. It was fun to design something from scratch that worked perfectly with pure CO2 oil. That was another part of our process in determining that pure CO2 oil is definitely the most health-conscious and best tasting concentrate to use.”
As you can imagine, there was a thorough and intense research and development process for the band to complete. “First it was taking the existing models apart and understanding how they work and finding ways to improve. Then we went through three or four prototypes until we settled on the current design. Then it was beta testing for the past 9 months. Fortunately, my bandmates were more than happy to test and give feedback,” said Hexum.
Uplifter Innovations, along with 311, designed and produces the unique Grassroots Uplifter™ personal vaporizer, and does not produce or sell cannabis in any form. The Uplifter™ is designed and intended for vaporization of e-liquids only in a manner consistent with all applicable laws. So what makes it different from what’s already on the market? “The burner, the wick, the tank, the look, it’s all unique to our product,” Hexum says.
The Uplifter™ will be available soon in Colorado and other states in compliance with all applicable laws. At this time, the Uplifter™ is only available wholesale to vape and smoke shops and others who are able to legally distribute vaporizers. Direct retail sales of the Uplifter™ hardware and other great products from 311 and Uplifter Innovations are in the works and coming soon. As far as 311 fans expecting the vape pen to be sold at future 311 shows, Hexum says, “As the legal climate evolves, I definitely see that happening. I mean, it’s safer than beer so why the hell not?!”
Still after 25 years as a band, 311 continues to innovate and build the renowned overall 311 experience. They just completed an epic 311 Day and have their annual Summer Unity Tour on tap. Speaking of on tap, the band also has their own beer, Amber Ale, which they were also heavily involved with, crafting the recipe in partnership with Rock Brothers Brewing. 311 Amber Ale was recently available at the Smoothie King Center during the 311 Day shows (where it completely sold out) and should be going to cans this summer. It’s currently in select markets for draft and that will grow too over this year. “By late summer of 2016, 311 Amber Ale will be launching in cans in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Nebraska and Southern California. Some additional Midwest states will also be included, but are not final at this time. Mail order shipping to all states where legally permitted will also be available this summer,” says Rock Brother Brewing Owner, Kevin Lilly.
For more information visit:
www.grassrootsuplifter.com
Instagram – grassrootsuplifter
Twitter – @GRuplifter
Facebook – grassroots.uplifter
www.rockbrothersbrewing.com
See 311 on tour this summer:
Check out the video below to hear 311’s new song, “Island Sun”
FOLLOW JEFF GORRA ON TWITTER HERE:
jeffgorra@gmailWhen Tom Hackett was 21-years-old in 1953, he and his parents lost their home.
It wasn't to a natural disaster, or overwhelming bills. Their house on Willow Avenue in South Nyack was swept up by something far more specific:.
Next month, Hackett is teaming up with the Historical Society of the Nyacks to paint a picture of what South Nyack was like before the Hudson span was built—and what was wiped off the map as a result.
, titled "Looking Back at Tappan Zee Bridge I, and Its Effect on the Nyacks," is slated to run from August 1 thru October 31 in's Carnegie Room during regular hours. The event will be curated by Nyackers Karen Kennell and Patricia Condello, and feature old photographs and memorabilia.
Hackett—who now lives in Harrington Park, NJ, but remains the historical society's treasurer—recalls a South Nyack commercial district that many never experienced.
"There were two restaurants, two grocery stores, and an auto-repair shop," he said. Hackett and his family lived just next door to the now non-existent downtown before the span went up, connecting Rockland and Westchester.
"All of these were taken in '53," Hackett added. "It ruined South Nyack, it cut it right in half."
While some homes were moved, hundreds—too old to be picked up and placed elsewhere—were demolished. A church, Bell Chapel, was also torn down, village hall was switched to a new location and 9W was moved west, to its current location.
In helping piece together the upcoming exhibit, Hackett dug an old relic out of his garage: the street sign for Willow Avenue and Franklin Avenue.
"I'll probably put that in the exhibit," he said.
Chase Avenue, a nearby roadway, was another that was swept off the map.
Hackett was well-informed during the 1953 construction—his father was head of the DPW—but said it happened much quicker than the current bridge replacement project.
"I've been following news of the new bridge to a certain extent," Hackett added. "But they're going to end up doing what they want anyway."
While the original plan was to, the New York Thruway Authority recently announced it will not be taking any residents' houses—an turn of events that.We love IKEA for its affordable prices, modern design, and cutting-edge product releases. However, given that the Swedish mega-retailer prints more copies of its catalog than there are sales of the Bible each year (yes, really), it's only natural to worry that your new flat-packed furniture won’t look unique when millions of home decorators are buying the same thing.
Enter: the IKEA hack. These simple upgrades instantly elevate your affordable finds into stylish, expensive-looking décor. Whether it's IKEA shelving, cabinets, or desks, you can transform the functional pieces into furniture so chic no one will think you bought it at IKEA. All it takes is a little know-how and an eye for design. Here are 16 IKEA hacks to try for yourself or inspire your own original design.Earlier this month at the National Assembly in Seoul, President Trump highlighted the tragic tale of the “two Koreas” — one free, just and peaceful, the other tyrannical, oppressive and dangerous. This contrast is at the root of America’s most urgent national security challenge. It is also now on vivid display in a South Korean hospital, where doctors are working to save a wounded and malnourished North Korean soldier who defected last week from Kim Jong-un’s slave state.
The defector, whose full name is still not publicly known, risked his life by speeding across the Demilitarized Zone in a jeep, then dashing across the heavily guarded border at Panmunjon. He knew that North Korean troops have shoot-to-kill orders against anyone trying to flee. By the time he made it across, some six bullets had pierced his arms and torso.
South Korean guards rescued him 55 yards south of the border, and doctors soon discovered just how grave his condition was: Along with the bullet wounds, he also had hepatitis B, pneumonia and “an enormous number” of parasitic worms in his intestines, some up to 11 inches long. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician,” said his South Korean surgeon. The worms can burrow into fresh wounds, with potentially devastating effects.
This defector’s plight is a window onto North Korean life. For all the regime’s spending on sophisticated weapons, monuments to the Kim family and bribes for elites in Pyongyang, even trusted soldiers suffer terrible malnourishment. A vast majority of other North Koreans endure still worse. Such is the cruelty of North Korea’s regime — and such is the responsibility of those foreign governments that enable it.
Every one of North Korea’s 23 million people is subject to the brutal state-imposed caste system known as songbun. The word “songbun” should be notorious around the world. From birth, every North Korean is marked by the government as a member of a loyal “core” caste, a “wavering” middle caste or a “hostile” caste, and this designation determines access to food, housing, education, jobs — everything. During the famine of the 1990s, when more than two million North Koreans perished, the songbun system often determined who ate and who starved.
North Korea once had relatively productive heavy industry, in addition to minerals and other natural resources. But while South Korea boomed after the Korean War and became one of the world’s great economies, the Communist North immiserated its people. Malnutrition makes children in North Korea significantly shorter and thinner than children in South Korea.
Some 30,000 North Koreans have defected, mostly in the past two decades, and mostly by traveling a highly dangerous route through China and eventually to South Korea. Part of the danger comes from the North Korean border guards who shoot to kill. Part of the danger comes from vicious human traffickers who lure defectors into forced labor or prostitution. And part of the danger comes from Chinese authorities who send defectors back to North Korea, where they face imprisonment and execution. Such repatriations violate China’s clear legal obligations under the International Refugee Convention.
North Korea also goes after those defectors who manage to make it to freedom. The Trump administration this week designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, partly because of assassinations of North Korean defectors and dissidents abroad, including Kim Jong-un’s half brother, killed recently with VX nerve agent in Malaysia. The United States will not sit idly by as a rogue regime lawlessly pursues those who have made the life-or-death choice to run to freedom.
Kim Jong-un also sends North Koreans overseas to earn money for his regime through slave labor at mines, logging camps, construction sites and the like, especially in China. Russia also uses North Korean forced laborers, some of whom are believed to have worked on soccer stadiums for the 2018 World Cup. United Nations officials estimated that Pyongyang earns some $230 million a year this way. The Trump administration has called on China, Russia and all other countries exploiting North Korean forced labor to cease immediately.
It is important to detail North Korea’s human rights horrors because they lend insight into the nuclear menace we face, and into those other countries still willing to trade with and cover for the Pyongyang regime. The North is as threatening to peace in Asia as it is cruel to its own people. It is past time for all civilized nations — and certainly for all nations seeking greater respect on the international stage — to work together fully for North Korean denuclearization, belatedly but finally.
As for last week’s defector, when he woke up from surgery this week, he is reported to have asked to listen to South Korean songs and watch American movies — a small taste of freedom long denied. As Americans take time this week to be thankful, may we all regard our freedom as so precious.During a post-earnings conference call this week, John Schnatter — better known as the CEO (and spokesman) of Papa John’s — told reporters and shareholders that the cause for the company’s lackluster performance in recent months has nothing to do with its food or customer service, but rather the NFL’s handling of the protests during the national anthem.
“The NFL has hurt us by not resolving the current debacle to the players’ and owners’ satisfaction,” he said during the call, according to Bloomberg. “NFL leadership has hurt Papa John’s shareholders.” The NFL came up over 40 times during the conference call.
To even the most casual viewer at home, Schnatter might be among the more recognizable faces during game broadcasts. Papa John’s has been one of the league’s most visible sponsors for years, and Schnatter has made a point of inserting himself into the company’s ad campaigns alongside a rotating cast of NFL stars, most notably Peyton Manning (who retired after the 2015 season and now owns a group of Papa John’s franchises in the Denver area).
Schnatter specifically singled out NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for criticism, suggesting he hasn’t done enough to put a stop to the on-field protests during the national anthem.
“Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership,” said Schnatter, who was last in the news for supposedly drunkenly cavorting with college students after a Louisville basketball game.
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Schnatter’s hostility toward the civil rights protest is hardly a surprise given his other conservative tendencies. When the Affordable Care Act went into full effect in 2012, Schnatter threatened to raise prices on the company’s “pizza,” citing the increased cost of providing health care to their workers. Several Papa John’s franchises were subpoenaed in New York City (where even the rats know how to find better pizza) for allegedly underpaying their employees. And in response to First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to introduce healthier food options into schools, Schnatter told Inc. that “Pizza’s really nutritious, it’s good for you.” Notably, he didn’t comment on the nutritional value of the hot cheese circles his chain of fast food restaurants serves.
The popularity of the NFL helped fuel Papa John’s growth in the 2010s, when the company began heavily investing ad dollars into national broadcasts. But when the league’s ratings and popularity began to decline—mostly due to more and more Americans ditching cable packages—Papa John’s fortunes took a turn with it. The company posted disappointing earnings results this week, saying that same store sales grew by just 1 percent, missing analysts’ projections. The company’s stock fell by 13 percent on the news, their worst decline in over two years.
The fast food industry is full of conservative boogeymen. Ronald McDonald has been the poster child (poster clown?) for opposition to a livable wage. Andrew Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants (which owns brands like Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.), was Donald Trump’s pick to serve as Labor Secretary before he withdrew from consideration after video emerged of his former wife accusing him of spousal abuse. Chick-Fil-A faced a national boycott after company’s president came out as a virulent homophobe.
Papa John’s, as it turns out, is really no different.7.1K Shares Share
Despite the many times that the age-old argument has been turned on its head, the suggestion that “the oppressed cannot oppress” is still very much around.
When I was a first-year student at a predominantly white college, I grew frustrated by my peers’ constant denial that racism was alive and well. As a queer, Black, and gender variant student leader on campus, I became very active in creating spaces for LGBTQIA+ students and students of color.
At this stage of my life, I had a firm grasp and understanding about how I was a minority in multiple spaces. But I had given little consideration to the many ways that I also held power.
How did my light skin affect my experiences of racism and grant me safety in certain contexts? Were the cultural events I was facilitating wheelchair accessible? Did they offer sign language interpretation? How had I been set up to succeed in college as the child of parents with advanced degrees?
By focusing only on my minority status, I remained unaware of issues impacting others, and, at worst, unconsciously participated in furthering oppression.
I eventually realized that my role in anti-oppression meant not only talking about my hardships, but also constant reflection on and re-assessing of (as well as—yes—fucking of up because of) my privilege.
If I was to claim that I was committed to making spaces safer and liberation for everyone, I had to take a closer look at myself, my privilege, and my assumptions.
Challenges in Recognizing Privilege (And Why It’s Still Important)
At first, I was somewhat resistant to the idea of “unpacking my privilege.”
Even though I understood privilege as a concept, I understood it more as some that harmed me rather than something I also benefited from. When bogged down by the toxicity of racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, fatphobia, transphobia, and so on, it can be hard to conceive that we are privileged at all.
Our status as marginalized remains in the forefront of our attention, because we feel most impacted by it on a daily basis.
There is true value in this—in being brave enough to raise our voices, speak out in the face of discrimination, and build community around shared struggle.
And, if we remain solely focused on our marginalization (or consider ourselves incapable of oppressing others), we may have a more harmful impact than we ever intended: We may respond to being oppressed with more oppression.
We may not know that we’re doing something fucked up and become defensive as soon as we’re challenged. We may deflect to our minority identities to dodge accountability when we are being oppressive: “I’m _______, so I’m not ________.”
These common responses are super problematic and challenging, and can create further separation.
So, here are a few things to consider when struggling to accept your privilege as a marginalized person.
1. Be As Committed to Learning About Your Privilege as You Are Your Marginalization
I am a Black, queer, genderqueer young person struggling with anxiety and depression.
I am also an English-speaking US citizen, have a roof over my head, have access to health and psychological care, am temporarily able-bodied, middle-class, light-skinned, thin, college educated, and was raised in a supportive family environment. (Coming up with that second list was like finding a needle in a haystack—and I probably missed several!)
The tricky thing about our privilege is that we often don’t even know we have it. And once we do know, it can be hard to understand how it manifests in our lives.
If you’re a working-class white woman, consider still how you have benefited from institutionalized racism and white privilege. If you are a queer man of color, check your sexist assumptions. Oppressive socialization impacts us all—whether we have one or more minority identity or not.
Delve into history or knowledge about an identity you don’t hold. Be committed to understanding your privilege in a variety of contexts—at home, in the office, in the bedroom, everywhere.
Power and privilege exist in many capacities, and the more we recognize it (or it is brought to our attention), the better equipped we are to be more aware in the future.
It isn’t easy or straightforward, but owning all of who we are in our complexities can lead to deepened empathy and capacity to build authentic relationships across difference.
2. Recognize That Oppression within Oppressed Groups Does Exist
As a college student attending the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE), I attended an African American caucus group. When it came my time to share, I talked about my struggles with Black identity—about my conflicting experiences as a “fair” (meaning light-skinned) person.
Afterwards, I was approached by an older woman with a deeper complexion who challenged my use of the word “fair.” In her generation, this term suggested superiority—if lighter skinned people are “fair,” what does that mean for folks of darker shades? What do we call them? Although I had given some thought to my privilege in this area already, I was stunned and even ashamed. This conversation served as an emotional reminder to me that – although I share ancestry and similar history—I remain privileged regardless. Our sharing of a common or umbrella identity (my being African American, for example) does not erase the power we may still have within that group. Try and pay attention to how your identities (dominant or marginalized) can shift depending on context. For example, while my masculine-presenting gender is often target of harassment and violence in mainstream US culture, it also grants me privilege in many queer and femme spaces. Understand also that there will be times when marginalized folk seek to connect with each other, and each other only. Asking for “allies to stay home” can cause confusion for those who are sympathetic to a cause or group—“but we’re in solidarity with you!” These identity-specific spaces are usually responded to with anger, outrage, and entitlement, but they are about survival. Be aware of the fact that there are experiences you may not share with others and vice versa, despite relating to their identity in other ways. 3. Listen, Validate, and Then Relate When we come together looking for support around the latest fucked up thing we’ve been through, we rightfully want our experiences to be validated. We want others to understand where we’re coming from, to share our hurt. At the same time, the last response I want to encounter when discussing my most recent interaction with racism is something to the effect of “I’m gay, so I understand the struggle, sister!” from a white, gay, upper-class cis man. Rather than immediately relating what someone has shared to your own experience, express empathy and concern and ask if and how the person needs further support. Seek the middle ground between understanding your oppression in relation to someone else’s and invalidating what they’ve been vulnerable enough to share. 4. Be Patient with Yourself and Others None of these considerations are easy, especially when we are already dealing with the daily slings and arrows of oppression. I’m all too familiar with the feeling of being called out on my privilege, and long after I had considered myself to be an activist. Whenever I recognize (or am told) how my privilege has caused me to overlook, oppress, or display a sense of entitlement, a million thoughts race through my head, mainly: “How could I have done this? I’m oppressed, too—I should know better by now!” The emotions of guilt and self-doubt that perpetuating oppression creates don’t feel good, but I’ve come to accept them as part of my learning (and unlearning) process. I have had to learn to forgive myself again and again—and to work toward doing better in the future. Continue remaining true to yourself in all of this. Recognizing your power doesn’t suddenly erase the challenges you face just in being who you are, just as your oppression doesn’t mean that you have no privilege. Practice forgiving yourself for mistakes while still accepting responsibility for the impact you may have. 5. Remember What There Is to Gain As people, we are each complex in our identities, beliefs, practices, and values. And our understanding of ourselves—all of ourselves—greatly influences how we engage in ending oppression of all kinds. The process of examining our power—and even choosing to give some of it up—is emotionally taxing, even more so when we cannot comprehend “what’s in it for us.” The fact of the matter is, there are many benefits to the process, even as people with various oppressed identities. Taking a look at our privilege can lead to better self-understanding, expanding our view from simply what happens to us (as victims of oppression). But once we have a better grasp on how our power can be harmful to others, we can interrupt those behaviors and build stronger coalitions. We can reframe privilege as something that we have, but that we can also use for change. 7.1K Shares Share MJ is a Black, queer, and genderqueer educator, activist, writer, and musician based in Oakland, CA. They believe in the power of storytelling, vulnerability, allyship, and artistic expression to build movements and community. Found this article helpful?
Help us keep publishing more like it by Help us keep publishing more like it by becoming a member!Very sad news for bacon lovers.
The World Health Organization announced Monday that cured and processed meats like bacon, sausage, hot dogs and ham cause cancer, adding the foods to a top-tier list of carcinogenic substances that includes alcohol, cigarettes, asbestos, and arsenic.
Processed meats can be bundled with these threatening carcinogens because of their link with bowel cancer, according to a report from WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, though their inclusion doesn't mean that bacon causes cancer at the same rate as, say, smoking.
"For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal (bowel) cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed," IARC epidemiologist Dr. Kurt Straif said in a statement.
The agency estimates that a 50-gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increased the risk for bowel cancer by 18 percent. That's about three slices of cooked bacon.
Getty Images/HuffPost
The report also links red meat to cancer. It classifies beef, lamb and pork as "probable" carcinogens in a second-tier list that also includes glyphosate, the active ingredient in many weedkillers.
The findings, which are based on more than 800 studies, are already receiving pushback from meat industry groups that argue meat is part of a balanced diet and that the cancer risk assessments needs to expand to include risk in the context of lifestyle and environment.
"We simply don’t think the evidence support any causal link between any red meat and any type of cancer," said Shalene McNeill, executive director of human nutrition at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
Such lifestyle and environmental risks have been studied extensively, however, and the IARC noted this broader context was included in the study:
In making this evaluation, the Working Group took into consideration all the relevant data, including the substantial epidemiological data showing a positive association between consumption of red meat and colorectal cancer and the strong mechanistic evidence. Consumption of red meat was also positively associated with pancreatic and with prostate cancer.
Both processed and red meats have been linked with cancer in the past. A 2013 study from researchers at the University of Zurich found that consuming processed meats increased the risk of dying from both heart disease and cancer. In 2012, a review published in British Journal of Cancer linked meats like bacon and sausage to an increased risk of pancreatic cancer, a disease with particularly poor survival rates. It's no secret that red meat is rife with bad cholesterol and fats that are tied to diabetes and heart disease.
Unfortunately, the average American consumes about 18 pounds of bacon each year. Our nation eats more red meat than most of the world, though consumption has begun to dip in the past couple of years. In 2014, chicken was more popular than beef for the first time in over 100 years, showing that the Food and Drug Administration's recommendations for feeding on "leaner meats" may be making an impact on the national plate.
Also on HuffPost:The image above of White Mañjuśrī was painted by HH Karmapa 17, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, and was photographed at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute, near Dharamsala, India.
The case against astrology
Some years ago, HH Dalai Lama surprised many at a meeting in Dharmsala by stating quite clearly that he did not believe in astrology, that it did not work. This meeting took place at the Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute and I am told that a significant proportion of the astrologers present subsequently gave up astrology and found new careers.
I do not wish to try and guess the Dalai Lama's intentions and reasoning here, but instead consider the position of astrology within Buddhism and what might be the best Buddhist approach to the subject.
When I first heard of the Dalai Lama's comments, my immediate reaction was to state that Tibetan astrology could not possibly work given the huge inaccuracies in the calendar on which it is based. But even if the calendar were reformed, might Tibetan astrology "work", and what would be meant by that?
Since Jung, the first major modern attempt to take an objective approach towards astrology was published in the 1977 book, "Recent advances in natal astrology", by Geoffrey Dean. A telling comment early in the book is this: "The picture emerging suggests that astrology works, but seldom in the way or to the extent that it is said to work." There are two points in that sentence: first, that astrology appears to work, and second, but not in the way expected.
On the |
this is that it’s a less materialistic culture. Well, that may be, but primitive tribes without plumbing are also less materialistic. A certain amount of materialism is what keeps humans out of the trees.
This generation is also the first to really bear the full brunt of feminism and women in the work force.
All of this leads to caginess, social fracture, romantic nihilism, and corporate dysfunction.
This is a generation that, as children, tended to be used as chemistry sets for new psychiatric theories that tend to be developed and discarded in five year cycles. The results of using children’s brains as chemistry sets seem to be, at least from self-reports, widespread psychosis.
People whose formative experiences were having quack doctors tell them all the ways in which they were disabled and deficient (while simultaneously telling them that they were talented and special) lead to people with a strange sense of identity.
We’re what happens when you have classes for middle schoolers that explain why promiscuity is healthy and masturbation is a great idea. This was a bold social experiment, and now we know what the results look like. It’s not just the chemicals, but the pioneering psychological theories pushed onto people without much thought about the potential damage that might be done. Libraries have been filled with books of untested notions, and then those ideas have been promoted at scale at schools, universities, clinics, and hospitals.
The baby boomers get a lot of credit for being the vanguard of the ‘sexual revolution,’ but even those that have divorced tend to have an idea of what romance and monogamy means. It’s difficult for people in the older set to understand how, among young people, even in the upper classes, monogamy has become strange, and even a perverse behavior, before increasingly fewer feel the pressure to go into a sham marriage to satisfy someone’s baby rabies.
While millennials are highly educated, they’re educated in a system that has watered down standards to the point of uselessness. Meanwhile, many of those people with watered-down credentials believe that they are entitled to high positions in the workforce. This leads to frenetically chaotic competition in which employers with limited legal means to discriminate among employees based upon ability have to sort through huge numbers of people who are all desperate for work, without being permitted to efficiently test the capacities of the people looking for that work.
Additionally, many of those people are saddled with debts that push them to compete much harder for work than they probably should be. Demand for labor to repay debts (created ex nihilo, with a ‘native advertising’ campaign called K-12 paid for by the government) displaces demand for labor based on capability and interest to do the job.
That all happens in the larger context of economic chaos caused by Federal Reserve policy, egregious acts like Obamacare, and foreign competition taking advantage of the civil conflict within the US.
Faced with this pile of problems that single people can’t solve, the typical response is to pray for the apocalypse. That’s understandable. It’s also the morally wrong response.
A lot of the common life problems that millennials experience are due to people no longer really looking after one another. Families, which are supposed to fulfill this purpose, have been greatly damaged or obliterated in enormous numbers. It’s sort of like what happens when formerly owned dogs become strays. Their hair gets patchy, they don’t eat good food, they develop weird habits, they have trouble socializing, and they become incapable of doing ordinary dog-like things.
People aren’t much different. Without close friends, family, and spouses, people tend to become unhealthy, erratic, and unproductive. They begin worshiping strange idols, obsessing over useless paths of knowledge, making bad art, and abusing drugs. The people that are supposed to help other people to resolve their problems will tend to instead just do what they can to triage the dysfunction, tell the person who has made themselves worthless that they still possess essential worth, and go on to the next dysfunctional person.
The reason why we hold each other to standards of behavior, health, and appearance is because a breakdown of this process causes the breakdown of civilization: city by city, town by town, village by village, family by family, person by person.
Apocalyptic violence only makes those problems far worse and usually has multi-generational negative consequences. Chaotic civil war doesn’t select for civilized traits. The people who thrive during chaotic civil wars are killers, pimps, smugglers, and whores in that order. The higher arts disintegrate almost immediately, because delicate spirits must either coarsen or escape to survive the conflict. Keeping the electricity running and the plumbing working is a big enough challenge: producing literature and advancing technology becomes impossible.
AdvertisementsAstroboffins are warning that a mighty "eruption" of superhot plasma has been blasted out of the Sun directly at the Earth. The plasma cloud is expected to reach Earth beginning tomorrow today, possibly causing strange phenomena - including a mighty geomagnetic storm which could see the Northern Lights aurorae extend as far south as Blighty or the northern USA.
Duck's eye view of the plasma shotgun blast
According to boffins analysing results delivered from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite, Sunday saw a massive convulsion involving almost the entire face of the Sun facing Earth. The event was apparently centred on Sunspot 1092, a huge solar pimple so large as to be visible without the aid of a telescope.
It appears that the sunspot may have triggered a huge "coronal mass ejection" in which huge amounts of superhot plasma were spurted towards Earth accompanied by solar flares, tsunamis, magnetic filaments and other sun-wracking upsets across half the sun's surface.
"This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on August 4th," says astronomer Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time."
Normally a blast of radiation like this could be expected to wipe out much of the human race, but fortunately we are protected by the Earth's magnetic field. Instead the deadly solar plasma is expected to stream down the planetary field lines towards the poles, crashing into oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere and so lighting them up to form aurorae - the so-called Northern Lights.
Golub and his colleagues believe that the aurorae may be so intense as to be visible from the northern United States and other countries such as the UK which are normally too far south to see the Lights.
"We got a beautiful view of this eruption," enthuses the astronomer. "And there might be more beautiful views to come, if it triggers aurorae."
The Sun's activity generally rises and falls on an 11-year cycle: the last peak occurred in 2001, but since then the star has been going through an unusually prolonged calm spell. We've been overdue for some more action for several years, and Golub and his colleagues consider that Sunday's outburst may be a sign that the Sun is "waking up". ®LARISSA, GREECE—The world’s oldest profession is giving a whole new meaning to love of the game. Players on a cash-strapped Greek soccer team now wear pink practice jerseys with the logos “Villa Erotica” and “Soula’s House of History,” two bordellos it recruited as sponsors after drastic government spending cuts left the country’s sports clubs facing ruin.
Brothel owner Soula Alevridou, centre, the benefactor of the Voukefalas amateur soccer team, holds up their new jersey for photographers, during a local championship match, in the city of Larissa, central Greece. ( Nikolas Giakoumidis / AP )
Other teams have also turned to unconventional financing. One has a deal with a local funeral home and others have wooed kebab shops, a jam factory and producers of Greece’s trademark feta cheese. But the amateur Voukefalas club — whose players include pizza-delivery guys, students, waiters and a bartender — has raised eyebrows with its flamboyant sponsorship choice. “Unfortunately, amateur football has been abandoned by almost everyone,” said Yiannis Batziolas, the club’s youthful chairman, who runs a travel agency and is the team’s backup goalkeeper. “It’s a question of survival.”
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Prostitution is legal in Greece, where brothels operate under strict guidelines. Though garish neon signs advertising their services are tolerated, the soccer sponsorship has ruffled some feathers in the sports-mad city of Larissa. League organizers have banned the pink jerseys during games, saying the deal violates “the sporting ideal” and is inappropriate for underage fans. Batziolas acknowledges the sponsorship took his team by surprise. “They didn’t believe it in the beginning,” he said. “But when they saw the shirts printed, they thought it was funny.” Near-bankrupt Greece is struggling to meet creditors’ relentless demands to slash spending and keep the euro as its currency. As Greece heads toward a sixth year of recession, drastic budget cuts have hammered many ordinary people: Retirees have been left to cover their own medical expenses, children have lost school bus services, and sports teams have scrambled to find sponsors as businesses close under the burden of emergency taxes. Brothel owner Soula Alevridou, the team’s new benefactor, has already paid more than 1,000 euros ($1,280 CDN) for players to wear her jerseys. The team is appealing the game ban, but that doesn’t worry the 67-year-old Alevridou, who says she’s only in it because she loves soccer. “It’s not the kind of business that needs promotion,” she said, dressed all in white and flanked by two young women in dark leggings at a recent game. “It’s a word-of-mouth kind of thing.”
Her businesses, plushly decorated pastel-colored bungalows where 14 women are employed, have weathered the country’s financial disaster far better than most, and she readily acknowledges her success. “If we don’t help our scientists and athletes, where will we be?” she asked. “Greece has educated people, cultured people and good athletes. It’s better to help them than take our money to Switzerland.”
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Alevridou watched in disappointment as her team lost its fourth straight game, 1-0, despite her promise to players of “a special time” at her businesses if they won. “There’s a lot still missing. We have no midfield,” said Alevridou, a slightly built woman with a husky voice. “Many of our boys have jobs that keep them working at night. And if we have a game the following morning, they can’t have a real presence on the pitch.... They need more help.” They aren’t the only team suffering. Greece’s Amateur Athletics Federation suspended all its activities for several weeks earlier this year to protest funding cuts. And even the major soccer clubs sent most of their star players abroad this summer in the face of financial trouble and poor attendance, with fans no longer able to afford tickets. Government cuts have hurt most of the teams in the amateur league in Larissa — the majestically named Olympus, Hercules, Fearless and Sagittarius clubs, as well as Voukefalas, named after Alexander the Great’s horse. The impact of the crisis on sports is a major local concern. The town of 200,000 fielded the only professional club to ever break big-city domination of the league, winning the national championship in 1988. In 2007, Larissa FC also rebounded from bankruptcy for victory in the prestigious Greek Cup. Voukefalas says it needs about 10,000 euros ($12,820 CDN) a year to meet expenses, and Alevridou has promised more cash. “Here is where it all begins, with amateur sport. It’s where the talent is bred,” she noted. “I am a Greek woman, and I love my country.” She watched quietly, holding a cigarette and wearing a straw fedora with a leopard print band, as her team struggled. “The team will get better,” she said. “I’m certain of it.” AP writer Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed to this report.
Read more about:Cross Posted from Its Getting Hot In Here
Rising Tide Vancouver Coast Salish Territories opposes the recent attacks on the people of Gaza and the ongoing military occupation of Palestinian Territories.
Rising Tide has been working with Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island, opposing land grabs and resource exploitation by industries and state sanctioned institutions. One of those institutions has been, and continues to be, imperial militaries which destroy communities, the environment, and the climate.
We reject the Israeli military’s attacks on the Palestinian people in Gaza, and the worldwide state powers which respond with complacency. We reject the state powers which support the Israeli military with monetary contributions and weapons such as drones and missiles. We reject Canada’s negotiating with Israel for the sake of trade and further development of energy resources. As many regions of the world have tar sands resources, including the occupied Palestinian territories, we extend our solidarity with all who are impacted by resource extraction processes, and encroachments on their sovereignty and self-determination.
We reject the mainstream media’s coverage (and lack of coverage) of what is happening and the demonizing of the Palestinian people as terrorists. We reject the Western mainstream media’s ongoing failure to cover the struggle of the Palestinian people as a struggle for freedom and self-determination.
In the movement for environmental and climate justice, we stand with those fighting war and occupation. Militaries exploit land and natural resources to fuel their violent control and power over others. Canada exports 2 million barrels of oil per day to the USA and the US Department of Defense is the world’s largest consumer of oil. Both Harper and Obama have been contributing to the Israeli military’s occupation financially and politically. We will not stay silent as the state and corporations contribute to attacks on communities both here and abroad.
To add fuel to the fire, literally, the unfettered burning of fossil fuels by Israeli and other militaries to wage war and violence on communities is exacerbating climate change and the impacts of droughts, extreme weather events, flooding, and sea level rise. This will lead to an increase in forced displacement and the number of climate refugees hoping to seek access to food, water, and homes elsewhere.
We recognize that the struggle to protect the land, water, and air from colonization, capitalism, and imperialism is a struggle that the people of Gaza face every day. We extend our voices of solidarity to the people of Gaza who are facing unacceptable escalation of violence as they struggle to end the illegal occupation of their land.
AdvertisementsRolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings, author of the BuzzFeed special book on the 2012 campaign Panic 2012, joined Martin Bashir on Thursday where he revealed that journalists who covered President Barack Obama during the campaign were sometimes so overcome by his presence that they would “lose their minds” and behave in “juvenile” and “amateurish” ways. Among other anecdotes, Hastings admitted that he once had the opportunity to ask the president hard questions, but was so similarly moved by his presence that he only asked “soft” questions.
RELATED: Rolling Stone Reporter: Obama Bombed In First Debate Because He Was Dealing With Benghazi
Hastings revealed one anecdote in the book which he described to Bashir in which an unnamed Wall Street Journal reporter attempted to interview the president through the medium of a sock puppet.
“It was a puppet that looked like Obama,” Hastings said, though he refused to imitate the “squeaky voice” that he said this reporter used in that moment. Hastings said that the president found that particular episode to be “very strange.”
“That’s the presence of Obama, even on the press corps – even on the people who follow him every day – when they’re near him, they lose their minds sometimes,” Hastings said. “They start behaving in ways that are juvenile, and amateurish, and they swoon.”
“Of course, you don’t?” Bashir asked.
“Oh, I do,” Hastings replied. Hastings said that he first met then-Sen. Obama in Iraq in 2006 and, when faced with the opportunity to ask Obama tough questions, was unable to pitch him anything but “soft” questions.
Watch the clip below via MSNBC:
> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comAmong conservative Republicans, 53 percent said they would have preferred a candidate other than Donald Trump. | Getty Poll: Majority of GOP voters want someone other than Trump
Less than half — 45 percent — of Republican voters say they are satisfied with Donald Trump as their party's presidential nominee, according to the latest results from an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Monday.
Another 52 percent said they would have preferred someone else as the GOP standard bearer, while the levels of satisfaction are reversed among Democratic voters, 52 percent of which said they are satisfied with Hillary Clinton as their party's nominee in November.
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The results break down ideological and educational lines.
Among conservative Republicans, 53 percent said they would have preferred a candidate other than Trump, while 45 percent of that group said they are fine with the Manhattan real-estate mogul as the nominee. Moderate Republicans split at 49 percent each, while 58 percent of Republicans who have a high-school education or less said they are satisfied. Sixty percent with a college degree said they would like someone else.
On the issues, a majority of voters said Trump would be better than Clinton at "changing business as usual in Washington" (53 percent to 23 percent). Trump also led on economic issues (47 percent to 37 percent), "standing up for America" (45 percent to 37 percent), terrorism and homeland security (44 percent to 39 percent), guns (43 percent to 35 percent), "being effective at getting things done" (42 percent to 39 percent) and "being honest and straighforward" (41 percent to 25 percent).
Clinton, meanwhile, led on "having the ability to handle a crisis" (48 percent to 34 percent), "having the ability to unite the country" (40 percent to 26 percent), "handling foreign policy" (54 percent to 30 percent) and "being a good commander in chief" (44 percent to 32 percent).
The poll was conducted June 19-23, surveying 1,000 registered voters by landlines and cellphones, with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.Stop Sexual Assaults on Veterans
by: Care2.com
recipient: Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller
The last concern a female veteran should have at a VA facility should be the fear of sexual assault. But according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, over 300 veterans have suffered sexual violence while seeking treatment at VA facilities throughout the country.
In the GAO's recently released review, it reported staggeringly high rates of sexual assaults at VA facilities around the country--over two-thirds of which were deliberately not reported to the Office of the Inspector General. These brutalities included anything from outright rape to "forceful medical examinations."
When the GAO continued its inquiry, it found that many facilities lacked legally required security, such as locks on bathroom doors or closed-circuitry television.
Veterans, who have fought bravely for the armed services, merit exemplary care. Tell the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs that reforms must be made to VA facilities to prevent travesties like these in the future.
read petition letter ▾
I am writing to express my outrage with the recent report by the Government Accountability Office concerning the disturbingly high number of unreported sexual assault cases at VA facilities. By the GAO's account, the majority of preventative measures against these assaults were lacking in VA facilities.
[Your comments here]
Veterans who seek help from VA facilities deserve security and excellent care, not the threat of sexual violence. I urge you and the rest of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs to take firm and immediate action on VA facility reform.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Dear Chairman Representative Jeff Miller,I am writing to express my outrage with the recent report by the Government Accountability Office concerning the disturbingly high number of unreported sexual assault cases at VA facilities. By the GAO's account, the majority of preventative measures against these assaults were lacking in VA facilities.[Your comments here]Veterans who seek help from VA facilities deserve security and excellent care, not the threat of sexual violence. I urge you and the rest of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs to take firm and immediate action on VA facility reform.Sincerely,[Your name]Africa Central Bankers Looking to Regulate Bitcoin
Bitcoin use is gaining steam in Africa, saving people money everywhere. The popularity of the currency has gained the attention of users and government officials. Exchanges and brokerage services for the virtual currency are appearing quite a bit in the large continent, making advances towards the $40 billion USD per year remittance economy. Yet, just as in Australia the central banking cartel is not pleased. The banking industry in Africa is using the pretense of protectionism towards money laundering and terrorism as their “solid” argument for the regulation of Bitcoin.
Also read: Circle Financial: BitLicense Granted, CirclePay Launch
With a noticeable injection of digital currency providers working to solve the remittance problem in Africa, the Central Bank of Nigeria has been alluding to regulating bitcoin in the country. The deputy governor of the Financial System Stability unit, Joseph Nnanna, recently told a crowd that regulation is needed for the virtual currency — implying money laundering and terrorist financing as chief concerns.
It would be hard for the banks to not notice the wealth being taken from their industry. The Bitcoin exchange Igot, which launched early this year, has already recorded 200,000 transactions. In Nigeria, leather outlet site Minku now accepts bitcoins; this is huge for Bitcoin, as the leather trade is a huge economy in the region. The South African bitcoin exchange BitX has merged prepaid Mastercards with bitcoin to also work towards the large economy of remittance transactions.
Western Union and MoneyGram drain the wealth of the average African living in the diaspora. The corporate giants rake in over 12% profits from just $200 USD sent and received by many living throughout the land. Many also feel Bitcoin is the solution to the long waiting periods it takes to settle these payments. Timothy Stranex, CEO of BitX, sees the virtual money having big impacts on these processing giants. Stranex told press:
“International wire transfers take several days to settle because they are processed using legacy batch systems. In contrast, Bitcoin payments are fully settled within minutes. This enables much faster international payments. Existing remittance companies can use this technology to streamline their backend operations and save costs by maintaining less float,” — Timothy Stranex, BitX
Victor Munis of TRPLAW in Nigeria, which handles international law and arbitration, told ITworld: “Bitcoins are becoming increasingly popular.” Despite this happening Munis describes that even though there is great popularity, the South African Reserve Bank and its financial colleagues currently won’t work with bitcoin users. He feels that the “situation may change in the future due to increasing use,” due to the surge of use in Africa. Munis told ITworld:
“A good number of Nigerians are using bitcoins for their day-to-day transactions. Private companies sell bitcoins to interested persons. Retailers are beginning to accept bitcoins as payment for goods and services.” — Victor Munis, TRPLAW
The question remains, will the banks work with the disruptors or be disrupted themselves? Bitcoin is trending in African economies and is eating through the mountains of greedy surpluses wielded by corporate giants. MoneyGram and Western Union should consider throwing up the white flag in the near future. The seeds of cryptocurrency have been dropped on the land of Africa, and the idea of Bitcoin is about to flourish and outgrow the previous system of financial tyranny.
Do you think African Central Banks are threatened by these financial disruptions? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Redmemes, Pixbay, and Wikipedia commonsAs they waited for the previews to end, Blake couldn't help but feel like something was… missing.
I know I didn't forget anything. Ruby had triple checked all of her belongings when they took the airbus to the city – so there would be no awkward searching and missing the movie. We even bought the tickets the day before and we got here early… so what is it?
If Blake was being truthful, picking a movie was probably the most cliché thing that Ruby could have possibly picked. Yet, that had been the precise reason that Blake was fine with it; it was something that was very much like Ruby. It's simple; we go to the movies, have a good time, and maybe cuddle and hold hands in the dark. A classic date.
So far, things were moving along well – they'd paid for each other's tickets and food, and were sitting in the back row of the theater. Said theater wasn't too packed so there wasn't any obnoxious crowding or people blocking their view… yet it felt off.
It was something that Blake just couldn't quite figure out. It wasn't until the massive kaiju appeared on the screen that Blake was able to put her finger on what precisely was off.
Blake liked to view herself as something of a romantic.
Concepts such as soulmates, or that everyone would find their true love in their lifetime were immutable facts to Blake. She believed in love, and great romantic gestures, how the tiniest thing could show just how deeply someone loved their other half.
Perhaps that's why she read so many novels on the subject of romance – where two star-crossed lovers would meet no matter the obstacles standing in their way. They were tales that gave the Blake hope in her own future endeavors, that a life like that was possible for her, even through all the discrimination that she had faced.
Of course, it had happened – she found her companion in the form of Ruby. Ruby was someone she could have fun with, to always find an open ear that'd listen to her. The teen was someone that Blake, in turn, had grown to cherish, to want the best for her. That maybe, just maybe Ruby might be the person that she'd spend the rest of her days with, that their relationship would go on long after they graduated Beacon. Yet…
Somehow, perhaps because of that, Blake had always imagined her very first date would be something a bit more than going to see a movie.
A dinner at a fine restaurant… something grander.
Yet, because it was Ruby, this was fine. It was exactly the kind of thing that she would do.
As the giant monsters fought on the screen, in the decidedly unromantic monster movie, Blake came to another realization. While it may not have been the height of romantic gestures, this was definitely something both of them enjoyed – it was a moment that just the two of them shared.
Does it really matter what I do for my first date? As long as we have fun and a good time, that's really all that counts, right? Glancing over to Ruby, Blake could see the huge smile etched onto her lips, the poorly CGI'd explosions reflected in her wide, silver eyes... the occasional tightening of her grip around Blake's hand whenever it loosened. Ruby certainly seemed happy.
Maybe I'm just overthinking things? It certainly seemed that way. I suppose it really doesn't matter as long I get to spend it with Ruby.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Blake's free arm went over Ruby's head, as she pulled her girlfriend in close, eliciting a surprised 'eep!" from her.
"Psst, Blake."
"Hm?"
"Are you… are you having fun?"
"I'm with you… so I'd say so." Her brow furrowed. "Are you not?"
"Nu-uh… I was just worried… I kinda just picked the first idea that came to mind…"
"I didn't mean to put you on the spot."
"Its fine… want some popcorn?"
"Well, seeing as I'm a bit occupied…" A slight smile creeped up the corners of Blake's lips. "Could you feed me some?"
"So what you're telling me is that you two went to the movies, and saw a monster movie and then came back… that's it?" Yang's voice was filled with incredulity, as Ruby shyly nodded. "You didn't even think of taking her to dinner…?"
Ruby's eyes widened in horror, as she frantically waved her arms around. "Uh, we can still do that!" She grabbed Blake by the hand, only to stop as she glanced at the clock. "Crapbaskets, it's too late for that – the buses stopped running!" Ruby mournfully turned towards Blake. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine Ruby. I had a good time." Blake hugged her girlfriend tightly. "We can always have that be the next date."
The wide smile that Ruby gave her was the perfect way to end the day for Blake.
AU: So, if I'm being completely truthful, I actually really didn't have much in the way for stuff in the first date. It just goes on without a hitch, for the most part.
…what, did you expect me to screw with them or something? What kind of monster do you think I am? (Unrelated chapter 60 review responses)
I know the whole thing I said was once we got to ten reviews, I'd get a chapter out within a week… well, for some reason the last month has been a bit of a creative rut. I've written shockingly little given how much free time I've had as of late. So yeah. I got no excuses.
I'll try and get back to a semi-weekly schedule, but no promises on that front… it's just been hard to write recently D:
Anywho, thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :DBernie Sanders speaks during a CNN town hall at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. | AP Photo Sanders sharpens contrast with Clinton The rivals, locked in a close race in Iowa, worked to highlight their differences.
For one final time before Iowans caucus next Monday, the Democrats were in the primetime spotlight.
Monday night's town hall -- which featured three back-to-back interviews with the candidates -- the fourth and final non-debate match-up scheduled on the primary calendar, comes on the heels of the Jan. 17 debate in which Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed over the former New York senator's relationship with Wall Street and the Vermont senator's record on foreign policy and guns. Since the new year, the two candidates have increasingly attacked each other, with Sanders hitting Clinton for being a member of the establishment and Clinton's surrogates assailing Sanders as unelectable.
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The town hall set-up didn’t produce any fireworks -- the candidates stuck to making their own closing arguments to Iowa voters, rather than rip into each other. When Clinton was asked to watch and comment on Sanders’ “America” commercial featuring the Simon & Garfunkel song, for instance, she was full of praise: “I think that is great. That is fabulous. I love it,” she said. “You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose.”
A high-energy Clinton also jumped at the chance to talk up her foreign policy record, outlining her role in the nuclear agreement with Iran. "Our choices were, oh my gosh, just fulminate about it, or turn our backs and figure out someone else was going to do something, or find a new strategy,” she said. “We chose the third." Clinton took credit for putting together the coalition that started the process to getting sanctions. "Then I began the negotiations, testing whether the Iranians would come and actually negotiate," she said. "You cannot imagine how tense it was…. Every situation is different, I want to make sure I stay as close as possible to the non-intervention. That's why I say no American ground troops in Syria or Iraq."
When pressed on the email scandal that dogged the first six months of Clinton’s campaign, she demonstrated some of the early summer stubbornness on the subject. “I'm not willing to say it was an error in judgment," she said.
Sanders was first up, and listed major policy differences from Hillary Clinton. But he also took the high road, couching those attacks with a compliment: “I like Hillary Clinton and I respect Hillary Clinton,” he said. In terms of keeping the debate about issues rather than personal attacks, Sanders said, “we’re doing a lot better than the Republicans in that regard.”
But he ticked off Clinton’s 2002 vote to support the war in Iraq; his effort to end Wall Street deregulation; and her foot-dragging before opposing the Keystone pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership as major points of difference. “From day one, I said the Keystone pipeline is a dumb idea,” he said.
He also defended the tax hike necessary to fund his "Medicare-for-All" health insurance plans, as well as his record on gun control and his decision to support legislation to repeal a law that grants immunity to gun manufacturers. Sanders also said that despite his comment last week that Planned Parenthood was part of the establishment he is trying to upend, he admitted, "I did not say it well. They are a fantastic organization...count me in" as a supporter.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley -- who has been sandwiched between the two top candidates during every single forum to date -- had a message for his supporters who might be flagging due to his low standing in the polls: "hold strong." Moderator Chris Cuomo pushed O'Malley on who he would encourage his supporters to get behind if he fails to meet the 15 percent threshold of caucus goers that would make him a viable candidate in Iowa. But he wasn't ready to give away his supporters yet -- he encouraged them to "hold strong at your caucus" and said he relished a tough fight.
The evening event capped a busy day of campaigning. Clinton addressed the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines in Waukee in the late morning, followed by a rally in Knoxville later in the afternoon and a get-out-the-caucus event in Oskaloosa. Sanders, meanwhile, held a town hall at Iowa State University in Ames before holding another event in Grinnell, as Martin O'Malley hosted events in Pella and Indianola.
The candidates are then trekking through freezing temperatures to Drake University's Sheslow Auditorium in Des Moines for a town hall event televised at 9 p.m. on CNN. It will be moderated by Chris Cuomo and co-hosted by the university and the state Democratic Party.
The event is one of the last opportunities for the candidates to drive home their closing arguments before the caucuses next week. While O'Malley must show that his campaign still has a pulse, Clinton is expected to emphasize her message of practical experience and electability, and Sanders will likely bolster his argument that it's time for an anti-establishment leader to take over. The former secretary of state and Vermont senator are in a dead heat in Iowa, according to recent polls.
Sanders earlier on Monday tried to counter Clinton's claims that she is the candidate who has the best chance in the general election. “The simple fact is that Republicans win national elections when people are demoralized, when they give up on politics and when they don’t come out to vote – that’s just the simple fact," he said at Iowa State University.
And Clinton tried to make her case that she was the one would could easily and immediately step into the commander in chief. "You never know what's going to happen, and we need somebody in that Oval Office who is prepared to deal with whatever the problems are from the very first day," she told the rally in Knoxville.
Monday night's town hall comes after The Des Moines Register, the largest and most influential paper in the state, made its preference known over the weekend with its endorsement of Clinton on the Democratic side and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the Republican race.
Outside of Iowa, meanwhile, the Sanders campaign trumpeted an endorsement defection from the Clinton campaign: South Carolina state Rep. Justin T. Bamberg, the lawyer who represents the family of Walter Scott, the African-American man who was killed by a police officer last year.
While acknowledging the defection, Clinton pollster Joel Benenson earlier Monday brushed aside any notion that Clinton would not perform well in the primaries because she does not have a broad base of support.
"Right now, Hillary Clinton is very strong in the African-American community in South Carolina," he told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." "She has a lot of support. All the data we've seen indicates that, you know, we have to do in South Carolina what we're gonna do everywhere else, which is work hard to earn every vote, whether you're white, Latino, African-American, male, female, young or old. We are going into South Carolina and Nevada after these first two states, which get a lot of focus. And we're gonna campaign there very aggressively, particularly as we come out of the turn on New Hampshire. We feel very good about our chances there."
And Sanders' camp had some spinning to do of their own. One of Sanders' senior advisers took umbrage at remarks made by President Barack Obama in an interview with POLITICO published earlier in the day, namely that the Vermont senator represented a "bright, shiny object" and thus a challenge for Clinton to contend with as she attempts to win over voters.
"Well, I think that’s the parallel to his own journey eight years ago, and I was actually supporting him then, that he offered hope," senior campaign adviser Larry Cohen told CNN. "And I think Bernie and actually all of the Democratic candidates are about a positive vision of the future. Bernie’s is about change, not just continuity in the similar way that then-Senator Obama was talking about change. And Bernie’s talking about, why can’t we have higher education that doesn’t leave our kids burdened with ridiculous debt? And why can’t we have Medicare for all? And why can’t we, even though the path would be difficult, imagine a country where people are working and they’re looking forward to a better America."
Obama, however, rejected the idea that Sanders' candidacy and message of change is an analog of his own when he went up against Clinton in 2008. "No, I don't think — I don't think that's true," he told POLITICO.
For her part, Clinton dismissed the notion that her long track record in Washington could be a liability rather than an asset this year.
"Because I think at the end of the day, people take this vote seriously," she told NBC's Chuck Todd in a "Meet the Press" interview aired Sunday. "They know they're voting for who they prefer to be the next president and commander in chief."
Eliza Collins and Nolan D. McCaskill contributed to this report.Being the External Relations Manager for Indian Motorcycle has its perks. As the man who holds this position, Robert Pandya had the privilege of access to an Indian Chief that served as a development bike for Indian’s engineering department. The motorcycle can’t be sold and was headed to the crusher before Pandya got the |
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Black Sails Season 4 Air Date
The next episode Black Sails Season airs on Sunday, February 5th. The episode is called XXX (of course, as it's the 30th episode). Here's what Starz has to say about it:
Flint accedes to Billy’s authority. Eleanor has a plan for Rogers. Silver seeks help from an unlikely source. Max is put on notice.
Check out a trailer and some clips from the episode!
Black Sails Season 4 Episodes
Click the blue links to go to our full reviews!
air date: January 29, 2017
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 2: XXX
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 3: XXXI
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 4: XXXII
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 5: XXXIII
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 6: XXXIV
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 7: XXXV
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 8: XXXVI
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 9: XXXVII
Black Sails Season 4 Episode 10: XXXVIII
Black Sails Season 4 Trailer
Check out the trailer, hinting at all of the Treasure Island inspired goodness (and badness) waiting for us on the high seas.
Video of Black Sails | Season 4 Official Trailer | STARZ
Check out the earlier teaser, too...
Video of Black Sails Season 4 - Teaser Trailer [HD]
And check out this exclusive video looking at the evolution of Long John Silver...
We have some cool new images, too!
Black Sails Season 4 Story
Well, it ain't much, but this is as close as we're coming to an official synopsis right now:
"The 10-episode fourth season of the stand-out high seas drama brings fans to the heroic conclusion of the Treasure Island prequel, and finds our pirates at war in the West Indies. The shores of New Providence Island have never been bloodier, but the closer civilization comes to defeat, the more desperately, and destructively, it will fight back."
We'll update this article with all of the official Black Sails Season 4 news (plus some rumors) as we hear them. Until then, you can keep up with all of our coverage right here.Officials at The Evergreen State College in Olympia evacuated the campus late Thursday morning because of a threat, and the campus will remain closed Friday.
“In response to a direct threat to campus safety, the college is closing immediately for the day,” college officials posted on Evergreen’s website. “All are asked to leave campus or return to residence halls for instructions.”
College spokesman Zach Powers told The Olympian that the closure was “out of an abundance of caution... due to a violent threat against the college received by local law enforcement.”
Powers said the threat was called in late Thursday morning to the business line for Thurston 911 Communications, which dispatches emergency calls in Thurston County. Officials at that agency informed Evergreen Police Services about the threat, and they passed it on to college president George Bridges.
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Powers posted to the college’s website at 5:25 p.m. on Thursday evening, to suspend Friday’s classes. His post says college officials were notified around 10:30 a.m. about an individual using an unknown phone number, who claimed to be armed and headed toward Evergreen’s campus.
Powers said students and staff were notified of the original closure on Thursday morning through an emergency alert system that many subscribe to, and intercom messages that were broadcast in buildings, and through social media posts.
“Evergreen police are being supported on site by members of local law enforcement,” Powers said. “There are other (law enforcement) agencies on site as people leave.”
College spokeswoman Sandra Kaiser said Olympia police officers and Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies were assisting in the investigation, which was being led by the nine-person Evergreen police department.
During a news conference at 1 p.m. Thursday at the nearby McLane Fire Department, Kaiser said she didn’t know many details about the nature of the threat.
SHARE COPY LINK Officials from Evergreen State College held a news conference at the McLane Fire Department to answer questions about the 'direct threat to campus safety' that was made Thursday morning.
“It was evaluated to be serious enough that law enforcement thought it was prudent to recommend that we close campus temporarily,” she said.
The evacuation came after weeks of unrest on campus. Hundreds of students protested last week, citing institutional racism and bias on the campus by some of the college’s employees.
When asked whether there was any reason to believe that Thursday’s threat was connected to recent events on campus, Kaiser said: “There’s nothing that I know of that connects these things directly. But, of course, we live in troubled times and you’ve got to take public safety as a priority for everybody.”
Evergreen faculty member Ulrike Krotscheck said she was co-teaching a seminar for the course “Digging up Diseases” when her cellphone and many students’ phones began buzzing with texts about the emergency closure. After that, the announcement came over the loudspeaker. Krotscheck described the evacuation was “really calm and orderly.”
She said she was glad officials made the call to close campus.
“I was feeling all right about it,” she said. “The instructions were really clear and even if it were to find out that this was a false threat, I’m extremely grateful that (officials) treated it seriously.”
Evergreen’s sports information director Nick Dawson said when he arrived on campus about 11 a.m., students were emptying out of their classes in crowds.
He saw a campuswide email that the school was closing when he sat down at his computer and immediately alerted other coworkers, ensured everything was being shut down, and left his building with other faculty members.
“We got out of there in a timely manner,” he said.
Dawson said the parking lot was overrun with students and faculty trying to evacuate all at once, and many cars made use of a field that leads to a service road to exit more faster, but there did not appear to be any panic.
“There was nobody that seemed harried or concerned,” Dawson said. “People were very calm and very collected.”
Zeb Hoffman was one of the students evacuated from campus just after 11 a.m. Hoffman, a senior, said he was in the bookstore trying on graduation gowns when he was alerted about the threat.
“I heard one of the employees of the bookstore tell another student they needed them to leave because they were closing campus, and I followed suit,” Hoffman said.
“I grabbed my stuff, headed toward the (Costantino) Rec Center, and ran into a couple other student athletes. I asked if they knew what was going on, but all they knew was that we were being evacuated and (the school was) being closed.”
Hoffman, 37, walked home and said he heard speculation about the cause of the evacuation, but nothing has been confirmed. He said some students headed toward dormitories while others left campus completely. He agreed with Dawson that there was no disorder.
“I think a lot of people were happy to get to where they thought they were safe,” Hoffman said. “They were following directions.”
SHARE COPY LINK After weeks of brewing racial tension on campus, hundreds of students at The Evergreen State College in Olympia protested against the college administration and demanded change on Wednesday, May 24, 2017.
Hoffman, a track and field athlete at Evergreen, was in Alabama at the NAIA national championships last week when the protests began, but said he followed along on social media.
“I expected it to continue into this week,” he said.
The college has about 4,000 students and about 800 faculty members and staff members at its Olympia campus, Kaiser said.Notions of Equality in Swift
In this article I aim to discuss notions of equality, Swift’s Equatable protocol, how equality in Swift differs from equality in more conventional object-oriented languages, and how the two can be reconciled.
Notions of equality
The concept of equality is deceptively complex. In mathematics, we state that 2 + 2 is equal to 4. In other words, when simplifying an equation or expression, any time we see 2 + 2 we can excise it and replace it with 4. The two expressions are exactly equivalent.
But in the context of a windowing system, if two windows happen to be the same size, at the same position, and contain the same contents, are they interchangeable? Even if both windows’ representations in memory are identical, randomly taking some of the references to one window and making them point to the other is unlikely to result in anything but strange behavior. Only if two references point to the same window instance can they be said to be equivalent.
Swift supports both of these forms of equality. Let’s examine each in turn.
Value equality
Value equality is checked using the == operator, which returns whether or not two instances are equivalent to each other.
let a = 10 let b = 10 let c = 11 a == b // true; 10 == 10 a == c // false; 10!= 11 // Swift arrays are value types, and hence the following holds let d = [ 1, 2, 3 ] let e = [ 4, 5, 6 ] let f = [ 1, 2, 3 ] d == e // false d == f // true
Exactly what ‘equivalent’ means may vary based on the type of the instances being compared. However, value equality generally adheres to the following requirements:
It should be reflexive; any object of a type supporting equality is equal to itself: a == a.
. It should be symmetric; b == a iff a == b.
iff. It should be transitive: if a == b and b == c, then a == c.
Implementations of == that violate these properties invariably result in subtle bugs and confused programmers, and should be avoided if at all possible.
Reference equality
Reference equality is checked using the === operator, which returns whether or not two references refer to the same object. Reference equality is only meaningful when reference types are being compared, whereas value equality pertains to both reference and value types.
(If you do not understand the distinction between reference and value types, I recommend reading Mike Ash’s blog post on the subject.)
Two distinct instances of an object can be equal when compared using ==, but two references, each pointing to one of those instances, will compare as unequal using ===. See the following example:
// Here is a simple class. Assume we've defined two MyObjects as equal in value // iff both instance variables are equal across both objects. class MyObject : Equatable { let a : Int, b : String init ( a : Int, b : String ) { self. a = a ; self. b = b } } //... let a = MyObject ( a : 10, b : "foo" ) let b = a let c = MyObject ( a : 10, b : "foo" ) a == b // true; 'a' and 'b' are equal in value a === b // true; 'a' and 'b' point to the same instance a == c // true; 'a' and 'b' are equal in value a === c // false; 'a' and 'c' are different instances
Note that, according to the reflexive property, if two objects are reference-equal, they are also value-equal.
The Equatable protocol
We will focus most of our attention on value equality, as reference equality’s semantics are quite well defined and the default implementation of === suffices for almost all use cases.
In Swift, types accrete attributes by conforming to protocols. A type can declare to other code that it supports value equality by conforming to the Equatable protocol:
protocol Equatable { func == ( lhs : Self, rhs : Self ) -> Bool }
The protocol definition gives us enough information to figure out what conforming to Equatable means: instance of a conforming type can be compared to another instance of the same type to check whether or not they are equal in value.
Self in the protocol definition is a placeholder referring to the conforming type. Both arguments to == are of type Self, which means that a type which wishes to become Equatable must provide an implementation of the == operator which compares two instances of that same type.
As such, value equality in Swift is homogeneous: trying to compare two instances of different types causes a type error, rather than returning a guaranteed false result. When the built-in type Int conforms to Equatable, the only guarantee we get is that we are allowed to compare an Int to another Int using ==. When the built-in type String conforms to Equatable, the only guarantee we get is that we are allowed to compare a String to another String, and so forth.
Using Equatable
We can build a simple type that conforms to Equatable as follows:
struct Coordinate : Equatable { let x : Double, y : Double } func == ( lhs : Coordinate, rhs : Coordinate ) -> Bool { return lhs. x == rhs. x && lhs. y == rhs. y }
Then we can use it:
let a = Coordinate ( x : 10, y : 20 ) let b = Coordinate ( x : 20, y : 10 ) a == b // false
Now, for something different. It would be great if we could write a function which took in three equatable objects and returned whether or not they were all equal in value:
// Note: does NOT compile! func threeWayEquals ( a : Equatable, b : Equatable, c : Equatable ) -> Bool { return a == b && b == c }
This doesn’t compile! But what if it did? Remember that Int and String are both Equatable types as well. We could call the function with the following arguments:
let a : Int = 10 let b : String = "foobar" let c : Coordinate = Coordinate ( x : 10, y : 11 ) threeWayEquals ( a, b, c )
The types check out. Int, String, and Coordinate all conform to Equatable. But we don’t have any guarantee that an implementation of == exists that can compare an Int to a String, or a String to a Coordinate, and if those implementations don’t actually exist, now the compiler is in trouble.
The actual Swift compiler complains that our protocol can only be used as a constraint on a generic parameter because its definition contains Self. We can fix our function to allow it to compile:
func threeWayEquals < T : Equatable > ( a : T, b : T, c : T ) -> Bool { return a == b && b == c }
This version of the function requires all its arguments to be Equatable as well, but also requires them to all be of the same type (a type that, therefore, conforms to Equatable ). In this case the compiler is guaranteed the implementation of == that it needs exists.
Object-oriented equality
Why is Swift equality so ‘different’ from equality in, say, Objective-C? Swift complains if we compare a String and an Int ; Objective-C is fine if we send the message isEqual: to an instance of NSNumber with a NSString as the argument. We can answer this question by looking at how object-oriented languages treat the concept of equality.
Basics of inheritance
First of all, many commonly used object-oriented languages ship with a designated base class from which all other classes should inherit. For example, Java and C# have Object, while Objective-C has NSObject (and NSProxy ). Swift is atypical in that it does not provide such a base class; any Swift class can serve as a base class.
In a program written in an object-oriented language, if B is a subclass of A, ideally instances of B can be used anywhere instances of A can be used without breaking the program. (This is the Liskov substitution principle.) We often say B ‘is-a’ A. If Cow inherits from Herbivore inherits from Animal, a Cow is a Cow, but also a more specific type of Herbivore, which is in turn a more specific type of Animal. In the Cocoa world, NSString is a more specific type of NSObject ; UILabel is a more specific type of UIView.
Creating a base class
In object-oriented languages with a designated base class, the base class usually specifies some overarching functionality, such as comparing an object with another object.
In languages like Java and Objective-C, the == operator applied to instances of objects checks reference equality like Swift’s === operator. In order to check value equality, an equals method is defined on the base class. This method invariably takes another instance of the base class and returns a boolean.
To illustrate how this works, let’s define a ‘sublanguage’ based off Swift. We’ll create our own class hierarchy, with our own designated base class ( AZObject ), and decree that all user-specified types must inherit from AZObject or one of its subclasses.
// Our base class class AZObject : Equatable { init () { } // Return whether or not an object is 'value-equal' to another object. func equals ( another : AZObject ) -> Bool { return self === another } } func == ( lhs : AZObject, rhs : AZObject ) -> Bool { return lhs. equals ( rhs ) }
Our AZObject base class provides an equals() method, since it’s advantageous to allow any object to be compared with any other object. We’ll decide that any one of our featureless AZObject instances can only be equal to itself, which means that value equality and reference equality for AZObject s are identical.
Some AZObject subclasses
If we create a subclass of our base class, for example AZData, that subclass can then override equals() however it wants. For example, two AZData s might only be equal if all their constituent bytes are equivalent to each other:
/// An object representing an immutable blob of binary data. class AZData : AZObject { private let ptr : UnsafeMutablePointer < UInt8 > private let backingStore : UnsafeMutableBufferPointer < UInt8 > override func equals ( another : AZObject ) -> Bool { if let anotherData = another as? AZData { // Perform a byte-by-byte comparison of the data contained within the two buffers. let thatBackingStore = anotherData. backingStore guard backingStore. count == thatBackingStore. count else { return false } for ( index, item ) in backingStore. enumerate () { if thatBackingStore [ index ]!= item { return false } } return true } // If the other object isn't a data blob, they're obviously not equal. return false } //... init ( bytes : [ UInt8 ]) { ptr = UnsafeMutablePointer. alloc ( bytes. count ) backingStore = UnsafeMutableBufferPointer ( start : ptr, count : bytes. count ) for ( index, b ) in bytes. enumerate () { backingStore [ index ] = b } } deinit { ptr. destroy () } }
Two AZNumber s might compare some normalized representation of their numeric values:
/// An object representing a number. class AZNumber : AZObject { private enum NumberType { case Integer ( Int ), FlPt ( Double ), Boolean ( Bool ) } private let backingStore : NumberType override func equals ( another : AZObject ) -> Bool { if let anotherNumber = another as? AZNumber { // For didactic purposes, use the floating point value as the normalized value // This allows "AZNumber(100)" to equal "AZNumber(100.0)" return flPtValue == anotherNumber. flPtValue } return false } var flPtValue : Double { switch backingStore { case let. Integer ( v ) : return Double ( v ) case let. FlPt ( v ) : return v // Please don't actually define your Booleans like this. case let. Boolean ( v ) : return v? 1 : 0 } } //... }
Different types may have very different notions of what value equality means, even though they all descend from the same base class.
All objects are equatable
In the system we’ve devised, comparing two objects that aren’t the same type is a valid operation; it just always returns false. As such, value equality for our AZObject -based sublanguage is heterogeneous. In effect, any object can be compared with any other object.
More specifically, this is possible because:
All subclasses of AZObject are also AZObject s (‘is-a’). An AZData is also an AZObject ; an AZNumber is also an AZObject.
are also s (‘is-a’). An is also an ; an is also an. Our contract on AZObject specifies that value equality is a meaningful operation defined on two AZObject s.
specifies that value equality is a meaningful operation defined on two s. Therefore, equating any two instances of AZObject subclasses is a meaningful operation, since it is equivalent to equating two AZObject instances.
In practice, this is how both Java and Objective-C implement value equality. All your custom types descend from Object and NSObject, so you get some notion of value equality ‘for free’ from the default implementation.
Limitations
What happens if we define a third class, AZJSONNode, but neglect to override equals() within our implementation? In that case, we fall back to AZObject ’s definition of equals(), the one that checks for reference equality. In many cases this is incorrect behavior.
Heterogeneous comparison is fraught with danger. Neither compile-time nor run-time checking will warn us if we forget to override equals(). Our default implementation of AZObject, so convenient and inviting at first, ends up breaking the Liskov substitution principle in cases where the default behavior is wrong.
At the very least, programmers who implement their own custom classes under such a system need to be aware of the differences between value equality and reference equality. They need to know that their types’ definitions of value equality default to reference equality unless they explicitly implement their own equals() methods. If they aren’t aware of all this (and unless they read the documentation closely they’re unlikely to be), they run the risk of writing seemingly-working code containing subtle bugs.
Solutions
If abstract methods existed in Swift, we might choose to make equals() abstract, forcing each type to provide its own implementation, but this would come at the cost of making it impossible to instantiate AZObject s. (Depending on our use case, this might not be a bad tradeoff.)
A better, more general solution is described in the Protocol-Oriented Programming video from WWDC 2015 (around the 40:30 mark). We can define a protocol AnyEquatable and a protocol extension that only applies when the type the protocol is applied to is also Equatable. AnyEquatable itself contains no associated types, and unlike Equatable can be used outside the context of generic constraints:
protocol AnyEquatable { } extension AnyEquatable where Self : Equatable { // otherObject could also be 'Any' func equals ( otherObject : AnyEquatable ) -> Bool { if let otherAsSelf = otherObject as? Self { return otherAsSelf == self } return false } }
Note that the implementation of equals() is, structurally, a generalization of the equals() methods implemented for AZData and AZNumber. A downcast is used to ensure both arguments are of the same type, and if so value equality is checked using ==. Otherwise, the comparison returns false.
Any value that is both AnyEquatable and Equatable can be compared with any other AnyEquatable value ‘for free’, and with the correct semantics. We need write no additional code except for a few empty extensions declaring conformance:
extension Int : AnyEquatable { } extension String : AnyEquatable { } class Foo : AnyEquatable { } // This compiles, and returns 'true', since Int is Equatable. 15. equals ( 15 ) // These return 'false'. 15. equals ( 16 ) 15. equals ( "hello" ) // This also returns 'false', even though Foo isn't Equatable. 15. equals ( Foo ())
Our AnyEquatable protocol isn’t a perfect replacement for Equatable. If we wanted to implement our threeWayEquals() using AnyEquatable, we’d still need to constrain at least one of the arguments’ types to be Equatable so we have access to our equals() method:
func threeWayEquals < T where T : AnyEquatable, T : Equatable > ( a : T, b : AnyEquatable, c : AnyEquatable ) -> Bool { return a. equals ( b ) && a. equals ( c ) }
However, if we already know at least one of the concrete types we want to compare, we no longer need to make our function generic at all.
func threeWayEquals ( a : Int, b : AnyEquatable, c : AnyEquatable ) -> Bool { return a. equals ( b ) && a. equals ( c ) }
Conclusion
Despite marketing slogans, Swift isn’t “Objective-C without the C”. It approaches many problems in a way very different from common object-oriented languages, often for sound underlying reasons. The differences between value equality and reference equality are subtle yet, to some extent, fundamental. Instead of papering over them, Swift makes the delineation between the two concepts explicit.
People often like to characterize programming languages as more or less ‘strict’. I would argue that ‘strict’ might not be the best analogy. Some languages provide a high level of convenience in exchange for semantics that are hidden away or made implicit. Other languages make the semantics more explicit, requiring a bit of additional work on the programmer’s end.
Even so, at every point along this spectrum your programs are being executed in a specific way, whether or not you are aware of what those specifics are. And I would argue that it’s important to be aware, whether you’re using an object-oriented or functional language, a statically-typed or dynamically-typed one.
Some of the work Swift makes you do is due to limitations of the type system. Some of it might be due to unfamiliarity. But some of it involves clarifying intent, resolving ambiguity, and making you think about exactly what you want your program to do. And in the long run, that’s a good thing.‘Starlite has a Q-value [an energy absorption rating] of 2,470. The space shuttle tiles have a Q-value of 1.’ Not only that, but because Starlite is so lightweight – 1mm thick, compared to 75mm for the space tiles – it’s actually ’2,470 x 75 times better’.
Ward’s conditions were unusual. He wouldn’t sign confidentiality agreements, which made government and defence companies uncooperative. In joint ventures, he insisted on keeping 51 per cent. ‘If they’d wanted to buy it outright, they could have had it. But they always wanted a licence, and if they wanted that they had to sign an agreement that says they won’t plagiarise or reverse engineer. If they don’t sign that, they get a sample and then they reverse engineer and why would they bother to get a licence?’ This was why NASA never signed up. It’s why BAE didn’t, or Boeing, or the dozens of other corporations and military establishments who got somewhere in negotiations but never to the end.
MickMay 17, 2011 12:21 PM
It's a shame Maurice. I think that you could make a reasonable fortune by anybody's standard and go down in history for revolutionising the world. However, you seem to be aiming for something more than anyone can offer and in the process I wonder how much progress that could have been made if you'd released Starlite has been lost and how many lives that could have been saved have also been lost.
For what reason? More money then you can ever spend? For fame? If you take the secret of this invention to your grave because of money, your legacy will be infamy and the withholding of a gift to the human race due to greed. You have every right of course to make money from your invention but isn't there something inside that gnaws at your soul when you see tragedies that could have been prevented if only you were prepared to settle for a simple fortune rather than wealth beyond reason? Of course you may have other reasons that you only know but from this observers perspective I feel that you have missed an opportunity to do great things and I fear that you will take your secret with you to death and you'll have left the world as you found it, no worse but no better either. I wish I had the opportunity that you had - just to do something sensational for mankind, the money bit would be a nice perk but the main attraction would be the legacy.
edit on 21-4-2012 by PhoenixOD because: (no reason given)
I was watching a new documentary from the BBC the other night about the importance of materials when they showed something that they claimed could be one of the most important materials ever invented. It was called Starlite. Starlite was invented by a former hairdresser from Yorkshire, England who could only be described as a amateur scientist at best.So what is Starlite? Its a a thermal shielding material (plastic) that has proved to be better than anything ever produced by the worlds top scientists at institutions like NASA. One small application of this material to something like an egg and you could hold a blow torch to it without cooking it in the slightest. All this and it was made by a guy in a back room who did science for a hobby from materials that he claimed where 80% organic.When tested using a military laser it was discovered that Starlite could withstand the heat flash from a nuclear explosion. They tested it to over 10000 centigrade, there is no known material that can survive that sort of temperature. Ive been trying to find out what is the most heat resistant material currently in production and i cant find anything that can withstand even 5000 centigrade. Also most of the heat resistant materials currently in production produce toxic fumes when heated, Starlite did not produce harmful fumes.This material has so many potential applications in the world today that it benefit mankind immensely. If applied to paint it could make houses burn proof, create heat resistant suits for fire fighters, it could shield military vehicles against nuclear blasts, even make something invisible to infra-red detection, protect missiles from lasers or be used in private space ventures.So what has happened to Starlite? As you would expect Maurice Ward kept the formula for Starlite super secret. He refused to patent it or let sample of it be analyzed though fear of someone stealing it. Apparently there were many attempts to steal it from him, at one point he caught someone trying to hide a small piece of it down their pants. So due to paranoia he never wrote down the formula and only told the secret of the 21 ingredients to a few close family members.Well after many years of Maurice Ward trying to get it to market he was finally in talks with NASA and Boeing. The problem is he wanted to retain a majority control of the product. He insisted on keeping a 51% share which may have been his biggest mistake as it stopped anyone going into business with him. The sadly in May 2011 after talks with Boeing broke down he died (ive not been able to find out how) seemingly taking the secret of his Starlite material to the grave.Its truly a loss to mankind that this material was never brought to market. There has been no word from the family about releasing the list of ingredients. But even if they did would anyone be able to work out how to make it? Just how many billions would a product like this be worth?While doing some research for this post I was looking at his blog and found this entry in the comments section for May 2011 (the month he died) which i found slightly creepy :Was this a threat or just coincidence that he died in that very month? Maybe it was a warning to the remaining family members not to hold on to the secret for to long.Sen. Chris Murphy Christopher (Chris) Scott MurphyMcConnell plans vote on Green New Deal before August recess Push to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback Feehery: Defining what socialism is (and isn’t) MORE (D-Conn.) on Monday said Americans need to focus on healthcare even as President Trump targets former Democratic rival 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 and Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsFormer Trump refugee director did not notify superiors about family separation warnings Court rejects challenge to Mueller's appointment Trump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report MORE.
"Trump wants you to focus on Sessions, Clinton, and Scaramucci this week," Murphy tweeted, referring to the president's new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci.
"You need to focus on health care, health care, and health care."
Trump wants you to focus on Sessions, Clinton, and Scaramucci this week. You need to focus on health care, health care, and health care. https://t.co/Y5Y1B0S0lz — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 24, 2017
Trump earlier on Monday questioned why investigators aren't looking into Clinton.
"So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?" Trump asked in a tweet.
His tweet comes amid multiple investigations into Russian election meddling and whether Trump campaign aides colluded with the Russians.
In an earlier tweet, Trump quoted Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrady gun control group gets rebranding Brennan fires back at'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview MORE (D-N.Y.), who said that Democrats should blame themselves for their election loss, not Russia interference.
Senate Republicans plan to vote this week on revised healthcare legislation. But the legislation faces a number of serious issues and appears headed for failure.
Earlier this month, Murphy said that repealing ObamaCare without a replacement would be a "humanitarian disaster of incomprehensible scale."For a moment Wednesday it looked like an already tough start to the season for the Heat might get worse.
Dwyane Wade rose up for a jump shot and then landed awkwardly on the court after drawing a shooting foul with 7:42 to go in the first half. Wade, lying on his side, reached for the back of his right thigh and hip.
It turned out to be just a false alarm. Wade was fine — better than fine actually. He poured in a season-high 42 points — his first 40-point game since Game4 of the 2012 Eastern Conference finals against the Indiana Pacers.
The rest of the Heat had a much rougher night.
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The Utah Jazz, loser of 12 of its past 13 coming in, shot 53 percent from the field, 14 of 25 from three-point range, and drilled the Heat 105-87 on Wednesday, handing Miami its fourth consecutive double-digit loss at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“Being aggressive like that was a positive for me,” Wade said. “I will take that. But as a team, we just have to be better man.
“It's hard when you lose even when you have a good individual performance. The way we lost, I’m not used to that. Not at home.”
Gordon Hayward led the way for Utah (7-19) with 29 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Five Jazz players finished in double figures. If not for a late three-pointer by Mario Chalmers, who finished with 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting, Wade would have been the only Heat player to score in double figures.
Miami, off to a 4-8 start at home, has six more chances to snap its home losing streak before the end of the year. The second of seven consecutive home games is Friday against the division-leading Washington Wizards. To put the rough home start in perspective, the Heat was 32-9 at home last season, 37-4 when it last won the NBA championship in 2012-13 and 28-5 at home the year before that in the lockout-shortened season. The last time the Heat dropped its fourth in a row at home was March 8, 2011 — the first season LeBron James was here.
“It’s something we have to figure out,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s not for a lack of want. Guys want to do it. You saw a little bit of a different personality [against Brooklyn on Tuesday] compared to [Wednesday].”
Miami’s injury woes have been well documented this season. The Heat’s lineup to start the second quarter told the story: Chalmers, Udonis Haslem, Shawne Williams and rookies James Ennis and Shabazz Napier.
None of those players — except Chalmers — were expected to play major roles this season. On Wednesday, Spoelstra put out his 11th different starting lineup this season with Chris “Birdman” Andersen making his first start.
“Just [wanted] a little bit more size — trying to take care of the paint and rebound,” Spoelstra said of his decision to start Andersen.
Leading scorer Chris Bosh, expected to miss a couple of weeks with a strained calf, watched in street clothes Wednesday as he missed his third game in row.
Wade, who fought off a stomach virus and scored 28 points in a 95-91 win Tuesday in Brooklyn, made it a point early to carry the scoring load again with Bosh out. He shot 12 of 19 from the field and was 16 of 21 from the free-throw line.
The rest of the Heat shot 15 of 51 from the field (29.4 percent) and 13 of 19 from the line.
“It’s encouraging for us to see him play a back-to-back like that,” Spoekstra said of Wade. “We just collectively have to play better.”An undercover FBI agent investigating weapon smuggling in the Philippines spent thousands of taxpayer dollars at brothels and clubs known to offer prostitution, including one that local authorities later raided for hiring underage girls, according to court filings.
Federal prosecutors on the case conceded in court filings that the government reimbursed the agent for $14,500 for entertainment, cocktails and tips over a period of less than a year in 2010 and 2011 in relation to the case. The expenses included $1,600 on a night in September 2011 at a club known as Area 51 in Manila.
In May, Filipino authorities targeted Area 51 on suspicion of trafficking minor sex workers |
2b55B2LUnder the 1993 Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, the West Bank was divided into three areas. Areas A and B would be under the civil control of the newly established Palestinian Authority, while Area C would stay under the control of the Israeli military occupation, pending a final peace agreement.
The Olso accord means that no construction can take place in Area C without the approval of Israel. In reality, this has meant Palestinian residents find it almost impossible to get building permits to construct homes legally - and many of those built without permission are demolished.
Among those living in Area C are Bedouin shepherds, some of the poorest members of Palestinian society. Their homes are often not connected to electricity or running water and children face long journeys to the nearest school.
Since 2013, the EU has been building homes for these Area C communities without Israeli approval.
The decision has provoked fury in Israel, which argues that the EU is breaking the Oslo accords, to which it was a party.
“Imagine if Israel were to come and build in Hyde Park,” said Ari Briggs, a spokesman for Regavim, a Right-wing organisation that has been fighting the EU construction. “For a foreign government to come and build without permission it should be clear that it’s a blatant violation of an agreement that they witnessed.”
EU officials respond by saying that the West Bank, unlike Hyde Park, is under occupation. They argue that Israel is failing to meet the needs of the people in the territory it is occupying, leaving the EU with a “humanitarian imperative” to step in and help.
“Area C is part of the occupied Palestinian territory and part of any viable future Palestinian state. All EU activity in the West Bank is fully in line with international humanitarian law,” said an EU statement. “The EU provides humanitarian assistance to communities in need in Area C in accordance with the humanitarian imperative.”
British officials said they were confident the EU policy is legal, but experts have questioned the argument that Israel’s failings give a green light to build in Area C.Cuando desarrollas Apps para Windows 8 u 8.1 y usas pruebas unitarias, en algún momento te encuentras con la necesidad de cargar un archivo para realizar una prueba. Parece una tontería, pero si juntas estas tres cosas puedes estar un buen rato hasta que consigues ponerlo todo en marcha.
Las pruebas unitarias de aplicaciones de la tienda Windows se realizan en proyectos especiales que no tienen acceso a toda la librería.Net, sino al subconjunto que tenemos para Windows RT. Que los test se realicen en un entorno limitado como el de producción es lo ideal, pero nos va a dificultar hacer algunas cosas que solemos hacer fácilmente en otros entornos de test, como por ejemplo leer archivos distribuidos con nuestras pruebas.
Empecemos por ejemplo con el siguiente test:
[TestMethod] public void TestPlainXmlList() { string xml = "<items><item name='one'/><item name='two'/></items>"; var testable = new TestableClass(); IEnumerable<string> items = testable.ListItems(xml); Assert.IsNotNull(items); Assert.AreEqual(2, items.Count()); }
Si ahora queremos realizar la prueba con un archivo que tenemos dentro del test, tendremos que cargarlo y no tenemos acceso a una clase File para cargar el archivo desde el disco. Tendremos que utilizar un StorageFile del API de Windows 8.
Como habitualmente, vamos a añadirlo al proyecto de pruebas y darle un valor “Copy if newer” en las propiedades del fichero:
Ahora tenemos que abrirlo desde el test para poder enviar el contenido a nuestro método, los archivos que desplegamos con nuestra aplicación están en Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation. Es un StorageFolder y lo podemos usar como en cualquier App de Windows 8:
[TestMethod] public async void TestLoadLargeXml() { string largexml; var folder = Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation; var file = await folder.GetFileAsync("Files\\test1.xml"); using (var fileopen = await file.OpenReadAsync()) { using (var stream = fileopen.AsStreamForRead()) { using (var r = new StreamReader(stream)) { largexml = r.ReadToEnd(); } } } var testable = new TestableClass(); IEnumerable<string> items = testable.ListItems(largexml); Assert.IsNotNull(items); Assert.AreEqual(60, items.Count()); }
Como en Windows 8 tenemos muchos métodos asíncronos, hemos tenido que utilizar las palabras async/await pues las operaciones con archivos son asíncronas, pero tal como está escrito el método de test vamos a encontrarnos un problema: no aparecerá el método en el listado de pruebas y no tendremos manera de probarlo.
Los métodos async void no se pueden probar directamente
Esto es así porque un método declarado async void no es awaitable, simplemente se ejecuta en un hilo aparte en modo “fire and forget”, así que el framework de test no podrá saber cuándo ha acabado y lo ignora.
Para que sea awaitable bastará con que el valor de retorno sea una Task en lugar de void, tal que así:
[TestMethod] public async Task TestLoadLargeXml()
A partir de este momento podremos ejecutar las pruebas sobre nuestros métodos de Windows 8/8.1.
Ahora sólo falta que algún día las pruebas funcionen bien en el VSOnline para tener todo lo que necesitamos para probar nuestras Apps.
Feliz testing!William Horbury Cambridge University Press, Sep 18, 2014 - Religion 0 Reviews Two major Jewish risings against Rome took place in the years following the destruction of Jerusalem - the first during Trajan's Parthian war, and the second, led by Bar Kokhba, under Hadrian's principate. The impact of these risings not only on Judaea, but also on Cyrene, Egypt, Cyprus and Mesopotamia, is shown by accounts in both ancient Jewish and non-Jewish literature. More recently discovered sources include letters and documents from fighters and refugees, and inscriptions attesting war and restoration. Historical evaluation has veered between regret for a pointless bloodbath and admiration for sustained resistance. William Horbury offers a new history of these risings, presenting a fresh review of sources and interpretations. He explores the period of Jewish war under Trajan and Hadrian not just as the end of an era, but also as a time of continuity in Jewish life and development in Jewish and Christian origins. Preview this book »If the Rani Jadhav committee has its way, the eastern coast – from CST to Wadala – is going to be the future – at least Mumbai's.
The committee, set up by the central government in July 2014, to find out ways in which the 1,781 acres of Mumbai Port Trust land can be developed, has submitted a 24-page report.
The ambitious report, if implemented, will convert the eastern coast into an international tourist hotspot.
Out of the 1,781 acres, 1018 can be redeveloped by changing the current land use policy, suggests the report. The redevelopment will be done under the title of re-branding Mumbai's eastern waterfront – Open, Connected and Green.
As per the report, 30% port trust land will be used for the open spaces, 25% for road transport, 40% for mixed development and 5% for social amenities.
The report also suggested 2-3 marinas, helipads, recreation and tourism facilities, cruise terminals of international standards, sea world, aquarium, water sports, floating restaurants, flamingo observation decks, wetland parks and bird sanctuaries.
The plan also envisages cultural centres and amphitheaters. It will also have heritage trail for tourists.
The report also calls for the development of entrepreneurship promotion zones in the eastern coast. To this effect, it suggested strengthening fishing and fish-based industrial activities.
Are there no constraints?There are. The report does list some of them. Prime among them are vacant land being scattered in small pockets, scattered port operations, tenancy and large pockets of slums. Slum removal, it said, will pose a problem.
How is transport development planned?In order to provide an efficient mode of transport, the report said connecting Metro- IV to the coast was essential. "A dedicated Rapid Bus Transport Facility corridor need to be developed. It should have non-motorised, pedestrian-friendly cycle tracks and inter-modal transport terminals. Emergency services also should be developed," the report suggested.
What about commercial space?There will be space for commercial offices and retail markets, so that people can enjoy the shopping experience at the water front. The commercial space will have international finance and exhibition centres, besides studios and luxury hotels.
Is it very ambitious?"People coming to this area should not face any problem. It's going to be an international destination," said one of the trustees of MbPT. "We want seamless local, regional and national accessibility to the area. That's why are offering multiple mode of transport – road services, metro, rail, water transit, cycle tracks etc.
Where are boat jetties planned?Passenger water transportation terminals need to be constructed at Radio Club, Ferry Wharf, Haji Bunder, and Nariman Point. The committee suggests long-term, flexible and adaptable transport facilities. The CST to Panvel elevated train corridor also needs to be developed, besides widening the P.D Mello road and north-south connections.
What's the Port Trust saying?Officials say this plan will be environment-friendly. "We will allow only non-polluting industries. It will be an eco-sensitive zone. If the suggestions of the report gets implemented, it will redefine Mumbai's shoreline. It will revive Mumbai totally and fetch a lot of revenue," said an officer.
What are the land policy hurdles?As per MPT Act, 1963, non-port activities are not allowed on port land. Coastal regulation zone norms too will have to be amended as construction will have to take place within 500 metres from the seashore. Relocation of farms from Haji Bunder and Mallet Bunder to salt pan land, and fast-track courts will also be required. Whether the land should be disposed of like mill lands where the state and BMC will get their share will also have to be decided.If you like my art and would like to support me, you can do so through
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---------FINALLY FINISHED IT! JEESUS! This took me about 20 hours to do, on and off, but it was well worth it. This was done with acrylics on an 18 x 24 Clayboard Panel, for anyone who's curious.The finished product of the sneak peek I showed you guys a little while back; Celestia and Luna dance around each other happily, more than relieved to be finally reunited with one another. c:So, ever since I heard BlackGryph0n Baasik's Moonlight, I had this image stuck in my head. It's a very wonderful song, and I highly recommend giving it a listen. O:But yeah, I really wanted to make something with these two, and the song inspired it. Soooo it just sorta came together. The idea here is that, when the sisters combine their magic, an eclipse occurs. I didn't want the eclipse to be seen how it usually is (foreboding, dark, gloomy) so I played with the colors to try and make it seem more like a magical occurrence. In response to their magic working in tandem, I colored their manes and tails so that they would both reflect a sunset, with Celestia's being the brighter part and Luna's being the darker part. Despite how long it took me to finish, this was loads of fun to do. C:Sooo.... yeah. I think that's everything? If you guys have any questions, feel more than free to ask me. And as always, thanks so much for taking a look! ^.^-------Share this...
Last fall I wrote about how self-anointed environmental mastermind politicians in my homestate of Vermont bulldozed public opposition, lots of trees and finally the top of Lowell Mountain to make way for “climate-saving” 450-foot industrial wind turbines. Read here and here.
Here’s how environmental protection by these political environmental pimps appears so far, hat-tip: energizevermont.org.
Crushed stone pad for just one turbine to be installed. Many such sites are being prepared on Lowell Mountain to accommodate a series of turbines, 21 in all.
How Vermont protects the environment – coming statewide (except Chittenden County, where the fat cats live).
Silent spring for Vermont wildlife.
The source of these photos is mountaintalk.com
VIEW ALL PHOTOS HERE
This is all “to save the planet” from the junk-science-based climate catastrophe fantasy.
How about a little prison time for the charlatans perpetuating the hoax? In a way it’s really good that I’m all the way across the big pond now.
Yes, we can thank these political whores for ruining a once beautiful area (please excuse my diplomacy). This of course is just one windpark of an entire series planned by the state.
The Green Wave
It’s just stunning how psychologically people just blindly herd behind a fad to the point where they just don’t even see the massive damage being inflicted. It’s like the story “The Wave“. It’s totally out of control. All you need are a few clever manipulators, and lots of dupes.
According to state senator Joe Benning, also a duped climate-science believer, but at least still sober enough to see the damage:
And more wind farms are coming as corporate investors, motivated by tax incentives and artificially inflated electric rates, seduce small towns with infusions of cash. Since wind is intermittent and has no storage capacity, our policy alone will require more wind farms and many miles of transmission lines to achieve our energy goal. Regulatory authorities are failing to insist on decommissioning plans, meaning our ridgelines will end up littered with forty story rusting hulks when this technology becomes obsolete. These new wind farms are encroaching on our wildlife corridors, destroying pristine mountain environments and radically changing the aesthetics of our state. They pit citizens of towns against each other, and towns against towns in a given region.”
Even if CO2 were a problem, the operation of heavy equipment, the massive earthwork and all the deforestation creates a carbon footprint that likely will never be erased – never mind the permanent disfigurement of the landscape.
Vermont’s children and grandchildren someday are going to ask: What the hell was in Vermont’s drinking water back then?Coming Soon
Turn Up Charlie
A down-and-out DJ plots to rebuild his music career while working as a nanny for his famous best friend's wild 11-year-old daughter.
I Am Not Okay With This
A teen navigates the complexities of high school, family and her sexuality while dealing with new superpowers. Based on Charles Forsman's graphic novel.
Space Force
A comedy series about the people tasked with creating Space Force, a new branch of the U.S. military. From Greg Daniels and star Steve Carell.
Paskal
Naval unit PASKAL is among the most elite special forces in Malaysia. But all bets are off when one of its own stages a hijacking. Based on true events.
Cursed
In this fresh take on the Arthurian legend, teenager Nimue joins forces with mercenary Arthur on a quest to find Merlin and deliver an ancient sword.
The Dirt
In this dramatization of Mötley Crüe's no-holds-barred autobiography, the band hits the monster highs and savage lows of heavy metal superstardom.
The Ghost Bride
In 1890s Malacca, a young woman finds herself in the afterlife and becomes mired in a murder mystery connected to the deceased son of a wealthy family.
Music Teacher
Burned by his past, an emotionally troubled, small-town music teacher risks everything he has to reconnect with a now-famous former student.0 Woman arrested for allegedly seeking fake $94 million tax refund
COBB COUNTY, Ga. - State investigators have arrested a woman accused of seeking a tax refund of more than $94 million.
Now investigators say they are looking for the woman's relative, whom they say also filed a fake tax return.
Channel 2 Action News was at a Cobb County supermarket as Brigitte Jackson was arrested at the bank counter inside the store.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s $94 or $94 million. We’re going to go after you and hold you accountable,” said Georgia Department of Revenue Special Investigations Chief Josh Waites.
Investigators said Jackson tried to trick the state into paying her the fake $94 million tax refund. But investigators said they stayed one step ahead.
Waites said investigators asked Jackson to come to the supermarket to pick up her $94 million refund check. That’s when she was arrested.
She is facing five charges, including attempted theft by taking and conspiracy to defraud the state.
Waites said Jackson’s relative, Darrius White, like her, reported $99 million in income, tried to claim a mammoth refund and now faces the same charges.
Agents and police went to what turned out to be a former address and did not find White.
Waites said White is already on felony probation.
Fraud detection manager Kendra Carroll told Winne she spoke to a man who identified himself as Darrius White by phone about his alleged refund request earlier this week.
DOR financial fraud analyst Tamiko Harris said a call from Bridgitte Jackson was routed to her earlier this month.
“They kept calling to check on their refund,” said Waites.
Their phone calls were recorded, and Waites said that helped investigators bring criminal charges.Now that it's finally been examined, a shipwreck found decades years ago off the Israeli coast turns out to be a long-lost ship that Baron Edmond James de Rothschild used to bring supplies from France to the Holy Land, suggest archaeologists from Haifa University. Lost from the record, the ship apparently sank very near its destination, the Israeli coast more than 100 years ago.
That would explain what happened to the mysteriously missing third ship the baron used to carry raw materials from France to a glass factory he had built at the coastal village of Tantura. The cargo also included roof tiles and other materials for the nearby, newly established Jewish town of Zichron Yaakov.
The baron was known to have sold two of his three ships, but the fate of the third had remained unknown. Now the wreck found off Dor Beach in1976 has been tentatively identified as that ship.
"The ship we have found is structurally consistent with the specifications of the Baron’s ships, carried a similar cargo, and sailed and sank during the right period,” stated Dr. Deborah Cvikel and Micky Holtzman, who are investigating the shipwreck.
Early Zionism and carbon-14
Map of Israeli coast showing Dor, where the wreck apparently of Baron de Rothschild's ship was found. Google Maps
French-born Edmond James de Rothschild (1845 –1934), a banker by profession like others of his kin, was an ardent early Zionist. He believed in peaceful coexistence by the dwellers in the land, and in building industry for the Jews to make a living. Among other things, in 1882, using grape species brought over from France, the baron opened wineries (including the Carmel Winery, which exists, and exports, to this day). He also built the glass factory at Tantura to make bottles for the wine, and commissioned three ships – sailed by Jewish crews - to transport the raw materials from factories in France to the glass factory at Tantura.
The Tantura factory was actually established and managed by Meir Dizengoff, who would become the first mayor of Tel Aviv.
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As said, the two-masted wreck was found decades ago, but it was never thoroughly analyzed until now. In fact the archaeologists who first knew of the shipwreck settled for dating it to a 300-year range, from 1660 to 1960, based on carbon-14 dating of wood.
Rothschild wreck
"The disadvantage of carbon-14 dating of newish ships is that it gives us a very wide range, 300 years in this case," Cvikel told Haaretz. "It could tell us for instance if the ship is from the Ottoman era and not the Byzantine era, but it's difficult to narrow further."
The find was documented by the Israel Archaeology Institute in 1976 but for reasons of priority and economy, further investigation was shelved.
Giveaway factory stamp
Nonetheless, a later excavation in 2008 looked at the ship's contents, which included pots, earthenware, ceramic tiles, roof tiles, barrels, and crates. Analysis of rope found on the ship was crucial to narrowing the date range. Then a more precise dating of the vessel itself, and its last voyage, was enabled by findings on the pots, ceramic tiles, and roof tiles – some of which were stamped with the name of the factory in which they were manufactured. Further circumstantial evidence lies in analysis of the contents of a pot: it contained barium sulfate (BaSO4), used in glassmaking.
Six factory stamps found on the artifacts were all from French factories active in the late 19th century. Once they found the lion motif of a company called Guichard Frères, the date on which the ship sank could be narrowed still further, since this company appears in the Marseille commercial yearbook in 1889-1897.
Let it be clear that the jury's out – this might not be the baron's missing ship after all. People have been sailing and trading in the Mediterranean Sea for millennia. “However, there seem to be more than a few items that connect it with Zichron Yaacov, with the glass factory at Tantura, and with the baron’s ships," state the researchers. "Perhaps we can now conclude that the third ship was not sold and condemned to obscurity like its sisters, but sank with its cargo still on board.”Before you hate me for putting bacon on everything, hold on!
These donuts are baked! So to me, that makes these donuts healthy. That’s right!
I’m really thinking that bacon need its own category on this blog. Bacon makes the world go round. 🙂 I think this is what they refer to bacon mania!
I am a bacon enthusiast! I am part of “Bacon Nation”, I am a bacon freak. Whew, that makes me feel better! I think us bacon lovers need our own bacon support group. However, this masterpiece, the maple bacon donut or what they love to call “The Elvis” is becoming very popular in North America. This is one of those things that you’ll either love or you’ll hate. I for one, love them.
How can I not love anything with maple on them, after all I am Canadian, we do own Maple syrup. But I understand that sometimes we need to eat healthy so that’s why I baked these donuts. To be honest, I bought this baking donut tray and I could not wait to use it. So I thought hard about it, what kind of donuts are worth this cute little baking donut tray, I did my research, I lost a couple nights of sleep over this, but then in the end it was all worth it. “The Elvis” appeared in my dreams and showed me the maple bacon donut! It could be the most delicious thing you’ve ever tasted.
So let me tell you how to make these baked donuts. First of all I cooked the bacon, which just drives my dog crazy whenever I cook bacon. The smell is too much for her, she just plops herself in the middle of the kitchen and won’t move till she gets her share. So whereas I only need 3 slices of bacon for these donuts, I have to make about 6 or 10 slices, because between the dog and my husband, it’s World War III over bacon.
But bacon and maple aside, these are baked donuts. Who’d have thunk it? Your favorite treat, but baked!
Preheat the oven to 375 F degrees. Spray the donut tray with cooking spray and set aside. In a small bowl mix together the yogurt, melted butter, milk, eggs and vanilla extract. In the bowl of your mixer, mix all the dry ingredients, so the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium for a minute or so until everything is nicely incorporated. Now here’s the trick to making these baked donuts perfect.
Use a piping bag. So transfer the donut dough into the piping bag, keep in mind it’s quite sticky. Now carefully pipe the donut dough into each donut form. Easy peasy!
Bake these puppies in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the top is slightly golden brown. Take them out, let them cool for a couple minutes, then turn them over onto your work surface. Repeat with remainder of donut dough. For me this recipe made 12 perfect donuts.
Don’t they look irresistible already? But have some patience. Before you dig your teeth into these babies, let’s make the maple icing, which is super simple. You’ll need a cup of icing sugar, 1 tablespoon of hot water and a 1/4 cup of good Canadian maple syrup, it’s ok if you don’t have Canadian maple syrup, use whichever kind you have, I won’t hold it against you. Whisk everything together, and that’s all there is to maple icing. Now take a donut and with the top side down dunk it in the maple syrup. Make sure you move it around in there to get plenty of that maple syrup. Next take some bacon and sprinkle on top. If you were a brave soul, you would dunk the donut in the crumbled bacon as well. Repeat with all the donuts.
I would never steer you wrong. These donuts are to die for. 🙂
Maple Bacon Donuts a.k.a. The Elvis Print Pin Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Servings: 12 Author: Jo Ingredients Donuts 2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup 3% milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp butter Maple Icing 1 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp hot water
1/4 cup maple syrup Special Guest 3 slices cooked bacon crumbled love what you see? Follow @jocooks on Pinterest! Instructions Preheat the oven to 375 F degrees.
Spray the donut tray with cooking spray and set aside.
In a small bowl mix together the yogurt, melted butter, milk, eggs and vanilla extract.
In the bowl of your mixer, mix all the dry ingredients, so the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium for a minute or so until everything is nicely incorporated.
Transfer the donut dough into the piping bag, keep in mind it's quite sticky. Now carefully pipe the donut dough into each donut form.
Bake the donuts in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the top is slightly golden brown. Take them out, let them cool for a couple minutes, then turn them over onto your work surface.
Whisk all icing ingredients together.
Dunk the donuts in the maple icing, then sprinkle with some crumbled bacon. tried this recipe? rate it below tag @jocooks on instagram and hashtag it #jocooks
Enjoy!Stuart Broad has said that England will be ready to put aside the past and treat Mohammad Amir, the Pakistan fast bowler who was banned for spot-fixing during the Lord's Test in 2010, as just another opponent if and when their paths cross on the cricket field in the coming 12 months.
The prospect of Amir, 23, playing against England during next month's tour of the UAE receded on Wednesday following his omission from Pakistan's squads both for the Test matches and the Pakistan A warm-up games.
However, there remains a good chance that Amir will be involved at some stage of next summer's tour of England. And Broad, whose maiden Test century at Lord's five years ago, and a world-record eighth-wicket stand of 332 with Jonathan Trott, was overshadowed by the News of the World revelations that led to jail terms and playing bans for Amir, his new-ball partner Mohammad Asif and their captain Salman Butt, said he was ready to accept the bowler back into the international fold.
"I genuinely don't know what it'll be like [facing him again]," Broad told ESPNcricinfo. "There was obviously quite a big cloud over that Test series victory in 2010. But the ICC gave the players punishments and they are getting close to having served them.
"I've seen a few interviews that he's done and he seems sorry and keen to get back on a cricket field," Broad added. "But as a player you are not too bothered who you are playing against, to be honest, you go a bit internal and focus on what you do."
Amir, who was 18 at the time of the Lord's Test in 2010, had just become the youngest bowler in history to reach 50 international wickets when he was caught in the newspaper sting that involved bowling no-balls to order. He was banned from all cricket for five years and also received a six-month jail term following a trial at Southwark Crown Court, from which he was released after three months.
Pakistan's first Test at Lord's since that infamous fixture begins on July 14 next year, and is sure to attract a huge interest if Amir is selected to play. However, Broad said that England had learnt during the Ashes to put aside personalities when it comes to high-profile contests.
"I think the mistakes we made as an England team this summer were maybe when we focused on the Australians too much and what other teams were doing," he said. "We've definitely learned from that mistake and it'll be very much about what we are doing within our changing room. What our team are doing to take us forward. Whoever we are playing against we'll be right on the money."
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.Contained inside the data of the latest measles outbreak is a surprising — and troubling — number. Among the 51 measles cases linked directly to Disneyland, six of the people had received their measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It should come as little surprise when the unvaccinated get sick with the measles. As viruses go, this one packs a mighty punch. Nine of out 10 unvaccinated people exposed to the measles virus will get the measles. That’s a whopping 90 percent.
But why hadn’t the vaccine protected these six people who had been vaccinated?
Here’s the thing. The MMR vaccine is very effective, but it’s not 100 percent preventative. Some people who get the vaccine are still at risk of contracting the disease. Large numbers of vaccinated people act as a firewall that prevent the disease from spreading to those who are vulnerable. The vaccinated protect the unvaccinated. That’s known as “herd immunity.” But as more people opt not to get vaccinated, or not to get their children vaccinated, the virus has more portals to creep through, more people to infect. And those people sneeze and cough, releasing the virus into the air, and that fuels the spread of the disease.
Some parents opt out of the MMR vaccine, often due to thoroughly discredited studies that link it to autism. Simply put, if everyone got the vaccine, the virus would have nowhere to go. The unvaccinated keep the measles alive.
But let’s back up. The MMR vaccine works by introducing tiny live amounts of the three viruses — measles, mumps and rubella — to provoke an immune response in the body that serves as a lifelong protective shield. It comes in two doses. Typically the first is administered at 12 months and the second at 4 or 5 years old. The first dose provides 95 percent protection. But 5 percent of patients have immune systems that don’t respond to these antibodies. The second kindergarten-age dose bolsters the coverage to 99 percent.
“But you still have 1 percent of people who have two doses of the vaccine who we call non-responders,” Patsy Stinchfield, director of Infection Prevention and Control and the Children’s Immunization Project at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.
Think about it this way. Say there was a massive measles outbreak, and 1 million people were infected. Roughly 10,000 of those people who had received both doses would still get sick.
In the case of the Disneyland outbreak, four of the measles patients had received the full two doses; two had received only one dose.
At especially high risk for the measles are infants between the ages of six and 12 months, who are too young to get the vaccine. Maternal antibodies that cross the placenta protect the child for the first few months of life. But as the baby gets bigger, that protection fades.
“Between six and 12 months, you don’t get that maternal antibody protection, and you haven’t had the vaccine, so you’re in this valley of vulnerable,” Stinchfield said.
And there’s another group that’s at an extremely high risk of developing life-threatening measles pneumonia: people with already weakened immune systems.
Consider this case.
Laura Bredesen’s son Ben was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in June 2010. He was 2. For more than three years, he underwent daily chemotherapy and frequent steroids, treatment that left his immune system compromised and extremely vulnerable to any virus. “Every minor illness,” his mother wrote,” had the potential to balloon into a more complicated condition requiring additional treatments.”
In March 2011, Ben was potentially exposed to the measles by an unvaccinated 2-year-old while in the hospital for a routine spinal tap treatment. He had received his first dose of the MMR vaccine, but was too young for the second, and doctors feared his chemotherapy, which kills cancer cells but can also impact immune memory cells, had weakened his protection to the virus. The chemotherapy, in other words, had made Ben vulnerable to diseases he’d been vaccinated against.
What followed, Bredesen said, were the scariest three weeks of her family’s life. Ben’s muscles were injected with eight painful shots of immune globulin to boost his immune system, after which his legs were so sore he temporarily couldn’t walk, and he was isolated at home to protect others for nearly three weeks.
“If Ben had come down with the measles, his chances wouldn’t have been good,” Bredesen said. “He would have been fighting for his life.”
Ben, now 7, never contracted the measles and is “doing wonderfully now,” his mother reports. But she remembers that time as being the most “mentally painful” of his treatment.
“Those 3.5 years were incredibly hard,” Bredesen said. “But those 21 days were the most challenging of our lives.”
Among the viruses that commonly make news — enterovirus 68, Ebola, influenza and measles — measles ranks far and away the most contagious, Stinchfield said.
“You won’t get Ebola in a subway, in a school, at a daycare or in a train station, but you can get the measles in all those places,” she said. “It stays airborne for two hours after someone walks through that train station. That means everyone who walks through the airspace will be exposed.”
And while most patients recover fully, “it is a disease that needs to be taken very seriously,” said Dr. Eric Handler, the health officer in Orange County, where 23 of the cases have been reported this year. Of the 23, six were children, five of them unimmunized, he said.
Measles often starts with cold symptoms: a runny nose and watery eyes that can turn to conjunctivitis, or pink eye. Symptoms typically progress to a cough, fever and a rash. Most people are in bed, miserable, for a week and then recover. In most cases, it’s a manageable illness. But about 1 in 20 people with measles will get pneumonia and likely be hospitalized. And 1 in 1,000 measles cases will advance to encephalitis, a dangerous swelling of the brain.
Of the encephalitis cases, Stinchfield said, a very high percentage — about two-thirds — have permanent impairment, whether that’s brain damage, developmental delays, blindness or deafness. “They go home a different person,” she said.
“What you have to understand is really even one case is considered a public health emergency because of how contagious measles is,” Stinchfield said. “It only takes a small community of unimmunized for the virus to take hold and spread.”SHARE THIS STORY:
Gulmurod Khalimov, the new ISIS military commander whom the U.S. just days ago announced a $3 million bounty for, was trained by the State Department in an anti-terror program as recently as 2014 while serving in the security service of Tajikistan.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Remember a few weeks ago when Donald Trump said that President Obama and then Secretary of State Crooked Hillary “founded and funded” ISIS? Remember how the liberal media mocked him for that? Today we find that the new ISIS military commander, Gulmurod Khalimov. was trained by the Obama State Department. Trump right yet again!
He replaces former ISIS commander Tarkhan Batirashvili, aka Umar al-Shishani, who was also trained by the United States as part of the Georgian army and who ISIS claimed was killed fighting in Iraq this past July.
Donald Trump says Obama and Crooked Hillary founded and funded ISIS:
The State Department confirmed Khalimov’s U.S.-provided training to CNN in May 2015:
“From 2003-2014 Colonel Khalimov participated in five counterterrorism training courses in the United States and in Tajikistan, through the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security/Anti-Terrorism Assistance program,” said spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala.The program is intended to train candidates from participating countries in the latest |
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